T^ 
 
 PAPERS ON SCHOOL ISSUES OF THE DAY. XV. 
 
 -TO THE- 
 
 Report of the Special Committee on Peda- 
 gogical AND Psychological Observation. 
 
 WM. T. HARRIS, LL. D., 
 
 Commissioner of Education. 
 
 Presented to the National Educational AssofiATroN. at 
 St. Paul, Minn., July, 1890. 
 
 SYRACUSE, N. Y. : 
 
 C. W. BARJDEEN, PUBLISHER. 
 
 1890. 
 

 -TRE 8CR00L BULLETIN PUBLIC. 
 
 The Song Budget Music Series. 
 
 fh. '^r,l'nl!!^°^*^^''';^^ '*^ popularity to two causes: (1) It gives a great deal for 
 !/^„ f fj- ^^] Tl\e songs are not only numerous (107), but Ihey are the 
 standardfavm-ilesoj the last fifty years. y <■ <.<j 
 
 This is why the book contains more music tJiat will be nsed than any other 
 book published. For in mot books two-thirds of the tunes ai-e written by 
 the compilers, who are of course partial to their own productions The suc- 
 cess of t.ns boL.k is due to the fact that only those songs were admitted 
 that have proved to be universal favorites, and the result i.ia school singing- 
 book of popularity tmexampled. For instance, « «2;i;7''«/rw in Cleveland, 
 Ohio, had p:irchased of ns up to Nov. 1, 3890, no less than 15,230 copies, be- 
 sides 2,^00 of the /Se/zoo^^oow CAortfs, and 3,100 of the Ceiitury. 
 
 2. Thehchool Room CJwrm. A collection of Two Hundred Songs for 
 Public and Private Schools, compiled by E. Y. DeGraft. Boards small 4to 
 pp. 148. 35 cts. ' 
 
 This is an enlarged edition of the Sony Budget, with t-R-ice the number 
 of songs. The plates of the last edition are so arranged that it is identical 
 V. Ith the School Budget as far as page 68, so that both books can be used to- 
 gether. 
 
 S. The Song 
 Centvry. Small 
 4to, pp. 87. Pap- 
 er, 15 cts. Boards, 
 §5 cts. 
 
 The popularity 
 of the Song Budg- 
 et made it no easy 
 
 task to prepare a 
 
 similar collection 
 
 to follow it in the | 
 
 schools where its 
 
 songs had be- 
 
 c o m e familiar. 
 
 The songs here 
 
 given are a fina 
 
 choice from more 
 
 than a thousand 
 
 which had been 
 
 selected from 
 
 every available 
 
 source, but espe- 
 cially from actu- 
 
 HEAET A-^* ■ 
 
 ual and jileasing nse in the school-room, though the book contains more 
 pages than the Song Budget, the price is the same. M'ithin .six month . from 
 Its first appearance 14.(!00 copies had been sold, and now thc^ orders nearlv 
 equal those for the Budnei, 
 
 C. W. BARDEEIS^, Publisher, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT 
 
 KEPOKT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PEDAGOGICAL 
 AND PSYCHOLOGICAL* OBSERVATION. 
 
 (Presented to the National Educational Association, at St. Paul, Minn., July, 1890. 1 
 
 The undersigned agrees to the foregoing report, but would like to add a 
 recommendation to the Association to the effect that there shall be prepared 
 annually a report giving an outline of the educational progress made in psy- 
 chological and pedagogical observation of the year just ended, which shall be 
 read at some general session of the National Educational Association. Such 
 a record, it is believed, will be of service in aiding teachers to conduct reading 
 along this line. 
 
