UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 455 



and left hand, both from the body and toward the body. It is 

 found that Indians are the shortest reactors, but they can not 

 make the movements of the arms much more rapidly than whites 

 or blacks. Experiments are also being made for the purpose of 

 studying the effect of mental states upon muscle contractions. If 

 the tendon just below the knee-cap be struck, it is known that the 

 foot kicks out. This is called the knee-jerk. It varies greatly 

 from time to time in amount. Mental conditions affect it ; a sound 

 or an intense light will increase it. Many experiments show that 

 a mental state instantaneously alters the conditions of muscle 

 contractions, even though such muscle contractions be not directly 

 associated with that mental state. 



Pedagogy is a subject closely related to philosophy and psy- 

 chology, but its introduction into American universities is com- 

 paratively recent. Probably the University of Michigan first 

 demonstrated what could be done in a strictly professional way 

 to fit young men and women for the best positions in the school 

 system, when, in 1879, the department of the Science and Art of 

 Teaching was organized. The subject was brought into promi- 

 nence at the University of Pennsylvania in 1891, when the Public 

 Education Association of Philadelphia appropriated two hundred 

 and fifty dollars toward the establishment of a chair of Pedagogy 

 in the university. This was followed by a sufficient appropria- 

 tion by the university to establish such a professorship, begin- 

 ning in the autumn of 1894. Dr. Martin G. Brumbough was 

 jailed to the chair, and in one year the wisdom of establishing 

 the new department has been demonstrated. Graduate courses in 

 Le institutes and the history of education are offered, besides 

 r hich there is a Saturday class open to the teachers of Phila- 

 lelphia and vicinity. The enlargement of university Pedagogy 

 tas been one of the great needs of the State and the nation, and 

 the present movement will result in calling to the university the 

 )est men to examine these questions in their universal relations 

 md study education as philosophy. 



While the departments of History and Politics are not within 

 Le scope of this paper, the sociological field work, recently begun 

 >y Dr. Samuel M. Lindsay, of the Wharton School of Finance and 

 Economy, promises results of the greatest interest to science, and 

 leserves a brief discussion here. Dr. Lindsay studied sociological 

 lethods in Paris and other European cities. In 1894, Prof. M. 

 iheysson, of the Ecole libre des sciences politiques at Paris, made 

 splendid beginning in the way of sociological field work. With 

 Lis students, regular excursions were made to the shops, schools, 

 restaurants, stores, and factories of the city. In every case the 

 students came away with valuable impressions and new light on 

 the many problems of the management of labor. At present Dr. 



