method shows how new the subject is to the higher schools. In several cases its presence is directly traceable to the influence of Harvard. As a whole it may be said that geography is not yet considered a necessary theme in American colleges. When present, it is often due to the appreciation or special tastes of instructors in geology. In England, geography was recognized as a university study by Oxford and Cambridge first in 1887 and 1888. In Germany it fares better, as would be expected, though there late in recognition as compared with other subjects. In 1893, as stated by Prof. H. Wagner, there were twenty-eight professors and teachers at eighteen of the twenty-one universities of Germany, but without unanimity of conception, in some the relation to history prevailing, while in others geology and biology were the companion themes. In America, the recently organized National Geographic Society, while most active in discovery, has done much to take geography from the field of mere exploration and build it into a science, and it has now provided, through one of the large publishing houses, a series of monographs for teachers, in which certain great geographic units in our own country are described by accomplished scholars. It is also a cheerful fact that a considerable body of pedagogical literature has grown up in this field during the last five years. It can scarcely be needful to urge the value of the new geographic study. The sources of intellectual satisfaction are greatly multiplied, and ennobling means of recreation may be placed in the way of every intelligent person, largely apart from the expenditure of money or the possession of special opportunity. Familiar landscapes take on fresh interest, because they become vital and are for the first time really observed. Travel becomes delightful rather than, as to so many, irksome, and otherwise dreary hours are made into a fascinating opportunity for true culture. Every reader knows how much of Parkman's charm is due to his geographic sense and facile photography of locality. H. J. Mackinder, of Oxford, has remarked that "John Richard Green's Making of England is largely a deduction from geographical conditions of what must have been the course of the history." Prof. Powell suggests the ideal teaching, in saying of geography in the schools of Washington, " North America is studied physically, in which connection it is studied historically also, so that national lines or divisions are seen to move back and forth and finally become fixed by physical causes when such exist, as is the case frequently." General A. W. Greely has recently quoted the amusing remark, "It is fortunate that great rivers run by so many great cities!" Geographic study soon supplies the real logic of such connections and of those less evident, and illumines historic and economic research at every turn. The reconstruction of the geographies of geologic time must surely shed floods of light upon the development and distribution of existing organisms, including man himself. Glacial geology also, with its vast contribution to our knowledge of the earth, past and present, supplies one of the best illustrations of the new geography in its fellowship with geology. Glaciation is mainly a matter of climate and topography, with perhaps a measure of cosmic influence; in short, it is an affair of geography. Of that keen scrutiny of surface forms carried on by glacial science the new geography has largely been born. Some will ask what economic value accrues with this vast devotion to scientific geography which the next generation will see. Surely no field of science will yield a larger intellectual harvest, and the economic significance of pure science, though sometimes out of sight, is never far away. For the last half century scientific methods of study have been gradually extending, until they are now applied to every branch of human knowledge. The great problems of society are making urgent demands upon public attention. Science furnishes the only means by which they can be intelligently studied. This magazine gives the results of scientific research in these and other fields. Its articles are from the pens of the most eminent scientists of the world. It translates the technical language of the specialist into plain English suitable for the gen eral reader. Among the subjects discussed in its pages are. Psychology, Education, The Functions of Government, Municipal Reform, Sumptuary Legislation, Relations of Science and Religion, Hygiene, Sanitation, and Domestic Economy, Natural History, Geography, Travel, Anthropology, and the physical sciences. Prominent among its recent contributors are such men as ANDREW D. WHITE, APPLETON MORGAN, JAMES SULLY, WILLIAM T. LUSK, M. D., FREDERICK STARR, GARRET P. SERVISS, DAVID STARR JORDAN, EDWARD ATKINSON, T. MITCHELL PRUDDEN, M. D., CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT, M. ALLEN STARR. 50 cents a number; $5.00 per annum. D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, New York. |