4 
already published by the author some eighteen years 
)JANUARY.14,-1904] 
NATURE 
245 
| 
well pronounced, for changes in the general feeling 
or emotional tone of the individual. Now, in the first 
place, it is impossible to rule out changes in emotional | 
tone altogether during any period of intellectual 
activity. Emotional tone is always present and 
always changing, obviously so where, as in several of 
Prof. Gley’s experiments, the intellectual work con- 
sisted in reading. Secondly, even if we could main- 
tain a constant state of feeling, we should still be 
ignorant how far changes in the blood-circulation 
accompanying purely (!) intellectual activity are due 
to the aforesaid tendency of ideas to realise themselves 
in motor activity, and how far to physiological con- 
ditions essential for the manifestation of that in- 
tellectual activity. 
The three remaining chapters of this interesting 
book are concerned with unconscious muscular move- 
ments, the muscular sense, and abnormalities in the 
sexual impulse. Embodying as they do material 
ago, they hardly call for analysis here. 
Ga S53 Wile 
OUR BOOK SHELF. 
L’Education fondée sur la Science. By C.-A. Laisant. 
Preface by Alfred Naquet. Pp. xlv+153. (Paris: | 
Félix Alcan, 1904.) Price 2.50 francs. 
THERE is a special interest attaching to this book since | 
it shows convincingly that those reforms which are | 
being urged with such conspicuous success in this | 
country are also engaging the attention, and calling 
forth the proselytising zeal, of French men of science. 
M. Laisant does not seem to have acquainted himself 
with the progress of English reform in mathematical 
teaching. Had he studied the reports of the com- 
mittees of the British Association and the Mathematical 
Association, and had he realised the widespread alter- 
ation in the mathematical syllabuses of our public ex- 
aminations, he could not have written :—‘‘ 1’éducation 
anglaise, par exemple, est sur certains points (et surtout 
en ce qui concerne la géométrie), plus pitoyable encore 
que la nétre, et elle semble avoir beaucoup plus pour 
objet de déformer l’esprit que de développer |’intelli- 
gence, lorsqu’elle impose la récitation par cceur du 
texte d’Euclide ”’ (p. 73). The suggestions made in 
M. Laisant’s discourse ‘‘ L’Initiation Mathématique ”’ 
for the improvement of mathematical teaching in 
French schools are not only familiar to our teachers, 
but are, we are glad to know, widely used by them. 
Similarly, if we judge from the address ‘‘ L’Initi- 
ation a 1’Etude des Sciences physiques,” it is clear that 
the necessity for the employment of experimental 
methods in the teaching of physics and chemistry is 
much more widely recognised with us than in France. 
One may go even farther and say that our practice is 
in advance of the ideal which M. Laisant places before 
his readers. We have learnt that the only really satis- 
factory way for a student to learn science is himself to 
enter upon simple experimental research work, and by 
his own efforts to demonstrate the truth of chemical 
and physical generalisations; M. Laisant seems to 
imply that experimental demonstration by the teacher | 
may suffice. 
_ It is possible here to refer only to a few of the | 
interesting questions raised in the other two lectures— | 
“‘ Education scientifique et Psychologie’? and ‘‘ Le 
Probléme de 1’Education.”’ We are heartily in agree- 
ment with M. Laisant that ‘‘il est certain que les | 
NO. 1785, VOL. 69 | 
| as an annual report. 
| interesting material... 
classes peu, nombreuses sont une des _ conditions 
premiéres et essentielles d’une éducation raisonnable ’’ 
(p. 97), but since this means more teachers and a corre- 
spondingly larger national expenditure, we must wait 
| in both countries for a greater belief in education on 
the part of the authorities. M. Laisant considers that 
“Venfant est un étre raisonnable; et le but le plus 
essentiel de 1’éducation ’’ is ‘‘ de développer en lui la 
faculté du raisonnement’’ (p. 66). This is, however, 
not the general experience, and Spencer’s is probably 
the wiser view that ‘“‘only after an ample fund of 
observations has been accumulated, should reasoning 
begin.”’ 
The author’s remarks on the teaching of morality 
and religion in schools will commend themselves to 
most men of science, who will agree that “ 1’éducateur 
habile, en stimulant dans l’esprit de son éleve le culte 
de la vérité, en tirant parti de tous les exemples, de 
toutes les observations, de 1l’expérience quotidienne, 
arrivera sans peine a faconner graduellement cette 
conscience d’enfant pour en faire une conscience 
humaine ”’ (p. 120). Als St 
The Museums’ Journal. Vol. ii. July, 1902, to June, 
1903. (London: Dulau and Co.) 
Wit the commencement of the present volume this 
important publication entered on a new phase of its 
existence, appearing in monthly parts instead of solely 
Although this change is un- 
doubtedly for the better, it renders much of the con- 
tents of the complete volume rather ancient news, and 
some of the articles in the one before us have already 
| received mention in our columns. 
As regards the general condition of the Museums 
| Association, it is satisfactory to learn that during the 
period covered by this report there has been a consider- 
able increase of membership, both on the part of 
museums and of associates, and that this increase in 
the finances has been further augmented owing to the 
circumstance that several museums previously on the 
list have agreed to double their subscriptions in order 
to aid in defraying the increased expenditure insepar- 
able from the monthly publication of the Journal. 
As in the case of its predecessor, the contents of this 
volume cover a very wide field indeed, embracing 
everything connected with museums and _ natural 
history and art exhibitions, including their publica- 
tions. A highly satisfactory feature is the amount of 
attention directed to rendering museums as interest- 
ing and instructive as possible to the general public, 
by whom they are maintained, and whose benefit 
should undoubtedly be their first aim and object. In 
connection with this subject we may especially refer to 
the article on the Haslemere Educational Museum, by 
Mr. E. W. Swanton, which, to judge from the 
appended plan, appears to be admirably designed and 
arranged for its purpose. In addition to general and 
local collections, this institution includes the almost 
unique feature of an aviary and a vivarium. 
Whatever may be the case in this country, in 
America, as we learn from an article by Mr. F, C. 
Baker, the introduction of numerous well written de- 
scriptive labels in museums has proved a decided 
success. ‘‘ Visitors,’’ he writes, ‘‘ have been seen to 
spend but a few moments examining cases installed 
by the old method, while a case containing some 
will be pored over for 
several hours, which fact conclusively proves that the 
| addition of carefully prepared descriptive labels is abso- 
lutely essential to the success and usefulness of a 
museum.”’ 
Labels in museums also form the subject of an 
article by Mr. F. A. Bather, who discusses certain 
difficulties in connection with the application of 
