of the Executive Committee, are a guaranty that this meeting will be one of great interest and importance. We hope to see a large attendance. There are thousands of teachers and school officers in Ohio who profess to be alive to the interests of education. Let all remember the Annual Council. Trips East, North and West should be projected via Springfield! Next month we expect to announce the programme in full.

The State Board of Examiners will hold a meeting at the same time and place for the examination of applicants for State certificates. For particulars, address the Secretary, Captain Wm. Mitchell, Columbus, Ohio.

EDUCATION IN SOUTH AMERICA.-We are indebted to Senor D. F. Sarmiento, Minister Plenitentiary of Chili and Peru to the United States, for a copy of a volume entitled Las Escuelas en Los Estados Unidos, and addressed to the Minister of Public Instruction of the Argentine Republic. It contains a sketch of the life of Horace Mann, reports of the meetings of the American Institute held at New Haven in 1865, and of the National Teachers' Association of the same year. The book is written in Spanish, and is published in this country for circulation among the Republics of South America, to assist them in framing school systems on the model of our own, which the author, in his title-page, truly calls "The basis of the prosperity of the United States Republic."

TENNESSEE. This heroic State is gloriously emerging from the thick darkness of slavery and secession. The freedmen, under the stimulus of liberty and the protection of the omnipotent ballot, are advancing wonderfully in knowledge and influence, and all open hostility to their education and moral elevation is rapidly disappearing. Enfranchisement has broken the power of political prejudice, and is lifting them into general favor. A free-school law has been enacted; a two-mill school tax levied; and the school-house will soon begin to appear at the cross-roads. Every where Northern ideas have been sown broad-cast, and are taking deep root. Already their branches begin to shake like Lebanon.

These are some of our observations in Tennessee. On every hill-top we saw the glow of the bright future which is rising before the people. Next month, dear reader, we will go with you through the schools of Nashville, Murfreesboro, not forgetting the freedmen schools, and, if you wish, we will wander over the battle-fields of Stone River, Franklin and Nashville, stopping at the beautiful National Cemeteries to drop a tear over the graves of Liberty's heroes and martyrs.

"When will their glory fade?"

PEPPERY.-A new method of punishment has been introduced into one of the public schools of Holyoke, Mass. A disobedient scholar is ordered up, his mouth forced open, and a dose of cayenne pepper administered; on the principle, we suppose, that punishment should be applied to the offending member. Is this a relic of barbarism" or an invention of civilization?

ZANESVILLE. It seems from an address lately issued by the Board of Education of Zanesville to the citizens, that corporal punishment is not abolished, but the infliction of it is no longer left to the discretion of the teacher. When, in the judgment of the teacher, such punishment becomes necessary, a statement of the offense and all tho attendant circumstances must be laid before the Board. If they conclude that the case demands the application of the extreme remedy, the teacher receives authority to administer it in the presence of one of the members of the Board, who may render assistance if he deems it expedient. If deemed necessary, the teacher may suspend the offender from school until the Board have decided on his case. The address inti

mates that there are quite a number of children in the schools whose connection therewith ought to be terminated by expulsion. Indeed, this severe measure is urged as a proper substitute for the rod. The address concludes with an unjust and intemperate attack upon school superintendents and the "professional" management of schools.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT LAWFUL.-A school-whipping case was recently tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Ashland county, Wm. Osborn, Judge. The evidence showed that the whipping was severe, but administered with ordinary switches, and discontinued the moment the boy yielded. The charge of the Judge was to the effect that the right of a teacher to inflict corporal punishment on a pupil was well settled in law, and that the mere excess of punishment did not render the teacher criminally liable unless the evidence showed, (1) that the instrument was improper; (2) that permanent disability was caused; (3) that the punishment was inflicted in anger, or in hatred or ill will; or (4) that the punishment was violent or cruel. The verdict, "Not guilty," was returned by the jury. "The decision," says the Ashland Times, "was a righteous one, and had it been otherwise we would give little for the discipline of the schools of our county."

NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS. The proceedings of the National Teachers' Association, National Association of School Superintendents, and American Normal School Association, at their annual sessions in Indianapolis, August, 1866, together with the lectures and papers, are published in one volume of more than 150 pages, which is now ready for delivery. Send orders, inclosing fifty-five cents for each copy, to JAMES CRUIKSHANK, Treasurer National Teachers' Association, Brooklyn, New York. Volumes of proceedings for former years, fifty cents each. Set of seven, $2.40.

NORMAL. A correspondent wishes to know the origin of this word as applied to schools. Both Worcester and Webster would have given the desired information. It is from the Latin norma, rule or model. Hence a normal school is one whose methods of instruction are to serve as a model for imitation. It is an institution for training teachers.

VERY AFFECTING.-We are informed that Mr. K., of Monroe School, has closed his term with the loss of most of his hair, bestowed on affectionate scholars (of the fair sex?) who gave their's in return!

HON. WILLIAM DUNNELL, of Winona, has been appointed State Superintendent of Schools of Minnesota.

