NOVEMBEB 11, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



645 



programs to the needs of life as directly as 

 possible. If successful practise in guessing 

 the size of paper squares less than four inches 

 long gives relatively little improvement in the 

 ability to guess the size of squares a trifle 

 larger ; if practise in marking all the words on 

 a page which contain two given letters is 

 very effective so far as these two letters are 

 concerned, but gives only one third as much 

 increase of speed for marking other letters, 

 and still less increase of accuracy (in some 

 cases accuracy in one function was actually 

 diminished by the practise which increased it 

 for a similar function) ; and if such improve- 

 ment as there is can be accounted for by the 

 overlapping of absolutely identical elements 

 in the very closely allied activities tested; if, 

 in short, there is practically no such thing as 

 accuracy or thoroughness or concentration in 

 general any more than there is memory or 

 reasoning power in general, but only an un- 

 limited number of relatively independent 

 mental reactions, then the college president 

 must cease promising, much like Protagoras 

 of old, to give the young man or woman who 

 comes to him ' a better disciplined mind for 

 whatever work in life he may turn his atten- 

 tion to,' and the schoolmaster who wishes to 

 give his pupils a ' well-rounded ' education 

 must learn to define the rotundity in terms 

 of something other than a ' symmetrical de- 

 velopment of faculties,' and not attach too 

 much importance to so-called ' disciplinary ' 

 studies. A propos of these, it is interesting 

 to notice that efficiency in mathematics bears 

 no more relation to a schoolboy's general 

 standing than does efficiency in any one of 

 several other studies, and not so much as effi- 

 ciency in English. Indeed, tests show that 

 there is not much correlation between effi- 

 ciency in two different mathematical studies, 

 or even between two different processes in 

 arithmetic; so great is the specialization of 

 mental functions! 



The chapter on the Inheritance of Mental 

 Traits clears away theoretical objections to 

 the possibility of such a thing and then shows 

 by statistics, taken largely, though not alto- 

 gether, from Galton and Pearson) that the 



influence of heredity is tremendous, though 

 such evidence as is available points decidedly 

 against the inheritance of acquired character- 

 istics. " Original nature springs from orig- 

 inal nature. Its improvement depends on the 

 elimination of the worse, not on their reforma- 

 tion " ; and yet " A college president can get 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach men 

 various accomplishments, but he would be 

 laughed at if he asked for $10,000 to prevent 

 the most gifted young man in the college 

 from remaining childless until 35." 



The chapters on the relations of mental 

 traits to age, sex and physical peculiarities 

 are hard to summarize. They contain con- 

 siderable positive material, but, like the chap- 

 ter on Broader Studies of Human Nature, 

 their main function is critical. They direct 

 attention to unsolved problems, suggest meth- 

 ods of inquiry, and point out the errors by 

 which various investigations have been viti- 

 ated; thus reminding us that, after all, we 

 have only ' the beginnings ' of a dynamic 

 psychology. 



Some such work as this of Thorndike's has 

 been sadly needed. If the methods that it 

 explains are all familiar to statisticians they 

 are certainly unknown to many psychological 

 investigators who deal with statistics, and if 

 the criticism to which it subjects much work 

 already done is pitiless, it is honest and fear- 

 less, and the constant expositions of method 

 leave no excuse for slipshod work in the future. 



As a text-book for students this 'Educational 

 Psychology ' can be used with great success. 

 To be sure, it does not raise the reader to the 

 heavens in a cloud of soul-stirring generali- 

 ties, and there are som.e students who find 

 many statistics somewhat overwhelming and 

 frequent negative conclusions discouraging. 

 But for students as well as for teachers of 

 education it is worth while to know exactly 

 where we stand and how great our ignorance 

 often is; and those who have read the book 

 and taken the trouble to master it appreciate 

 its scientific spirit and its fiber. 



H. Austin Aikins. 

 Western Reserve University. 



