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versity. Yet, except in rare individual cases, the private students nowhere hold their own with high-school students. The high-school students, generally speaking, are better stuff to begin with; they are sturdier, more self-reliant, and respond better to the liberty of the University. As a class they are more seriously ambitious and have higher ideals.

Statistics furnished by Princeton University throw some light on the subject under discussion. In a group of fourteen honor men in the Freshman class in 1884-85, only one came from a public high school. In 1900, in a group of thirty-one honor men, fourteen came from public high schools. The very opposite of Search's contention seems therefore to be true, that is, that the public high schools were never so much in evidence in colleges and universities as they are to-day.

The following statistics, compiled from the last report of the Commissioner of Education (vol. ii, 1899-1900, p. 2122), show the phenomenal development of public high schools in the last ten years. The attendance has increased from 211,596 in 1890 to 519,251 in 1900, an increase of 145 per cent. In the same time the attendance at private academies and seminaries has increased from 89,400 to 110,797, an increase of little more than 12 1-2 per cent. Attendance at public high schools increased steadily during the ten years, while attendance at private schools reached a maximum in 1894, when the number was 118,000.

It is gratifying to learn that this increased attendance has not simply rushed to so-called English or Commercial Courses, as is shown by the following statistics:

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The following table gives further evidence that the work in the public high schools is not deteriorating.

PERCENTAGE OF GRADUATES PREPARED FOR COLLEGE

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Altho the attendance in public high schools has increased 145 per cent. in the last ten years, the percentage of those in attendance who graduate has remained practically the same (12 per cent. in 1890-11.89 per cent. in 1900).

The following table, showing the number of pupils reported as preparing for college, suggests some interesting lines of thought:

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We must be careful in the use of these figures. If the efficiency of the public high school as compared with the private school varies directly as the percentage of pupils sent to college, then the above table proves conclusively that the work of the public high school has deteriorated in the last ten years. But we have already shown that a larger per cent. of those who do go to college come from the public high schools. One could with much reason lay down the apparently contradictory law of the efficiency of the public high school as follows: The efficiency of the public high school varies directly as the percentage of college students coming from the public high schools, and inversely as the percentage of its own pupils who go to college.

Tuition in the public high schools is free, books and supplies are furnished. Board is provided at home. Only one reason need be given to explain the presence of the young student in the high school, that he wants an education. Most of the young people in attendance at other schools, generally away from home, would give at least two reasons: (1) that they want an education, (2) that they cannot get what they want in the public high school. The decrease of percentage of public high-school pupils going to college indicates that a larger

number of young people have their educational wants supplied at home. The equipment of school laboratories, the growth of libraries in all cities, the addition of college-trained teachers to high-school faculties, all tend to make the high school an excellent place to do advanced high-school work, or in other words, elementary college work.

College presidents tell us that many students should leave college after having been in attendance for two years. Note, for example, the innovation, established by several of the Western universities, of granting the degree of associate for two years of college work. It is too soon to say that the colleges will cut out two years of their work. But the next ten years will see the high schools all over the country encroaching very seriously on the work of the Freshman and Sophomore years of the colleges. This means that a smaller percentage of high-school pupils will go to college, and that ultimately the course from the high school to the university will be shortened.

HIGH SCHOOL,

TRENTON, N. J.

W. A. WETZEL

2 In 1890 the public high schools reported 1,068,542 volumes in their libraries ; in 1900 the number had risen to 2,727,003 volumes. The value of the grounds, buildings, and apparatus, rose from $52,634,684 in 1890 to $96,131,695 in 1900.

IX
REVIEWS

Staatliche Schulaerzte-Von Professor Dr. G. LEUBUSCHER, Regierungs- und Medizinalrat in Meiningen. (Sammlung von Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der pädagogischen Psychologie und Physiologie.) Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1902. 58 p. M. 1.60.

It is a significant fact that the school physician in America, when there is one, gives most of his attention to the subject of contagious diseases and the effort to exclude such from the schools. In Germany, on the other hand, the medical officer gives the most of his thought to the careful examination and study of the general physical conditions of the children as they enter school, and at stated intervals thereafter. Chronic and acute diseases, as well as tendencies to abnormality and ill health, are carefully noted, and the school physician, in cooperation with the teacher and parent, strives for the improvement of health and the prevention of all abnormal tendencies as well as for the recognition and cure of positive disease.

In this monograph the author calls attention to the fact that, as the child progresses in school age, he is beset by an increasing number of dangers to health. It is important to distinguish these from the wretched home conditions, poor food, and other unhealthful influences for which the school is not directly responsible. The success of the school physician's work will depend in part at least upon the intelligent interest and active support of the teacher. Strong emphasis is placed upon the importance of including thoro and practical instruction upon matters relating to school hygiene in the normal schools and in all institutions for the training of teachers. The blanks to be filled out by the parents, teachers, and physicians, with the instructions which are sent with them, will be suggestive for those who may wish to undertake similar investigations.

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Some account is given of the " school-physician movement in different parts of Germany, and then follows a description of the organized effort for the medical examination and ob

servation of the school children in the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen which was begun in 1900. Forty thousand children were examined the first year, and many interesting figures are given showing the results of examination, with the number and percentages of the children suffering from different abnormal conditions. The numbers affected by some of the diseases noted seem startlingly large, but in many cases much of the ill health is due to unhygienic occupations in which the children are engaged before and after school hours. The investigations of the first year resulted in sending many children to hospitals and physicians for treatment. In some schools gymnastic exercises were arranged, more definitely to correct faulty positions and tendencies to deformity. A considerable number of mentally deficient pupils were recommended for the "Hilfsklassen," where they would receive individual and special instruction and help. Much was done also for the improvement of the schoolhouses and surroundings.

Two recommendations, given particular emphasis by the writer after the first year's experience, relate to cleanliness. The first advocates the establishment of shower-baths in all schools, and the second urges greater cleanliness in the care of schoolrooms, and suggests the use of a floor oil to prevent the rising of dust in the air.

This report does not treat any phase of the subject exhaustively, but contains much useful information about the school-physician movement" which is to receive more attention in this and other countries in the immediate future.

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TEACHERS COllege,

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

THOMAS D. WOOD

A Latin grammar for schools-By ANDREW FLEMING WEST, Professor of Latin in Princeton University. (Twentieth Century Text-books.) New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1902. xi+262 p. 90 cents.

It is undoubtedly the privilege of every age to restate its knowledge in terms of its own needs and its own ideals. Even when the facts remain the same, the judgment of their relative value and of their bearing upon life, intellectual or practical, is reasonably certain to change as the result of

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