from the ideal man in mind of Caiphas. His Sermon on the Mount is a statement of what his ideal man will do; he will be pure in heart, merciful, hunger for righteousness. His effort was to imbue men with desires to become men after his ideal. The effort of the true teacher, as distinguished from the lesson hearer, is precisely the same- the ideal man. The teacher is one who understands, or who believes he understands, how to evolve the ideal man. He gives lessons in arithmetic, etc., because occupation is essential to development,

Many a young man has taken charge of a school with fear and trembling lest he should not accomplish the high purposes which he sought. And afterward he wondered that the school so trusted him in his inexperience and that they were so lifted up and carried along. But crude as were his doings, his aim was to develop the noblest elements, and that his school and community comprehended. We come back to the statement just made that the aim of the true teacher to-day must be the same as that of the Great Teacher eighteen centuries ago. The needs of the child; the means to meet those needs-these are the subjects of study for the teacher to-day and will be to-morrow and all the centuries.

The Physical Basis of Thought.

I can easily focus one of the multipolde or spindle cells of the gray matter of the brain in the vision field of my microscope. But if I could understand all that is taking place in the tiny granules of its protoplasm and nucleoplasm and chromatin (Weissmann) I should know what life and thought are.

The researches of the past thirty years have vastly increased our knowledge of the general topography and functions of the human brain. Before that time it was generally regarded as an organ with a single office to perform, that of thought. But the investigations of Brosa, Goltz, Hitzig, Ferrier, and a long line of painstaking and laborious experimentalists have not only done much to dispel the darkness which brooded over the sancta sanctorum of mentality, but have also succeeded in localizing sense and motor centers in the cortex of the cerebrum, and in affording a reasonably adequate ground for our knowledge of exactly where certain functions are performed.

But those intellectual processes which go by the name of "thought," "memory," "the association of ideas," etc., are still veiled in mystery. The effort to explain their modus operandi on a basis of purely physical science has so far been entirely unsuccessful. Unsuccessful as an adequate explanation, but the trend of the modern study of the brain and of its functions raises certain questions and affords a by no means unreasonable explanation of them.

The whole nervous system, which includes both the brain and the nerves, consists of spindle or multipolar cells of different shapes and sizes connected with each other by fibers of miscroscopical diameter. Nerve trunks are simply bundles of fibers held together by restraining sheaths. The brain cells which seem to play an active part in the processes of sensation and intellection are what is known as these multipolar cells, or cells with many irregular prolongations.

These cells are a higher development of the roundish embryonic cells which are found in animals, idiots, and the child at birth.

Each of these cells consists of an irregular sac filled with granules and containing within itself a nucleus. Within that still is a nucleolus. These nuclei and nucleoli form the famous "protoplasm" of Huxley-"the physical basis of life." It is by the division and subdivision of these protoplasmic elements that such a thing as cell growth is possible. Wherever any so-called ultra physical process is to be performed, there these cells exist.

From Mills' Comparative Physiology. Copyright, 1890, by D. Appleton & Co.

Nerve fibers are in all cases a simple prolongation of the poles of these multipolar cells. The fibrillar prolongations of the "rods and cones" of the retina end in these spindle cells, and in them begin the fibers of the optic nerve. The fibers of this same optic nerve and in similarly shaped and constituted cells in the cortex or tinal of the cerebrum, which is the Latin word for the upper and finer part of the human brain.

Similar cells form the so-called motor centers in this same cortex. These motor cells are connected on the one side with the sense cells by fibers, and on the other side by fibers with the "end plates," or central nuclei of muscular fibers all over the body.

Retina cells and sense cells and motor cells and muscle cells are therefore in one continuous channel of communication.

It will thus be seen that the entire extent of the axis clyinder (tube) of the fibers and of the contents of the cells consists of plasmic and semi fluid material admirably adapted to carry electrical impulses from the surface through modifying or regulating centers and so out again to the periphery.