 He jDresents herewith also a brief outline of important points brought out 
 in a book published the past year by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, entitled 
 "Physiological Notes on Primary Education and the Study of Language."* 
 
 There are many considerations that entitle this book to a high place among 
 the educational treatises of the century. There is a growing conviction that 
 natural science, and especially training in what are called scientific methods 
 of investigation, should occupy a larger portion of the school programs, 
 and that the language studies at present are allotted moi'e time and attention 
 than their importance deserves. Besides this, the claims of a psychology 
 founded on physiology are pressed on the attention of teachers and school 
 supervisors with increasing emphasis. As a consequence, there is observable 
 a tendency to question the utility of existing educational methods, and a wide- 
 spread distrust of the traditional course of study. Mrs. Jacobi's book sets 
 out with the conviction first named, and is noteworthy as a faithful and pains- 
 taking record of observations made on the progress of a child educated strictly 
 according to the proposed scientific method. But the audacity of the experi- 
 ments it describes does not command our attention so much as the strict 
 logical consequence with which it pushes to its legitimate result the new 
 physiological doctrine of mental operations and applies it to the question of 
 language-study. 
 
 ♦Physiological Notes on Primary Education and the-Study of Language. By Mary Putnam Jacobi, 
 M. D. New York and London : G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press. 1889. 
 
2 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The first two essays of the book deal with the details of the author's experi- 
 ment on a young child ( her daughter ? ) with a view to inducing from the 
 first a scientific cast of mind. In her own words (p. 37 ) : "The mental edu- 
 cation of even a very young child may be imbued with the scientific methods, 
 and even ideas which should furnish suitable preparation for advanced scien- 
 tific studies " ; and she adds : " It cannot be a matter of indifference that such 
 habits of mind are acquired from the beginning, or only after much previous 
 faulty training." 
 
 For this purpose a cultivation of the habit of mathematical accuracy is 
 the first requisite. The technical terms and definitions of geometry were ac- 
 cordingly taught the child in its fourth and fifth years. It learned to analyze 
 and describe all the forms that it saw^ around it in the world with accuracy, 
 using such words as equilateral, isosceles, right-angled and scalene, trapezium, 
 trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, semi-circle, ovum, ovoid, etc. "She did not 
 merely know the names of these things, but to her eye the whole perceptible 
 universe arranged itself spontaneously into these fundamental forms" (p. 12 ). 
 At the age of five and a half years, ideas of geometric necessity began to be 
 taught. 
 
 The next step after this training in accuracy was the study of cosmical 
 phenomena, such as the rainbow, the points of the compass, sunrise and sun- 
 set, and experiments with the ruler, spirit level, pulley, wedge, and balance, 
 care being taken to teach the metric system of weights and measures. 
 
 Next followed the notion of perspective and the art of drawing, and after 
 this the study of geographical maps, and relief globes. 
 
 In learning the technical terms above mentioned the child was taught the 
 meaning of the syllables gon, hedron, tri, tetra, penta, hexa, etc., and of coui"se 
 learned to count. It is difficult therefore to understand what is meant by the 
 statement on page 27, that arithmetic was begun several months after the 
 first studies of form and outline, inasmuch as geometric figures cannot be 
 described or even distinguished one from another without the mental capacity 
 to recognize number. Of course only elementary operations of arithmetic are 
 required in defining the figures, but the highest operations, such as deal with 
 ratio and the squaring of numbers, are demanded before the completion of the 
 first book of geometry. The science of geometry aims first to find a state- 
 ment of the fundamental relation of spacial form in terms of number, and 
 it accomplishes this in the famous Pythagorean proposition, which gives the 
 ratio of the sides of the simplest form of the triangle (the right-angled) in 
 terms of the second power. After this, geometry has nothing to do except to 
 explain all other figures by the triangle and measure them. 
 
 The child studied the grow^th of some beans planted in cotton-wool, describ- 
 ing a catastrophe in the biology of one of them in the following language : 
 " The episperm on the under surface is all black, and has split, leaving a space 
 the shape of an equilateral triangle with the apex pointing to the convex edge 
 of the cotyledons" (p. 33). 
 
PEDAGOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSEBVATIOX. 3 
 
 At the age of five and one-half years the child was tanght to read, but it 
 seems that it had learned the alphabet some time before in the kindergarten 
 (at four years of age), "where she taught herself by incessantly copying the 
 letters, until she was familiar with them" (pp. 35, 13). 
 
