THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



lor 



the Chapter. One commendable fea- 

 ture was the fact that every member 

 has to do something and the rule is 

 even if you have not done anything get 

 up and say so, which makes every one 

 do something:. 



Trees Gnawed by Beavers. 



The accompanying photograph, show- 

 in"" the work of beavers, excels in many 



"I am mighty glad to see you, old fel- 

 low." The thought of sourness or of 

 cordiality comes before the words. To 

 the writer this is an important pedagogi- 

 cal point. Shall we begin with a thing 

 or with a worrl if we intend to teach the 

 child to think? I am sure that Agassiz 

 had this in mind when he said, "Study 

 nature, not books." 



This question was sent to Professor 



A REMARKABLY LARGE TREE ATTACKED BY BEAXERS. 



respects all other photographs of beavers 

 that have reached this office, as the trees 

 there shown are the largest that we have 

 known to be attacked by beavers. The 

 one in the background is more than four 

 feet in diameter, the other more than 

 five. They are on Trout Creek, about 

 half a mile from Okanagan Lake in Brit- 

 ish Columbia, Canada. The photograph 

 was sent bv F. H. \^an Ilise. 



Words and Things. 



The first line on the first page of a 

 recent number of ''Moderator-Topics'" 

 reads as follows : "We think in words." 

 That surely causes one to think. Do we 

 really think in words, or are the words 

 secondary as an expression of an aroused 

 thought ? I bite an apple. It is sour. 

 I have a thought before I speak the word 

 "sour." I meet a friend and cordially 

 grasp his hand. The thought in itself is 

 complete before I express it in the words. 



Hugo Munsterberg, the famous profes- 

 sor of psychology at Cambridge, !AIassa- 

 chusetts. He writes in reply as follows : 



"You are certainly right in saying that 

 you can think of the actions of a cat, a 

 squirrel, a child, without any words, but 

 the pedagogical magazine which claims 

 that we think in words is certainly right 

 too. The apparent conflict lies in the 

 fact that the word thinking is used there 

 in two entirely dififerent meanings. You 

 use thinking in the sense of having in 

 consciousness, including remembering" 

 and selecting parts of the memory pic- 

 ture, even linking new memory pictures 

 and imaginative ideas. The other party 

 uses thinking in the sense of producing 

 thoughts by going from premises to con- 

 clusions. In your sense of the word the 

 animals certainly thinT: too : in the other 

 sense of the word, the animals hardly 

 think. 



"Rut it seems to me more imiiortant 



