766 



SCIENCE 



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



development show such correspondence, (2) the 

 psychic life of the child centers from the 

 first about the higher senses, especially sight, 

 not the lower. 



The Pedagogical Conclusions, Part IV., are 

 all interesting, most of them are well- 

 grounded, some of them are novelties or at 

 variance with current practise and doctrine. 

 But Dr. Shinn does not prescribe with undue 

 confidence ; pedagogy is still too much a matter 

 of individual opinion, of more or less, of the 

 true or false, practical or impractical, accord- 

 ing to circumstances, to warrant laying down 

 iron-clad rules for the management of infants. 

 She does, however, offer a few general prin- 

 ciples and a few special suggestions : (1) 

 Nature herself will, in the main, attend to 

 sense education. (2) Nothing in the infant's 

 environment educates it as does the human 

 presence. . . . The baby who is left lying on 

 the bed alone a great deal, does not develop 

 as brightly, and learn to use his senses happily 

 as soon, as the baby that is cooed over and 

 played with. (3) The secret of happy and 

 wholesome development in the early years 

 seems to be mainly in giving the largest pos- 

 sibility of free action. (4) When the child 

 reaches the stage of instruction " tasks must 

 be set, and efforts must be made." (5) The 

 superficial recapitulation theory that a child 

 is " only a little animal," and in no need of 

 human education, often leads to harmful 

 neglect of the early years. (6) The child can 

 and probably should be taught before the end 

 of the second year the names of all the simple 

 plane figures, the alphabet, the Arabic figures, 

 and to discriminate and name the principal 

 colors. 



It may safely be said that the 682 octavo 

 pages of the two volumes before us, together 

 with the volume on " The Biography of a 

 Baby," published in 1900, and a number _ of 

 magazine articles, entitle Dr. Shinn to the 

 distinction of having made the largest, and, 

 in certain respects, the most important con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of the mental life 

 of babies ; and, somewhat incidentally, she has 

 given us data and interpretations of no slight 

 value in the treatment of the problems of 

 functional and analytic psychology. It is 



clear that Dr. Shinn has not exhausted her 

 store of data. Students of infancy and child- 

 hood will welcome forthcoming volumes, if 

 such there be, in the assurance that they will 

 contain valuable material presented in a read- 

 able form. 



To be sure, no one wiU. take up volumes 

 which trace the physical and mental develop- 

 ment of infants and expect light, summer 

 afternoon reading. As literature, books on 

 child psychology rank a little higher, but not 

 much, than laboratory guides in chemistry; 

 and for the present they are not likely to be 

 interesting except to persons who have babies 

 near at hand whom they wish to study and to 

 the specialists in psychology. 



Finally, the writer may be permitted a few 

 general observations in the way of suggestions 

 for future editions : (1) The work should take 

 account of the recent studies in this field, 

 (2) the number of repetitious passages might 

 be considerably reduced, (3) many of the foot- 

 notes should be incorporated in the text, (4) 

 a full table of contents for each volume would 

 add to the value of the work. 



David E. Major 



Ohio State University 



Nautical Charts. By G. R. Putnam, Mem. 



Am. Soc. C. E. Pp. viii-f 162 (including 



35 pages of illustrations). New York, 



John Wiley and Sons. 1908. 



The author of this book has had long ex- 

 perience in the coast and geodetic survey. 

 During the years 1900-1906 he was the di- 

 rector of coast surveys, Philippine Islands, in 

 general charge of extensive surveys made for 

 the production of nautical charts. He is now 

 in charge of the drawing and engraving di- 

 vision at the Coast and Geodetic Survey Office, 

 Washington. 



The book is written in non-technical lan- 

 guage to as great an extent as is feasible. 

 The general reader will find it clear and con- 

 cise. 



A carefully selected two-page list of the 

 more important books or papers bearing on 

 nautical charts and related subjects is given. 



A chapter (30 pages) entitled. Charts and 

 Maps, gives a short historical statement of the 



