Dress. A Monthly Magazine, conducted by Mrs. Annie Jenness Miller. New York: The Gallison & Hobron Company. Price, $1.50 a year.
This periodical, whose first number appeared in May, 1887, is devoted primarily to "the practical and the beautiful in women's and children's clothing," but gives attention also to physical culture and kindred subjects, while fiction and poetry are not excluded from its pages. "The Popular Science Monthly" has at various times called attention to the unhealthful features of the current mode of women's dress, and indicated the principles of a correct system; hence we heartily indorse the effort of "Dress" to secure the general adoption of a style of clothing for women which does not cause torture and disease of the body and distraction of the mind. In order to find acceptance, such an improved system must fully equal in beauty and neatness the fashionable costumes of the day. Mrs. Miller is giving due attention to this condition; her designs for suits and toilets seem attractive enough to insure for her system the success which its hygienic character deserves. The under-garments which she advocates are of the union pattern, and consist of a jersey-fitting garment next the skin, over which is worn a "chemilette," and over this "leglettes," either plain or full, which take the place of petticoats. Outside of these comes the gown-form, a waist and skirt combined, forming a foundation upon which dresses of various styles of drapery and trimming can be arranged. Corsets are discarded, though, for stout women, with flabby muscles, a "bosom support" is deemed allowable. The magazine is edited with taste and judgment, and its illustrations and mechanical work are attractive.
The Art of Projecting. By Professor A. E. Dolbear. Second edition. Illustrated. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 178. Price, $1.
Professor Dolbear has revised and made additions to this work in the edition just published. The chief parts of the new matter relate to the use of electric lamps and lights for projection purposes, and to the production and phenomena of vortex rings.
Richard Lepsius: A Biography. By Georg Ebers. New York: W. S. Gottsberger, Pp. 347. Price, $1.25.
This volume gives quite a full account of the university studies of Lepsius, and of the state of Egyptology when he devoted himself to it immediately after the death of Champollion. Then follow descriptions of his work in the collections of Egyptian antiquities in Paris, Italy, Holland, and England, and of the Prussian expedition to Egypt under his direction. Succeeding chapters present Lepsius as "the master-workman" and as a man, and the home of Lepsius. A list of his works is appended, and a portrait, with autograph, forma the frontispiece.
On teaching English, with Detailed Examples, and an Inquiry into the Definition of Poetry. By Alexander Bain. New York: D. Appleton & Company. Pp. 256. $1.25.
This volume includes a review of the prevailing opinions as to the proper mode of teaching English, with a critical estimate of their respective merits, the handling of which is of necessity controversial; a brief sketch of the rhetorical method, followed by a series of select lessons on the leading qualities of style, intellectual and emotional; and an inquiry into the definition of poetry, which is intended to fall in with the treatment of rhetorical principles, both in theory and in practice. In the first part, the author disputes the theory that Saxon words should be preferred to classical in writing, or that they are preferred in actual speech; discusses the order of words; and considers the art of weaving the various threads which enter into the composition of the narrative in such a way as best to preserve the harmony and balance of all the parts. An estimate is given of the value of the older writers, and their defects as standards in composition; the advantages and disadvantages of essay-writing, paraphrasing, and converting poetry into prose, as exercises, are measured; and the methods exemplified in Bacon's essays are analyzed as showing "how not to do it." A large proportion of the space is given to the "select lessons" illustrating the intellectual and emotional qualities of style, in which many complete compositions from the standards of English
