•308 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 88. 



care of animals, to learn the geography of 

 the schoolhouse, to use tools, to weigh 

 and measure on a large scale. These are 

 the beginnings of science and are the best 

 subjects for the kindergarten. 



We begin to ruin the eyesight of chil- 

 dren in the kindergarten and continue to 

 persecute them until the end of the college 

 course. Some time since I wished to find 

 an edition of Homer for my own use, and 

 after examining about twenty editions could 

 not find one that I regarded as properly 

 printed. If children are legally forced to 

 a.ttend the public schools, and their eyesight 

 is injured by long sessions, badly printed 

 books and badly lighted and ventilated 

 rooms, could they not bring suit for dam- 

 ages against the State or district that has 

 forcibly injured them? My own progres- 

 sive myopia and accompanying headaches 

 were caused by private schools, and I have 

 no redress ; but if some public spirited man 

 of science would bring suit against the 

 proper body, the result, whether damages 

 were allowed or not, would be most useful. 



What we need is a scientific study of the 

 conditions of fatigue in reading, and a step 

 in this direction is made by a research from 

 the psychological laboratory of Columbia 

 University by Dr. Grifl&ng and Mr. Franz, 

 to be published in the September number 

 of The Psychological Review. Starting from 

 a research of my own (c/. Science, 0. S., 

 Vol. VII., p. 128), on the legibility of the 

 letters used in printing, the authors investi- 

 gate the size and style of type, the color and 

 quality of paper and the illumination. Type 

 should not be less than 1.5 mm. in height; 

 it should be leaded, and the illumination 

 of the printed page should not be less than 

 100 candle-meters. Yet most school books 

 are printed in small type, without leads, on 

 poor or glazed paper, and the illumination 

 in many school rooms is less than 2 candle- 

 meters. I found the relative legibility of 



the small letters to be in the following 

 order : dkmqhbpwuljtvzrofna 

 X y e i g c s. Thus some of the letters most 

 frequently used are among the most illegi- 

 ble. The letters used in printing were de- 

 veloped from those used in writing, and 

 these were evolved in accordance with the 

 convenience of the writer, not for the ad- 

 vantage of the reader. Now that we write 

 chiefly with the printing press, it is absurd 

 to retain symbols whose legibility would be 

 greatly improved by a slight modification. 



It is often said that psychology has no 

 practical applications, but another article 

 will be found in the September number of 

 The Psychological Review of general in- 

 terest. Prof. Patrick and Dr. Gilbert, of 

 the University of Iowa, have kept three ob- 

 servers awake during ninety consecutive 

 hours. The anti- vivisection societies might 

 expect to find enlarged usefulness in the 

 psychological laboratory, but it happened 

 that the observers sufiered in no wise from 

 the ' fast/ although dogs die if kept awake 

 four or five days. Careful records were 

 taken of the physical and mental condition of 

 the observers during and after the enforced 

 insomnia, and the results are of the greatest 

 interest, scientifically and practically. 



Dr. J. Paul Goode and Mr. Oliver C. 

 Farrington have done well to call attention 

 (Science, Vol. IV., p. 115 and p. 271) to ab- 

 surdities in the illustrations of school books. 

 I must, however, take exception to the 

 view that mountains should be reproduced 

 as they would be represented in a geometri- 

 cal drawing or in a photograph. Mountains 

 look higher than the angles they subtend, 

 and should be represented as they look. 

 Colors in a landscape are not what each 

 would be apart from the rest. The 

 Greeks knew very well that architecture 

 should be psychological, not geometrical, 

 and now that there is a science of psy- 

 chology, architects and artists should study 