PROF. JOHN OGDEN, Principal of the Fisk School, Nashville, Tenn., is strongly recommended to the Governor as a suitable person to fill the newly-created office of State School Superintendent. We heartily indorse the recommendation. He is just the man to put the new school system in operation.

MRS. MARY HOWE SMITH, of the Oswego Training School, recently visited Ohio, and gave several courses of lectures on "Geographical Teaching" and "Primary Instruction." Her lectures are highly commended.

Edward D. NEIL, of Minnesota, for three years past one of the Private Secretaries of President Johnson, has been appointed chief clerk in the National Department of Education.

H. D. STRATTON, one of the proprietors of Bryant & Stratton's Chain of Commercial Colleges, died at his residence in New York on the 20th of February, aged 43 years. He was a true, large-hearted friend, and a genial companion. In business tact and energy he had few superiors.

BOOK NOTICES.

A NEW PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC. Upon the Basis of the Works of GEO. R. PERKINS, LL.D. By G. P. QUACKENBOS, A.M. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

The compiler bespeaks attention to what he terms "the great distinguishing feature of this book; that it is adapted to the present state of things-the suspension of specie payments, the doubling of prices, alteration in the tariff," etc. We have examined the book with attention, and will mention some of our jottings. We are sorry to perceive the inevitable questions at the foot of the page, which serve less as a general guide to the teacher than as ruts for the slow coach to plod through. But very different are the miscellaneous questions and examples for review at the end of each article. These add considerably to the usefulness of the book. The relations of dividend, divisor and quotient, represented by equations, form a good preparation for the study of the fundamental law of fractions. The conditions on which composite numbers are divisible by 2, 3, etc.; the article on cancellation; the intermixture of mental exercises under each rule; the clear analysis of the rule for dividing one fraction by another; the judicious omission of elaborate rules for the management of circulating decimals, of little practical utility; the forms of bills of sale and invoices; the useful formulas in percentage and interest, from which the rules for the several cases are deducible; the chapter of stocks, &c., &c., are excellent. In percentage, we should prefer making 1 per cent. the starting point. But why, in proportion, omit the demonstration of the fundamental principle which can be so clearly proved, even without algebraic notation? Surely, the writer did not mean that the learner should take for granted so important a law! The article on analysis seems too short, considering the importance of the subject. In a purely arithmetical work, we could leave out arithmetical and geometrical progressions (to use the usual misnomer). To demonstrate the rules, the author has had recourse to algebraical formulæ, which will be unintelligible without much explanation to a learner unacquainted with algebra. We wish the answers to the questions were put at the end of the volume. In deference, we suppose, to the tyranny of custom, the author has put, at the end, a few rules or recipes for the mensuration of solids, &c., the demonstration of which is, of course, out of the question. We are glad that he has greatly curtailed this unprofitable appendix. Old fogies will grumble at the omission; but we rejoice, because this matter rightly belongs to geometry, where only it can be demonstrated. We hope that, in a future edition, the author will greatly enlarge his list of miscellaneous questions, and thereby add to the value of this excellent practical work.

STUDIES IN ENGLISH; or Glimpses of the Inner Life of our Language. By M. SCHEELE DE VERE, LL.D. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1867. 12mo. pp. 349, with index.

Whatever the words "inner life" in the title may mean, the book will certainly afford only glimpses of the structure of the English language. Most of the illustrations are trite, and the others are often far-fetched. The book took its origin in a course of lectures, and shows its paternity by frequent repetitions, and a general diffuseness in style. The author is not always accurate, as when he speaks of Sir John Mandeville as a poet (p. 35), or of the place where morocco is manufactured (p. 150); nor is he always happy in his derivations, as river (p. 148), which he derives from ripuaria, in apparent forgetfulness of rivus and the Greek verb meaning to flow; or when he assigns the termination in apogee (p. 165) to the augmentative ee, or derives roam from Rome, companion from pagus, stern from austere, and others of the same sort. We can not understand what he means by saying that "original adjectives

can scarcely be said to exist in English," (p. 221,) and the statement (which he evidently adopts) that the noun "is the only really original part of speech" (p. 273). If the last assertion is true, why make an exception of English adjectives? Then again, why do philologists perpetually send us back to verbal roots for our derivations? Which came first, flumen or fluo, dux or duco, rex or rego? We really wish some one would settle the question.

The book, however, merits praise for the number of derivatives it contains from Celtic and Teutonic roots, as well as for collecting many instructive examples in a compact form. In fact, we are ready to welcome any attempt to increase the study of English, and have no doubt that the student who does not possess the works of Richardson, French or Marsh, will derive pleasure and profit by the perusal of this, Of course those who own these books will get this also, for the sake of comparison.

