August 



1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



57 



filed off, there was no throw. Thirty substances were tested as 

 electrolytes. They in general showed the above phenomena, ex- 

 cepting that the acids which evolve hydrogen when electrolyzed 

 showed it very feebly. Experimenting to find the cause of the 

 gradual reversal of the deflection after the first throw, it was found 

 that any agitation of the liquid produces the same effect, and that 

 when diffusion was prevented, by using fine sand in the vessel or 

 by using gelatine with the solutions, the first throw only remained. 

 The small effect with the hydrogen-evolving acids is probably due 

 to the mechanical protection of the point by the bubbles of gas. 

 Cobalt and nickel were tried and found to give similar effects but 

 smaller. From their experiments the authors come to the conclusion 

 that the particles of magnetic material on the plates are governed 

 by the general laws of magnetic attraction and are held in place 

 against chemical action as they would be against a mechanical 

 force. The rate of change of force at a point is, of course, greater 

 than that on a plane surface, hence the metal on the point is to 

 some extent protected against chemical action, and acts as the 

 electro-negative metal in the circuit. The general rule stated is as 

 follows : When the magnetic metals are exposed to chemical ac- 

 tion in a magnetic field, such action is decreased or arrested at any 

 points where the rate of variation of the square of the magnetic 

 force tends to a maximum. The authors criticise a paper on the 

 same subject by Professor Nichols of Cornell, whose results are 

 directly opposite to their own, as far as the two experiments touch. 

 They claim that besides giving no explanation of or drawing any de- 

 duction from his results, he has in some cases mistaken distur- 

 bances for the real phenomena. The paper seems to explain the 

 phenomena simply and naturally without the help of new relations 

 or hypotheses. 



BOOK -REVIEWS. 



L'art et la Pohie c/ies I'enfant. By Bernard Perez. Paris, 

 Balliere. 8°. 



The English translation of Perez's ' First Three Years of Child- 

 hood ' has familiarized the English-reading public with the general 

 plan of work and method of treatment of this French psychologist 

 and educator. M. Perez is imbued with the idea that the unfold- 

 ment of mental processes that goes on in every child and is so often 

 the subject of literary effort can yield material for the scientific 

 study of an important chapter in psychology. This psychogenesis 

 in part changes its character with the relative importance of 

 the natural and the artificial elements' in the child's education, 

 with the nature of the civilization that forms its environment, 

 with hereditary and individual characteristics. These varying 

 conditions affect differently the various psychological elements that 

 go to the making of a human being, and make necessary dif- 

 ferent methods of study. In the chapter of ' Infant Psychology ' 

 that AI. Perez now brings to notice, these varying conditions are of 

 supreme importance ; so much so that it seems impossible in some 

 respects to describe the artistic efforts of children, but only of cer- 

 tain children. Nevertheless the path of progress is in so many re- 

 spects similar, and the directions of artistic interest so unchanging 

 in spite of national and other influences, that one feels something 

 generic even if vague to be at the basis of it all. Again, that close 

 analogy between the development of the individual and that of the 

 race does not lose its application here. It is true that primitive art 

 is far from all being alike, that the art of civilization of which it 

 was the predecessor is no less variable ; but from a psychologic 

 point of view the development is generically alike in all cases. For 

 example, we find that the excessive and gaudy decoration of the 

 body is displayed by savages and young children ; we find them 

 preferring the same loud, boisterous airs in music, artd equally 

 lacking in a sense of the beauties of nature. We see. too, how the 

 subject of serious use and adornment in one stage of civilization 

 degenerates into a toy for the children of the succeeding stage ; 

 witness the drum, and the bow and arrow. 



A survey of the many paths along which children find their way 

 to the pleasures of art can be most easily attained by a risum^ of 

 the chapters of the volume before us. In the first chapter are 

 treated the many forms of personal decoration visible in the toilet. 

