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Between elementary courses of Nature study and the formal treatment of botany, zoology, and physiology there lies a field of work which may, if properly cultivated, give to young students broad and general views of biological science. It is on lines such as these that this book has been written, and it is evident that the authors rightly appreciate the importance of applying the principles of their subject to the commonplace occurrences of daily life. As a matter of convenience the book is divided into three nearly equal sections-viz., “Plant Biology," ," "Animal Biology," and "Human Biology." Incorporated with the text there are many questions well devised to make the student think over what he has been reading. The printing and diagrams are alike excellent. A Text-Book of Botany. By J. M. Lowson. Fourth Edition. Fifth Impression. (6s. 6d. Clive & Co.) 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These primers are issued for the particular purpose of providing "all readers who desire a simple and general, but accurate knowledge of scientific subjects, and which will afford adequate assistance to primary and secondary teachers who have not been able to make a special study of science at all, or whose knowledge extends to one or two branches only." Dr. Tilden has produced a most readable and interesting little volume which fulfils the object described above in an admirable manner. Every teacher of experience will recognize in it those little touches which indicate a full appreciation of the special difficulties encountered by beginners. The printing and diagrams leave nothing to be desired. Elementary Practical Chemistry. Part II.: Analytical Chemistry. By F. CLOWES and J. B. COLEMAN. Sixth Edition. (3s. 6d. net. Churchill.) It will be sufficient to point out that the merits of this well known manual are attested by the fact that it has now reached the sixth edition. 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Money and Postal Orders, on the Post Office, Ludgate Circus, E.C, should be made payable to WILLIAM RICE; Orders and Cheques may be crossed, "The London City and Midland Bank, Ludgate Branch." Postage stamps can only be received at the rate of thirteen to the shilling. Notice must be given of all remittances through the Post Office from abroad, stating full name and address of the sender; and all Foreign Money Orders must be crossed for payment through a Bank. Date of publication of next issue will be found at top left-hand corner of front page. LONDON: WILLIAM RICE, 3 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. MEMORANDUM ON LANGUAGE TEACHING IN STATE-AIDED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. E have never read an official document that so belied WE aning, so non-committal, so antist, as Circular 705 of the Board of Education-a halfpennyworth of bread to an intolerable deal of sack. An introductory note by Mr. Bruce explains its genesis. On February 5, 1908, notice of motion was given in the House of Lords for a return showing, for each of the secondary schools on the Great List in 1903-4, the total number of hours per week devoted to the teaching of Latin, French, German, and Spanish during that year and the year 1906-7 respectively. The Memorandum consists of eight pages, and of these six are devoted to showing that it would be impossible for the Board to furnish such a return in statistical form, and that, whatever form it took, it would be misleading. The bulk of the document is ancient history, and has as much bearing on the present condition of modern language teaching as the Code of Hammurabi has on modern theology. The genesis of grants to secondary schools is traced to its beginning in 1872, and it is shown in detail how the Department was driven inch by inch to divide its favours equally between science and literature and abolish the monopoly of South Kensington. Mr. de Montmorency and other writers have made us familiar with the consulship of Sir John Donnelly and Sir William Abney, Division A and Division B Schools, &c.; but there was still room for a full official record, and we have no quarrel with the account, except that it is singularly out of place in a document that professes to treat of language teaching. It is only on the last page or two that this subject is directly faced, and even then we have to content ourselves with the crumbs that fall from Mr. Bruce's table. We are informed that for the school year 1907-8 the Board has the information asked for in the House of Lords; and that, though it is not prepared to supply this in the statistical form demanded (which would be misleading), yet it hopes in its annual report" to show the number of schools which can be regarded as giving a substantial number of their pupils a substantial course of instruction in the various modern languages." Fuller information than this it would doubtless be possible for the Board to obtain, but it could not be obtained yearly, and it should preferably form part of a special investigation into the whole position of language instruction, the methods employed, and the progress made in recent years. For such an investigation the time is not ripe. Prior and more pressing questions of finance, premises, organization, &c., have first to be settled, and even then modern languages must give the pas to the more difficult and fundamental question of the teaching of English. Meanwhile we have to content ourselves with the reports of the Board's Inspectors, and we defy any one to say from these, or rather from the digest of those given in the Memorandum, whether modern language teaching is advancing or receding. The general standard, we are told, is low, but in some schools there has been marked improvement. There are good schools, there are bad schools, there are bad schools with good individual teachers, there are whole districts with no school rising above mediocrity. Can we imagine Parliament asking for a return of the respective strength of the Navy, 1904 and 1908, and receiving such an answer from the Lords of the Admiralty? But the Board do not take education seriously. The last paragraph of the Memorandum deals with the memorial on the neglect of German in schools, presented to the Board by the Modern Language Association and other educational bodies. First, the