606 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 303. 



Mile. Joteyko made it probable that the 

 nerve centers are much more resistant to 

 fatigue than the peripheral motor organs. 



Schuyten reported, from the pedological 

 bureau of the city of Antwerp (a unique 

 institution), a series of tests of the muscular 

 strength (grip) of pupils throughout the 

 school year. In order to eliminate the ef- 

 fects of increase in age, he ascertained the 

 age in months of each child, and tested him 

 only in the month when he had a certain 

 age, viz, 8 years 9 months in one series, 9 

 years 9 months in another. The results 

 for the two series, and for girls and boys, 

 showed a close parallelism. There was a 

 gradual increase in strength from October 

 to January, a fall from January to March 

 and a rise again to June or July. March 

 was the weakest month, June and July the 



ISTetchaeff, of St. Petersburg, reported on 

 some tests of the memory of school children 

 for various sorts of impressions : objects 

 seen, objects heard, names recalling visual, 

 auditory or tactile impressions, names of 

 emotions, abstract names and numbers. He 

 found the memory to be best for objects 

 seen, and next best for names of visual im- 

 pressions ; it was poorest, up to the age of 

 12 or 14, for names of emotions, and beyond 

 that age for numbers and abstract names. 

 The memory for numbers was always about 

 as strong as for abstract names ; and the 

 increase in power to remember these two 

 was, from 9 to 18 years of age, rather slight. 

 The increase was greatest in case of objects 

 seen and of words denoting emotions. The 

 rapidity of the growth of memory fell off at 

 puberty. The boys excelled the girls in 

 remembering objects, the girls excelled in 

 remembering names and numbers. 



Psychical research was thoroughly ven- 

 tilated at the Congress. Flournoy presented 

 his observations on the celebrated medium 

 Helen Smith. Myers and others testified 

 to the remarkable revelations made by Mrs. 



Thompson — who, by the way, was pres- 

 ent at the meetings, and certainly did not 

 give one the impression of anything ab- 

 normal or uncanny. Encausse described 

 some electrical apparatus for automatically 

 recording the movements of mediums dur- 

 ing a trance, so that their movements may 

 be known, without the embarrassing pres- 

 ence of a scientific observer. Baraduc and 

 others expounded queer ideas and demon- 

 strated queerer-seeming facts relating to 

 ' psychic exteriorization,' etc. Finally, a 

 new psychical research society, the Institut 

 Psychique, designed to have an international 

 following, wasinaugurated. 



N"o great amount of new apparatus was 

 exhibited at the Congress. Sommer pre- 

 sented some ingenious instruments for re- 

 cording movements in three dimensions of 

 the hand or leg, also for measuring the size 

 of the pupil in reactions to light, emotions, 

 etc. Scripture exhibited some of his color 

 demonstration apparatus. In addition to 

 this, Binet showed us his laboratory at the 

 Sorbonne, equipped largely for the registra- 

 tion of movements, pulse changes, etc. ; and 

 Toulouse invited us out to the Asylum at 

 Villejiuf, where he has installed a psycho- 

 logical laboratory equipped with several new 

 forms of apparatus for testing sensations. 



All the Parisian psychologists, in fact, 

 were extremely hospitable. The visitors 

 had every opportunity to meet them and 

 each other, and the sociability of the Con- 

 gress was one of its most successful features. 



E. S. WOODWORTH. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Elements de paleobotanique. By E. Zeiller. 



Paris, 1900. Carre et Naud. 8vo. Pp. 417. 



Illustrated. 



The remarkable increase in accessions to our 

 knowledge of fossil plants, which has taken 

 place within the last two decades, coupled with 

 a similar advance in our knowledge of existing 

 species, and a recognition that a proper correla- 