 We are surprised at this early mastery of the arts of reading and writing, 
 the child being "allowed to follow her own inclination" in the matter; for 
 the author speaks strongly of the "glaring crudity of the educational methods 
 which persist in beginning mental training with a forced drill in these com- 
 plex processes of gymnastics," referring to the pathological discoveries made 
 by studying the brain-lesions connected with aphasia and writer's cramp, 
 which "have revealed a hitherto unsuspected complexity in the muscular 
 movements involved in writing, and of mental processes necessary to language." 
 The knowledge of this complexity of brain structure seems to have led her 
 a priori to the conclusion that the school should not begin with teaching read- 
 ing and writing. But the school usually does this for children only in their 
 seventh, eighth, or ninth year ; while Mrs. Jacobi's child mastered these com- 
 plex movements and brain processes in her fifth and sixth years without any 
 outside suggestion. 
 
 These notes regarding early scientific training cease when the child attains 
 the age of six and one-half years. 
 
 Now follows the more remarkable part of the book, the part treating of the 
 place for the study of language. There is, however, a chapter by way of ap- 
 pendix to the fii-st part, in which Mrs. Jacobi answers (and I think success- 
 fully) the strictures made by Miss Youmaus on the coui-se adopted in the 
 child's study of plants — the flower being preferred to the leaf for first analysis 
 by the former, while Miss Youmans thinks the leaf should be the first study 
 on the ground of the educational maxim, so often juggled with, that the simple 
 should come before the complex, leaving out of mind apparently another 
 maxim (still oftener misunderstood), that intellectual education should be 
 begun by vivid sense-impressions. This latter maxim justifies Mrs. Jacobi's 
 method of procedure. " It is unphilosophical to study the flower containing 
 the corolla just merely because it is more showy," says Miss Youmans. But 
 the showiness of it strongly appeals to the senses and therefore especially fits 
 it for first study. 
 
 This language essay seems to have been written some years later than the 
 essay on the science-experiment, and its value consists in the circumstance 
 that its author has followed out in the meantime to their logical conclusion 
 the physiological premises which had been misinterpreted by other observers, 
 and at first even by Mrs. Jacobi herself. 
 
 I must pause here to commend the noble spirit of the author, who is inter- 
 ested solely in setting down an accurate record of her experiments and infer- 
 ences, and is not swayed by any false pride to prefer the appearance of 
 self-consistency to a true statement of all the actual details of the growth of 
 her present convictions. 
 
4 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 She undertakes to discuss the problems of language^study — whether it ex- 
 ercises a different effect upon mental development from the study of physical 
 science, or mathematics, or history; whether the modern or the classic lan- 
 guages are best, also the amount of such study, the best period for it, and the 
 devices or methods to be followed. 
 
 Starting with the proposition that language is "the highest physiological 
 acquisition that distinguishes the human race from the lower animals," the 
 author proceeds to consider the recent theories of brain action in local cen- 
 ters, and, comparing the number of centere involved in the use of language, 
 comes to infer "That to learn the name of a thing and to learn how to use 
 this name involves much more mental action than is required simply to ac- 
 quire sense-perceptions about it" (p. 73). This is inferred from the structure 
 of the nervous tissue of the brain, "composed of an immense quantity of 
 microscopic cells, traversed by delicate fibers, connected with each other by 
 fine fiber-like prolongations of their own substance." She sums up the phys- 
 iological discussion thus: "The acquisition of foreign languages in addition 
 to the native tongue multiplies the number of verbal signs which the mind 
 habitually couples with visible impressions." More brain-cells and more of 
 the interconnecting filaments are brought into action. Hence, by learning 
 foreign languages, " Imjjressions are immensely multiplied and the mind be- 
 comes accustomed to take cognizance of such subtle differentiations that its 
 delicacy of perception is indefinitely increased. The capacity to appreciate 
 subtle distinctions, more subtle than those in existing nature outside of the 
 mind, is essential to scientific work" (p. 83). 
 
