December io, 1908 J 



NA TURE 



155 



of my spatial environment. As M. Seailles puts it, 

 the experience of the children of the poor may often 

 be such that moral instruction will seem like fairv- 

 tales, only not nearly so amusing. Where there is 

 antagonism between life and the school, the handicap 

 is heavily against the school, and we may doubt 

 whether the weight of words will improve the chances 

 of success. 



What of the child in happier circumstances? Is not 

 the teacher's moral analysis likelv to be viewed as 

 a rather futile attempt to find excuses for the obvious? 

 Is there any more reason for the child why we should 

 demonstrate the inherent evil in this or that course of 

 conduct, or why we should trouble ourselves to urge 

 the good upon him as superior to the evil, than that 

 we should give him reasons for calling an orange 

 j-ellow and not black? 



The whole question of the attitude of the child 

 tii moral instruction has received relatively little 

 scientific consideration. It is not easy to get at the 

 facts. Mere reminiscence can never satisfactorilv 

 reveal them. We need some objective methods of 

 inquiry such as have already been foreshadowed in 

 til? pedagogical experiments of Meumann and others. 

 The development of purposefulness in action, the 

 study of the working of contrariant ideas, the de- 

 termination of types, the analysis of cases of moral 

 degeneracy, may all in their turn help to raise the 

 discussion of moral education to something more 

 nearly approaching a scientific level. 



The most striking cases of successful methods seem 

 .'it present to come from the institutions engaged in 

 the education of moral degenerates. The results of 

 the reformatory and industrial school system offer 

 striking testimon)- to the soundness of Prof. James's 

 reply when asked what he would do to make educa- 

 tion of greater ethical effect : — " Increase enormouslv 

 the amount of manual training relatively to the book 

 "ork." J. A. Green. 



ClAMME. 



•mate, considcrcii cspitUiUy in Relation to Man. 

 By Prof. Robert de Courcy Ward. Pp. xv+372. 

 (London : John Murray, 1908.) Price 65-. net. 



"OROF. W.ARD explains in the preface to his book 

 -»- that its aim is " to coordinate and to set forth 

 clearly and systematically the broader facts of climate 

 in such a way that ... the general reader, although 

 not trained in ' the technicalities of the science,' mav 

 find it easy to appreciate them," while " the needs of 

 the teacher and student have been kept constantly in 

 mind." .\n introductory chapter, essentiallv a synopsis 

 of the first six chapters of vol. i. of Hann's " Klima- 

 tologie," gives an outline of the climatic elements 

 and of solar and physical climate. The classification 

 of climates according to belts of latitude and the 

 general distribution of land and sea is next dealt 

 with, and to this section is added a brief account of 

 some of the more elaborate subdivisions which have 

 been proposed. Then follow sections on the char- 

 acteristics of climate in the tropics, the temperate 

 NO. 2041. VOL. 7()| 



zones, and the polar zones; on the hygiene of the 

 zones, and on the life of man in the zones; and a 

 final chapter on changes of climate. 



The basis of classification of climates actually 

 adopted by the author, and employed in the second 

 or applied section of his treatise, is thus primarily 

 that of tropical, temperate, and polar zones, with 

 boundaries defined by wind systems rather than by 

 parallels of latitude or isothermal lines. Each zone 

 is then subdivided according to the distribution of 

 land and sea, giving as types marine, windward, and 

 leeward coastal climates, interior climates, and, as 

 a separate group, mountain climates. Experience has 

 shown that, for general purposes, and particularly 

 for elementary teaching, this method, in one form or 

 anolher, is by far the most satisfactory, and it seems 

 somewhat unfortunate that Prof. Ward does not state 

 his own position more clearly and fully in his intro- 

 ductory chapters. The more elaborate methods, the 

 description of which is here necessarily so condensed 

 as to make difficult reading, are admittedly unsuit- 

 able for the purposes of the later sections of the 

 book, and practicall)' no use is made of them, but 

 Prof. Ward deals with the method he himself employs 

 in a couple of pages, and we are left in some un- 

 certainty concerning his own views. 



The descriptions given of the characteristics of 

 the main climatic regions are admirable, and Prof. 

 W'ard has brought together an immense amount of 

 illustrative matter which has hitherto been inacces- 

 sible to the ordinary reader. We could have wished, 

 however, to see greater definiteness given to the 

 normal position and extent of the major zones and 

 their migrations by the insertion of a table similar 

 to that given by Prof. Davis in his " Elementary 

 Meteorology," showing the position of the equatorial 

 belt and the trade wind belts at different seasons. 

 Such a statement would, by the way, have made it 

 easy to deal more adequately with the important 

 question of the geographical and seasonal distribu- 

 tion of tropical cyclones. The distribution of monsoon 

 regions seems also scarcely to receive the treatment 

 it deserves; monsoon "belts" are discussed under 

 the heading of tropical climates, the extension of 

 monsoons in north-eastern Asia being nierelv referred 

 to as an exception. The profound influence of the 

 relief of the land in the production of monsoons and 

 land and sea breezes is not emphasised, nor, in our 

 opinion, is the importance of what mav be termed 

 " monsoonal influence " sufficientlv recognised. 



In the chapters describing the mode of life and 

 occupations of mankind in different climates, Prof. 

 Ward has again collected a wealth of illustration 

 which affords extremely interesting reading, and will 

 b2 of great value to the teacher. A good deal of 

 matter, especially where the complex conditions of 

 civilised life in the temperate zones are concerned, 

 refers more to general geography than to climatologv 

 pure and simple, and considerable discussion might 

 arise on the question of the precise significance of the 

 climatic element in certain cases, but, on the whole, 

 Inf. Ward avoids the dangerous pitfalls which beset 

 this subject with great skill. 



