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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 803 



thing. It is comparable only to the con- 

 stant peripheral stimulation which is nec- 

 essary to keep us awake; in like manner 

 a social stimulus is necessary as an internal 

 condition, as we may say, of conscious- 

 ness. 



Perhaps the fundamental character of 

 this social stimulus is seen best in the case 

 of persons who are in solitude. The 

 pathetic devices of prisoners, for example, 

 their custom of making pets of mice, flies, 

 or anything found in their cells, and their 

 interest in any form of activity — all these 

 are attempts to make some symbolic sub- 

 stitute of activities having social value 

 for the lack of direct social stimulus. The 

 making of things having a social value 

 seems to appeal to them. 



Griffith, for example, says that solitary 

 confinement is "so good an instructor that 

 very little time is needed for teaching 

 prisoners a trade. They go to work with- 

 out squares, gravers, stamps, patterns or 

 models. Every scrap of glass or metal, 

 every nail and pin turns to account as a 

 tool. Waste from the shop, bones from 

 the kitchen, waLaut, cocoanut and acorn 

 shells," etc., serve as materials.' But this 

 along with many other pathetic devices to 

 which prisoners resort are means of saving 

 them from the misery of solitude. This 

 does not seem due entirely to the satisfac- 

 tion of the instinct of activity, but in part 

 to the satisfaction given symbolically to 

 the social instincts. 



The social instincts are so strong In 

 children that if they are so unfortunate 

 as to be largely isolated from others they 

 are apt to create imaginary companions 

 and to live in a dream world of society. 



The aim of this paper is to present the 



° Small, Maurice H., " On some Psychical Rela- 

 tions of Society and Solitude," Pedagogical Sem- 

 inary, April, 1900, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 13-69. 



problem. Let me for a moment, however, 

 hint at a wider point of view. 



The investigations referred to have 

 chiefly concerned the mere presence or ab- 

 sence of other individuals performing 

 similar tasks. In a true social group the 

 relations are more vital. Each individual 

 feels a responsibility and performs some 

 service for the group. Here the stimulus 

 is likely to be greater. Perhaps the great- 

 est stimulus to mental activity from the 

 group is social success to those who can 

 achieve it. 



Both experiment and observation have 

 shown the great stimulus resulting from 

 success in general. Social beings that we 

 are, no form of success is so stimulating as 

 a social success. When we reflect that 

 under present conditions many of the chil- 

 dren in our schools are so placed that a 

 social success is impossible we see the sig- 

 nificance of this point. 



Not to mention the frequent domination 

 of the class group by the teacher and the 

 artificial relations often existing in our 

 school recitations, as shown so vividly by 

 Dr. Scott, the many defects of school chil- 

 dren shown by modern studies in school 

 hygiene often make social success impos- 

 sible. 



Among the pathetic tragedies of child- 

 hood are the cases of those who never can 

 achieve success because of defect — the 

 child with defective vision who can not 

 see the blackboard, the deaf child who can 

 not hear the teacher, the child tormented 

 with headache or toothache, the child whose 

 brain nutrition is reduced by nasal obstruc- 

 tions, the sensitive child, the misunder- 

 stood child, and the whole list of nervous 

 defectives. 



An important relation between the de- 

 velopment and integrity of the sense or- 

 gans and mental efficiency has been shown 

 by a number of investigations. A large 