 Here is stated the surprising result that language-study is necessary in order 
 to train the mind for truly scientific observation. Mathematical processes 
 she finds to be less fitted for scientific ])reparation, for good physiological 
 reasons : " The more concrete and sensuous character of verbal signs is as- 
 sociated with an incalculable mviltiplicity and qualitative variety of interre- 
 lation ; hence they bring the mind much nearer to the infinite variety of nature 
 than does mathematics" (p. 85). 
 
 Considering the two parts of physical science — 1st, the acquisition of sense- 
 impr-essions ; 2d, the classification of these and the discovery of their laws — 
 the author f>oints out that the second step corresj^onds to the mental activity 
 that reacts upon its sense-impressions, generates words, and thus creates lan- 
 guage. " AYords are the first products of the action of the mind upon nature, 
 as science is the latest and most complex expression of the same action. Thus 
 language is the earliest and most perfect type of science." 
 
 To this unexpected but incontestable conclusion, Mrs. Jacobi has been led 
 by a more careful scrutiny of the logical inferences to be drawn from the 
 data of physiological psychology. She next proceeds to weigh the respective 
 values of the three parts of language-study, to wit: of words, of grammar, 
 and of literature. 
 
 The capacity to use words of general or abstract meaning is essential to all 
 
PEDAGOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSEBVATION. 5 
 
 thought about our perceptions, and "essential also to all perceptions themselves 
 if they are beyond the simplest and most obvious ; far the larger part of what 
 the mind perceives is what the mind brings to the object from its previous 
 store of knowledge and reflection. Every word is a condensed generalization 
 of experiences or of observations." This is a profound and altogether impor- 
 tant principle, and the entire question of language-study hinges on it. 
 
 Grammar study is shown to be a still " higher training in the mental pro- 
 cesses involved in scientific study, . . . for it calls into play more promi- 
 nently the concept centers of the brain, as compared with the sensory centers ; 
 and it emphasizes the excitation of the connecting fibers of the brain rather 
 than that of the ganglion cell-areas which they connect" (p. 92). 
 
 Literature is still more important as preparatory training for scientific ob- 
 servation. Literature mirrors the thought and life of mankind. " In words 
 and grammar are already found outlined and reflected the history and phi- 
 losophy of European nations" (p. 93). 
 
 The functional grouping of brain regions must be changed in the process 
 of acquiring a new language. This causes a consciousness of difterence of 
 point of view. "The physical basis of this consciousness is the space occupied 
 by the nerve-fibers of the brain, which propagate vibrations from one convo- 
 lution to another. When an English-speaking person projects his conscious- 
 ness into the form of language-construction peculiar either to Latin or Greek, 
 he seems to traverse a much wider space than if he simply pass from English 
 to French, or even to German. The rearrangement of direction for the intra- 
 cerebral propagation of vibrations or excitations must therefore be more ex- 
 tensive for the ancient languages than for the modern. Hence the mental 
 development or stimulus derived must be much greater." 
 
 Another physiological suggestion might be added to those of Mrs. Jacobi. 
 The inheritance of culture from the Greeks and the Komans has certainly had 
 its efiect on our Teutonic brain-cells and interlacing fibers, so far as to express 
 the results of those civilizations. Now to study their language and literature 
 is to excite into activity other brain-cells and filaments, which are so connected 
 with the former that they facilitate their action, inasmuch as they were the 
 original cells and fibers out of which grew in a normal manner the derivative 
 cells exj^ressing the logical conclusions and results of the primitive views of 
 the world formed by those people. For we are told (p. 103) that "Any kind 
 of knowledge is only thoroughly grasped and digested when all parts of the 
 brain tissue impressed by it vibrate easily and harmoniously upon its sugges- 
 tion." 
 
 If this be so, it follows that the brain-cells that stand for original acquisi- 
 tion should " vibrate " together with the brain-cells and fibers that stand for 
 systems of theory and rules of practice built up from those original acquisitions 
 as a foundation. Hence whatever a nation presupposes as the origin of its 
 culture should belong to its education as an object of study. It will aid its 
 comprehension of its own methods of thought and practice, and we suppose 
 
6 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the physiological equivalent of this to be "easier and nioi-e harmonious vibra- 
 tion of the brain tissue." 
 