S. A. N.

ELEMENTS OF LOGIC: Comprising the Doctrine of the Laws and Products of Thought, with a Logical Praxis. Designed for Classes and for Private Study. By HENRY N. DAY. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1867. 12mo. pp. 231, with index. Those who are familiar with the other publications of Professor Day, will find in this the same strict adherence to system, and the formal development of the theme, which characterize the Art of Rhetoric and the Rhetorical Praxis. The treatise is based on the lectures of Sir William Hamilton, and discards the nomenclature of the schoolmen. As a text-book, the majority of students will find it extremely difficult to master, and careless teachers will reject it, because it demands thought to follow out and unfold its original analysis; but he who desires thorough training in pure logic will find no work of equal size better adapted to his purpose than this. We wish that the author had enlarged the work, by giving more illustrative examples, and can not but think that, in his anxiety to make the exposition of his theme definite and philosophical, he has erred by using a phraseology which is often neither usual, nor musical, nor necessary, even in the technical terminology of logic; but this is only a miner objection, which disappears when the ear becomes familiar with its peculiarities. We commend the book to thorough and exact teachers. We append a single sentence to illustrate what we have said of the phraseology, although it is hardly fair to separate it from the context:

"In the Hypothetico-Disjunctive Syllogism or the Dilemma, the Law of perfect thought requires

"Ist. That the antecedent be verified in respect both to the disjunctive and the hypothetical judgment in the Sumption, and, also, in respect to the positing or the sublation in the Subsumption.

"2d. That the conclusion sublate the antecedent member of the Sumption, or posit the consequent and not conversely."

COURS THEORIQUE et Pratique de Langue FRANCAISE. MAURICE POITEVIN. Barnes & Co., New York.

We can not well see how this reprint of a grammar written for French learners could, in this country, supersede, with advantage, the various works on the Ollendorf and Robertsonian methods. It might, however, be very useful wherever French is spoken, as in Louisiana or Canada. But it were indeed "a consummation devoutly to be wished," if the compilers of our own English Grammars would follow a somewhat similar plan. The characteristic of this work, independently of the truly French clearness of the details, lies in this, that on one page we have the theoretical part, definitions, inflections, rules, &c., and on the opposite page practical examples, culled, for the most part, from French writers. The scholar is to analyze these, to correct faulty constructions, purposely introduced to supply words left out, &c. We would propose to modify this plan only so far as to make the work on the model sentences

precede the theoretical part. Then, the principles, rules, &c., should, in the first place, be elicited from the pupil by the exercise of his own faculty of inductive reasoning and generalization. Thus he is trained to form his own rules, which he afterwards compares with the rules of the text.

T. E. S.

THE LAWYER IN THE SCHOOL-ROox: Comprising the Laws of all the States on Important Educational Subjects. By M. McN. WALSH, A.M., LL.B., of the New York Bar. pp. 161. New York: Schermerhorn & Co.

This instructive and interesting little volume begins with a short history of schools and school systems of government at different epochs throughout the world. Of the Chinese he says that, though in the Christian art of man-killing they are decidedly behind the age, they deserve commendation for some points in their domestic policy, particularly in their school system, the oldest on record-for it has stood the test of two thousand years. Next, he treats of the state of the law respecting religion in the school, as it was and as it is in England and in this country, both before and after the revolution, and traces the gradual progress of religious liberty. On the subject of corporal punishment, which is exciting so much attention at the present moment, he agrees to the opinion enunciated by various authorities, that the practice of inflicting corporal punishment on a scholar, in any case whatever, has no sanction but usage. Legislation is as yet mute on the subject, except in cases of gross abuse of that time-honored privilege. However, several decisions from the bench appear to sanction the practice when the rod is used in moderation and for sufficient cause. With respect to misconduct out of school, he quotes legal decisions in favor of the right of the teacher to punish for disorder. He pronounces against the vulgar impression that parents have any more right to dictate to teachers than teachers would have to dictate to parents in their treatment of their own children at home. He affirms the right of the teacher to suspend from school any child who, under the sanction of his parents or guardians, refuses to comply with the directions of the school authorities. If the parent feel aggrieved, he has the remedy of appeal to the real employers of the teacher-the school board. The work concludes with, a review of the regulations in force throughout the Union on the liability of a teacher to dismissal for any act of immorality. This book ably supplies a want that must often be painfully felt by teachers, school directors and parents in cases of perplexity. By its clear, lively and forcible treatment of every branch of the subject, it will serve to popularize correct legal ideas on several important educational points, about which there yet prevails much mischievous ignorance.

VOICE AND ACTION: A New and Practical System of the Culture of Voice and Action, and a Complete Analysis of the Human Passions, with an Appendix of Readings and Recitations. Designed for Public Speakers, Teachers and Students. By Prof. J. E. FROBISHER. New York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co. 1867. 12mo. pp. 262.

This is one of the best manuals on the subject of Elocution that we have ever seen. Prof. Frobisher has manifested marked ability in teaching the art, and has attained a very high reputation as a teacher. This book may be considered as the results of his long experience in the class-room, and is not the development of mere theory. Based, as all such books must be, on the work of Dr. RUSH, it yet bears the marks of the author's individuality. The principles are clearly enunciated, and the directions for practice are simple and easy to be followed.

Nearly a hundred pages are devoted to exercises for practice, and an equal number to selections in readings. This will afford sufficient matter for any class in reading for a year or more. The art of reading well is no slight matter, and deserves more