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SCIENCE 



[N.S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 726 



in 1894. The first fifteen pages of this part 

 continue the notes on the development of 

 sight to the end of the third year. Then 

 follow notes on the development of hearing 

 (sensibility to sound, locating the direction of 

 sounds, recognition and discrimination of 

 sounds, interest in music) ; the dermal senses 

 (contact, pain, temperature) ; taste and smell. 

 Parts 3 and 4 of Vol. I., pp. 179^24, appeared 

 in 1899. Pages 179-298 report the author's 

 observations on sensations of muscular ac- 

 tivity, motion and position; organic sensa- 

 tions, and general sensation. The remaining 

 pages of parts 3 and 4 are given to reports on 

 various sorts of movements — spontaneous, 

 refiex, instinctive; equilibrium and motion 

 (which is full of data on sitting alone, creep- 

 ing, standing, walking and running) ; in- 

 stincts connected with food-taking, learning to 

 grasp with the hands, and so on. The volume 

 may be described as a rich storehouse of ac- 

 curate, minute observations relating to the 

 sensory and motor development during the 

 period of infancy. 



With respect to the sources, method and 

 purpose of Volume II., the author writes : 



My original data for the following Study have 

 come almost entirely from a journal of the devel- 

 opment of a single child [the author's niece]. . . . 

 But in the later examination of the data, I have 

 supplemented them with the observations of others. 

 My record was but little guided by any previously 

 formulated theory, or by the effort to solve any 

 previously formulated problem. ... In the main 

 I aimed only at a scrupulously objective record 

 of the facts of development, as they appeared quite 

 spontaneously. 



The data thus collected were classified and 

 published as Volume I. of the " Notes," as 

 indicated above. 



The purpose of Volume II. is to summarize 

 and interpret the previously published observa- 

 tions relating to the development of the 

 senses. By " interpretation " the author 

 means tracing " the development of the senses 

 from stage to stage, with reference to the 

 genetic relationship of these stages, and the 

 process by which each unfolds from the pre- 

 ceding " ; the search for a general law of this 

 unfolding ; the consideration of " the bearing 



of any results thus reached on current prob- 

 lems of psychology"; and, finally, the author 

 formulates, as corollaries, the pedagogical sug- 

 gestions of the study. 



Of the two methods which have been em- 

 ployed in the study of infancy — the compara- 

 tive and the biographical — Dr. Shinn regards 

 the latter " thoroughly checked and corrected 

 by comparison " as " the true one for the study 

 of children of the earliest period." Experi- 

 mental investigation, no doubt, is sometimes 

 necessary, but it is just as well, in the author's 

 opinion, that the study of infancy " should 

 wait a while for any considerable experimental 

 investigation, and should depend for the pres- 

 ent on pure observation." The next step is 

 quite easy and natural; namely, to banish 

 from the field of child-study all mere scien- 

 tists — psychologists and physiologists — and 

 declare child-study to be a new and inde- 

 pendent science. And this, in a sense, the 

 author does. She observes that " a deep 

 knowledge of adult psychology," has not been 

 particularly helpful in the study of infancy, 

 and expresses the opinion that the most solid 

 and valuable contributions to our knowledge 

 of babies, so far, have come not from psy- 

 chologists, but from physiologists." Leaving 

 aside the differences of opinion which may 

 exist as to the relative importance of the 

 contributions of psychologists and physiol- 

 ogists to child-study, it may be said that the 

 reason assigned for the statement of the 

 text — that in genetic psychology " the genetic 

 element outweighs the psychologic " (Vol. II., 

 p. 7) — seems to rest upon a curious misap- 

 prehension of the province and scope of 

 modern psychology in general, and of the 

 problems and methods of genetic psychology 

 in particular. But, on the other hand, the 

 physiologist. Dr. Shinn believes, can not guide 

 the future of child-study, for he " stops short 

 of the real point of interest in child develop- 

 ment, the germination of the higher psychic 

 activities." With the psychologists and phys- 

 iologists both repelled from this new territory, 

 and no invasions being threatened from other 

 quarters, child-study may be free to develop 

 " in the main its own theoretic basis," (1) by 

 gathering a large mass of data by observation 



