SCIENCE 



Friday, July 7, 1911 



CONTENTS 



The Genesis of the Attention in the Educative 

 Process: Professor Edgak James Swift . 1 



The Chemists' Club: Dr. William McMur- 



TRIE 5 



The Work of the "Michael Sars" in the 

 North Atlantic in 1910: Henry B. Bigelow 7 



Scientific Notes and News 10 



University and Educational News 15 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Double-mating of Silk-worm Moths: Pro- 

 fessor W. E. Castle. What %s White and 

 Black Alkali: Professor E. W. Hilgard. 

 Metals on Metals, Wet: S. W. Dudlbt ... 15 



Admission to Sarvard College 23 



Scientific Books: — 



Eeports to the Local Government Board 

 on Public Health: Dr. L. O. Howard. 

 Young's Lectures on the Fundamental Con- 

 cepts of Algebra and Geometry: Professor 

 G. A. Miller 24 



Special Articles: — 



Color Dispersion in the Astigmatic Eye: 

 Dr. W. G. Cady 26 



The Iowa Academy of Science: L. S. Eoss . 28 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Philosophical Society of Washington: 



E. L. Paris 31 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 TOTiew should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N", Y. 



THE GENESIS OF THE ATTENTION IN 

 THE EDUCATIVE PSOCESS'^ 



Education is suffering from a sort of 

 dual personality. Its psychology and 

 practise move along in more or less paral- 

 lel lines without the one greatly interfering 

 with the other. Evidence that interest, 

 when it exists, must always follow atten- 

 tion to the idea or group of ideas which 

 called it out, does not deter the enthusiastic 

 teacher from giving this interest an ex- 

 ternal source instead of ascribing it to the 

 mind. 



Attention results from the mind's ac- 

 quiescence in the focal presence of a par- 

 ticular idea or group of ideas. This is 

 true whether the attention be of the so- 

 called passive or active variety, since the 

 only difference between the two lies in the 

 complexity of the latter. In ' ' voluntary ' ' 

 attention, more than one attraction is of- 

 fered, and, each presenting inducements, 

 the mind receives the one with more or less 

 consciousness of what it has lost in giving 

 up the other. This consciousness of de- 

 privation, together with certain muscular 

 sensations, probably makes up the feeling 

 of effort which has caused this form of 

 attention to be popularly thought active. 

 Attention means a certain arrangement of 

 the content of consciousness, which gives 

 clearness to one idea or group of ideas, 

 and produces comparative, though not 

 equal, obscurity of the others. Change of 

 attention requires a redistribution of the 

 content, and this is accompanied by a re- 



' Read liefore the joint meeting of the American 

 Psychological Association and Section L — Educa- 

 tion; American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, Minneapolis, December, 1910. 



