414 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and memoirs of contemporaries, records of societies, pamphlets of the 

 time, etc. 



At the age when the child comes under the care of the teacher some of 

 his mental faculties are already well advanced on the path of development. 

 One must go back of this age in order to get a full understanding of the 

 way in which his mind unfolds. Prof. Compayre goes back to the mo- 

 ment of birth,* and even quotes inferences of several observers as to the 

 psychology of jjrenatal existence. There is a good deal of physiology in 

 the chapter on the newborn child and in that on movements, the first 

 forms of activity. From the pains that the author takes with fundamental 

 considerations one would almost think he was a German instead of a 

 Frenchman. He sums up the history of the child's motions as " irresistible, 

 blind, fatal impulses at the start; then, little by little, conscious desires, 

 thoughtless, but lit up by an intellectual representation, by the idea of an 

 end to be attained; finally, will and efforts." The statement of the child's 

 muscular needs given in this book ought to convince any reader of the 

 cruelty of enforcing the command to "sit still" upon young children. 

 Prof. Compayre next considers the development of sight, showing that the 

 child is half blind at birth, and only gradually gains the full use of his 

 eyes. The author (or translator) is rather too literal in interpreting photo- 

 phobia as " fear " of light, and the same inaccuracy is observable in other 

 writers on this subject. The newborn child has no real fear of light; the 

 proper term is intolerance of light. The other senses are also rudimentary 

 at birth, that of touch being best developed. In discussing the emotions 

 our author affirms that the pleasures early exceed the pains in the child's 

 experience. The natural modes of expressing the feelings can be readily 

 observed in children, who do not restrain such manifestations. Prof. 

 Compayre finds the first evidences of memory in the nursling's recognition 

 of familiar faces. The acquirement of language, which itself depends upon 

 a certain development of the memory, he I'egards as greatly quickening 

 the fui-ther growth of this faculty. The imagination, consciousness, at- 

 tention, and association of ideas are described in the two remaining chap- 

 ters of this volume. The concluding part of the work will deal with 

 reasoning, learning to talk, the development of the moral sense, and related 

 topics. 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



This book will be the first complete illus- 

 trated botany published in this country.f Its 

 aim is to represent and describe every spe- 

 cies, from the ferns upward, mentioned as dis- 

 tinct by botanists and growing wild within the 

 area adopted. It is intended, also, to com- 



* The Intellectual and Moral Development of 

 the Child. Part I. By Gabriel Compayre. Inter- 

 national Education Series, vol. xxxv. New York: 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 298, 12mo. Price, $1.50. 



t An IlluBtrated Flora of the Northern United 

 States and Canada and the British Possessions. 

 By Nathaniel Lord Britton, Ph. D., and Hon. Ad- 

 dison Brown. In 3 vols. Vol. I. New York : 

 Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 612. Price, $6. 



plete the work within such moderate limits 

 of size and cost as shall make it accessible 

 to the public generally, so that it may serve 

 as an independent handbook of our Northern 

 flora, and as a work of general reference, or 

 as an adjunct and supplement to the manuals 

 of systematic botany in current use. The 

 utility of a completely illustrated manual, 

 both to the botanist and to the non-expert, 

 is apparent. The most minute and accurate 

 description may leave a doubt which the 

 comparison of pictures of the species will 

 solve. Persons who are not familiar with 

 botanical terms and the methods of botan- 



