Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/941

Rh young doctor to one of his school-fellows who has emigrated to America. The central figure in the tale is a man named Cullingworth, who was a schoolmate of the two correspondents, and whose career is followed to the end of the book, at which point he is on the eve of departing for South America with a shipload of spectacles for the natives. His strange, almost paradoxical character makes a curious picture, and leads to some surprising performances, both in connection with his private life and in his profession of medicine, where he comes to be considered by his associates a mere charlatan.

Under the title The Forces of Nature, brief popular accounts of the solar system, the air, sound, light, heat, and electricity have been brought together in a volume by H. B. Harrop and Louis A. Wallis (the authors, Columbus, O., $1.25). It is not a book for study, but is intended rather to give an understanding of the chief laws and phenomena of science to persons who have been occupied with their respective callings to the exclusion of scientific reading.

Something widely different from the ordinary text-book is the Working Manual of American History, by William H. Mace (Bardeen ). It consists, first, of a Hst of topics, extending in time from the opening up of America to Europe down to the reconstruction of the South, with references to standard historical works. This matter, which occupies about one third of the volume, is followed by extracts from documents covering about the same period, accompanied by questions.

A text-book for normal schools, under the title Psychology in Education, has been prepared by Prof. Ruric N. Roark (American Book Company, $1). The author arranges the mental faculties in classes and subclasses, and bases his descriptions on this classification. In accordance with the purpose of the,book he points out the importance of training each of the faculties, and shows how knowledge of the operations of the mind can be applied in education. Prof. Roark is not one of those instructors who leaves his students to balance conflicting views, even in so young a science as psychology. All his statements are definite and decided. He does not hesitate even to set bounds to the further progress of knowledge, nor to state his view in certain controverted matters as if there were no other. Thus, in the chapter which he gives to the "physical basis" of mind he says: "All that is known regarding the subject may be stated fully in one paragraph: Mind, as we know it, rests upon a physical basis, which acts upon mind, and upon which mind acts. What the connection is between mind and that physical basis, or how this connection is made and maintained, is not known, and most probably never will be known." Here and elsewhere he shows that he expects little from the "new school" of physiological psychologists. He has much more sympathy for child-study, and points out methods of pursuing it. His views as to the comparative worth of many of the usual school studies are also freely expressed.

The recently published account of the Myths of Greece and Rome, by H. A. Guerber, has been followed by Myths of Northern Lands, by the same author (American Book Company, $1.60). The ancient tales which are the common heritage of the English and other branches of the Germanic stock are here simply told, with the embellishment of poetical quotations and of engravings from paintings representing the personages and scenes of the myths.

The several Webster's School Dictionaries have been revised to conform to the International. The largest of the four, Webster's Academic Dictionary (American Book Company, $1.50), now contains 736 pages, being 150 more than in the last edition, while the illustrations have been increased from 350 to over 800. The body of the book is now arranged in two columns, instead of three, and the supplementary matter comprises a guide to pronunciation, rules for spelling, lists of affixes, abbreviations, proper names, words and phrases from foreign languages, and arbitrary signs, a classification of languages, and a brief mythological dictionary.

The University of Chicago Press has undertaken the issue of The American Journal of Sociology, a bimonthly magazine, to be edited by Prof. Albion W. Small and his associates in the department of sociology in the University of Chicago. The journal