 "The construction of the Latin language as a whole coni])els the translation 
 of the modern mind into a form of consciousness sufficiently remote from its 
 own to necessitate a great change in the general synthesis of cerebral activity. 
 The same is true of Greek" (p. 116). 
 
 The study of Latin and Greek is in fiict the study of the embryology of our 
 civilization, and necessary for gaining an insight into our modes of thought 
 and forms of social action, political and legal usages. "Language, which alone 
 perfectly expresses all internal thought," says the author in concluding her 
 treatise, " also mirrors all external things that have ever been impressed on 
 the mind of man." Hence the inference which is stated at the beginning 
 of her essay, that the physical sciences failed to develop until after the re- 
 naissance of classical learning, for the reason that "the human brain could not 
 advance in analysis of the external world until it had been disciplined and 
 developed in its internal activity by training in language." 
 
 For those who are looking for the Messiah of psychology in education, here 
 at least is a psychological John the Baptist, of far more significance to educa- 
 tion than all that has hitherto proceeded from the school of Wundt, Meyneil, 
 Hitzig, Exner, Ferrier, and the professors of La Salpetriere. We may safely 
 say this, because Mrs. Jacobi alone has had the enterprise to fully elaborate 
 the physiological influences, and lead them up to the ethical and spiritual in- 
 fluences heretofore recognized. W. T. Harris. 
 
-THE SCHOOL BULLETIN PUBLICATIONS.- 
 
 School Issues of the Day, 
 
 1. Denominational Schools. Discussion at the National Association, 1889, 
 by Cardinal Gibbons, Bishop Keane, Edwin D. Meade, and John Jay. Pp. 
 71. 2.5 cts. 
 
 2. The Educational Value of Manual Training, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D., 
 Commissioner of Education. Pp. 14. 15 cts. 
 
 3. Art Education the True Industrial Education, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. 
 Pp. 9. 15 cts. 
 
 h. Methods of Intruction and Courses of Study in Noi'mal Schools, by Thom- 
 as J. Gray, LL.D., President Colorado State Normal School. Pp. 19. 15 cts. 
 
 .5. Pedagogical Chairs in Colleges and Universities, by B. A. Hinsdale, 
 Ph.D., Professor of Pedagogy in the University of Michigan. Pp. 11. 15 cts. 
 
 G. Opportunities of the Rvral Poor for Higher Education, hj 'Prof. James 
 H, Canfield, University of Kansas. Pp. 24. 15 cts. 
 
 7. Honorary Begrees as Conferred in American Colleges, by Prof. Chas. 
 Foster Smith, Ph.D., Yanderbilt University. Pp.9. 15 cts. 
 
 •S\ The Present Status of the Township Si/stem, by C. W. Bardeen, Editor 
 of the School Bulletin. Witli an appendix containing the Compulsory Law as 
 introduced into the New York Legislature of 1890. Pp. CO. 40 cts. 
 
 9. Effect of the College- Preparatorij High School vpon Attendance and 
 Sclwlarship in the Lower Grades, by C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 5. 15 cts. 
 
 10. " Organization "-and " System '^ vs. Originality and Individuality in 
 the Teacher, by Henry Sarin, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
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 11. Examinations as Tests for Promotion, by Wm. H. Maxwell, Ph.D., 
 Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, N. Y. Pp. 11. 15 cts. 
 
 12. Compulsory Laws and their En f o?remen t, hy Osc ah H. Cooper, State 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction, Texas. Pp. 6. 15 cts. 
 
 13. University and School Extension, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. Pp. 12. 
 15 cts. 
 
 7i. The General Government and Public Education throughout the Country, 
 by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. Pp. 8. 15 cts. 
 
 ir,. Beport on Pedagogical and Psychological Observation, by Wji. T. Hab- 
 Kis, LL.D. Pp., 6. 15 cts. 
 
 pW° The 15 Numbers will be sent to any address on receipt of $1.50, or 
 bound in half leather for $2.00. 
 
