98 



NA TURE 



[December 5, 189; 



said in his evidence to the Duke of Devonshire's Com- 

 mission, " Our statesmen do not appreciate properly the 

 •value of scientific advice or scientific inquiry, and they 

 are very much fonder of experiments made upon a large 

 scale with no defined system, than they are of experiments 

 which have been brought out as the result of a carefully 

 studied previous inquirj'." This is as true now as it was 

 twenty years ago, and probably many hundreds of millions 

 which might have been gained have been sacrificed in 

 consequence. 



The Times pointed out last week that, on his first 

 appearance as Member for Foreign Affairs, M. Berthelot 

 asked for money for the establishment of six new con- 

 sulates in China. M. Berthelot may be properly described 

 as the most original living chemist ; he is certainly also 

 the most prolific in ideas. As his Government will prob- 

 ably soon be thrown out in the natural course of affairs 

 l-'rench, it might be well for us to consider whether a man 

 who is capable of conceiving so daring an idea imme- 

 diately on entering into political office might not — 

 although a member of a class considered incapable of 

 governing in this country — be invited over here to leaven 

 our public service. 



Reflections such as these should, however, give food 

 for thought, not only to men of affairs, but also to those 

 who are engaged in scientific work, and should lead the 

 latter to ask themselves whether they are doing their 

 duty in all respects — and this is especially the case at a 

 time when we are seeking to appraise the value of 

 Huxley's labours. Important as was his scientific work, 

 and much as we are disposed to agree with Mr. Balfour 

 as to the inestimable public service he rendered in 

 making the doctrine of evolution plain and popular, the 

 work he did in displaying the meaning of scientific 

 method to people generally was, if possible, of even 

 greater value. Yet how few follow his example — how 

 few are prepared to be unselfish and to withdraw them- 

 selves from the fascination of their private investigations 

 to labour in the cause which Huxley and also Kingsley 

 made holy. If more had followed their example, we 

 should now have far less cause to deplore the failure to 

 apply scientific method in the public service which has 

 led to the present break-down. 



THE GROWTH OF THE BRAIN. 

 The Growth of the Brain. A Study of the Nenwus 

 System in Relation to Education. By H. H. Donaldson, 

 Professor of Neurology in the University of Chicago. 

 "Contemporary Science Series." (London: Walter 

 Scott, 1895.) 



THE " populariser " of science (who differs widely 

 in kind from a Helmholtz or a Tyndall — the writers 

 of popular science) labours under great disadvantages. 

 He is compelled to give a scissors-and-paste account of 

 the work done by other people in different departments, 

 and to summarise a number of perfectly distinct mono- 

 graphs, omitting all the experimental evidence which 

 alone gives value to the conclusions. He must not 

 express any original criticism, and he usually has to 

 bring in a moral. To say the best of it, he writes about 

 science with an object, whereas science must be trodden 

 for itself, like a Swiss mountain. It is a little sad to 

 NO. 1362, VOL. 53] 



think that neurology is going to have an object — judging 

 from the essay before us. It will become the lumber- 

 room for histological details, weight statistics, architec- ■ 

 tural dimensions, a little physiology — very liitle — and 

 some educational cobwebs to weave them all together. 

 But such a collection should at least be up to date at the 

 time it is offered to the public. An account of " localisation 

 of cerebral function," with no reference to Munk and 

 Goltz, no suggestion that opinions differ as to the extent 

 of localisation, or that the expression " sensory 7>s motor" 

 (tracts), has previously been termed "misleading," no 

 hint that in the absence of the higher centres, func- 

 tion may be taken on by the lower, in any less long- 

 suffering animal than the " brainless frog," does not lead 

 one to anticipate much neurological pabulum. 



The account of nutrition, again, is very inadequate ; cell 

 diffusion is referred to in almost purely mechanical 

 terms, with little reference to the physiological activity 

 of the epithelium. "Thyroid feeding," too, is casually intro- 

 duced in a foot-note, with a couple of references to medical 

 journals. Yet Brown-Sequard's name is not unknown, and 

 we have lately heard a good deal about "internal secretion." 

 Nor is the account of metabolism in the nerve-fibre very 

 satisfactory. We are told that " it is possible to assume 

 that there are metabolic changes which have not yet been 

 detected, or that the nerve impulse is not accompanied 

 by such changes." And again : " Physiologists have been 

 busy at the same time seeking to determine how far the 

 passage of a nerve impulse along a fibre causes fatigue- 

 changes in it";. (no conclusion given). 



Another loose statement is to the effect that the beat 

 of the heart is an example of the automaticity of the 

 nervous system. How then does it come about that 

 rhythmic contractility appears in the embryonic heart 

 before the nervous system has been developed ? 



Weismann has been assimilated, and is written out 

 large for the "growth period of races dnd nations" : so 

 that, as Prof. Donaldson says, " the germ-plasm wears 

 the appearance of immortality." 



But we look in vain for any reference to recent French 

 studies in experimental psychology, in which there is a 

 fund of suggestion for " the parent, the teacher, and the 

 physician," who are to " seek light " from the " facts within 

 these covers." The question of types of perception — and 

 of memory — is one of the most interesting in modern 

 educational psychology. Instances are being classified 

 every day of the visual, or auditive, or motor tempera- 

 ment ; and surely we all know which is the particular 

 language of our own translation of experience ? Yet 

 Prof Donaldson can only suggest that " it is now recog- 

 nised that thought can be carried on in terms of the 

 several senses. In this connection Fraser {^Am. J. of 

 Psychol.., 1892) has made an examination of certain philo- 

 sophic writers, which indicate that particular writers, or 

 schools, prefer sense-images of one mode in their specu- 

 lative thought, and he suggests that much of the failure 

 to be mutually comprehensible depends on the fact that 

 tactual and visual images, for example, are by no means 

 capable of being manipulated in the same manner, and 

 hence that relations conceivable in the terms of one are 

 often not so in those of the other. With the employment 

 of one sort of mental image comes precision ; but it is 

 precision gained at the price of limitations Fortunately 



