Dr. Kurt Hassert is giving a course of lectures of three hours per week in the University of Leipsic, and also in the Commercial University (Handels-Hochschule) on the geography of the world, transport, and trade.

Dr. T. Delius, lecturer in English and in economic geography in the newly formed commercial department of the Royal Polytechnicum, at Aix-la-Chapelle, has kindly supplied the following information:

"For some time past there has been a movement on foot for a higher commercial education on the plan of our university system, but it has not as yet resulted in the establishment of a new institution except in Leipsic. Last year they tried the experiment at Leipsic of admitting young business men to the university lectures on the same footing as the other students, and the experiment seems to be successful. We are trying here a different arrangement, viz, the addition of a commercial department to the technical one already in existence. There will be lectures on all the principal subjects that interest business men: Political economy in all its branches, commercial law, commercial arithmetic, 'waarenkunde' (knowledge of merchandise), modern languages, commercial geography, etc., so as to provide for the needs of a higher education for business men.

"For economic geography only two lectures a week are provided at present, but I hope to obtain more before long. In the winter session I intend to lecture on America, Australia, Africa, and Asia, while my colleague, Dr. Lehmann, is going to lecture two hours a week next summer on general economic geography and Europe. This arrangement will probably be modified at no distant date, but at present the whole thing is in an embryonic state. The funds for the new department are not provided by the State, but by the chamber of commerce and other commercial corporations. We are going to establish a commercial museum in connection with our department. We have funds for 'Waarenkunde' and for a collection of coins-the latter of which is under my charge in the summer session. I lecture ou measures, coinage, etc. Besides, I intend to establish a geographical collectionespecially literature-monographs, etc., referring to economic geography."

Netherlands.-Mr. W. R. Bischop, honorary secretary of the Netherland Chamber of Commerce in London, has kindly obtained the following information from Mr. J. Yzerman, of Amsterdam, lecturer in geography at the Commercial High School at Amsterdam, through the intermediary of Dr. J. H. H. Hülsmann, head master of the same school:

"In all Dutch schools the pupils go through an elementary course of geography. There is no special training in commercial geography, except in those schools which are specially devoted to the education of pupils in commercial matters.

These schools are: (1) The Commercial High School at Amsterdam, where a course of lectures is delivered twice a week, extending over two years. This school is organized by the municipality of Amsterdam.

"Syllabus.-The Netherlands, and its colonies and possessions, is the special subject treated in these lectures, but the most important European countries-e. g., England, Germany, France, Belgium-and the most important non-European countriese. g., the British colonies, Egypt, China, Japan, United States of America-also receive careful attention. The industries, commerce, connections by sea and railway and telegraph, the transport arrangements, the ports and markets of those countries, are studied. The physical condition, climate, the food, etc., are described. Full statistics are given. These are mostly derived from consular reports. The statistics for the Netherlands and its colonies and possessions receive most consideration.

"In former years 'Zehden's Commercial Geography' was used, but as it gives most particulars about other countries than the Netherlands, and very little about the Netherlands, the pupils have had to rely on the lectures delivered by the teacher. (2) The private Commercial High School at Amsterdam. We know commercial geography is taught at this school, but we have no particulars of the course of instruc

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(3) Twentsche Commercial and Industrial School at Enschede. The manufacturing district in Holland, in the province of Overysel, is called Twente; it is the Dutch Lancashire. The curriculum lasts one year. The programme includes the Netherlands, its colonies and possessions, and the countries which have most commerce with it. The highways of the world's commerce are also treated.

"(4) The Commercial Class at Rotterdam. The curriculum lasts a year, two lectures a week. The programme includes the principal countries of Europe. The special subjects are: The centers of industry, the commercial highways by land and water, the condition of the agriculture, and the principal commercial towns. Plantscotton, flax, poppy, etc.-which have importance in commerce and industry are dealt with, and special attention is given to their cultivation, their peculiarities, their transport, etc. The chief markets for the raw products and for manufactured goods are described.

"In connection with the schools or classes numbered (1) and (4) a public high school exists, where the pupils are, more than at the other public high schools in the Netherlands, taught with a view to a subsequent special commercial training. The education at those two public high schools lasts three years. Pupils enter generally when they are 12 years of age.

"Only pupils who have successfully passed through the three years' curriculum at these public high schools, or their equivalent elsewhere, can follow the whole course of lectures delivered at these commercial high schools. Such training, however, is not necessary for pupils who want only to attend to the lectures on one or two special subjects.

"At the Commercial High School at Amsterdam lectures are delivered like those at Rotterdam with regard to the raw products of industry and commerce (wares and merchandise). This forms a special subject, and is not treated in connection with commercial geography.

"The above are the chief points of the report which has been sent to me. "Commercial geography is taught in the Netherlands in the two principal commercial towns, and in the principal seat of industry.

