294 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



certain epochs or periods in which the child made very rapid pro- 

 gress, on the thirty-fifth day, in the eleventh month, etc. (pp. 6, 7) 

 — an important observation on which more data are desirable. 

 Under the head of movements (Part I.) there is a useful record 

 of voluntary movements, pointing to the growth of volition out of 

 " repetition of an act which had originally caused either a cessation 

 of discomfort or a sense of gratification" (p. 27). Many of the 

 conclusions drawn are naturally rather corroborative of current 

 psychology than pointing in any fresh direction. Parts II. and IV. 

 are inferior in quality to the rest. Under Part II., which deals 

 with Sensations, we have, on pp. 45 and 56, the note that even 

 on the second day the eyes followed the movement of a bright pair 

 of callipers — a date important on its bearing on the theory of visual 

 space-perception. On page 66 we have the less important denial 

 of an unborn ability of localising sounds. On pp. 80, 81, there 

 are some remarks on the localisation of pain, which is declared to 

 follow that of "other" dismal sensations. On page 87 it is denied 

 that attention, at any rate in its involuntary form, comes late : the 

 child gazed at a patch of light continuously on the thirtieth day 

 (p. 46). Part IV. deals with language, giving careful tables of the 

 sounds used and the principal substitutions of sounds for one 

 another, as well as full vocabularies of the child at the close of the 

 second year. The order at which the different parts of speech 

 begin to appear is noted, as well as their numerical importance. 

 One point which is emphasised more than once (pp. 123 and 97) 

 is that the child's first names do not refer to indefinite or vaguely 

 conceived individuals, but that the child does not understand the 

 necessity of a name for each separate thing, and his words stand 

 for what is interesting to him in his experience. As against any 

 idea that general concepts arise from the fusion of individual 

 precepts — this is however what would generally be understood. 

 Mrs Moore's work will be a useful repertory of facts, to which 

 she has been careful to supply an index. 



The International Geological Congress 



The Seventh Session of the International Congress was held 

 in St Petersburg last August with great success. The attractive 

 programme offered by the Russian geologists, with the aid of their 

 Government, brought together a large number — nearly a thousand — 

 especially from Germany and Austria. Americans and French were 

 well represented, largely by mining engineers anxious to study the 

 rich ore deposits of the Ourals. Englishmen were no doubt diverted 

 to the other side of the Atlantic by the meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation, and were therefore proportionally few. 



Of the excursions before the Congress, those to Finland and 