It is plain from what I have just written that what we know as "volition," "thought," and "perception " take place in the central gray matter cells of the cortex of the cerebrum. The simplest function of such cells is that performed by them in the reflex centers of the spinal cord.

If I sit down upon a chair from whose seat a pin is projecting the sensation of pain is carried to my brain along one of the fibers of the spinal cord. But the same sensation is carried at the same moment to a reflex center in the spinal cord, from which a message goes out instantly, causing the muscles of the lower part of the body to contract and lift me out of the chair.

The cortex, or rind, of the cerebrum consists almost entirely in animals, in children at birth and in the marked type of idiot, of embryonic cells, which in the growing child become in due course of time multipolar cells.

The white matter of the cerebrum consists entirely of nerve fibers, endless in number, crossing and recrossing

each other and connecting every cell in the rind of the brain with some other cell-sense cells with motor cells -and both of these with those cells in the frontal part of the cortex of the cerebrum where thought, memory, and the association of ideas are supposed to be elaborated.

As the growing child is brought into closer and closer connection with the facts of the outer world—as its perceptions grow more and more intense-a double process takes place in the cortex of its cerebrum. And this process continues uninterruptedly and paripassu with the development of intellectual life.

The first change noticeable is that the round embryonic cell develops into spindle or multipolar cells with the manifold nerve fiber connection, previously noted. Nor is this all. New cells are constantly being secreted or formed in the cortex of the cerebrum, in accordance with the growing demand for them as centers of sensation and motion and thought.

It is therefore plain that the brain is not full formed at birth-a house ready built and furnished, into which "The soul that rises in us our life's star- Moves

as a first occupant.

If there be such a thing as soul or mind separate from brain it is assuredly of very small amount at birth and finds little if any promise of the manifold complexity of its future mansion.

The process of building an innumerable number of cells (there are 600,000,000 Meynert says in the adult brain) which shall act as storehouses of facts amenable to memory and openable by will has created a brain with a habit the habit of increased knowledge. And there is no question but that this force of habit will render that brain far more capable of acquiring all sorts and conditions of facts and of using such facts intelligently than that other brain which with its infinite possibilities is still fallow still und welt in by thought.

S. MILLINGTON MILLER, M. D. St. Denis Hotel, New York City.

No. 92. Apparatus to Illustrate the Action of Muscles. Two pieces of wood about half an inch thick, one inch wide, and nine and four inches long, respectively, are pivoted together by strips of tin on opposite sides, so as to represent a hinge-joint. Elastic bands are used to represent muscles. In figure 82, the apparatus represents the foot and leg, and the elastic band a represents the muscle in the calf of the leg. If we let the lower end of c rest upon the table, and press with the finger upon the upper end of d, we notice what a strong pull on the part of the elastic band is required to overcome a slight downward pressure by the finger. This suggests why the "tendon of Achilles" and the muscle in the calf of the leg need to be so powerful. The principle of the lever is suggested by this apparatus. It may be used to represent any hinge-joint in the body. A rubber band is attached to the opposite side of this joint to show how the muscles are arranged in pairs opposing each other. By adjusting the tension of these elastic bands so as hold the pieces of wood quite firmly in a straight line, we may show how

a

FIG. 82.

the body is made rigid by contracting all the muscles which have anything to do with moving the joints.

The action of the biceps muscle is illustrated by attaching a piece of wood, to represent the shoulder, figure 83. The rubber band b, which represents the biceps muscle, is attached below the elbow-joint and

b

above the shoulder-joint. Two other rubber bands, a and e, are so adjusted that when all are hooked on the pieces of wood c and d, which represent the arm, hang down straight. If the rubber band a, which works in opposition to the biceps at the elbow-joint, is unhooked, the forearm is raised as represented in figure 83. If this rubber band is hooked in place again and the rubber band e, which works in opposition to the biceps at the shoulder, is unhooked, the whole arm is raised, but remains straight. If both a and e are unhooked the arm is raised and bent over the shoulder. The apparatus is used, then, to illustrate the following six points:

FIG. 83.

