CAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and the National Fire Protection Association. The committee had the coiiperation of committees of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association and the National Fertilizer Association, and is now considerina .the cluestion of additions t o the table. The booklet consists of 12 pages, sells a t 15 cents per copy, and presents information under the following headings: name of chemical, usual shipping container, fire hazard, life hazard, storage, and remarks. -News Ed., Ind. Eng. Chrn., 7. 4 (Mar. 20. 1929).
Per Capita Costs in City Schools, 1927-28. F. M. PHILLIPS,Chief, Division of Statistics. Departrnenl of the Interior, Statistical Circular No. 12. U . S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1929. 11 pp. 14.5 X 23 cm. $0.05. Illiteracy in the Several Countries of the World. JAM- F. AeEs, Specialist in Foreign Education, and NORMANJ. BOND, Principal statistical assistant. Deparfrnort of the ilpte&or, Bzrreou bf Educatim Bulletin. No. 4 . U. S. Govt. Printing Ohice, Washington, D. C., 1929. 68 pp. 14.5 X 23 cm. $0.15. Educational ~ o a r d s and Foundations, 192628. HENRYR. EVANS,Editorial Division. Bureau of Education. Dcpartment of the Interior, Bulletin No. 9. U . S. Covt. Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1929. 12 pp. $0.05. Higher Education, Biennial Survey 1 9 2 6 28. Annlux J. KLEIN.Chief, Division
of Higher Education, Bureau of Education. Department of the Interior, B d l e tin No. 11. U. S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1929. 42 pp. $0.10. Report on Higgins' Book "A Comparative View of the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Doctrines." Prof. J. Reilly and D. T . MacSweeney give an account, in the Proceedings of t h Royal Dablin Sotidy for January, No. 15, of the work of Willaim Higgins, whose book, published in 1789. "A Comnarative View of the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Doctrines," contains some intefesting speculations on chemical combination. The work is the first defense of the new views of Lavoisier in the English language and was written in answer t o Kirwan's "Essay on Phlogiston." Higgins' work. according to Reilly and MacSweeney, contained the fundamental germs of the chemical atomic theory, and had it not been neglected it would have led to much that Dalton afterward put forward. It is to the genius and industry of Dalton, and the encourageq)ent and friendly criticism of his contemporaries, that the main credit for the establishment of the theory must be ascribed. Higgins' work (which is based on experiment and is by no means purely speculative) is particularly interesting in its attempt t o represent affinities as well as combining proportions, a side of the subject which was, perhaps wisely, entirely neglected by Dalton. The formulas used by Higgins are also more related to modern formulas than were those of Dalton.Nelure (London), 123, 356 (Mar. 9, 1929).
I t is idle to say that the most important subjects affecting social welfare are too abstruse for adolescent minds, when pupils in our grammar and high scbools are presented daily with situations, national and international, which call for a knowledge of history and geography, science and economics, political economy and sociology. Same problems of trade'and transportation, of capital and labor, of political policy and international relations must be faced in the modern school. I mention these in particular because they i r e the most perplexing of all the problems that the teacher meets. They cannot beignored; they must be honestly and impartially treated.-JAMBS E. R u s s ~ ~
