returning home they resolved to follow the example set and establish museums. Soon after there was scarcely a province of France (department in which teachers did not from the rostrum and through the press agitate the introduction of object lessons and school museums.

Most of the museums were established by teachers and pupils themselves, who bore the expense; hence material aid on the part of the state was not necessary. Some communities defrayed the cost of original establishment, others brought collections offered by private citizens. All were agreed upon the principle that instruction in things without having the things to show is irrational, and that both in the kindergarten and primary school the same method of object lessons should be followed which a mother applies in order to create ideas, namely, by means of objects and not words. The child must be led to know the objects within its vicinity distinctly.. This is best accomplished by means of the intuitive method for whose application the reading lesson offers the best opportunity. During a reading lesson a great variety of objects are mentioned, and if they can be given into the children's hands attention is secured, the mind is being sharpened, the power of judgment developed; in short, the child is accustomed to distinct seeing and clear comprehension. The teacher is enabled to abridge verbal explanations where he has objects to show; he can thereby make his lessons more interesting, banish the ghost of indifference from his class room and keep alive the joy in work. After the children have left school they are not apt to lose the desire to observe, to reflect, and to judge. If the school museum had no other result than this that one alone would justify its establishment and maintenance. A school museum offers no little advantage also to the study of language; the child learns to express its ideas better; its vocabulary is increased more rapidly; it replies more fluently when it sees and handles things, and it certainly remembers technical terms more easily than in the utter absence of objects.

Experience has shown all this in schools where museums are kept, while in schools which are without museums the teachers have great difficulty in accustoming their pupils to a clear and distinct expression and flow of thought. It is generally considered best to have the museums established by the pupils themselves under the guidance of their teachers, aided by friends of popular education outside of the school. Care must be taken to proceed methodically, for it is not a question of preparing for exhibition some apparatus or objects of luxury or curios," which must not be touched from fear of breaking or injuring them. The museum should contain those objects which illustrate the teacher's instruction; objects should be selected which cost little or nothing and may easily be procured by the pupils. The more the pupils participate in gathering the objects to be placed in the museum, the more intense will be the interest in the lessons, for every one wishes to view the objects his comrade has contributed. If these suggestions are followed the museum will be made by the school, for the school. It was a wise remark of M. Buisson when he said: "The great advantage of a school museum is, not in having it, but in making it."

In order that the objects brought to school be safely placed where they are protected from dust and remain visible and easily accessible, a good-sized cupboard with glass doors is recommended. In case the school authorities refuse to procure it, an appeal is made to a friend of the school, or to some wealthy parents of pupils. Such an appeal is rarely made in vain in France. In most schools a cupboard is used large enough to accommodate the juvenile library of the schools, as well as the museum of objects.

At first mistakes were made in getting school museums. Some teachers went too far in their zeal by collecting objects which stand in no relation to elementary instruction. Others, not intending to be surpassed, bought and procured more or less complete collections, instead of letting their pupils bring the objects as they were needed. It is evident that the true purpose aimed at was missed. Large museums which dazzle the eye of the children are injurious rather than useful in school; for since the children do not know all the objects exhibited they care little for them, and interest turns into indifference. Costly museums in which the "wonderful objects on exhibition" bear the label "Hands off!" are not in their proper place in the elementary school, which is to be a workshop for mental work. Neither will ready-made collections suffice; they serve for decoration more than for actual study.

However, these mistakes were soon rectified. The teachers now proceed methodically, generally classifying the objects according to the natural kingdoms. In Havre, one of the most progressive cities in France in educational affairs, another classification has been adopted. The school museums in that city are

divided into: (1) Objects of food; (2) objects of clothing; (3) objects pertaining to the dwelling; (4) miscellaneous objects. Each group has a number of divi sions. This classification has recently been adopted by other schools, because it seemed more practical and suitable than the other, affording an easier finding of objects and also an easier cataloguing.

