94 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 186. 



change. It is the same in the simplicity of 

 the germ as in the complexity of the image. 

 It is identical under the differences of male 

 and female. It is the common nature, 

 though no common quality, of germ and 

 somatic cell, and of the elements of the dif- 

 ferent tissues. Individuals which differ 

 from one another differ bj' one difiference 

 which, however, cannot be described except 

 as an infinite number of diiferences, and all 

 the features of one individual are one char- 

 acter. This is not the character of the 

 protoplasm, nor of the idioplasm, nor of the 

 immanent soul, but of the whole creature. 

 And this character is no cause or condition 

 amongst others. It is an aspect of all and 

 is that aspect by which all comes into 

 unity." 



As thus defined the character, and hence 

 the unity, of the organism is a purely meta- 

 physical conception, wholly removed from 

 the possibilities of i-esearoh, and for my 

 part I cannot conceive how such a concep- 

 tion can in any way advance our knowledge 

 of organisms or assist us in the study of 

 vital processes. 



The basis of the whole criticism is the first 

 postulate, which, in one respect at least, is 

 wide of the truth. This postulate asserts 

 that the qualities of an oi'ganism are abso- 

 lutely separate and distinct elements. This, 

 no one I suppose, has ever explicitly as- 

 sumed or believed. If it were granted that 

 the qualities of the organism are not abso- 

 lutely independent, that the elements of the 

 germ are related to each other as are the 

 parts of the adult, the foundations of much 

 of the criticism would be removed. But 

 even as it is, the book will serve a good pur- 

 pose as pointing out certain dangerous ten- 

 dencies in recent biological speculations, 

 and it should be read by all those who are in- 

 terested in such speculations or who are in 

 danger of rushing into biological metaphys- 

 ics. It is a pity that the book is divided 

 •into chapters only and that there are no 



subordinate headings or numerical indices 

 to indicate the subdivisions of the argument, 

 and also that in many places the stjde is 

 obscure, dogmatic and metaphysical, since 

 with all these evident defects it will hardly 

 obtain the reading which it otherwise de- 

 serves. 



e. g. cok-klin. 

 Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



LANGUAGE STUDY* 



From a general consideration of the 

 child's training it becomes evident that the 

 great subjects which are most useful for dis- 

 cipline in the period of secondary education 

 are the mathematical studies on the one 

 hand, which exercise the faculty of abstrac- 

 tion, and the positive sciences, which train 

 the power of observation and require truth 

 to detail. If we should pursue the subject 

 into the collegiate period we should find 

 mental and moral science, literature and 

 history coming to their rights. If this be 

 in the main psychological we see that lan- 

 guage studj^, as such, should have no great 

 place in secondary education. The study 

 of grammar, as has been already said, is 

 very useful in the early periods of develop- 

 ment if taught vocally ; it brings the child 

 out in self-expression, and carries its own 

 correctives, from the fact that its results are 

 always open to social control. These are, 

 in my mind, the main functions of the study 

 of language. 



What, then, is the justification for de- 

 voting ten or twelve years of the youth's 

 time to study of a dead language, as is com- 

 monly done in the case of Latin? The 

 utility of expression does not enter into it, 

 and the discipline of truth to elegant liter- 

 ary copy can be even so well attained from 

 the study of our own tongue, which is la- 

 mentably neglected. In all this dreary lan- 

 guage study the youth's interest is dried up 



* Extract from The Story of the 3lind in the press of 

 D. Appleton & Co. (Useful Story Series.) 



