Abstract The teaching of accounting represents one of the most formidable challenges to the adapting of visual aids to teaching situations. This is true because of the very nature of accounting. Accounting requires some abstract thinking, especially in advanced courses. Abstractions are very difficult to visualize. Accounting requires the study of detailed forms and statements, and, until recently, projection devices have not been of adequate power to project these necessary details. This explains in part the slight use of visual aids in accounting instruction. Another explanation is that accounting instructors are not aware of the possibilities of visual aids and arc not trained in their use. However, since tests show that an individual learns primarily through his sense of sight, it seems that efforts should be made to use visual aids in teaching accounting in spite of the difficulties encountered. Some of the visual aids are, The blackboard, motion pictures, lantern slides, filmstrips, charts plant visits, and others. Visual aids are only an aid or supplement to the instructor. They cannot replace a text or instructor or outside study on the part of the Student. The use of visual aids will not lessen the work of the instructor. The instructor will work more, but he will work more effectively. If properly used they will result in more thorough coverage of the material presented.

Abstract Reviews the book "Cost Accounting," by Charles F. Schlatter.

Abstract Accounting has been said to perform a service function. It consists to serve commerce, industry, and government. These three branches of economic endeavor are constantly evolving into new forms with new content and new orientation. It would thus appear to follow that, in an effort to distill principles of accounting out of the myriad rules of thumb of practice, the subject must be placed in its historical context and those features of it which might change with the form of economic organization differentiated from those which are unlikely to do so. An example in this connection is the change in attitude toward the balance sheet which has taken place over the past one hundred years. Furthermore, the attempts to arrive at principles of accounting have so far been mere compilations of "good things" in the present context, drawn, as it were, out of thin air, without any regard for their functional relationship or historical validity. It is true that these lists have been arranged in what was thought to be an order of merit, but neither the order nor the content has received any marked degree of general acceptance.