466 



NATURE 



[January 8, 1920 



how these may be effectively used. "It under- 

 takes to make significant some of the common- 

 place environment and to suggest ways in which 

 living material may serve educational ends." 

 Great prominence is given to material which has 

 social and practical interest, but the danger of 

 fostering a one-sided utilitarian outlook is 

 guarded against. "The great contributions of 

 science to the life of mankind are : its emphasis 

 on the scientific mode of thinking or the problem- 

 seeing, problem-solving attitude of mind ; a mass 

 of scientific knowledge that serves as the basis 

 for desirable skills; and 'an interpretation of 

 Nature productive of an inspiring appreciation,, 

 both intellectual and esthetic, of her phenomena. 

 Science instruction needs to assure these things 

 to the individual pupil." These are clearly defined 

 aims, and the book appears to us to be highly 

 successful in all the three directions indicated — in 

 setting problems and cultivating the curious 

 spirit; in showing that Nature-study makes for 

 efficiency as well as for understanding; and in 

 cultivating a reasonable love of Nature. A note 

 with fine resonance is struck when the author 

 declares his ambition to treat his material so that 

 "the everyday things may stand revealed as the 

 wonders they really are." 



The book deals with animals of pond and 

 stream, insects and their allies, birds, gregarious 

 animals, wayside flowers, common trees, seeds 

 and seedlings, the garden, and spore-bearing 

 plants. Each chapter has its list of references ; 

 there are practical hints as to material ; the illus- 

 trations are abundant and interesting. They in- 

 clude some pupils' drawings. There is a genuine 

 attempt throughout to get at the child's point of 

 view and to use its judgment of values. "The 

 teacher needs to take much of the foolishness of 

 childhood along with her, and needs also to be 

 persuaded that it is not altogether foolish." But 

 there is no namby-pamby nonsense. We wonder 

 a little, however, at some of the phrases which 

 are unfamiliar to us, such as the chick's egg or 

 the chicken's ^fg^. Why not the hen's &%%, and 

 be done with it? 



Of the many features which are admirable, we 

 may give a few illustrations : (a) There is an em- 

 barrassment of living creatures in many country 

 places. The author's plan is to make sure of the 

 commonest — let Uo say, a score of the butter- 

 flies, birds, or frees, {h) There are many subjects 

 which are so little understood that the cautious 

 teacher is often inclined to leave them alone. The 

 author's advice is rather to tackle them, to con- 

 fess them as unsolved problems, and to leave 

 them as seeds in. the mind. We refer to such 

 subjects as the migration of birds, (c) The author 

 NO. 2619, VOL. 104] 



is not afraid of sounding the note of wonder. 

 "To watch the germination of an inert seed, the 

 development therefrom of the tiny plant, the 

 growth of bursting bud and flower, is to cross 

 the threshold of Nature's impenetrable mysteries." 

 He quotes the sentence : "The love of a flower in 

 the heart of a child is the highest thing that 

 Nature-study can hope to develop." But the sug- 

 gestion of this mood is not inconsistent with learn- 

 ing quite precisely how to graft or with under- 

 standing the work of Mendel or of Pasteur. We 

 are sure that teachers of Nature-study will find 

 Mr. Downing 's book very profitable, and they 

 ought also to know his almost perfect introduction 

 to heredity, "The Third and Fourth Generation." 



VA CCINE-THERAPY. 



Practical Vaccine Treatment for the General Prac- 

 titioner. By Dr. R. W. Allen. Pp. xii -1-308. 

 (Lx)ndon : H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 

 Price 75. 6d. net. 



THE author of this little work is well known 

 as an enthusiastic advocate of vaccine- 

 therapy, on which subject he has already written 

 widely. In the present volume he addresses him- 

 self more particularly to the general practitioner, 

 for whose benefit and guidance he explains in 

 lucid and forcible terms his methods and practice. 

 The one theme which runs through the whole 

 volume, and colours his frequent comments on 

 the experience and teaching of other vaccinists, 

 is his insistence on the necessity for adequate 

 dosage capable of exciting focal or general re- 

 actions and its control by the closest observation 

 of the patient's responses and clinical symptoms. 

 He asks his readers to follow his methods and 

 thereby assist vaccine-therapy " to take its rightful 

 position as the most truly scientific therapeutic 

 agent in the doctor's armamentarium." Unfor- 

 tunately, however, the book contains scarcely one 

 pessimistic note, and, again,- ,the unbiassed reader, 

 who otherwise wishes vaccine-therapy well, is left 

 with the reflection that, so long as the results of 

 vaccine-therapy continue to Ije assessed by the un- 

 scientifically accumulated personal impressions of 

 vaccinists, so long will vaccine-therapy continue to 

 hold no higher po.sition than that of an empirical 

 remedy, in spite of its undoubted scientific basis. 



On this point the author, referring to vaccine 

 treatment in respiratory diseases, remarks : " No 

 physician has the right to play about with cases 

 of pneumonia to satisfy statisticians or opponents 

 of vaccine treatment. It thus becomes necessary 

 to rely on the clinical impressions of reliable 

 observers." Such impressions, we believe, carry 

 less and less weight when we come to evaluate 