It goes without saying that the teacher is the chief custodian. He must not refuse a single object, in order not to hurt the feelings of his pupils. He must urge them all to bring objects for exhibition, so that they are able to say "our museum," not "the museum."

A chief characteristic of the school museum is that it is never complete. The pupils must know that there is always something missing. When, during geography lesson, for instance, it should be said," Such and such a thing is needed to fill a vacancy in the museum," the pupils either individually or collectively procure it. Thus the museum remains an object of interest. Of course, every object found worthy of preservation is to be described, numbered, labeled, and placed in its proper compartment. The name of the donor may be attached, and this naturally incites further efforts. Many objects are collected during excursions which the teacher makes with his school into the country and the mountains, through factories, along wharves, and through parks. Thus it becomes possible to gather in these school museums all the objects illustrating the natural and artificial products of the town or village in which the school is situated. Commerce, various industries, agriculture, forestry, all are represented.

The law of July 27, 1882, prescribes for the elementary schools, "instruction in the elements of agriculture, horticulture, physics, and natural history." Though the mero rudiments is all that can be expected, the study of physics requires some apparatus. Some normal schools induce their students to get practice in making such apparatus themselves in their school workshops and then allow them to take these objects with them, if they are appointed to a teachership, to use them as a ground stock at their collection of apparatus. In the Grenoble Normal School every student is required to make a certain number of objects for illustrating the study of physics. The State pays for the material about 10 francs (or $2) per student.

To the legitimate contents of a good school museum belong pictures, charts, photographs, etc., for they aid instruction essentially. Generally, pictorial illustrations play an important rôle in French school instruction. Recently magic lanterns (solar and calcium light cameras) are used, owing to the active work of the "Society for Promotion of Object Lessons." These cameras are sold at very reasonable prices.

If the museums are thus provided with all the necessary and useful objects, selected according to pedagogical principles and local circumstances, an agricultural population will have a different collection in its schools from that of an industrial population, and a girls' school is apt to have a different collection from a boys' school. It goes without saying that the institution will be a prolific source of incentive to study.

The idea of school museums is not a new one. It was first carried out in Germany, but at present France has left Germany far behind in fostering and supporting the institutions. Victor Cousin once said: "The true greatness of a nation does not consist in not imitating others, but on the contrary, in borrowing good ideas from them and adapting them to the existing conditions of the culture at home." (After L. Fleischer.)

16.-NATIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS.

Argentine Republic.-When the Argentines freed themselves in 1810 from the yoke under which they had bowed for three centuries there was practically no education in the Republic. There certainly was a somewhat decayed university (for Spaniards and Indians) founded in 1622 at Cordoba, but its influence was as valueless as its work. The early history of the Republic was hardly favorable to the establishment of a regular educational system, but the clouds were gradually clearing away; and from the promulgation of the constitution of 1853, which received its final form in 1860, the progress of public instruction, until the temporary financial disturbances of a year ago, has been uninterrupted. There are 2 universities, Cordoba and Buenos Ayres (1821), 15 secondary schools, 35 normal schools, 2,396 primary schools, and 831 private schools. Primary instruction is free and obligatory for all children between the ages of Gand14 years of ages. Urban districts of between 1,000 and 1,500 inhabitants and rural districts of from

300 to 500 have a right to a public school. If the obligations laid upon the community by the state are satisfied by existing private schools, or by an individual family, there is no compulsion to attend the public schools. In such cases the progress of the children is regularly tested by the state by means of periodical examinations. If found unsatisfactory the aid of the law is invoked.