 Nos. 1 to 7 were read at the meeting of the National Association in 1889, 
 and Nos. 9 to 15 at the meeting of the National Association in 1890. No.. 8 
 was read at the meeting of School Commissioners and Superintendents la 
 New York City, 1888. 
 
 C. W. BARDEEN, Publisher, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
777^ SCHOOL BULLETIN PUBLI CATIONS. 
 
 School Eecords and Reports. 
 
 1. The Bulletin Glass Register. Designed by Edward Smith, Superin- 
 tendent of Schools, S3rracuse, N. Y. Press-board cover. Three Sizes, (a) 6x7. 
 for terms of twenty weeks; (6) 5x7, for terms of fourteen weeks. When not 
 otherwise specified this size is always sent. Pp. 48. Each 25 cts. (e), like (&) 
 but with one-half more (7:3) pages. Each 35 cts. 
 
 This register gives lines on each of 12 pages for 29 names, and by a nar- 
 row leaf ■puis opposite these names blarks for one entry each day for either 
 14 or 20 weeks, as desired, with additional lines for sr.mmary. examina- 
 tions, and remarks. Nothing can be more simple, compact, and neat, where 
 it is desired simply to keep a record of attendance, deportment, and class- 
 standing. It is used in nearly two-thu-ds of the union schools of New York. 
 
 S. The Peaborhj Class Fecwd, No. 1, "with 3 blanks to each scholar each 
 day for a year. Boards 43^x'Jj-o, pp. K 0, $l.CO. No. 2. with 5 blaui».s to each 
 scholar, 8x11, $1.50. Like No. 1, but gives 3 or 5 blanks each day. 
 
 S. Byan's School Becoi'd, 112 blanks to a sheet, per dozen sheets, 50 cts. 
 
 It. Kelkr's Mnnthly Fepnrt Card, to be returned with signature of parent 
 or guardian, card-board 2^.ix4, per hundred, Jii.oO. 
 
 5. Babcock's Excelsior Cfrading Blanks, manilla, 3x5, with blanks on both 
 sides. Comprising («) Report Cards; (h) Grade Certificates for eath of 9 
 grades; ( c) High Sch(;ol Certificate (double size). Price of (a) and {b) %\.0Q a 
 hundred; of (c) $1.50 a hundred. 
 
 6. Sf>aw''s Scholar's Feaister, for each Week, with Abstract for the Term. 
 Paper, 5x7, pp. 10. Per dozen, 50 cts. Each pupil keeps his own record. 
 
 7. .Tacksor>\? Class Record Cards. Per set of 90 white and 10 colored 
 cards, with hints, 50 cts. Only imperfect recitations need be marked. 
 
 8. Aids to Sch/Jol Discipline, containing 80 Certificates. 120 Checks, 200 
 Cards, 100 Single and Half Merits. Per box, $1.25. Supplied separately per 
 hundred: Half:Merits,15cts., Cards, 15cts.,Cliecks, 50 cts., Certificates, 50cts. 
 
 The use of millions of these Aids, with the unqualified approval bf teach- 
 ers, parents, and pupils, is assurance that they are doing great good. 
 
 They save time by avoiding the drudgery of Record lietping and Reports. 
 
 They abolish all notions of "partiality" by determining the pupil's 
 standing with mathematical precision. 
 
 They naturally and invariably awaken a lively paternal interest, for the 
 pupil takes home with him the witness of his daily conduct and progress. 
 
 They are neat in design, printed in bright colors. The Certificates are 
 prizes which children will cheri.sh. The Single IMerits and Half Merits are 
 printed on heavy card board, the Cards and Checks on heavy paper, and both 
 may be used many times— hence the system is cheap, as well as more at- 
 tractive than any other to young children. 
 
 n. Mottoes for the School-Room. By A. W. Edson, State Agent of Massa- 
 chusetts. Per set of 12 on heavy colored card-board 7x4 inches, printed on 
 both sides, $1.00. post-paid, $1.10. 
 
