850 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



Mr. R. P. HallecVs recent book was not 

 written for scientists, and scientists as such 

 will find notliing in it.* The author under- 

 takes merely to make a practical application 

 of the results which others have attained by 

 patient investigation. His book is written 

 for teachers and parents, and every teacher 

 or parent who reads it from an educational 

 standpoint will be amply repaid. The au- 

 thor aims to emphasize the facts that a 

 large element in education consists in the 

 physical modification of brain and nerve 

 cells ; that these cells are more easily modi- 

 fied at one age than at another; that the 

 effects of wrong training or lack of training 

 can never be eliminated in later life; that 

 every person, in order to live a full life, must 

 have all his senses and the corresponding 

 brain-cells developed in his youth. The first 

 chapters give a summary of our present 

 knowledge of the nervous system and the 

 changes that have been found to occur as 

 results of growth, fatigue, and training. 

 Then follow discussions of the effect of en- 

 vironment on training, and on development 

 as related to age. Various definite sugges- 

 tions are given for training the different 

 senses in the classroom, both by immediate 

 objects and by the formation of memory 

 images. The chapter, How Shakespeare's 

 Senses M'ere Trained, is interesting and in- 

 tensely practical. The great value of motor 

 training is clearly demonstrated ; and the 

 final plea for the early symmetrical develop- 

 ment of all the senses as a preparation for 

 fuller, more joyous life in later years is an- 

 other expression of the present hope for a 

 brighter future in education. Our scientific 

 knowledge of the facts in the case, the 

 changes in brain-cells which are correlated 

 with education, how these vary under differ- 

 ent conditions, and how far they may be 

 varied by training, is meager enough as yet ; 

 and many scientists would have hesitated to 

 construct such a book on the basis of our 

 present knowledge, while recognizing the 

 far-reaching importance of the invesliga- 



* The Education of the Central Nervous Sys- 

 tem. By Reuben Post Halleclj. New York : The 

 Macmillau Co. Pp. 258, 12mo. Price, $1. 



tions which are now going on. Owing to 

 the widespread interest in these questions, 

 we expect in the near future numerous con- 

 tributions to pedagogy from experimental 

 and physiological psychology. Scores of 

 books similar in scope will doubtless be 

 written, more complete and more valuable 

 to the teacher. Meanwhile we already know 

 far more than we practice, and thousands of 

 children will be indebted to this book for a 

 broader, deeper, and more sensible education. 



A text book of physiology for medical 

 schools has been prepared by ten collabora- 

 tors under the editorship of W. If. Howell, 

 Professor of Physiology in the Johns Hop- 

 kins University.* The physiology of the 

 muscles is treated by Prof. Warren P. Lom- 

 bard; secretion, digestion, the blood, and 

 some allied topics, by Prof. Howell ; the cir- 

 culation, by Profs. John G. Curtis and W. 

 T. Porter ; respiration and animal heat, by 

 Prof. Edward T. Reichert ; the central nerv- 

 ous system, by Prof. Henry H. Donaldson ; 

 vision, by Prof. Henry P. Bowditch ; the other 

 special senses and the voice, by Prof. Henry 

 Sewall; reproduction, by Prof. Frederic S. 

 Lee ; and the chemistry of the animal body, 

 by Prof. Graham Lusk. The preparation of 

 such a work by collaboration is unusual, and 

 the editor names as advantages of this method 

 that it enables each author to base his ac- 

 count upon a comprehensive knowledge of 

 the part of the subject assigned to him, and 

 that the student gains by it the points of 

 view of a number of teachers, especially 

 where the various topics overlap. Refer- 

 ences to literature are given, and some of the 

 authors have used them so freely as to afford 

 fairly complete bibliographies of their re- 

 spective subjects. 



The purpose of Mr. Woglomh ParakiteR f 

 is to place before the public the result of the 



* An Ameiican Text-Book of Physiology. Ed- 

 ited by William H. Howell, Ph. U., M. D. Fully 

 illustrated. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. Pp. 

 lOSy, royal 8vo. Subscription price, cloth, $6 ; 

 sheep or half morocco, $7. 



t Parakiies. By George Totten Woglom. 

 New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. SI, 4to. 

 Illust.ated. Price, Sl.'iS. 



