4IO 



NA TURE 



[March 5, 1908 



work of small squares in the focus of the eyepiece 

 was another favourite device which might have 

 answered very well if the object to be measured 

 exactly fitted the side of the square. Picard seems to 

 have first imagined the use of the screw to move two 

 plates of metal, similar to the slit of a spectroscope, 

 but to measure the distance, if we correctly under- 

 stand the description, he had to detach the micrometer 

 from the telescope and place it under an ordinary 

 microscope. Hooke supplied the movable wires as an 

 improvement to Gascoigne's micrometer, and Auzout 

 introduced the divided head. Romer gave us the 

 spring to take out the " loss " of the screw, 

 Traughton added the position circle, and so the tale 

 goes on, showing the variety of processes and the 

 slowness of growth necessary to ensure the perfected 

 form that receives general acceptance. 



The processes followed in dividing the limbs of 

 graduated instruments is another subject which the 

 author's practical knowledge and great experience 

 can render peculiarly interesting, but we can say no 

 more than that in this treatise, with its admirable 

 illustrations, will be found a valuable collection of 

 facts from which one can trace that growth of 

 mechanical skill and improved technique, which have 

 ministered so materially to the progress of astro- 

 nomical science. 



NATURE AND NURTURE OF THE CHILD. 

 An Introduction to Child-study. By W. B. Drum- 



mond, M.B., CM. Pp. iii + 348. (London: 



Edward Arnold, 1907.) Price 6s. net. 

 The Child's Mind: its Growth and Training. By 



W. E. Urwick, M.A. Pp. xi + 269. (London: 



Edward Arnold, 1907.) Price 4s. 6d. net. 

 V/I R- DRUMMOND, who is already well known 

 ■'--'• as the author of a useful primer on the nature 

 and nurture of the young child, has written a more 

 ambitious book, which " aims at supplying a fairly 

 comprehensive introduction to child-study." His 

 work, therefore, necessarily covers a wide field, rang- 

 ing from facts of growth, defects of the special senses, 

 and school hygiene, by way of the instincts, habits 

 and interests of children, to their forms of expression 

 and their moral and religious characteristics. On all 

 these he writes interesting chapters prefaced by sec- 

 tions dealing with methods of investigation and other 

 introductory topics. 



On p. 87 the student is wisely warned against the 

 over-enthusiasm exhibited by " a number of workers 

 especially in America," some of whom " start with 

 no definite object in view and not unnaturally arrive 

 nowhere." It would doubtless be unfair to suggest 

 that this severe criticism applies not inaptly to the 

 child-study movement as a whole. Nevertheless, on 

 turning the last page of this book one is tempted to 

 ask whether it is possible to secure " the chief end of 

 child-study," which is, we are told, "not only to 

 collect facts about children," but also "to formulate 

 them in such a way as to make them available for 

 science and for the use of those who need them for 

 application to practical problems," so long as even 



NO. 2001, VOL. yy] 



such able exponents as Mr. Drummond give us little 

 more than a mass of materials of widely different 

 values, not always submitted to adequate criticism, 

 and illuminated from no general point of view. This 

 complaint should, however, be qualified by recognition 

 that the author can scarcely fail to encourage sympa- 

 thetic observation of children — a result with which he 

 would, apparently, be satisfied. 



B)' contrast with Mr. Drummond's book, the sys- 

 tematic unity of treatment that follows from adherence 

 to a clearly conceived point of view is the most pro- 

 minent characteristic of Mr. Urwick's. The author 

 of " The Child's Mind " sees clearly that : — 



"It is not sufficient for the purpose of education 

 merely to collect and state facts drawn from these 

 sciences [Biology, Physiology and Psychology] which 

 seem to be relevant. . . . The rays of light coming 

 from the different sciences must be focussed, passed, 

 as it were, through a common lens, in order that 

 the light thrown may be cumulative and concentrated 

 rather than sporadic." 



It may be said at once that he has performed the 

 task thus indicated in such a way as to make his 

 modestly announced " study " one of the most useful 

 pedagogical treatises of recent years. He has given 

 what is much more helpful than the best " psychology 

 for teachers " — a consistent interpretation of the educa- 

 tive process as a whole as it presents itself under the 

 more or less conventional conditions which actually 

 determine it. 



Mr. Urwick's treatment is based upon the modern 4jJ 

 concept of connation. Human behaviour can be ■ 

 analysed largely into connative processes which set 

 towards or away from objects of positive or negative 

 " immediate value." In relation to these immediate 

 values other objects of perception or thought may 

 have "final value." Education consists in the (in- 

 direct) teaching of a certain range of immediate values i 

 and the (direct) teaching of final values with refer- 

 ence to these. Thus immediate and final value replace 

 in Mr. Urwick's scheme the Herbartian notion of 

 interest. His treatment is in a sense complementary 

 to the older doctrine, of which he gives fragmentary 

 but interesting criticisms. The student will find it 

 a valuable exercise to study " The Child's Mind " 

 together with a representative exposition of the Her- 

 bartian psychology such as that of Prof. Adams. 



T. P. N. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 The Essentials of Cytology. An Introduction to the 



Study of Living Matter. With a Chapter on 



Cytological Methods. By Charles Edward Walker. 



Pp. viii + 139. (London : Archibald Constable and 



Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 

 The need for an elementary text-book on cytology has 

 been felt for some years, and Mr. Walker has 

 sought to meet it in the volume before us. There 

 is much in the book that is good. The details of 

 nuclear division in the higher forms are clearly pre- 

 sented, and the student is enabled to gain a clear idea 

 of the process by means of the admirable and in- 

 genious stereoscopic photographs which accompany 

 the volume. 