"The idea of the educational system in the Netherlands is that commercial geography can only be taught successfully if the pupil has a sound knowledge of the general geography of the world. It is not taught to children under the age of 15 years, and only to pupils when they have had such an education as will enable them to follow such a subject intelligently. It is only taught to those intending to follow a commercial career.

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Commercial geography is looked upon in the Netherlands as a special subject of teaching. This is why it is taught in a thorough manner. The better the grounding in general education the pupils have the higher the standard is that the teacher can aim at."

United States of America.-The University of California has founded a college of commerce of full academic rank. Prof. George Davidson, who has been over fifty years in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and whose travels are counted by hundreds of thousands of miles, has been appointed to the geography chair. His course this winter deals with the Pacific; its currents and winds and highways of commerce, and countries bordering the Pacific; the nature of these countries and of their peoples; their various products and manufactured articles; their inland transportation; and their relation to the great highways of commerce. A commercial museum is attached to the college.

The University of Chicago has also founded a college of economics and politics; but as yet no provision has been made for the teaching of geography.

The economic schools of several other American universities are very important, but except for lectures upon transport, usually associated with transport law, geogra phy is not a subject dealt with in them.

The Commercial Museum in Philadelphia deserves special mention, although it does not as yet have any systematic courses of instruction in connection with it. Some of its monographs on economic geography are such as should be prepared in the economic section of the geographical department in a modern university. Some of the specimens of its great collection are arranged geographically, and the museum ought to be a great center for teaching economic geography. Commercial museums should form part of the necessary equipment of every geographical department, although not necessarily on the elaborate scale of the great one in Philadelphia.

CONCLUSIONS.

1. There is a growing realization of the importance of commercial geography in all commercial countries. In many centers of our own country, more particularly in the industrial regions of England, so much has been done in the way of forming classes on the subject in the evening schools that it is coming to have a more important place in the evening continuation schools everywhere.

2. On the other hand, there is no consensus of opinion as to what commercial geography is, or what should be the successive stages in which it is taught. The diversity of syllabus, however, is a good feature, for every region has its own particular economic conditions, which should largely determine the details of the syllabus.

3. One difficulty most teachers of commercial geography in Britain have to contend with is the lack of geographical training in their pupils, and much time has to be spent in teaching them what they should have learned at school. The syllabus of the entrance examination of the École des hautes études commerciales in Paris is an example of the knowledge required abroad before a pupil is admitted into an

advanced commercial school. The need for improving the quantity and the quality of the teaching of geography in our schools, where it is so often neglected, is a very pressing one, and must be attended to if the special training of the evening and day commercial schools and colleges is to be of much value. A thorough and sound commercial education can only be based on a thorough and sound general education.

4. Another difficulty is that teachers have to teach themselves, and at present hardly anything is done to help them to do this. More advanced teaching in economic geography is even more necessary than an extension of elementary teaching. At present practically no provision is made to systematically give advanced instruction in economic geography, and this is not likely to be done until the matter is seriously taken up by the universities. The directors of industry and commerce need this systematic training even more than their subordinates, and it is of vital importance that the universities and the more advanced technical colleges should see to the adequate provision of the means of teaching this subject, as the Germans and Americans are beginning to do.

It would seem, therefore, that the continental nations are ahead of us in the more thorough_training given in geography in schools; that, like ourselves, they have become thoroughly alive to the importance of a sound special training for young business men after their school years, for which they are now making provision, and in the matter of advanced economic training they have moved ahead of us.

Some of the writer's views about the economic section of a geographical department are outlined in the accompanying paper. In conclusion, he has to thank the numerous correspondents who have so readily answered his many questions, and, above all, the Manchester Geographical Society and its energetic secretary for the opportunity of making this survey of the present position of the teaching of economic geography.

APPENDIXES.

APPENDIX A.

SYLLABUS OF EVENING CONTINUATION SCHOOL CODE IN COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY,

ENGLAND AND WALES, 1898.

A good grounding in the physical features of the earth's crust, the variations in climate and in animal and vegetable life should have been received before a scholar enters upon the study of commercial geography, which deals with the geographical distribution of commercial commodities, chiefly food, with raw and manufactured products and minerals, and with various facilities and hindrances to trade. The full course is divided into three stages, as follows:

Elementary stage.-The British Isles, means of communication and transit by land and by water, the trade routes and facilities for communication with all the more important countries of the world.

Intermediate stage.-One British colony, India, and one foreign country; the commercial relations of each with Great Britain and with other countries as affecting the interests of Great Britain.

Advanced stage.-Some one branch of British trade to be thoroughly studied, commencing with the cultivation or production of the raw material, its distribution, and conveyance, manufacture, markets for finished products, duties and tariffs (if any), competition of other countries.

