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eral species which spend the summer in the United States, says that the sanderling "can almost always be found along the margin of the water during the season when any of the waders are present within our limits." Again, a straight bill can hardly be a good generic character in Tringa, as given on page 232, since on the next page two subdivisions of this genus are very properly said to have the bill considerably curved. We regret, too, that Mr. Elliot accepts July woodcock-shooting as a fact without a word against that unsportsmanlike sport. - Frail Children of the Air, Excursions into the World of Butterflies, by Samuel Hubbard Scudder. (Houghton.) These essays, selected from Dr. Scudder's monumental work, The Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada, are reprinted for the purpose of reaching a larger audience, and have been revised by the author when necessary. Every one interested in the popularization of natural science is glad to see books of this kind printed, — books written by specialists, who can speak with authority, and written in a manner to be "understanded of the people." The essays bear such titles as Butterflies in Disguise, Butterflies as Botanists, The White Mountains of New Hampshire as a Home for Butterflies, Butterfly Sounds, Nests and Other Structures made by Caterpillars, Psychological Peculiarities among our Butterflies, The Ways of Butterflies. There are nine good plates. Notes in Japan, by Alfred Parsons. With Illustrations by the Author. (Harpers.) Mr. Parsons was only an observer in Japan, and he pretends to nothing more. He made no extended study of its people or its art, and the modest title of his book prepares us for the modest and pleasantly told narrative of what he did and what he saw there. His eye for the quiet and peaceful aspects of nature's beauty enables him to show us in the illustrations a phase of Japan's picturesqueness which has hitherto been unfamiliar. His descriptions are those of the artist, too, and we are not surprised to note the interest he takes in the wild flowers of the country. What he says of the colors to be seen in Japanese landscape makes us wish for a sight of the original paintings from which the book is illustrated. — Quaint Korea, by Louise Jordan Miln (Imported by Scrib ners), is not as entertaining as the author's When We Were Strolling Players in the

East; but though the style is often too "scrappy," the reader will find parts of this book very interesting. The best chapters are those on Korean Women and Korean Art. Mrs. Miln handles the social question fearlessly and sensibly, though, if certain other writers are to be trusted, she wrongs the geisha girl in associating her with the yoshiwara. Like Mr. Landor, she finds the women of Korea not only comely, but beautiful. The national art, as in great measure the source of Japanese art, and the national religion, or rather irreligion, are treated of at some length. The last two chapters, on the late war, are written in a flippant and decidedly newspapery style, and are entirely out of place. As a traveler Mrs. Miln has the good sense to take things as she finds them. - Cruising among the Caribbees, Summer Days in Winter Months, by Charles Augustus Stoddard. (Scribners.) Dr. Stoddard is an experienced traveler, and he goes at his pleasure in a thoroughly systematic fashion. Unlike Mrs. Miln, he believes in studying beforehand rather than "going it blind" in a spirit of adventure. He thinks that adventures enough are bound to come in any long journey, especially if it be off the beaten track. The fact that the present journey was on a not entirely untraveled road will probably account for its lack of exciting incident; but though the reader is not thrilled with the account of any very startling haps or mishaps, we think he will agree with the author that a great deal of pleasure and profit may be obtained from a tour planned in Dr. Stoddard's way. After all, the question must, of course, be settled by every traveler according to his own tastes and temperament. Dr. Stoddard naturally makes the most of the historical associations along his route, and he gives us a deal of information about the scenery and the people to be met with from St. Thomas to Trinidad and back again. The book is illustrated from photographs.

Religion. The University Hymn Book, for Use in the Chapel of Harvard University. (Published by the University, Cambridge.) This collection is based upon the common needs of young men worshiping together, and agreeing to ignore points of difference in doctrinal belief. The result is the choice of many strong, noble hymns, and the absence of those fervid expressions of devo