84. The cross-pieces represent ribs. Rubber bands, cd and ef, are attached diagonally between two of these strips of wood, as the intercostal muscles are attached to the ribs. A strip of cloth, stiffened with starch, is tied across between the lower ends of the two upright pieces of wood. This represents a section through the diaphragm. If we unhook the elastic band ef, the other, cd, contracts and raises the apparatus so that it takes the position represented in figure 84 B. If, on the other hand, we unhook cd, the other elastic band, ef, contracts and gives the position represented in figure 84 A. The space enclosed within these sticks is evidently larger in figure B than in figure A. In the body, the diaphragm is a muscle, and, by relaxing and contracting, it moves more than the strip of cloth does in this apparatus.

The Allentown Call says: "It is not always the great universities that do the most good and confer the greatest benefit upon the people of the country. Within the sphere of their influence they, of course, do much good, but their influence on the country is on the community immediately around them-a single locality. The Bethlehem and Nazareth schools show in the most emphatic manner that it does not require a university with several thousand students and an endowment of millions to raise the literary status of an entire community. The smaller colleges are doing more to stimulate and elevate the educational and literary conditions of the nation than the larger schools."

Springfield, Mass., High School.

OUTLINE OF THE WORK AND METHODS PURSUED THERE.

The school has been completely reorganized since Dr. Frederick W. Atkinson* became its principal a few years ago, and the changes that have been introduced have attracted wide attention.

ORGANIZATION.

The departmental system is adopted. There is one teacher at the head of every department with several assistants and they all work together as a unit. Every teacher gives all his or her time to one subject. The teacher at the head of any one department has the control of and responsibility of that department, maps out the year's work, and gives to the assistants the general plans either through teachers' meetings or written papers of instruction, at the same time allowing the greatest freedom to the assistants in carrying out all such directions.

ASTRONOMY.

The principal has reserved for himself the department of astronomy. As his work reveals to a greater or less extent the character of the methods in all other departments it is here described with some detail. It may be said right here that there is no blind text-book following noticeable in any of the classes, the teachers one and all using the oral method.

Each pupil is provided with three note-books-one for questions, another for topics, and a third for diagrams. The students are directed to make independent observations of the heavens, which are to be discussed under the direction of the teacher. Facts come first and theory afterward, as a deduction from the facts, the important point being to make clear the methods by which astronomers have gained their knowledge of the heavens. For example, the students are led to make out the various steps by which Kepler came to his three laws. The teacher is entirely unhampered by any set course; the rate of progress and the degree of difficulty of the material presented depend upon the needs of the individual pupils in the class. While all dry and abstruse mathmatical calculations have been avoided heretofore, this year much emphasis has been placed upon a certain mathematical side of astronomy because it was found that the class needed a special drill in close and accurate thinking.

It should be added that no one text-book is used as a basis of the work, but five or six sets of books are at the disposal of the class and the instruction is carried on orally. Almanacs, articles from the magazines, library reference books and pupil's notes, made from observations, furnish the additional material for study. Practice in looking up subjects in the library, actual observation of the heavenly phenomena and a representation by diagram of the facts seen and heard are insisted upon. The aim in conducting the recitations in astronomy has been to require from members of the class not any mere reciting of facts looked up and learned but the real application of these facts. The topics are made by the pupils not by the teacher, the pupils being directed by the teacher's questions to observe and investigate and then to subdivide this material under appropriate heads or topics. The questions present the various parts of a subject for detailed examination; the topics bring the various parts together as wholes. The pupils' question note-book represents the analysis of the subject and the topic book the synthesis, but the topics are few and as was stated are made by the pupils themselves.

TOPIC METHOD.