 We know how soon a child takes an interest in its costume 



how for girls especially the doll is valuable because it is a dres- 

 sable article ; and has not Lotze said that in the exaltation of 

 the ego that is produced by the donning of a new dress is the root 

 of self-consciousness ? Taste in this direction is seldom good at 

 first, but it takes its character .so entirely from the environment 

 that the psychologist can do little more than record the shifting of 

 interest from one point to another that proceeds as the child ma- 

 tures. In the feeling for the beauties of nature, — the emotions in- 

 spired by the graceful, the sublime, the pleasures that flowers and 

 scenery bring, — we have a higher and a later form of artistic in- 

 terest. M. Perez describes very pleasantly, even if at limes prolix- 

 ly, the growth of these sentiments in different children of his own 

 acquaintance, and records the corresponding descriptions in the 

 autobiographies of eminent men and women. On the artificial side 

 we have the growth of the social instincts, the art of making one- 

 self agreeable, politeness, coquetry, and so on. In France at least 

 this seems to develop precociously early, but the social position of the 

 family must everywhere be the chief factor in its culture or ne- 

 glect. Passing to the fine arts proper, music is doubtless to be ac- 

 corded the foremost rank. We know that the most wonderful in- 

 stances of precocious talent are to be found amongst musicians, 

 and this is in many cases the first artistic pleasure that the child 

 has. The human voice is a source of much pleasure to the child. 

 The distinction between the soothing and the exciting forms of 

 music is soon appreciated. The educational value of rhythm is 

 recognized by all kindergartners. The many decorations of bones, 

 of rocks, of pottery, by primitive peoples are not unlike the first 

 scratches of a child. The things most frequently delineated are 

 quite alike. Given a child, a lead pencil,' and some paper, and the 

 result can be predicted, with due allowance to the nationality and 

 other circumstances of the child. 



The play instinct is a very potent factor in the growth of artistic 

 taste ; performing on a musical instrument as well as acting still 

 go by the name of ' playing.' Foreign personalities are so real to- 

 the child, his vivid imagination so easily assimilates them, that 

 ■ pretence,' acting, is a common and an early childish trait. The- 

 doll is the central figure about which the most thrilling dramas are 

 composed and enacted ; to the boy the putting on of a paper hel- 

 met and a wooden sword is enough to make him a soldier in 

 thought and deed. Children act to court admiration, and with a 

 normally weak distinction between fact and fiction goes a fondness 

 for acting out what has originated in the realm of the imagination. 

 Literary art is the latest of all acquisitions ; but the first letters of 

 a child, though lacking all merit, have a deep interest to the psy- 

 chologist. To each of these topics M. Perez devotes a full chap- 

 ter, and succeeds in producing a book which, though not in the 

 strictest sense scientific and certainly not exhaustive or final, is 

 none the less a worthy contribution to an interesting chapter of 

 ' infant psychology.' 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



J.^MES Stevenson, late executive officer of the United States 

 Geological Survey, died at the Gilsey House, New York, July 25. 

 He was born in 1S40, at Maysville, Ky. A more extended notice 

 will appear next week. 



— The buildings for the Paris Exhibition have made great prog- 

 ress during the last five or six weeks. According to the Journal of 

 the Society of Arts, the large machinery hall at the south end of the 

 Champs de Mars is now considerably more than half finished, and 

 will probably be completed in another six weeks or two months. 

 Considerable progress has been made with the fine art galleries ; 

 but, as they were not commenced until recently, they are not nearly 

 so far advanced as the other parts of the building. The same re- 

 mark applies to the other parts of the building for the classes in- 

 cluded under the term • liberal arts." on the other side of the 

 grounds. In this last-named building it is proposed to place a 

 retrospective collection illustrating the progress of the arts and in- 

 dustries from the very earliest period. On the Esplanade des 

 Invalides. the construction of the various small buildings with 

 which it is to be filled has been commenced. This work has been 

 deferred as late as possible, in order not to deprive the regiments 

 quartered in that part of Paris of their remaining drill ground for 



