Advertisement of several writings concerning meteorology original: "Witterungslehre".

Mr. Steinbeck recently expressed a wish in the Monthly GazetteOriginal: "M. Anzeiger," likely referring to the "Magazin Anzeiger" to obtain materials for his forthcoming work on meteorology, or rather for his announced calendar. I share here some notes with him, in case they are not yet known to him. Perhaps this will also be of some small service to many others. The newest book belonging to this field is: Useful Handbook original: "Nüzliches Handbuch" containing proven weather and peasant rules, reliable home remedies, a short lesson on superstition, and a six-year calendar, along with an explanation of the same. Especially for country folk and the common man, published by Joh. Gottl. Kirschbaum. Leipzig by Joh. Gottl. Schladenbach. 1794. 443 pages without the index. The first section contains 284 weather rules; for many, an explanation is also added. In Joh. Will's Essay on the Weather, etc. (translated from the English. Leipzig by Schwickert 1772. 8vo.) there are likewise useful remarks; similarly in Donndorf's Antipandora, etc. and his Nature and Art, etc. in Göze's Useful Miscellany, etc. Whether Mr. Börner, the High Provincial Syndicate at Breslau, has delivered his meteorology, which was announced in two parts, is not known to me. Something good can be expected here. On the other hand, I have read no more absurd book on this point than: Georg Ernst Stahl's Introduction to the New Meteroscopy or Weather-Interpretation original: "Einleitung zu der neuen Meteroscopie oder Witterungs-Deutung" according to William Cook’s basic rules, etc. Halle, 1716. 515 pages, 8vo. with an attached index of astrological aspectsoriginal: "Aspectenzeiger," a tool for calculating the positions of planets and stars in relation to one another nearly half as thick and unpaginated.

Regarding the inquiry: Is it better to tell children when one is proceeding to a new subject, method of calculationRechnungsart, etc., or to not let them notice when one wants to begin something new? Neither "yes" nor "no" can be the answer. In private instruction, with children of lively intellect

and already somewhat practiced power of thought, I would try to make the transition silently. This would, however, likely only be to put the children's attention to the test. In a public school, more difficulties are found. But I am generally of the opinion that one would do better if, initially—especially with very small children—one held back the technical termsThe author refers to these as "Kunstwörter," or "art-words," specifically the Latin-derived vocabulary of mathematics such as Addition, etc. A child of three or four years has occasionally, through social interaction perhaps, learned to count up to 4 or 5. I present to him, one after another, several things of the same kind, and he learns to count to 9 or 10 without knowing a single digit. Now I place before his eyes, one after another, a number of nine or ten things—for example, chestnutsMaronen—first individually, then two at a time, and again two, etc.; and then I take away individual pieces again, and shortly thereafter two together, and have the child tell me each time how large the number of pieces lying before him has become through the addition, or by how much it is smaller after the subtraction of what was taken away. How easy it is here to make it comprehensible to the child that in arithmeticRechnen the numbers are either increased or diminished! Yet I did not yet need the Latin technical terms. Another time I place a small number of visible things—even if they were only lines on a slate—several times under each other and have them added together; I have six, eight, or ten of them divided into two equal parts, then six or nine into three, etc. These exercises are continued and expanded more and more. Finally, when in this manner all four operations of arithmeticaddition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have been sufficiently practiced through mental mathKopfrechnen according to my judgment: then I explain to the children the four technical terms, which they then grasp all the more easily since they already know the thing itself. This may also suffice as an answer to the second question. I will only add one more thing: here the talk is of children. But if I am to instruct an already grown person of practiced intellect in arithmetic, then I let the concepts and explanations, along with the rules, precede the work.