 These mottoes are •' Never too Late," "Above all, be Useful." "Dare to 
 Say No," *' God Bless our School," " Avoid Ang,er," "Be Good, Do Good," 
 "Think, Speak, Act the Truth." "Fear to Do Wrong," "Misspent Time is 
 Lost Forever," " Sneak the Truth," " Act Well Your Part," "Strive to Ex- 
 cel," "Try, Tiy Again," "Be Diligent. Promnt. and Useful," "Think Good 
 Thoughts," "Learn to Study," "Before Pleasure Comes Duty," "Think 
 First of Otllers," " Dare to Do Right," " Order is Heaven's First Law," "A 
 Will ;Makes a Way," "Study to Learn," "Hold Fast to Honor," "God 
 Sees Me." (12) 
 
 C. W. BARDEEN, Publisher, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 019 840 025 7 
 
 ■THE SCHOOL BULLETIN PUBLICATIONS.- 
 
 Blackboard Slating. 
 
 No feature of the school-room is of more vital importance to the health 
 of scholars and teachers than the Blackboard. If it be gray or greasy the 
 amount of chalk used fills the air with dust which produces catarrhal and 
 bronchial difficulties, and yet makes so faint a mark that the children's 
 eyes are permanently injured. Choice should be made among the following 
 materials. 
 
 1. Solid Slate. This is durable, but costs from 30 to .50 ots. a square foot, 
 IS noisy, not black enough in color, and unhealthful because there is com- 
 monly used upon it the softest crayon. Where solid slate is already in. we 
 recommend tlie Slate Pencil Crayon, as the only preventive of serious disease. 
 
 But it is better to put either upon the plastered wall, or upon the wall 
 covered with manilla paper, or upon wooden boards, one of the following 
 preparations. 
 
 2. AgaUte SlaHiig. This mai/ be sent by mall, and usually gives fair satis- 
 faction. Price, )m/-pai.d. for box to cover 400 feet, one coat. S6.00: 200 feet, 
 $3.e,->; 100 feet, $1.7.-.; .50 feet, $1.00. We furnish the Black Diamond or SUi- 
 cate Slating at tlic same price, but it can be sent only by express. 
 
 S. Slate Pencil Slating. This remarkable preparation does away alto- 
 gether with chalk-dust, having sufficient grit to take a distinct mark from a 
 slate-pencil. Soft crayon should never he umd upon it. unless it is first rubbed 
 down to smoother surface. It is a pure alcohol slating, and therefore dura- 
 ble. Price per gallon, covering 600 ft., one coat, $10.00; quarts, $2.75; pints 
 
 U. Hornstone Slating. This is new, and altogether the best in the 
 market, making a really stone surface which is yet absolutely black. There 
 is no waste of chalk, even with soft crayon, while the National 11 produces 
 a beautiful clear mark. It contains no oil or grease, and grows harder with 
 age. It is put on with a paint-brush, and adheres to any material, so that it 
 may be put on walls, boards, paper, or any other smooth surface. Price 
 $8.00 per gallon, covering 200 feet with two coats, or 100 feet with four coats. 
 
 The application of iico couta is recommended for old or imperfect 
 boards, where the sui-face is not firm enough to make it worth while to i)ut 
 on a first-class surface. It makes the cheapest of all durable slatings, and 
 is put on readily by any one. 
 
 But for new boards, and old boards with good foundations, we recom- 
 mend V.'.e tv.'o additional coats, with a final rubbing down with pumice- 
 stone. This gives a blackboard never yet equalled. 
 
 Sup't Smith, of Syracuse, says: "Your Hornstone Slating is now in use 
 in four of our building.s, and I have no hesitation in saying that it is superior 
 to solid slate or to any other blackboard surface I ever saw."— Principal 
 Miner, of Skaneateles, says: " Its very smootii surface saves crayon and les 
 sens the amount of chalk-dust in the i-oom. . . .1 do not hesitate to say that 
 it is the best board I ever used." After a year's trial in Kochester it was 
 adopted for universal use in the public schools, even the solid slate boards 
 being covered with it. Large circular with full directions sent on applica 
 tion. Do not give orders for blackboards till you have seen this slating. 
 
 C. W. BARDEEN^, Publisher, Syracuse, N. Y.