Abstract
WE hope this is not a sample of “The Consecutive Narrative Series of Reading Books,” of which it appears to be the 6th volume, for the sake of the unfortunate youths in whose hands they may be placed. We scarcely know a book which we should take greater pains to keep out of the hands of young people eager for knowledge. It is full of the grossest and most palpable blunders. We will quote the three first we came across, giving chapter and verse, as we hardly expect to be believed without affording our readers the opportunity of verifying our quotations for themselves, if they wish to. When we read (Chemistry, p. 83) that “quicklime is simple carbonate of lime taken from the limestone of your mountains!” we thought we had pitched upon a curious slip of the pen; when we found that “marsupials,” (which, by the bye, are known as being animals that jump instead of run) “are peculiar to Australia,” and “the tiger peculiar to the New World !!” (Growth of Plants, p. 173) we opened our eyes with astonishment; and when we were told that the elephant chews the cud!!! (The Elephant, p. 197). we closed the book in disgust. Surely any boy on the lowest form of any school which the gentleman who edits the book “formerly inspected,” would have set him right on all these points. Seriously, it is very sad that at this time of day it should be found possible to circulate such rubbish under the name of instruction in science. If this is what is to come of inspecting schools, the less we have of it the better, till we have trained up a staff of inspectors acquainted with at least the rudiments of science.
Descriptive Travel and Adventures; or Hubert Preston Abroad.
By Catharine Morell. Edited by J. R. Morell, formerly one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. (London: T. Murby.)
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B. Descriptive Travel and Adventures; or Hubert Preston Abroad . Nature 3, 404 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/003404b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003404b0