766 PROCEBDIXGS OF SECTIOX J. 



recapitulation theory gives us the clue to the procedure to be followed 

 in the education and upbringing of the child. The babe is the most 

 helpless of all animals, and the evolutionary process has brought it to 

 pass that the child must learn to perform most of the acts which 

 enable it to live. Its equipment of instincts is very incomplete. An 

 animal's instincts take it safely through life — the child has a much 

 greater capacity for learning, and this capacity takes the place of 

 instinct. It has, however, like some of the higher animals, an instinct 

 to imitate, and it makes great use of its power. In time, too, it has 

 reason, which an animal, according to Lloyd Morgan, probably has 

 not. ■■ Reason in the child is a substitute for millions of instincts, 

 each of which would need for its evolution and maintenance a separate 

 process of natural selection." Years, however, must elapse before its 

 experience and reason enable it to look after itself. Hence the post- 

 natal period of development is necessarily long. The child is 

 dependent upon the adult, and this has led to family life and ulti- 

 mately to social life with all that is therein implied. It has much to 

 learn, and requires a long time in which to do this. Its muscular 

 equipment, too, is of little use at birth. Many animals can walk and 

 procure food for themselves soon after birth. A child's muscular 

 system must develop. That is why childhood is the period of play. 

 Play, according to the recapitulation theory, is the repetition of acts 

 which were necessary in the history of the race. Running, throwing, 

 chasing, all the ol^d fighting and hunting activities, are reproduced in 

 the activities of the child. This conception has been used to explain 

 many of the innumerable acts and tendencies to action which we 

 notice in a child, by reference to the prehistoric and even to the 

 (suggested) anthropoid and aquatic ancestiy of man. 



By its instinctive activities the child is developing its muscles 

 and establishing muscular co-ordinations which will enable it eventu- 

 ally to look after itself. The child would die if it did not play. 

 After birth the child is dependent upon those around him, and there 

 are many problems which the parents, who are primarily responsible 

 for their own child, ought to face. Usually they do what other people 

 do. The child is reared according to the recognised methods, and at 

 the usual age is handed over to the care of an educator — parent and 

 educator henceforth being responsible for the welfare of the child. 

 Whether their methods are right or wrong, probably neither of them 

 knows. In some cases tlie child turns out all right; in other cases he 

 does not. In the one case the result is due to his up-bringing, and in 

 the other it is due to his inherent defects — physical, mental, or moral. 

 In some cases excellent results are obtained; in others thej are 

 most deplorable. 



Now, the science of child-study asks : — May it not be possible to 

 avoid these deplorable results, and build up a better social fabric by 

 an education based on a systematic and scientific study of all the 

 facts relating to the child that can be precisely and accurately ascer- 

 tained? 



Here are a few general problems which the science of child-study 

 would deal with: — 



1. How to feed the child so that it will derive the greatest 

 benefit from its food, and, incidentally, what is the" matter 

 with the teeth of the rising generation? 



