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SCmNCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 199. 



growth of children, and, founded thereupon, his 

 views of the proper materials and methods of 

 school and home instruction. 



There are some intelligent people who con- 

 scientiously question the value to teachers and 

 parents of child-study in the mass ; but there is 

 probably no one who doubts the supreme value 

 to the instructor of any knowledge which will 

 confer upon him a better understanding of the 

 individual child. It is probably true that, all 

 things being viewed together, the most practi- 

 cal phases of this work relate to the study of 

 individuality, since the parent or teacher is 

 especially concerned with the proper training 

 of each child under her care rather than 

 with the elaboration of a science of any kind. 

 Consequently, a book which would in a con- 

 crete, scientific way instruct tutors in the 

 difficult art of deciphering the essential charac- 

 teristics of individual children would be excep- 

 tionally helpful in teaching. Dr. Warner's 

 The Study of Children accomplishes this in 

 an excellent manner, so far as what might 

 perhaps be styled the hygiene of individuals is 

 concerned. It is devoted almost wholly to a 

 delineation of the modes in which defective or 

 depleted cerebral conditions manifest them- 

 selves through bodily expressions. Of course, 

 this does not include all of what the teacher 

 and parent ought to know of individual chil- 

 dren ; but it certainly deals with the most im- 

 portant factor. One would not go far astray 

 in saying that if an instructor could determine 

 when his children were not in such a condition 

 of health and vigor as to profit best by his 

 teaching, and if he could then apply healing 

 and restorative agencies — if an instructor could 

 do this he would satisfactorily fulfill the most 

 important part of his mission. The Study of 

 Children is admirably adapted to give one the 

 power to detect cerebral incapacities in individ- 

 ual children and to suggest in some measure 

 how these may be remedied. 



After an introductory chapter and one treat- 

 ing of the body of the child, particular atten- 

 tion being given herein to defects of vision, 

 hearing and breathing, the book proceeds with 

 a description of the architecture and function 

 of the elements of the nervous system, leading 

 up to a science of bodily expression wherein is 



pointed out, in the first place, the connection be- 

 tween abnormal fashioning of head and features 

 and defective brain construction, causing some 

 sort of deficiency or estrangement in mental 

 action. It is possible that the author attaches 

 too great importance to the value of physiog- 

 nomy, especially as it would be employed in 

 the hands of an unskilled person ; but he is on 

 thoroughly scientific and therefore safe ground 

 when he shows in detail how given motor ac- 

 tivities denote correlated cerebral processes as 

 these relate to healthful or diseased neural con- 

 ditions. The chapters upon Observing the 

 Child ; What to Look at and What to Look for ; 

 Principles of the Methods of Observing and De- 

 scribing Children ; Points for Observation, In- 

 dicating Faults in Body or Brain Action or a 

 Status Below the Normal ; Examination of Men- 

 tal Ability and the Faults that may be Ob- 

 served ; and Some General Conditions in Chil- 

 dren Described, are of the greatest worth, be- 

 cause of the admirably concrete way in which 

 the methods of reading expression are de- 

 lineated. 



It is not too much to say that any parent or 

 teacher, upon a careful reading of this book, will 

 be able to deal more wisely with the children 

 intrusted to his care ; for he will learn to inter- 

 pret certain outward expressions as indicative 

 of inner depletion or defect ; and he will then 

 not make the mistake, which we know is so 

 often committed, of trying to correct misdeeds 

 by dealing with them as though they were due to 

 perversions of the will instead of being the legit- 

 imate issue of disturbing physiological causes. 

 To the writer there is no department of this ac- 

 tivity in the study of children which seems of 

 more importance than this which we are now 

 considering ; for the reason that education is 

 charged with the responsibility of elevating 

 every individual to the highest possible point 

 of usefulness to himself, and so to society, and 

 this may be accomplished in the case of defec- 

 tives only when we can apprehend the obstacles 

 to their progress and remove them. And then, 

 even in normal child life, there are so many 

 activities that really at times appear abnormal 

 to the unpracticed eye because of the blighting 

 effects of neural fatigue. In view of these 

 things, then. Dr. Warner's book cannot be too 