Experience has shown that this topic method affords a most excellent way of fixing the subject in the pupils' mind and it also offers the best answer to the argument brought forward by the devotees of the text-book method, who say that without the committing to memory of some text-book the pupils will have nothing tangible to cling to. For the pupils do have certain leading facts about which they group all other facts and material. With the instruction in astronomy thus carried on there is no need for set reviews, for constant application of the old material is made when teaching the new. The value of the study comes rather from the recitation than from the study outside, so that one lost recitation. becomes a serious matter and although the pupil who must stay out on account of illness receives special assistance this ought not to be requested for any less urgent reason.

Step by step the work is taken up and each pupil is given an opportunity to take some part in the investigations until the inherent difficulties of the subject have been solved by the pupils themselves. Such recitations if properly conducted give a much greater mental drill than a blind digging out of a text-book which so often means the mere memorizing of facts that are not fully understood. The test is not, Do the pupils know? but rather. Can they apply what they know? This method of instruction, called "oral instruction," or sometimes the labora

* Graduate of Harvard from which university he went to Bridgewater normal school. After visiting schools in Germany he took a course of phychological and general philosophic studies and obtained the degree of Ph.D. On his return he was appointed principal of the Springfield high school which position he still holds.

tory or natural method, considers the individual of the class and keeps up the interest of all by giving to the bright pupil ample opportunity for work without discouraging the dull ones. From study of this kind the pupils gain originality in getting new illustrations, independence in think ing, power of reflecting and forming correct judgments. Such a course is sure to leave with the pupils an interest which will help them after their school days are over to keep in touch with the subject of astronomy, especially the recent investigations such as are published every month in the magazines of the day. The department has but one drawback at present which is that the pupils have such poor facilities for personal observations and a telescope is greatly needed.

NATURAL SCIENCE STUDIES.

(Mr. William H. Orr, Jr., is at the head of this department, and with him are associated Mr. Jackson, Miss Young and Miss Smith, all new teachers this year. Mr. Frederick W. Jackson is a Harvard graduate and came here from Lincoln, Neb., Miss Mabel A. Young, formerly taught in the Millbury high school and is a graduate of Wellesley, while Miss Cora Smith is a Smith college graduate.)

A few years back the work in the scientific department was confined to the study of one text-book and the pupils recited from this, oftentimes verbatim; there were no individual experiments by the pupils and comparatively few by the teachers. Now the experimental method is employed in all the scientific branches, the students performing their own experiments and drawing their own conclusions, guided, of course, in their investigations by the teachers. In zoology and botany, for instance, a specimen is examined; facts discussed by the class and sections are drawn showing the discoveries that have been made; then the entire subject is written up for the teacher by each pupil.

MATHEMATICS.

(Miss Elizabeth K. Price has charge of this department. Associated with her are Miss Nelson, Miss Whyte, Miss Butman and Miss Andrews, all new assistants. Miss Laura A. Whyte is a Vassar graduate and came to Springfield from the Freehold (N. J.) high school; Miss Andrews is from Arms academy, Shelburne Falls, Mass., and Miss Butman is a Wellesley graduate, who came from Lexington, Mass.)

The work in both geometry and algebra is carried on without the use of a text-book. There are, however, so-called "drillbooks" containing exercises and examples only. The pupils not only work out the theorems and exercises, but guided by the teacher find out for themselves the principles upon which the work depends. Each student has two note books, one of which he uses for outlines, topics, and headings of theorems, and which, therefore, at the close of the study furnishes a synopsis of the ground covered; the other book is used for practical work.

ENGLISH COMPOSITIONS.

(Miss Wylie, essay teacher.)

The work of this department is considered supplementary to the rest of the work in the school in that English forms a part of every recitation. The main idea is to establish habits of carefulness and correctness in the use of the mother tongue which must be the basis of all other study. Written work, translations, written lessons or essays on some subject are called for by teachers of the different classes from time to time and at least one paper is sure to go to the essay teacher and be marked and criticised by her. This work is further carried out by personal interviewswith the pupils and occasional talks to classes on points of especial importance to all. The scheme of study at present includes only the three upper classes, as it has not been found practicable to combine essay work with the course of study for freshmen.. The emphasis is placed on the continual application of idiomatic English rather than spasmodic efforts, the good effect of which would be more than overbalanced by the habitual carelessness of intervening time.