tion which made some of Charles Wesley's hymns almost passionate love-songs. We cannot help a mild regret that young men should miss this emotional outlet, yet the general effect is certainly one of dignity and of freedom from much subjective senti ment. There is, naturally enough, a tolerably strong representation of those halfstately, half-distant hymns which expressed the decorum and the measured reasonable praise of the local hymn-writers of the early part of the century; and indeed, the literary quality of the book is a noticeable element; there are several good religious poems. The editors have shown scrupulous care in respecting the rights of authors to their own form of words, and the music is in many instances a restoration of the original form. Altogether the book is one which serves well the purpose for which it was designed, and it ought to commend itself to many colleges. We have before spoken of the admirable series of handbooks for guilds and Bible classes prepared by various eminent clergymen of the Church of Scotland, under the editorship of the Very Rev. Professor Charteris, D. D., of Edinburgh, and the Rev. J. A. M'Clymont, D. D., of Aberdeen. A late addition to these manuals is Our Lord's Teaching, by the Rev. James Robertson, D. D. (Black, London; A. D. F. Randolph & Co., New York.)

Politics. Adoption and Amendment of Constitutions, by Charles Borgeaud. Translated by C. D. Hagen, with an Introduction by J. M. Vincent. (Macmillan.) In three hundred and fifty-three pages Dr. Borgeaud undertakes to enumerate, classify, and analyze different methods of constitution making and altering, besides devoting some space to historical explanation and discussion of recent German theories in regard to the nature of constitutional law. The result of this is a compactness which, entirely proper in a prize essay, renders the book rather meagre for a reference work, and too dry for general reading. The most valuable parts are the author's analyses of French and especially Swiss constitutional development in the present century. The translation, not always elegant or even smooth, is generally clear.

Psychology. Apparitions and ThoughtTransference, an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy, by Frank Podmore.

(Imported by Scribners.) However skeptical Horatio may be, he can hardly read this book without being impressed anew with the inadequacy of his philosophy even in coping with purely earthly things. Heaven and hell are not in question here, and Mr. Podmore is no believer in ghosts. "Phantasms of the living" are another matter, however, and it must be confessed that the evidence presented in favor of these phenomena is very strong, though the author admits in his preface that it is "as yet hardly adequate to establish telepathy as a fact in nature, and leaves much to be desired for the elucidation of the laws under which it operates." This statement goes to show the careful conservatism with which students are approaching this subject, and the treatment throughout the volume is such as to give the reader confidence in the author's scientific spirit and methods.

Ethnology. The Government Printing Office has only recently issued the two valuable reports of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1890 and 1891, the first containing an exhaustive study of the cosmogony, the songs and myths of the Sia, pueblo Indians in the Rio Grande country, by Colonel James Stevenson, whose work was finished by his widow; the ethnology of the Ungava District in the Hudson Bay Territory, by Mr. Lucien M. Turner; and a study of the Siouan cults, by the Rev. J. O. Dorsey. The second report contains the voluminous record of the Bureau of its Mound Explorations. The explorers made excavations in more than two thousand mounds, extending over the territory from Florida to North Dakota. This report is, and doubtless will remain, the great storehouse of first-hand information on the subject. - A subsequent volume from the Government Printing Office contains the Dakota grammar, text (of myths and the like) and ethnography, by the late Stephen R. Riggs, edited by James O. Dorsey. Dr. Walter James Hoffman, one of the investigators in the service of the Bureau, has put into popular form the results of his investigations into the pictography of the North American Indians, together with the results, briefly explained, of similar studies in other lands, thus making an elementary volume of the Anthropological Series, on The Beginnings of Writing. (Appleton.) Similar in aim, but done with somewhat greater detail, is Dr.

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Daniel G. Brinton's Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics for the series of the University of Pennsylvania in Philology, Literature, and Archæology. (Ginn.) These books bear witness to the very rapidly increasing popular interest in a science about which a few years ago there was no public curiosity, and they give evidence of the good influence of the ethnological museums and of the Chicago Fair. - The Origin of Inventions, a Study of Industry among Primitive Peoples, by Otis T. Mason, with Illustrations (imported by Scribners), is an interesting summary of the observations of travelers and ethnologists on primitive industries of all kinds, including the making and using of tools and weapons, the production of fire, stone-working, pottery, hunting, fishing, the domestication of animals, house-building, the cultivation and use of plants, the textile industry, methods of transportation, etc. Dr. Mason, as curator of the Department of Ethnology in the United States National Museum, has had the very best opportunities for prosecuting his studies, and his book must be to a certain extent an authoritative one. He gives the word "invention" a comprehensive definition, and he holds that inventors - men of genius or "knack". have always existed in all races and tribes, pointing out the fallacy of a common belief that all savages are merely imitators, and have borrowed their ideas from their natural surroundings. Evolution is the keynote of the book, and the author shows that the primitive inventions now used by savage and barbaric peoples are practically identical with those possessed by prehistoric man, so that by studying the habits of Eskimos and Polynesians we may learn something of the manner of life of our own progeni

tors.

