292 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [12:6-Sept., 1916 



their solution depends. They will make and understand a tireless 

 cooker, a camera, a wireless telegraph; and they will ultimately 

 deal with phenomena and their relations in the most rigorous sci- 

 entific form." 



In how far The American Nature-Study Society has been help- 

 ful in bringing about the appreciation of science as the core of the 

 school curriculum may never be known, nor need we stop to quib- 

 ble over such unimportant questions. We rejoice that the thing 

 for which we have stood these many years is receiving commen- 

 dation and support from such powerful educational agencies. 



Book Reviews 



Child Perceptions. By W. H. Winch, Pp. X + 2.45. Warwick 

 & York. $1.50. 



Mr. Winch has made a series of experiments with children of 

 the English schools. The same picture was shown to each child 

 and the child was asked to tell what he saw. Then the child was 

 asked a series of questions in regard to the picture. A week later 

 the child was again asked to tell what he had seen in the picture 

 and answer the same set of questions. Finally the picture was 

 shown to him again and the child was asked to put right what he 

 had set wrong. The book is largely taken up with reports of 

 typical replies and discussions of the results of the questions, and 

 finally with a statement of the conclusions. 



These are that (1) "The capacity to observe and report grades 

 readily from the age of three up to the age of six or seven and then 

 suffers a check." (2) "Children know more about their lesson a 

 week afterwards than they do at the time, even when the period 

 of observation is so short that the fatigue factor is excluded." 

 (3) There seems an increasing resistance to suggestion, and an in- 

 creasing capacity to observe clothing and the position of and the 

 relation between things." (4) "Young children show very little 

 accurate observation and memory of color. Only among the older 

 girls (twelve to thirteen years) are the observations of color fairly 

 full and good." (5) "Girls are more proficient than boys, both 

 in the linguistic expressions of the observations and in the number 

 and accuracy of them." 



This is the sort of study that must go on extensively before we 

 can have much real foundation for our programs in nature-study. 



