Lewis, A. H., D.D. A Critical History of the Sabbath and Sunday in the Christian Church. Alfred Centre, N. Y.: American Sabbath Tract Society. Pp. 583. $1.25.
Thoughts by Ivan Panin. Boston: Cupples, Upham, & Co. Pp. 85. 50 cents.
Letters and Journal of J. Stanley Jevons. Edited by his Wife. London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 473. $4.
Starr, Louis, M.D. Diseases of the Digestive Organs in Infancy and Childhood. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son, & Co. Pp. 835, with Colored Plate. $2.50.
Walloth, Wilhelm. The King's Treasure-House. A Romance of Ancient Egypt New York: W. S. Gottsberger. Pp. 353.
First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor. Industrial Depressions. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 435.
Report of Operations of the United States Life Saving Service to June 30, 1885. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 423.
Clarke, I. Edwards. Industrial and High Art Education in the United States. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 842.
Flint, Austin, M.D. Medicine of the Future. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 37. $1.
Hammond, William A., M.D. A Treatise on Diseases of the Nervous System. Eighth edition, with Corrections and Additions. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 945. $5.
Outlines of Geology. By James Geikie. LL.D., F.R.S. London: Edward Stanford. 188(5. Pp. 427, with 400 Illustrations.
George, Henry. Protection or Free Trade. New York: Henry George & Co. Pp. 350.
Curtmann, Charles O., M.D. Dr. F. Beilstein's Lessons in Qualitative Chemical Analysis. St. Louis, Mo.: Druggist Publishing Company. Pp. 200.
Wilder, Salem. Life: Its Nature, Origin, Development, and the Psychical related to the Physical. Boston: Rockwell & Churchill. Pp. 350. $1.50.
Behrends, A. J. F., D.D. Socialism and Christianity. Hew York: Baker & Taylor. Pp. 303. $1.50.
Macleod, Henry Dunning. The Elements of Economics. Vol. II, Part 1. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 376. $1.75.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
The Chicago Public Schools.—Mr. James R. Doolittle, Jr., President of the Board of Education of Chicago, in his report for the school year 1884-'85, considers briefly but with vigor many interesting points in connection with the school system of that city, which are well worth the attention of school officers generally. He regards the school as a progressive institution, which should look to the future rather than to the past, and, while it takes advantage of all that has been gained, should be on the watch to discover whatever may help to make it more efficient in accomplishing its object—which should be to give youth facility to adjust themselves to the duties and exigencies of life.
The board has determined that every one of the grammar-schools shall have a library, concerning the constitution of which the President remarks: "None of the books should be beyond the ordinary capacity of grammar-school children. In fact, they should be much easier to comprehend and master than the other books of the course, otherwise the library would fail to attract the children. None of the books should contain anything the children ought not to read, and none should be so difficult that they may not be read with pleasure and interest." The president is justly alarmed at the increase of near-sightedness with the advance of age in the school, the rate of which is shown to rise in Chicago from 4·09 per cent at six years of age in the Ogden School to 27·08 per cent at twenty years in the North Division High-School; but he can suggest no remedy except improved lighting and the most legible text-books. Concerning "practical education," a wholesome conservatism will serve as the sheet-anchor of safety. . . . The principal object of education is to instruct the pupil how to learn; to enable him to comprehend, in a way, the new things which encounter him when his school days are over. Up to this point, which, in the case of the child educated in the common school, will never be very high in an educational aspect, all the pupils should go, boys and girls alike. Drawing and book-keeping in its simple form might well be taught, for they are useful to every one. It is lamentable that nothing is taught, short of the high-school, concerning the organs and functions of the human body. A considerable portion of the work required of the pupils appears highly artificial, and of questionable utility. A tendency is observed to teach a mass of unimportant facts, which the pupils will certainly, and had better, forget, and a disposition to compel them to absorb and assimilate ideas beyond the ordinary comprehension of childhood. These things "may furnish an opportunity for precocity to shine, but do not facilitate the normal development of the intellectual powers." The practice of ascertaining the relative standing of pupils by the rapidity with which they answer questions, or perform certain operations, is highly un-
