eal of the very Kindergarten work is not wisely (we should say philosophically) arranged and conducted, we are obliged to come to the conclusion that the knowledge how to lose time wisely is the best maxim to be followed at an early age of the child. What has to be attended to is the discipline of habits, that of steady preoccupation, a concentration of attention leading to future thoroughness. Then the habit of neatness, that of sociability, the early sympathy toward a sufferer, a good, square, friendly acquaintance with Mother Nature's objective department. . . . Thus the creation of a good motive in children depends greatly upon careful early management, and the spontaneous activity of the little ones is made available to that effect." Arriving at the age of generalizations the study is directed toward new and wider subjects—a higher analysis of life and its conditions. In the conclusion—"Education, let us believe, is a specialty, is a serious study; not a personal opinion on a light subject, but a generalization, the inductions of which extend through centuries, whose truths call for testimony of most mixed sciences. Education, therefore, as a science, can no more be mixed up with emotional ventures and declamations than physics, chemistry, or astronomy. The future of a generation, embodying the dearest we possess on earth—our children—is too serious a matter to be settled off-hand, or to be indiscriminately and blindly deduced from a few principles, even if these should be of the highest kind."
Anthropophagy, Historic and Prehistoric. By General Charles W. Darling, Utica, N. Y. Privately printed. Pp. 47.
The author, in his readings relating to the origin and history of the human family, was impressed with the frequent allusions to man-eating among many of the peoples of the world, and was prompted to collate
I some of the references to the custom, in a connected form. In doing this, he has endeavored to be faithful to the facts as related by historians and travelers. His record begins with the Cyclopes of the Greeks, and ends with the distressing incidents of the Greely Expedition.
Proceedings of the Sixth Meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science. 1885. B. D. Halsted, Secretary, Ames, Iowa. Manhattan, Kansas: State Agricultural College. Pp. 59.
The society was organized in 1880, for the purpose of bringing together those who are interested in the applications of science to agriculture, discussing the methods and results of investigations, and providing for publications relating to the same. The present meeting was held at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Among the papers recorded in the report are—"The Vitality of Seeds buried in the Soil," by W. J. Beal; "The Demands made by Agriculture upon the Science of Botany," by Charles E. Bessey; "On Some Redeeming Traits of Alkali Soils," by E. W. Hilgard; "An Investigation of the Origin of the Dandelion," by E. L. Sturtevant; and an account of some experiments on "Variation in Cultivated Plants," by W. W. Tracy. In his observations on the last subject, Mr. Tracy finds many illustrations of variations of type which cultivators had been trying to produce for years, appearing in different localities and from different stocks at about the same time, so as to seem to indicate that variation is not an accident, but a progression of the species.
The Journal of Physiology. Edited by Michal Foster and others. Vol. VII, No. 1. Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company's Works, Cambridge, England. Pp. 80. Price, $5 a volume, of four numbers.
We notice this "Journal" at the beginning of its new volume, because it is one of the principal recognized mediums through which original investigators in physiology make known the results of their work. Research in this branch of science is now very active, and is distinguished by minute attention to details. It is the custom of the "Journal" to publish the particular accounts of the experiments and conclusions of investigators, with a fullness and excellence of pictorial illustration that leave nothing to be desired. Professor Foster,