significance of the statistics furnished in the memorial is disputed, and the decrease in the number of candidates taking German in the Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations is otherwise accounted for. We need not stop to argue this point. It is enough that the Board allow that the advance (sic) in the study of German is not at the present moment as rapid as the advance in the study of French or even of Latin." The study of German is at a standstill, if not actually retrogressing. What action do the Board propose to take to stimulate the study? The answer is short and simple. None. First, they hold that even for pupils destined for a scientific career Latin must continue to be a fundamental. For "commercials" leaving school at sixteen for Science and Engineering departments, it considers that German should be included in the curriculum. In what, for brevity, we may call the Public Schools, it is suggested that French should be dropped at sixteen and for the last two years German substituted. (Elsewhere in the Memorandum it is laid down as axiomatic that to teach a language for one or two years only is in any event unprofitable.) But the combination of French and German which the Modern Language Association asked for as a possible alternative is absolutely disallowed even on the modern side. "The Board have seen no reason to depart from the traditional view that, without a knowledge of Latin, a scholarly study of modern literature, history, or philosophy, [or science?] is impossible." Nulla salus extra linguam Latinam." The Board will have nothing to do with substituting German for either French or Latin. If there is to be any reform, it must come from the Universities. It is they who call the tune even if they do not pay the piper. case the Board can plead their authority as an excuse for inaction. In any Whatever charges may be brought against the Board, no one can accuse them of being Germanophil. It would be impertinent and improper to speculate on the authorship of this precious Circular, but this much we may say without offence:-The Board has on its staff several eminent classical scholars, but only two or three who can claim to be experts in modern languages. We are convinced from internal evidence that none of the latter class had any part or lot in drafting this Memorandum. SOME PENNSYLVANIAN PICTURES. By M. ATKINSON WILLIAMS, B.A. (Southlands College, Battersea, S. W.) DURING a recent visit to America I had the pleasure of staying for a week or so, towards the end of October, in X, a little town somewhat off the beaten track, in the heart of Pennsylvania. The surrounding country is peopled by what the Americans call "Pennsylvania Dutch" (i.e., descendants of early settlers who came from Germany— mostly from little villages on the Rhine, owing to religious persecution some two hundred years ago). These people are a very different type from most Americans, and their speech, manners, and customs were all interesting from their quaintness and general old-world style. X is the market town for the surrounding agricultural districts, and the markets at seven in the morning, and even earlier, are full of life. I accompanied my host, a college professor, who was armed with a big basket, on several of his market expeditions, and found that he was by no means singular in thus doing the family shopping. I met, on one of these expeditions, a doctor, a professor of divinity, and a lawyer, all of whom, in irreproachable attire, had been present at a reception given in my honour the night before-all armed with similar baskets, and all as busily employed in this early morning marketing as any English farmer's wife. This practical evidence of the much famed devotion of the American husband impressed me deeply. How many professional men in England, I wonder, would show their devotion to their women-folk in the same way? 66 This early morning marketing was great fun--for me. You see, I had not to make the bargains nor carry the basket! I followed my host, as he carefully inspected the produce of different stalls. He bought plump chickens, little wild black grapes with a strange musty flavour, queer looking "mush" (i.e., slabs of cooked Indian meal, a preparation which recalled to my mind my childish puzzle as to what this delicacy was when I read of it in What Katy did "), German sausages of all conceivable thicknesses and shapes; persimmons, which seemed to me a cross between an apple and a tomato, very astringent to the taste, but at their best since the early frosts of the previous week; delicious German Pretzels, a kind of salt biscuit, twisted into all sorts of fascinating shapes and sticky and shiny with white of egg; grape fruit, cantaloupes (a kind of small melon), celery, walnuts, and endive; the last three being used for making one of the many salads for which my American friends were famous. Most of the country people in the market spoke a guttural German dialect among themselves, which they were very shy of using before the townsfolk; my host, who spoke it fluently, used it in his marketing, that I might hear the replies of the stall holders. It sounded strange to my ear and unlike ordinary German. Many of the people were members of little religious communities, holding very little intercourse with the outside world save in these bi-weekly markets. They have very strict rules of conduct and very narrow religious views; they intermarry a good deal, care little for education, and live in small villages, holding all things in common. Some are known as Dunkerds, some are Mennonites, some Amisches, so called from the men who originally seceded from the Lutheran Church and led little bands of devout men and women out into the forest, to form a new and lonely home for themselves. The men wear a quaint and rather ugly costume, huge black soft felt hats, like those of French stonemasons, black coats of formal cut, very short trousers well above the ankle, and, strangest of all, their hair, which is often quite black and very lank, is cut in a deep straight fringe, just clearing the eyebrows, and hanging down on each side of the face in front of their ears. It is cut straight round the head from these lank earlocks just to clear the shoulders. This style of hair dressing is called "the Dutch clip"; it looks exceedingly quaint, espe |