Science. A Theory of Development and Heredity, by Henry B. Orr. (Macmillan.) In this latest contribution to the discussion of the origin of variations and the transmission of acquired characters, the

author attempts to show that evolution is to a great extent effected directly through the influence of environment, though he takes pains to deny any wish to discredit natural selection as an important auxiliary agent. Besides discussing the more familiar theory as to the direct action of environment on the tissues themselves as in the case of light in the formation of pigments — he offers a good deal of evidence to prove that the nervous system is often the medium for a more indirect action. The fact that some acquired characters are transmitted while others are not is explained by the statement that only those changes which produce a marked impression or a severe shock on that system are sufficient to affect the germ-cells to such an extent as to influence the development of the offspring. A Hand-Book on Tuberculosis among Cattle, with Considerations of the Relation of the Disease to the Life and Health of the Human Family and of the Facts concerning the Use of Tuberculin as a Diagnostic Test, compiled by Henry L. Shumway. (Roberts.) This book was prepared for the information of the public rather than the medical profession, and it presents in readable shape a startling array of testimony as to the danger of infection from the milk and flesh of tuberculous cattle, and shows the importance of vigorous measures in dealing with the disease. Incidentally it also shows how success in one direction may grow out of failure in another, Koch's Lymph, or, as it is now called, tuberculin, proving of inestimable value in accelerating and therefore revealing the disease which it was originally intended to cure. - The Elements of Navigation. A short and complete explanation of the standard methods of finding the position of a ship at sea and the course to be steered, designed for the Instruction of Beginners, by W. J. Henderson (Harpers), seems to be all its title implies, and is of a size suited to the pocket.

State Sum

Open-Air Schools.

IN time of peace prepare for mer-Evening war; in winter make ready for summer; and so in this wintry weather we may begin to speculate over our next summer pleasures and duties. What objection is there to roping off, on summer evenings, one or two spaces in the parks or open squares of our great cities, as is sometimes done for music in Hyde Park, London, and giving a stereopticon entertainment, instructive in character, and sometimes, perhaps, illustrated with music?

Just as the stereopticon and its modifications allow of presenting text, diagrams, pictures, etc., on a scale so large that they can be perfectly seen at distances far beyond the reach of the human voice in speech, so the combined voices of ordinary singers can be heard at distances far beyond the reach of the human voice in distinct speech. Thus, not only concerted vocal music, but passages written for solos can, by ordinary voices singing in unison, be rendered, so that the melody can be heard distinctly at great distances. By having the words which are being sung thrown conspicuously on a screen or wall by the stereopticon and synchronously with the music, both words and music will be fully apprehended by persons beyond the reach of the human voice in speech, or of a single voice in song. Such assemblages are too numerous for most buildings; but, in summer evenings, in the open air, such assemblages can, at no expense for rent, hear and see, as in the open-air entertainments of the ancients, and later in Italy and Spain, and now, in a modified form, in Paris and throughout Germany.

rooms of our colleges, for purposes of scientific demonstration and illustration. Thus is taught and illustrated: astronomy, geology, etc., by the Academies of Science ; geography by the Geographical Societies ; natural history by lectures at the Natural History Museums; architecture and archæology and the history of the fine arts by the schools of architecture and by popular lecturers. Thus, too, may be taught musical notation, thematic analysis of musical works, and the history of music. This last can embrace, at small cost, most of the vocal and much of the instrumental music of our time, and most of the similar works once famous, but now known only to certain skilled musicians. And so, also, a trial hearing can be given inexpensively to new operas and scenie cantatas and other vocal and instrumental works that lend themselves to illustration.

The inexpensiveness of singing by large bodies of ordinary singers is shown by the fact that the members of most of our Choral Societies are not paid to sing, but pay for the privilege of singing; and skilled singers out of employment are often glad to sing for a mere pittance. Again, by a use of the stereopticon the cost of books for the singers can, when desirable, be obviated. Their music, whether the ordinary notation, or the tonic sol fa, or any other notation, can be thrown on the same or a separate

screen.