LITERATURE.

(This department is in charge of Miss Alice C. Jones, a graduate of Wellesley, who is assisted by Miss Wylie and Miss Crook.)

The ultimate aim in the regular course in English literature is considered to be that of teaching the pupils to recognize and appreciate the true and beautiful. This term the classes are studying especially the attitude of the different authors towards nature through the careful study of literature itself and not by reading what critics have said. Discussions of such topics as What Literature is, What Poetry is, The Use of the Novel, etc., are also included in the plan.

HISTORY.

(This department is in charge of Miss Averill, assisted by Miss Emile deRochemont, a Wellesley graduate,)

History forms a part of each course of study and is so placed as to give the pupil the most help possible in completing his four years of school work. The classical freshmen spend one-third of their time for the first six months of the year on the study of Greek and Romon history, thus laying the foundations for future reading in the Greek and Latin languages; the English-Latin pupils master Roman history as a basis for Latin reading and the English sophomores take up general history as a foundation for the work required in rhetoric, civics, and literature.

The quantity of history in the different courses necessarily varies. But no pupil is graduated from any course of history until he is judged to have a good knowledge of the related facts required, until he knows how to use the library and reading room with real intelligence and until he is able to show fair powers of reasoning and careful thought in forming judgments. Above all else the aim is kept in view to have no pupil leave a course of historical study without a greater degree of reverence for life and a deeper love for country.

LATIN AND GREEK.

(The work of the classical department occupies the full time of three teachers and part of the time of two others. Mr. A. K. Potter is the head of this department, teaching both Greek and Latin, as does also Miss Emilie de Rochemont. Miss Alice M. Wing and Miss Martha R. Adams have each five classes in Latin, Miss Smith two, and Mr. Jackson one; about sixty-five pupils are studying Greek and 305 are studying Latin.)

The course in Latin occupies four years. After seven months with a beginner's book some easy and entertaining stories are read during the remainder of the first year. By this time the pupil is expected to be familiar with the more common forms and constructions and should have at command a vocabulary of about 800 words. The limits and the character of the work in

this department are to a large degree determined by the requirements for admission to the various Eastern colleges.

As much time as possible is given to sight translation and composition. Prose composition is practiced almost daily for three years and less often in the fourth year along with colloquial exercises as the best means of acquiring power in the use of the language.

Greek is begun in the second year of the course and continued for three years; prose composition and sight translation are given the same prominence as in the study of Latin.

Every effort is made in the classical work to lead the pupils to appreciate what they read and to acquire a knowledge of the life and thought of the peoples of ancient Greece and Rome. Photographs and prints are freely used and it is expected that the promised collection of casts in the art museum will make possible a still deeper appreciation of the æsthetic value of classical study.

MODERN LANGUAGES.

(Miss Bell and Miss Butterman, instructors.)

French and German are the only modern languages taught. In both there is an elementary and an advanced course, the former requiring from a year and a half to two years and the latter, which includes the elementary, not less than three. The object of the modern language course is to give the student the power to read French and German works in the language itself without the interposition of English and to prepare the way for a future fluent and accurate use of the foreign tongue in speaking and writing. To attain this end students at the outset are drilled very carefully in pronunciation and the grammar of the language is studied in connection with composition based upon models of excellent French or German prose. The works read are translated into good idiomatic English at sight as well as after preparation. The students usually read in all from 700 to 1,000 pages of German and from 1,000 to 1,200 pages of French.

MUSIC AND DRAWING.

The music department is in charge of Miss Stearns, whose work in the high school has been made especially difficult on account of the crowded condition of the building, there being no room in the school that will accommodate an entire class.