Besides the usual subjects of instruction in primary schools, it is worth noting that the Argentine curriculum involves instruction in morals and manners, hygiene, the duties of the citizen, and gymnastics. Girls are taught domestic economy and manual work; in the country lessons are given in agriculture. If a minimum of 15 parents claim religious instruction for their children the law authorizes the engagement of ministers of the different creeds for this purpose, the teaching to take place of the school hours. But the claim has never been advanced, so it may be said that instruction in the Republic is wholly secular. The administration of the schools is in the hands of a national council, guided by the minister of public instruction. Each province has a council with limited powers and each district a school council, generally composed of teachers, professors, and local dignitaries, the latter being appointed by the national council. Hygienic inspection is undertaken by a body of doctors, under the direction of the Government. The teachers are as a rule trained in the normal schools; no one is allowed to teach in the public schools without the normal diploma, or if a foreigner without satisfying the authorities of the normal school as to his or her abilities, and in addition passing an examination in pedagogy. The teachers are allowed to retire after twenty years' service on their full pay at date of retirement; with three-quarters of their pay after fifteen years, and with half pay after ten years' service, or after accident or injury suffered in the service of the state. There is no corporal punishment. The hours are from 11 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, broken by four periods of from ten to fifteen minutes each. The classes are not allowed to be larger than forty. Women are preferred to men as teachers, and where the schools are mixed there are only women employed; the head of the boys' schools is always a man, but most of the teachers are women. In 1888 there were 825 teachers-616 women and 209 menemployed in the capital alone. So much for primary instruction.

The oldest of the fifteen "national colleges," or secondary schools, was founded more than two hundred years ago; that of La Plata was founded in 1884. The secondary schools are under the immediate control of the minister, who appoints the principals and arranges the curricula. The principals only teach from four to eight hours a week, and after ten years' service may retire with half, after fifteen with two-thirds, and after twenty-seven with the whole of their pay as pensions. The boys on entry must have passed through the highest classes of the primary schools, or an equivalent, and on leaving they pass the baccalaurate examination; the whole course professes to be a complete preparation for the university. No Greek is taught, Latin is the subject of much dispute, and the whole level of the instruction given is very low. State scholarships have been suppressed, but a private association has founded eighty. There are 2,626 pupils at the schools, 927 of whom are at Buenos Ayres. In the capital there is a large foreign element in the faculties employed in secondary schools. The administration of the schools is in the hands of the national council, assisted by three superintendents.

The plan upon which the two universities are organized is uniform; there are only three faculties-law and social science, medicine, and physical and natural sciences. There is, however, a distinct feeling in favor of the establishment of a faculty of letters. The age of entry is 18, and the course is one of six years. Women are allowed to attend lectures in the faculty of medicine-one, in fact, recently took her M. D. with honors. (Lond. Jl. of Ed.)

Austria.-The latest data concerning the Austrian elementary schools are published by the Austrian statistical bureau. Austria had, in 1890, 3,335,674 pupils of school age (6 to 14 years); of these 21,895 could not attend school owing to mental or physical incapacity, while 365,593 normally endowed children were successfully withheld from being enrolled in school. The enforcement of the compulsory-attendance law made 185,464 judicial actions necessary; of these 68,590 were sentences imposing imprisonment of a few hours or days, while 116,874 imposed fines. Eighty-eight per cent of all lower schools in Austria proper, that is, the western half of Austria-Hungary, are for both sexes; 6.8 per cent were for boys only; 5.2 per cent for girls only; 12,465 schools were open all day; 3,210 were half-day schools, and 1,239 were partly half and partly whole-day schools. The number of male teachers was 44,838; that of female teachers, 13,913. The average number of pupils to the teacher was 724. Eighty-three and

seven-tenths of the teachers were normal graduates, 11 per cent had only a diploma, and 5.3 per cent had not yet acquired their diploma. Of the 16,688 elementary schools more than one-half, or 8,400, were ungraded, 3,916 were divided into classes of two grades, and the rest up to six, seven, and eight grades.