Stereopticon slides used in one place one evening can be used in another place another evening; and, being in themselves so small, at small expense for carriage. The one or two men who work the stereopticon can, if desirable, go with the slides, so that all mistakes or delays in the working of the lanterns can be avoided.

The programme of each evening might be divided into portions with short intermissions between, allowing for the exit and entrance of any of the audience who did not wish to sit out a whole evening. Each portion could be devoted to a single subject; or a varied programme could be given, embracing musical works, views of travel, scientific instruction, and the like. As in concert programmes, the same work could

be presented either once or oftener, as found advisable. Instruction in the arts of industry, which is one of the chief services rendered by World's Fairs, could thus also be quickly given.

As an illustration of the teaching of hygiene by stereopticon, we may take some diagrams given in a recent magazine. One diagram shows two parallelograms, one seven times larger than the other. The large one shows the proportion of the deaths from typhoid fever where isolation and disinfection are neglected; the small one shows the proportion of deaths from typhoid fever where isolation and disinfection are enforced. Such diagrams, if thrown on a screen forty feet high, and fully understood by a vast assembly, would be ineffaceably remembered and heeded by large numbers.

The instruction now given by the State is not limited as to subjects taught, except by custom, nor is there a limit to the age of those taught in our evening schools; nor need instruction be confined only to rooms or to certain months. Man never need stop learning. Nor is knowledge acquired by whatever means, or in whatever locality, and at whatever age, ever lost to the State. It is passed on, consciously or unconsciously, from each learner to those about him. No man can be uplifted by knowledge without more or less influencing, and so uplifting others.

Summer-evening out-door teaching may be done by private folk; but not so well as by the State, because private folk cannot so readily get the use of portions of parks and public places, nor so certainly avoid partisan or sectarian teaching and bias, nor so inexpensively command such facilities for gathering and presenting teaching matter, nor reach such large bodies of learners.

Our parks are established for the benefit of the public; nor, so long as they are preserved in their beauty and for their present uses uninjured, need their use be confined to the band concerts, games, swings, merrygo-rounds, refreshment places, riding, driving, and walking, and other uses to which they are now put. The assembling of a large body of people, standing, or seated in chairs, on the grass, would not injure the grass, provided it be covered, for the time, with cheap cocoa-matting. This would, as experience has shown, effectually prevent the cutting of the roots of the grass by the

heels of those assembled, or by the legs of their chairs. The weight of the audience would then, like the weight of a lawn roller, do the grass good. The chairs could be folded and removed, in a few moments, at the close of each evening's session, as is now often done at evening entertainments; and the matting could then be rolled up and removed as quickly. The grass would thus be covered by the matting only two or three hours out of twenty-four, and only on fair evenings, and only during the summer months.

In our country vast numbers spend the greater part of their evenings in reading, either for entertainment or for instruction. One can read in warmed and lighted rooms with comfort on most winter evenings. But on summer evenings the glare and heat of lighted rooms in houses or flats and tenements is often a discomfort. One must then either put up with this discomfort or give up the pleasure and profit of reading. Then, if one seeks in a city to spend an evening in the open air, he must either walk the streets, or sit idle on some doorstep or in the parks, or attend concerts in roof gardens or beer gardens which may suit neither his taste nor his purse. Especially is this hard on women and elderly people of both sexes, and it bears most hardly on those who possess refinement and a certain education, however limited they may be in purse.

Let any one imagine himself in such a case on a warm evening in July; and then imagine some one offering him a comfortable seat in the open air amid agreeable surroundings. And let him then imagine rising before him and those quietly seated about him the text and scenes of Siegfried, while is heard at the same time its wonderful music, though sung only by combined ordinary voices and to less than the full orchestral accompaniment. He may leave between the acts, if he choose, and return home. Or, if he prefer, he may go to some other square, where he may see, for instance, how as in an orrery the stars in their courses revolve around the sun, and may read the accompanying text that tells of the wonders of the revolving orbs. In different parts of the city, or at different points in the larger parks, such state teaching may be devoted, perhaps, here to music, there to science, or travel, or art; or else