Miss Fraser, the supervisor of drawing, has charge of this branch in the high school, but the mechanical drawing is under the direction of Mr. McGregory and the free hand drawing is taught by Miss Mary Hubbard. The pupils of both branches take an enthusiastic interest in their work and Miss Fraser is giving them a series of very entertaining art talks in connection with this department.

set of tools, six wood-lathes, one grindstone, one glue pot. Metal work, first year, twenty-five vises, with set of tools for each vise; one grindstone and one surface plane.

Second year, twenty-four forges, twenty-four anvils, each supplied with a set of tools; troughs for moulding, furnaces, trowels, sieves, flasks, etc., for foundry work, and two light drill p esses.

In mechanical construction, third year, six engine lathes, two hand lathes, one planer, one shaper, one drill press, six vises, one emery-grinding machine, one large surface plate, one grindstone. Power is furnished by a 40-horse power high-speed engine, with a 50 horse-power boiler.

Pupils not under 13 years of age, who are bona fide residents of Philadelphia, are admitted on certificates of the principals of public and private schools. A minimum average of 50 per cent., is required in reading, language, and arithmetic, and a general average of 70 per cent., in all the branches. Diplomas are given, which enable the student to enter the University of Pennsylvania without further examination.

A large number of the scholars of this manual labor school have obtained profitable situations in the electric plants, engineering, large foundries, machine shops, etc. The services of these well-fitted scholars are in demand.

Pupils whose moral influence is injurious may be dismissed

by the teachers.

Besides manual work, a certain number of hours are set apart for courses in language, literature, composition, history, economics and German; and later in mathematics, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, bookkeeping, surveying, geology, physics, chemistry, physiology, steam engineering, electricity, architectural drawing, designing, modeling, etc.

Pupils furnish their own aprons and drawing instruments.

Military Training.

The introduction of military organization and drill has proved a splendid success in the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. Dr. Enoch Henry Currier, the head of this beautiful home, said in a conversation with the writer that it is not only an effective aid in securing discipline, but has also, in a remarkably short time, given the boys a good carriage and cured them of their shuffling gait. It has been for years a problem of managers of institutions for the deaf-mutes and the blind how to get their pupils to walk properly and to 'give them an erect figure. Various plans have been tried but none has given as much satisfaction as the military drill in the New York institution. Of course, the success of any plan depends entirely upon the manager of it; but all will admit that a poor one must always fail. Dr. Curr er's endorsement of military drill for this reason has particular weight. He is a thorough schoolman and has for many years been a devoted investigator of the peculiarly difficult problems involved in the educational work which he has chosen as his life profession.

An example of a successful disciplinary experiment may be interesting. The boys most difficult to govern owing to the strength of their wilfulness were asked to act as sergeants and were decorated with the insignia of that office. They were told that as soon as their superiors would have reasons to complain of their conduct they would, according to military rule be reduced to the rank of privates and lose their decoration. The result is that since the adoption of the plan there has not been a single occasion for disciplinary interference on the part of the head of the school. Opponents of military drill fail to properly recognize its advantages which greatly outweigh the points they use as arguments against its introduction. In the hands of trained and experienced educators it cannot but be most desirable for schools of every kind.

This institution has organized three classes-the senior, intermediate, and junior-the work of each class covering a year. For convenience of teaching, each class is further divided into sections of from fifteen to twenty-five pupils each, arranged alphabetically. In the shops and laboratories, where individual instruction is necessary, single sections are handled; but in the class-rooms and drawing-rooms double or triple sections are taught. The senior class assembles once a week as a whole for the purpose of debating, lectures, etc.

In the woodwork department of the mechanical section, first year, are twenty-five cabinet-makers' benches, with a set of tools for each bench; four wood-lathes, one gridstone and one glue pot.

