6zz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



scientific method in ideas, often exists where unsuspected, and only- 

 demanding proper cultivation. 



As an illustration of the method described in the text, when carried into 

 more complete studies, I insert an exercise written by the child when six and a 

 quarter years old. It is a description of a wild Iris, which she analyzed herself 

 on successive days, writing down the results from memory on the next day. 

 She was never told anything, but obliged to discover for herself each fact, to 

 compose the sentence describing it, and to spell by ear the words of the sentence 

 without copy. She was allowed to insert in her description whatever fancies 

 occurred to her. The headings and order of evolution of the subject were alone 

 dictated. With nearly all the technical terms she was, however, already famil- 

 iar; two only were told "perianth," as opposed to corolla, and "blade." Be- 

 fore analyzing the Iris she was obliged to take a long walk to the woods for it, 

 and first to draw a map showing the way, and by means of the compass. Two 

 intersecting lines from sight-objects were dictated by me, and the fact learned 

 by this and another previous experiment which had failed, that to locate an 

 object in space at least two lines are required. The final description, whose 

 writing occupied two or three weeks, was as follows: 



The Rainbow Family. (This name was given as a literal translation of Iri- 

 dacece, and as a return in a spiral to the first natural object studied eighteen 

 months before, the rainbow. The way was also prepared for the future histori- 

 cal study of the myth of Iris.) 



Iris Tricolor. (The numeral was already familiar.) 



Perianth = 6 Petals. (The algebraic signs and numbers were used to in- 

 dicate that in a scientific document, not a flowing style, but the fewest words 

 and most concise expressions were required.) 



These stand on top of a long tube in which the style is locked in. There are 

 two kinds of petals : 1. Three which are the biggest, and have three colors. 

 There are two parts to each the upper broad part called the blade, and the 

 lower long narrow part. (The term " blade " was here taught for the first 

 time.) The blade is first purple ; in the middle is a gold stripe which runs into 

 the narrow part. (At this point, the child drew and painted from memory, on 

 the margin of her protocol, a picture of the petal.) Between the purple and 

 gold the blade is white. These petals curve outward and downward, so that the 

 gold stripe comes on top. The bees see it and come for the pollen. (First in- 

 troduction of a Darwinian law.) 2. Three petals, which are entirely purple, 

 are vertical, smaller, and stand between the others. (The child made another 

 drawing by opening the flower on the page and tracing its outlines.) It is as if 

 six girls were standing in a circle (here was introduced a botanical outline of 

 the whorl, instinctively devised by the child, the circle being drawn accurately, 

 with compasses). Every other one leans back and stretches her arms out hori- 

 zontally, as if to show her gold bracelet. The three others lean forward, and 

 hold their arms up above their heads. (Prolonged contemplation of this lovely 

 group tended to evoke such instinctive aesthetic conceptions as are at the basis 

 of many pieces of statuary, notably Thorwaldsen's Graces.) The gold stripe is 

 like the orange feathers on the head of the bee-martin. The bees think it is a 

 flower, and come and settle on the bird's head ; then he catches them. (This 

 illustration was suggested by the child, shortly after having seen such a bird 

 which bad been shot. She thus learned to step from one section of natural 

 history to another, and also to seek analogies of organs in their functions.) 

 Mamma says (here knowledge by testimony is distinguished from that obtained 



