940 TRANSACTIONS OV SfiCTION L. 



Much that school or college teacli — for example, the kind of zoologf aud botany 

 taught to medical students — does not link up Avith the experiences of the sub- 

 sequent career, and therefore is forgotten as soon as may be, and consequently is 

 useless. 



There is a persistent and growing demand for the substitution of scientific for 

 classical study. Unfortunately all that is meant in many instances by scientific 

 teaching is mere science teaching — the mere cramming of pupils with scientific 

 facts without regard to the likelihood of their being remembered, and without 

 care being taken that they are used as materials of thought. It is possible, 

 however, to choose scientific data which link up with the experiences of subse- 

 quent life, because they give a deeper and clearer meaning to them ; because they 

 help to unify the world the mind creat-es, and therefore furnish ideal materials 

 for acquiring intellectual dexterity. Only after scientific subjects are scientifically 

 taught shall we be able to demonstrate to the world that the teaching of science 

 is, as it actually is, the best means of creating intelligence. 



(ii) Influence of Mental Values of Types of Edncalion. 

 By Professor E. P. Culverwell, F.T.C.D. 



"While the application of psychology to the practice of education has doubtless 

 heen of great service, there is a dangerous tendency not only to investigate but to 

 decide questions of curriculum and method on purely psychological grounds. The 

 chief object of this paper is to show that this claim is invalid, and that even our 

 limited knowledge of physiology can give us help in criticising psychological 

 arguments. 



The psychological discussion of a question may be as exhaustive as possible, 

 and yet may omit the determining fiictor ; for psychology can never be a science 

 complete in itself. This follows from the fact that changes in mental states may 

 be due to physiological changes which have no mental counterpart — e.g., the 

 whole mental outlook may be changed by a dreamless sleep. 



Whether mental conditions are wholly determined when the physiological 

 conditions are given is unknown ; yet the following assumptions may be generally 

 accepted : — 



1 . There is no mental change without a corresponding passage of energy 



from one region of the brain to another; 



2. To every difference in mental action there corresponds a difference in the 



mode of this passage of energy, 

 .'i. Whenever a mental state is revived there is some revival of the corre- 

 sponding passage of energy. In particular we may assume that if the 

 whole mental state is vividly revived, then the original nervous action 

 is closely repeated ; if the revival is but faint or pnrtial, then the 

 corresponding nervous disturbance or oscillation is faint or partial 

 compared with the original one. 



These assumptions can be applied to a destructive criticism of the psychological 

 argument against the theory of formal education. It follows from them that 

 there is a marked physiological difference between what we commonly speak of as 

 superficial thought on the one hand and deep thinking on the other, and that 

 experience alone can exonerate the method of interest from the charge of pro- 

 ducing superficial rather than deep thinking. 



For consider the difference between concrete aud abstract thought. Concrete 

 thinking, if mere recollection, implies the revival in its natural form of the 

 ]ierve disturbance which originally passed. It also includes a comparison of 

 two ideas in regard to a common element which is strong in both. Tfiis is a less 

 complicated operation than to compare them in regard to an element which is 

 weak in both. In the former case the excitation follows the natural path — what 

 we may describe as the path of least natural resistance. In the latter case, 

 however, the excitation has to be of a very special character: it must be so 

 arranged as not to excite the more vigorous — and therefore, as we should suppose, 