Belgium.-The School Guardian (English), says of Belgian primary schools: "The buildings are two stories high, having a gallery on the first floor running round the quadrangle. Each class has its own separate room, lofty, well lighted, and ventilated, but only from one side. The furniture consists of small tables and benches, each sufficient for two or three scholars, and all facing the slightly raised platform for the teacher's desk. The tables have slates fixed horizontally in them. Blackboards are carried around the walls with compartments for the use of each scholar, on which he copies with chalk the sums or geometrical figures or sentences dictated to the class. This is done with a view to enabling the master or mistress to se at a glance the work of each without having to pass round the room. In this way, too, the children have the advantage of a change of posture and find relief from the monotony of the lesson. The teaching is in all cases simultaneous. As no reading is taught in the Jardins d'Enfants' or Infants' Schools, the lowest classes have to learn the letters and their simplest combinations. These they enunciate together, and great pains are taken to make them give each letter and syllable its full and correct sound. Writing is learned from a copy set on the blackboard. A round, vertical hand is taught without any distinction between the up and down strokes. Elementary drawing is obligatory in all the primary schools, and is taught by the ordinary teachers, who have no difficulty in teaching it, having practiced it in the nor mal schools as well as previously in their own school days. Some ordinary object is put before the class or drawn on the blackboard

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Bolivia.-Bolivia has four universities. The following figures are given for 1888: Primary schools, 506, with 707 teachers, and 24,583 pupils, of whom 8,822 are girls secondary schools and colleges, 22, with 2,234 pupils; 774 students of law. medicine, and theology, with 55 professors in the universities. The Government's contribution to public primary schools in 1883 was 43,900 bolivianos. Bulgaria. In 1890 Bulgaria had 3,844 elementary schools, with 129,777 boys, and 42,206 girls as pupils. The total number of boys of school age is 275,756 of girls, 261,968. For education the state grants a yearly subvention of 2,000,000 lev. Education is free and nominally obligatory for a period of four years. About 81 per cent of the population can not read or write. There is a univer sity at Sofia, with gymnasia in the principal towns, including four for girls, besides several lower middle-class schools. There is a free public library at Sofia. (Statesman's Yearbook.)

Ceylon.--The Buddists of Ceylon have taken a new departure. Hitherto their energy had been directed towards the welfare of the boys, for whom no less than forty schools had been opened within recent years under the auspices of the Theosophical Society. But it had been long ago pointed out by Col. Olcott that the Sinhalese girls should have a school of their own, where they might be brought up in harmony with their religious and national instincts. This idea was zealously worked out by a devoted Baddhist lady, Mrs. Weerakoon, and a band of her countrywomen, who, with praiseworthy activity, organized the Woman's Educational Society, now numbering over 1,800 members. Within one year this society opened four girls' schools-the Blavatsky school at Wellewatte, with about 100 children in daily attendance, and the girls' schools at Kandy, Gampola, and Panedura. (Lond. Ed. Times.)

China.-Education of a certain type is very general, but still there are vast masses of adult countrymen in China who can neither read nor write. There is a special literary, or lettered class who alone know the literature of their country, to the study of which they devote their lives. Yearly examinations are held for literary degrees and honors, which are necessary as a passport to the public service; and in 1887, for the first time, mathematics was admitted with the Chinese classics among subjects of the examinations. Recently, Western literature and works of science have been introduced in translations, and schools for the propagation of Western science and literature are continually on the increase. The principal educational institution for the purpose is the "Tung Wen Kwan," or College o ́ Foreign Knowledge at Peking, a Government institution, where the English, French, German and Russian languages, and mathematics, astronomy, meteorology, chemistry, natural history, physiology, anatomy, and Western literature are taught by European and American professors, while the Chinese education of the pupils is intrusted to Chinese teachers. There are besides several colleges under the control of some of the numerous

Roman Catholic and Protestant missionary bodies at Shanghai and other parts where the English languages and lower branches of Western science only for the subjects of study. The Chinese Government has of late years established naval and military colleges and torpedo schools in connection with the different arseanals at Tientsin, Shanghai and Foochow in which foreign instructors are engaged to teach such young Chinese as intend to make their career in the army and navy off their country, Western modes of warfare, beside Western languages and literature. The Chinese newspapers have for several years flourished at Shanghai, and the success they have achieved has led to the establishment of others at some of the other treaty ports. (Statesman's Yearbook.)

