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NATURE 



\_April 19, 



the evidence of Mr. Henry Cunynghame, Mr. Davis, of 

 Birmingham, and Profs. Unwin and Perry. Mr. Ricks, 

 one of the Board inspectors, has drawn out an elaborate 

 scheme for the development of the Kindergarten system 

 throughout all the standards of a school in the directions 

 spoken of. 



Girls are more fortunate than boys in the matter 

 of manual instruction. They are taught needlework 

 universally, and very often cookery. The latter may be 

 considerably extended. Domestic economy also in its 

 various branches should be taught, through practical work, 

 and with reference to scientific principles — as in washing, 

 laying fires, and ventilating rooms. 



But how is time to be obtained for the introduction of 

 this perceptive and practical instruction ? On that point 

 the Committee are very distinct, and there is a singular 

 unanimity among the witnesses that the attention now 

 paid to spelling and grammar is excessive, if not educa- 

 tionally worthless. There is a curious table, too, in the 

 appendix, which gives the results of inquiry as to the 

 subjects of instruction most or least preferred in the 

 various schools. Grammar is so unpopular with both 

 boys and girls that it almost always attains that bad pre- 

 eminence. Spelling or dictation comes second. In fact 

 there is no doubt that the children dislike what they feel 

 does not add either to their pleasure, or their real know- 

 ledge. It is proposed "that the time now given to 

 spelling, parsing, and grammar generally, be reduced." 



There are two points on which we should have liked 

 to see some recommendations of a more vigorous cha- 

 racter. The one refers to the teaching of arithmetic, 

 which as laid down by the Code is thoroughly unscientific. 

 The other point is this : there are recommendations in 

 regard to evening classes, the more extended use of the 

 pupil-teachers' schools, and the grouping together of the 

 upper standards of several schools in poor neighbour- 

 hoods ; but this might have been carried much further, 

 and have included the establishment of such valuable 

 institutions as the central schools which are doing such 

 good work in many of the provincial towns, especially in 

 the North of England. 



Nevertheless, these recommendations, if they are all 

 allowed to take effect, will mark an era in education. 

 The Special Committee are happily able to add : " It is 

 significant that these changes are demanded alike by 

 educational theorists, teachers, men of science, leaders of 

 industry, and statesmen, and it rests with the Board to 

 carry them into actual fact." The Bill of Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, and that on technical education which is pro- 

 mised by the Government, must also have an important 

 bearing on the scientific development of elementary 

 instruction. We await the results of the discussions 

 that must ensue with the deepest interest. 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND THE MIND. 



The Nervous System and the Mind : a Treatise on the 



Dynamics of the Human Organism. By Charles 



Mercier, M.B. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1888.) 



'"T"*HE time may come when the psychological historian 



•■*- will be required to trace the genealogy and career 



of such terms as " molecular movement," " discharge," 



"explosion," "unstable matter," as applied to mental 



operations, as well as the familiar expression "environ- 

 ment." Whoever else may have contributed to their use, 

 they will be traced back in the main to Herbert Spencer. 

 When once the brain was recognized as the organ of 

 mind in a special sense, chiefly through phrenological 

 observations in which Mr. Spencer was himself at one 

 time engaged (he was, if we mistake not, a member of 

 the London Phrenological Society), the physical basis of 

 mind was naturally described in terms applied to material 

 bodies and employed in physics. The combination of 

 atoms forming molecules being regarded as the funda- 

 mental element of the substance of the nervous system, 

 molecular movements were correlated with mental opera- 

 tions. Every corpuscle in the gray matter of the convo- 

 lutions of the brain was regarded as " a reservoir of 

 molecular motion." It followed that the destructive mole- 

 cular changes of which the granular protoplasm in the 

 corpuscles is the seat were accompanied by a disengage- 

 ment or discharge of motion. For the purpose of decom- 

 position or waste, the amount of which is the measure 

 of the force evolved, the remarkable supply of blood 

 received by the cerebral convolutions was seen to be 

 necessary ; as also for the recomposition or repair which 

 succeeds waste. Spencer drew some of his analogies 

 from chemical explosions, taking for instance the ex- 

 plosion of the percussion cap and powder in a pistol to 

 symbolize the setting up of decomposition in an adjacent 

 ganglion-cell by (in the case of the retina) a disturbed 

 retinal element. He showed that a partially-decomposed 

 ganglion-cell propagates a shock through the afferent 

 nerve to a large deposit of " unstable matter " in the 

 optic centre, " where an immense amount of molecular 

 motion is thereupon disengaged." The transmission of 

 waves of molecular motion through nerve-fibres is com- 

 pared by Spencer to " a row of bricks on end, so placed 

 that each in falling knocks over its neighbour. . . . Each 

 brick, besides the motion it receives, will pass on to the 

 next the motion it has itself gained in falling." 



These and similar propositions have for long become 

 household words. The terms referred to have become a 

 part of psychological, and to a large extent medical, 

 language. One well-known outcome of Spencerian teach- 

 ing has been its elaborate application to the study of 

 epilepsy, by Dr. Hughlings Jackson, who has been always 

 anxious to acknowledge the source from which he drew 

 his inspiration. Dr. Mercier's book is another stream 

 from the same source. He makes an acknowledgment 

 of similar indebtedness in his preface. We do not think 

 he is justified in his complaint that "the classical works 

 on Mind ignore altogether its association with the body, 

 and study it from a stand-point so purely introspective 

 as to offer no obvious advantage to the alienist, to whom 

 the concomitant disorders of body are so conspicuous and 

 so important." Holding this opinion it became "abso- 

 lutely necessary" for Dr. Mercier to prepare the present 

 volume. The writings of Bain, Laycock, and Maudsley, 

 no less than Spencer, are nothing if they do not insist 

 upon the association of mind and body. The very last 

 charge that can be fairly brought against these classical 

 works is that they altogether ignore their correlation. 

 The best evidence of the direction and complexion of the 

 teaching of authors of modern works on psychology is 

 contained in Dr. Mercier's statement that "everyone 