Second year, twenty cabinet makers' benches, each with its full

Recently published statistics, show that men are rapidly being supplanted by women as school teachers. In Massachusetts only 9.5 per cent. of the instructors of youth are men, while in youth. In Maine 16 per cent. of the teachers are men. The South is more liberal to men. In Arkansas 68 per cent. of the teachers are men. North Carolina has 56.8 per cent., West Virginia 61.8 per cent. and Texas 58 per cent. In the North and West the woman teacher is far in the lead. This state shows only 28.7 per cent. of men teachers, while the men teachers in Michigan are but 21.5 per cent.. in Minneapolis 22.6 per cent., in Iowa 19 per cent., and in California 21 per cent. of the whole number, Indiana and Kansas seem to favor men teachers, the proportion being about 51 per cent. in each case. It is a fact worth noting, also, that not only is the woman teacher in the majority at present, but she is constantly enlarging her supremacy. A comparison of the census of 1880 with that of 1890 shows that the number of men teachers in the country decreased about 17 per cent. in the ten years.

Frye's Complete Geography.

The appearance of Frye's Complete Geography (Ginn & Co., Boston and London) is of happy omen if it signifies that the time is ripe for important improvement in the teaching of this subject. It differs much from other American text-books. It is a departure from old methods of treating geography and teaching it. If the broader lines on which Mr. Frye has prepared this work were not in harmony with the best modern ideas on geographic teaching, had not been approved by the scientific leaders and authorities in the study, the book would be merely a tentative effort, to be approved only upon a practical demonstration of its usefulness. The fact is, however that, as a text-book, the work is in line with the best geographic thought and progress which have given to the study, in recent years, so prominent a place in common schools and many of the universities of Europe. In some respects, notably in physiography, it

would not have been possible to produce this book a few years ago, for the topics referred to had not reached their present development and were not, therefore, the essential departments of geography they have since become. The limits of this article permit only brief allusion to a few characteristics of the work.

In most countries,few school geographies, even when fresh from the press, are up to date in the facts they

to original sources of information or availed themselves of the very latest and best material that had been stamped with authoritative approval? It is easy for a professional geographer or an advanced student to determine whether a writer on this study knows the literature of his subject.

In this respect Frye's Complete Geography is indeed a desirable innovation. Throughout the work there is ample evidence that the latest information from authoritative sources has been consulted and critically utilized. This is noticeable in the treat

ment of the agencies that produce surface changes, and the results of the most recent explorations as well as in the lesser aspects of the subject. In this important particular, the work not only commends itself as a textbook, but would be useful in many private libraries as a work that is abreast of to-day's knowledge, well written, well arranged, and slighting none of the vital principles of the study.

Another noteworthy departure in Frye's Complete Geography is the prominence it gives to the causes that produce the various topographic forms. Dealing first with those agencies which evolve diverse surface features, it applies the principles thus laid down in its treatment of the topography of all parts of the world. This is something new in our text-books, but the idea is endorsed by the foremost teachers of geography and is the basis of the scheme of instruction recommended by our Conference on Geography (" The Committee of Ten") in 1892. Geography has won a prominent place in over a score of European universities largely because

present. Our children are still inaccurately taught many things and geographic text-books are largely to blame. The pupils are told, for instance, that Lake Titicaca is the loftiest large body of water in the world, that the Sahara is chiefly a great sand waste, that Borneo is the largest island, and so on. We speak only of lapses of this sort because they are particularly numerous in many textbooks. Geographical discoveries and rectifications of time-honored errors, as a rule, are first recorded, in various languages, in the publications of geographic societies or of government bureaus, and years sometimes elapse before they are accessible through the ordinary sources of information. The chapters on Africa, in our school books are often particularly misleading. How many text-books are there which give evidence that their writers went

Ceylon Girl.

the best teachers have demonstrated its usefulness in developing the habit of observation and exercising the reasoning powers. In the scheme of the conference, the first form of instruction should be observation, advancing from the study of geographic features near at hand to clear ideas of things in other places which the pupil cannot see. The conference also urged the