Colombia.-In Colombia the religion of the nation is Roman Catholicism, other forms of religion being permitted, so long as their exercises are "not contrary to Christian morals, nor to the law." There are two universities and numerous colleges and special technical schools in the Republic. In 1889 there were 14 normal schools with 393 students, and 1,734 primary schools with 92,794 pupils. Primary education is gratuitous but not compulsory.

Costa Rica.-Education in Costa Rica is compulsory and free. In 1890 there were 300 primary schools with 15,000 pupils, besides 90 private schools with 2,500 pupils. In 1884 the number of children between 7 and 14 years of age was 27,245. In the budget for 1889-190, $350,000 were devoted to education. Denmark.-Elementary education is widely diffused in Denmark, the attendance at school being obligatory from the age of 7 to 14. Education is afforded gratuitously in the public schools to children whose parents can not afford to pay for their teaching. The University of Copenhagen has about 1,300 students. Connected with the university is a polytechnic institution with 20 teachers and 200 students. Between the university and the elementary schools there are 13 public gymnasia or high schools, in the principal towns in the Kingdom, which afford a "classical "education, and 27 modern high schools. There are five teachers' training colleges. Instruction at the public expense is given in parochial schools spread all over the country, to the number, according to the latest official statistics, of 2,910, namely, 28 in Copenhagen, 132 in the towns of Denmark, and 2,780 in the rural districts; with 231,940 pupils in all, or 123 per thousand of population. (Statesman's Yearbook.)

Egypt. In a recent work on Egyptian education ("L'Instruction Publique en Egypte," by Yacoub Artin Pacha) is the following account of education that is pursued by the Egyptians-in fact, the education which has been in vogue with them for many centuries:

Reading and writing are the first steps taken by the child, who is at the same time set to learn a portion of the Koran by heart. As soon as he knows his letters and can read syllables he reads and writes the part of the "Koran" committed to memory, and so on, until the Holy Book is finished, a task generally taking 2 or 3 years. These exercises of the memory are carefully graduated according to the child's age and ability. Then comes the study of grammar, the rules being set in rhyme, a plan for facilitating the work of the pupil not confined to the Mussulman world. The study of grammar, logic, rhetoric, etc., takes 3 or 4 years. Then follow 8 or 10 years of commentaries on the "Koran,' and after this period is completed the boy, who began at 6 or 8, is now, at 20 or 22, a full-blown mondarris (professor) or cheikh (doctor). Most children leave school at 10 or 12 to take up a trade; those who are intended for a profession or for business leave after the grammar course; only a few remain to pursue the higher course in religion and law. Of the latter some become kadi (judges) or mufti (lawyers); the rest become teachers. The ideal of the founders of the universities had been to preserve the language of the elect, the language of the "Koran."

Arabic was reserved as the language of religion, tradition, and law. Beyond these three subjects all other instruction was intrusted to foreigners, with the single exception of mathematics, which was in the hands of the Copts, who had distinguished themselves from early times as financiers. Mehemet Ali was the first to attempt to introduce European method into Egyptian pedagogy. In 1816 he sent a body of young Mamelukes to England and Italy to learn engineering, etc., and in 1825 he founded a school of medicine, restricted to Egyptian students. From 1826 to 1834 large numbers of young men were sent to France to complete their studies; and to the general spread of European culture, resulting from these wise measures of Mehemet Ali, Egypt owes her 50 primary and secondary and her 16 technical schools. A council of public instruction was instituted in 1836, but for 30 years the conservative influence of El Azhar was too strong, and progress was infinitesimal. Ismail Pacha undertook a general reorganization