October 21, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



555 



starts off discussing the various senses, then 

 consciousness and apperception, then attention, 

 followed by symbolism, language, muscular or 

 motor control, feelings, will and its functions, 

 perception, memory, imagination, conception, 

 judgment, reasoning, etc. The disquisition 

 upon the senses is principally hygienic, with 

 some consideration of the effects upon the mind 

 of their imperfect functioning, and the impor- 

 tance and method of training them. One feels 

 in this part of the book that Mr. Taylor has the 

 child always in mind, but when he reads the 

 chapters upon the intellect and will he is dis- 

 tressed to find the treatment following almost 

 precisely the methods of adult analytic psy- 

 chology. Why are these things not viewed in 

 the light of their development, their evolution, 

 their genesis, showing how all the various 

 operations, if they are really different, have 

 come to be so in the child's mind? Perhaps 

 the author felt that for young teachers he has 

 proceeded in the most practical way to discuss 

 the mental operations. But if he does, the 

 writer must certainly differ with him ; for it 

 seems that it would be of far greater value, con- 

 sidered alike from the point of view of clearness 

 of appreciation and concreteness to teachers of 

 any age or degree of experience, to see how 

 the intellect grows in a child than to examine 

 what it is when full formed, except as the latter 

 aids and complements the former. A teacher 

 has to foster and direct mind growth, and she is 

 not concerned at all with the fully grown thing, 

 only as it enables her to comprehend the nature 

 of the evolving entity more truly and com- 

 pletely. 



When one keeps in mind the purpose of the 

 book he can understand why reference has not 

 been made more extensively to acknowledged 

 authorities, and, also, why the style is so largely 

 hortatory, even possibly dogmatic. It is ad- 

 dressed to persons who are not interested pri- 

 marily in scientific method and accuracy, but 

 who readily accept doctrines upon authority 

 and who need to be exhorted to observe them 

 in their own conduct. A criticism, though, 

 should here be offered, which is applicable to 

 much of modern writing upon Child-Study and 

 allied subjects ; propositions are ofttimes of too 

 universal and sweeping a character when the 



author cannot possibly have observed their ap- 

 plications in but a few instances. As an illus- 

 tration of this tendency we may quote a pas- 

 sage which, by the way, discusses a very 

 important matter: "Many a babe's mouth is 

 sorely blistered by a hot gargle that the nurse, 

 accustomed to drink boiling-hot tea three times 

 a day, declares to be 'just warm, now dearie.' 

 not plasters and poultices are clapped on the little 

 innocents without intelligence or mercy for the 

 same reasons, and incalculable injury is thus done 

 to a multitude of children.'^ (The italics are 

 added.) 



Any book dealing with the practical applica- 

 tions of science is much more liable to arouse 

 misgivings here and there than one which 

 simply presents the results of scientific exper- 

 iment. To fit a principle to concrete conditions 

 is a task of more serious mien than to simply 

 work out the principle, for in the first instance 

 many more factors have to be thought of to- 

 gether and adjusted to one another. Mr. Tay- 

 lor's book is to be warmly commended as illus- 

 trating and promoting a movement in the 

 training of teachers in the normal schools 

 which promises to be most fruitful in the near 

 future. It is to be hoped that he will find time 

 to give us a book on the growth of mind in 

 school children, bringing to the work the re- 

 sults of modern experimental science, as he has 

 done in the present volume in the treatment 

 of the senses and other important subjects. 



It seems to the writer that one of the most 

 profitable lines of investigation, alike for a sci- 

 ence of developmental psychology and for 

 education, runs out in the direction of psycho- 

 biology ; or, perhaps more definitely, psycho- 

 physiology. It will doubtless be generally 

 appreciated that we must derive from physio- 

 logical studies the hygienic conditions in con- 

 formity to which educational processes must 

 occur. It seems, too, as if we were already 

 able to say that the development of the brain 

 and mental ontogenesis are closely corre- 

 lated ; and if this be true it should, in a very 

 important way, contribute to a determination 

 of the materials and methods of instruction at 

 various stages in the child's education. The 

 data regarding these matters can be supplied 

 perhaps better by physicians than by any one 