It is suggested that each country should be dealt with on lines similar to the following:

(1) Position, configuration, and climate, and their influences on the prosperity of the country. (2) Raw productions: (a) Mineral, (b) vegetable, (c) animal: How and where found, how rendered of commercial value, for what used, and price (fluctuant or otherwise). (3) Manufactures and markets therefor. (4) Means of transport and communication (natural and artificial). (5) Exports: Natural or artificial (tariffs) restrictions to the development of trade. (6) Imports: Natural or artificial (tariffs) restrictions to the development of trade. (7) Seaports, river ports, and other commercial towns. (8) Trade routes traversed by British ships bearing import and exports. (9) Foreign competition encountered by British merchants and extent

thereof.

The course should embrace the study of the localities where and the geographical and local conditions under which the various commodities are produced; the means of transit, and the trade routes available, both for inland and for export, together with the distances and ordinary modes of conveyance to important markets; the quantities available for export, and the actual recent rates of export to various countries;

neutral markets and extent of British trade with them; the quantities in demand as imports, and the extent to which this demand is met by various foreign countries; the capacities of countries for commercial development, including both old and new countries; weights and measures, currencies, tariffs, postal and telegraph arrangements, and social and political characteristics likely to affect trade; ports and harbors, light-houses and light-ships, coaling stations. Maps showing the districts producing the more important natural and manufactured commodities should be made use of. Special maps, showing rivers, canals, railways, cables, steamship, caravan trade routes, and producing districts should be obtained.

It would be helpful if the students were required to draw a series of charts or maps, each of them illustrating some particular characteristic of the country under revision, and on the following lines, showing: (1) Contour of the land, lines of drainage, and particular localities of the river basins. (2) Distribution of mineral products (details can be obtained and filled in from the text-book). (3) Distribution of vegetable products. (4) Distribution of industries. (5) Canal, railway routes, and trade lines. (6) Steamship routes to nearest countries and trade centers, etc., until each characteristic has been so exhausted.

In order that the students may see and examine the real objects spoken of, it is recommended that a well-chosen museum for practical teaching be provided. Where a commodity is being dealt with, it would be well to show it not only in its natural state, but also in the various stages of manipulation to which it is subjected before the useful article is produced. When the exhibition of the object is only imperfect, pictures of the object, with its native surroundings, should be shown.

APPENDIX B.

CITY OF LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF COMMERCE.

[Mr. Clarence G. Dyall.]

GEOGRAPHY.-Commercial.-General survey of the trade of the United Kingdom, with particular reference to Liverpool. The imports and exports of the United Kingdom, and the areas in which the imports are used and the exports manufactured. Causes determining trade and locality of manufacture. Geography of great commercial products: Cotton, wheat, petroleum, timber, tobacco, wool, etc.; chief countries of production of these articles and their condition; chief countries of consumption. Trade rivalry of other countries with the United Kingdom. Great trade routes and lines of communication, with particular reference to the cheap and rapid transport of wheat, cotton, petroleum, etc., from the place of production to that of consumption.

CHAPTER XXVI.

A REVIEW OF SWEDISH GYMNASTICS.1

[By Theodore Hough, Assistant Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Instructor in Physiology and Personal Hygiene, Boston Normal School of Gymnastics.]

The term "Swedish Gymnastics" is usually understood to mean, in this country at least, a system of physical training designed to meet certain demands in the education of childhood and youth; and, since the question of its utility is at present largely or chiefly concerned with its use in schools, it will be well to begin our discussion with this phase of the matter.

If it is a function of education to train the growing individual for usefulness in life, physical education must demand attention in any proper scheme of educational work, since the capacity for usefulness is so largely determined by the physical health of the individual. It is perfectly true that we find cases in which, owing to unusual mental power, success has been attained in spite of physical defects and even of moral defects. We see cases where success has similarly been attained because of moral qualities and in spite of very moderate mental power or of physical weakness. But such cases are the exception. If you study great masses of people, you will find that serious defects in physical power are almost certain to hamper life's work. That work may be done, but it involves a severe struggle. In a large percentage of cases it is not done, and life becomes a succession of failures. It is, after all, on the physical man that we build. The leaders in life's activities are almost without exception men of strong physical constitution; a large percentage of the failures are men of weak constitution; and any system of education which impairs physical vigor and leaves men physically unequal to the work of life is unworthy of encouragement,-is, indeed, radically wrong.

sea.

The physical condition of health of a human being at any age until growth is completed is the result of a process of physical development. In actual life, Athene does not spring full-fledged from the brow of Jove, nor Venus from the foam of the For 175,200 hours the most varied physiological activities have been at work to make the man or woman of twenty years; and, could we read but deep enough, we could see that the conditions which obtained during each of those hours have contributed their share to the final structure, the health, the possibilities of that living being.

Development, in short, is the result of three factors:

1. Heredity. It is not necessary to attempt a definition of this term. It is the expression of the structure and characters of the fertilized ovum from which all the cells of the body are derived. It gives us the living material upon which we must work in education, and at once determines the possibilities, the limitations, and, to a certain extent, the course of training.

2. Environments, both of the body as a whole and of each of its units, the living

This paper was given, practically in its present form, in May, 1899, as a lecture before the students of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, and subsequently, in June, 1899, before the physical training conference at Springfield, Mass.