June 30, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



909 



division on isotony and other osmotic plie- 

 nomena of the cell, and there is another sub- 

 division in physiological chemistry on ' semi- 

 permeability and physiological properties 

 of colloids, ' but I am at a loss to find where 

 experiments on the osmotic properties of 

 muscles or connective tissues, etc., could be 

 properly catalogued. It seems to me that 

 fuller provision should be made for the 

 whole realm of the application of physical 

 chemistry to physiology. 



3. It seems to me, further, that provision 

 should be made for the facts of physiolog- 

 ical morphology. By pliysiological mor- 

 phology I mean the energetics of the phe- 

 nomena of organization. Physiology has 

 thus far chiefly been a study of the phenom- 

 ena of irritability. But there can be no doubt 

 that phenomena of growth, irritability and 

 metabolism are so thoroughly interwoven 

 that neither metabolism nor irritability can 

 be fully understood without taking into 

 consideration the phenomena of growth. 

 For instance, only the active muscle is able 

 to undergo hypertrophia. The resting 

 muscle atrophies. It is evident that con- 

 tractility and growth are in some way con- 

 nected. In plants the heliotropic and other 

 curvatures are connected with the phe- 

 nomena of gi'owth. It is even possible that 

 our inability to explain contractility is due 

 to the fact that we have not yet taken into 

 consideration the phenomena of growth. 

 Furthermore, I do not quite see where in 

 the present catalogue such experiments on 

 physiological morphology as those on 

 heteromorphosis (the experimental substi- 

 tution of one organ for another) could be 

 mentioned. Physiological morphology in- 

 cludes also the physiological analysis of 

 heredity. The field of physiological mor- 

 phology is wider and certainly more funda- 

 mental than the present physiology of 

 nerves and muscles. 



Jacques Loeb. 

 Univeesity of Chicago. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Talks to Teachers on Psychology, and to Students 

 on some of Life's Ideals. By William James. 

 New York, Henry Holt & Co. 1899. 

 In his first chapter Professor James discusses 

 the relation of psycliology to the teachiug art. 

 We have so many statements from non-psy- 

 chologists concerning what psychology may do 

 for teaching that it is pleasant to hear what a 

 psychologist himself has to say on the subject. 

 In the first place, it is pointed out that sciences 

 do not directly generate arts. The study of 

 logic does not make a thinker, nor that of 

 grammar a correct speaker ; so the study, even 

 the mastery, of psychology does not insure suc- 

 cess in teaching. A science and its correspond- 

 ing art can be brought together only by means 

 of a mediator ; that is, a mind full of tact and 

 invention for the application of the rules of the 

 science to the practice of the art. Given a 

 skilful mediator, psychology can be of the great- 

 est aid to teaching. This is especially true in 

 this country, where the system is so elastic that 

 it becomes a vast laboratory for educational 

 experiment. To this advantage we have the 

 concomitant circumstance of a body of psychol- 

 ogists anxious to instruct another body of 

 teachers eager to learn. 



Incidentally, in this chapter, Professor James 

 attempts to allay the pangs of bad conscience 

 in those teachers who have been made to feel 

 that they must contribute to child psychology 

 or be unworthy their calling. He heartily 

 agrees with Professor Miinsterberg that the 

 psychologist's attitude toward mind must be 

 abstract and analytical, whereas the teacher's 

 should be concrete and ethical. Haunted by 

 Emerson's lines — 



" When duty whispers lo, thou must. 

 The youth replies, I can," 



the conscientious teacher is pained that she does 

 not. But Professor James eases this pain by 

 intimating gently that obligation is obviated by 

 inability. 



The second chapter contains an abridgement 

 of Professor James's well-known description of 

 the Stream of Consciousness, while the third 

 and fourth chapters are devoted to conduct as 

 the outcome of education. 



