BOOK REVIEWS 289 



nature-study was a fad and have regarded manual training, agri- 

 culture, and elementary science with more or less of contempt. 

 Such principals have had great influence in keeping the feminine 

 n\ind at its ladylike tasks in the schoolroom. I know many 

 teachers who would have been excellent naturalists if their tastes 

 and interests had not thus been swerved into literary ways. 



But, with the growth of appreciation of life out of doors, with 

 teachers and pupils spending their vacation in camps, the outlook 

 of the elementary teacher is surely changing. The feminine mind 

 doubtless lacks somewhat the investigating quality of the mas- 

 culine, but the feminine eye is keen and feminine curiosity is a 

 pretty fair equivalent of the powers of investigation. My experi- 

 ence in field work with women students makes me entirely optimis- 

 tic as to the future of nature-study, as soon as the elementary 

 teachers have a fair chance both as to proper education and a 

 freedom in curriculum, not so crowded with "musts" as to squeeze 

 out all "wish to's." Manual training and agriculture are both 

 efficient wedges, which driven into the tight and fast educational 

 edifice will surely open the doors for the teachers to come out and 

 for nature-study to enter in. 



The growth of nature-study in the schools of the United States 

 and Canada has been during the last ten years slow, but steady and 

 satisfactory. 



In some later number of the Review I hope to place before the 

 eyes of the members of the Nature-Study Society of America, news 

 based upon facts that will surely make their hearts glad. 



Anna Botsford Comstock. 



Book Reviews 



Feehle-Mindedness: Its Causes and Consequences. By H. H. 

 Goddard. pp. xii + 529. Macmillan Company. $4.00. 

 There have been reviewed in this magazine during the past year 

 or two a number of the books dealing with the problem of heredity 

 and our readers who are interested in the subject will appreciate 

 the notice of this excellent publication. Mr. Goddard is director 

 of the research laboratory of the Training School for Fceble- 

 Minded Boys and Girls at Vineland, New Jersey. The data which 

 he has brought together are exceedingly valuable and his conclu- 

 sions are socially of much importance. His first chapter deals 

 with the social problems in connection with the feeble-minded, — 



