FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



573 



convinced him that a hypodermic injec- 

 tion of aqna dcstillata, given under 

 proper precautions and circumstances, 

 so as to impress the patient deeply, will 

 produce very nearly, if not quite, as 

 many cures as hypnotization. As for the 

 other question, laboratory experiments 

 indicate that a hypnotized person may 

 be induced to commit acts bearing the 

 aspect of crime, but that when the case 

 becomes a serious one something will 

 most likely occur in the mind of the pa- 

 tient or the conditions to prevent the 

 consummation. The result is too uncer- 

 tain and difficult, and the risks are too 

 many and various, even to permit the 

 use of hypnotism as an instrument of 

 crime to become common or really dan- 

 gerous. And the author's conclusion is 

 that the dangers of hypnotism lie much 

 more in its use for experimental and 

 therapeutical than for criminal pur- 

 poses. 



Instruction of the Deaf and 

 Dumb. — Of the two principal methods 

 of instructing deaf-mutes- in this coun- 

 try, as defined by Mr. J. C. Gordon, of 

 the Illinois Institution, in the sign meth- 

 od, deaf-mutes are taught a peculiar lan- 

 guage of motions of the arm and upper 

 part of the body, to which they learn 

 to attach signification through usage. 

 For instance, to teach the word cat to 

 a deaf child a sign teacher would show 

 the child a cat or a picture of a cat. 

 He would next direct attention to the 

 cat's whiskers, drawing the thumb and 

 finger of each hand lightly over them. 

 " A similar motion of the thumb and 

 hand above the teacher's upper lip at 

 once becomes a sign for cat." After the 

 sign has become familiar the child is 

 trained to write the word cat on a slate, 

 blackboard, or sheet of paper, and by 

 frequent repetition the pupil associates 

 the written word with the sign for cat, 

 so that the written word recalls the ges- 

 tural sign, and the gestural sign serves 

 to recall the concept cat. This language 

 is acquired more readily than any other 

 means of communication. The other 

 method is the intuitive, direct, or Eng- 

 lish-language method, and, while it 

 would require the use of the living cat 

 or the recognition of the picture of a 

 cat by the deaf child, would connect the 

 written or spoken word directly with 

 the object, without the intervention of 



any artificial finger-sign. Wherever 

 this method prevails the English lan- 

 guage in its written or spoken forms, 

 or in its finger-spelled form, becomes the 

 ordinary means of communication be- 

 tween teachers and pupils, so that every 

 step in instruction requires the use of 

 the English language, which is practi- 

 cally both the instrument and the im- 

 mediate end of instruction. All the 

 schools called oral use this method. It 

 can be used in connection with finger- 

 spelling, but not with the sign method. 



Experiments in Nature Study. — 



Some vei-y interesting features of school 

 children's Nature study — not the teach- 

 ing of science, but the seeing and under- 

 standing of the common objects of the 

 external world — are illustrated in a re- 

 port of Cornell Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, from incidents of school life in 

 some of the Xew York schools. The 

 children in the sixth grade of one of the 

 schools of Saratoga Springs pro\ided 

 themselves with eggshells filled with 

 earth and sown with wheat. " The bo- 

 tanical side was made a lesson well fia- 

 vored with active interest. The pride 

 of ownership and a plant coming from a 

 spoonful of earth had the charm of a 

 creation all the pupil's own, and it was 

 much more real to study the thing itself 

 than to read about it and make a reci- 

 tation." Geographical applications were 

 made by tracing the introduction and 

 extension and transportation of the 

 crop, and by means of the exchange of 

 correspondence the wheat belt could be 

 traced and plotted in every State of the 

 Union. The children of Corning gath- 

 ered seeds and divided them into classes 

 as indicated by the means of travel with 

 which they are provided. A small boy 

 felt himself a profound investigator when 

 he discovered the advantage some seeds 

 have in being able to float and ride on 

 the water. It required no hard drill to 

 learn the names. The summer planting 

 of flowers by the children of Jamestown 

 resulted in a flower show in the fall. 

 Many children took the tent caterpillar, 

 reared it from the eggs, and learned all 

 about its metamorphoses. " Nature 

 study can be made elastic. In the kin- 

 dergarten it can be idealized so as to ap- 

 proach a fairy story. It can be intensi- 

 fied so that in the high school it will 

 have all the solidity of pure science." 



