August 16, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



253 



with whicli they are to be compared. 

 When the teacher was answering them for 

 a given pupil she could hardlj' fail to have 

 in mind his class standing and be influenced 

 by it ; one can hardly tell how much influ- 

 ence this might have upon the results. We 

 should expect, however, on other grounds 

 to find the bright and industrious pupils in 

 the 1st quarter of the class as to grading, 

 and vice versa, and the curves show them 

 to be there. Based upon the teachers' 

 judgment, there seems to be little difference 

 in the influence for the two sexes. In each 

 case about half of the bright and indus- 

 trious pupils were at the head of the class, 

 while the other half were unequally dis- 

 tributed through the other three divisions, 

 with very few at the foot. 



TEMPERAMENT. 



Fig. 6 shows that the children whom the 

 teacher characterized as ' nervous ' pre- 



40% 



30% 



20% 



10% 



Fig. 6. Temperament. 



ponderated in the upper half of the class, 

 considered from the standpoint of work. 

 No directions were given as to classification 

 under this head, and we cannot say that all 

 had the same conception as to its meaning. 

 The term may be made to cover a multi- 

 tude of different manifestations, but it is 

 perhaps safe to conclude that for the most 



it meant an excess of energy worked off 

 through motor channels other than those of 

 the legitimate business of the school. It 

 will be noticed that the greatest percent- 

 age of ' nervous ' children were in the 2d 

 quarter of the class, with the first showing 

 them next in abundance. This would seem 

 to implj'^ that an abundance of nervous en- 

 ergy is essential to good work but somewhat 

 detrimental to the best of work. It has 

 perhaps been noticed that in our treatment 

 of the whole problem we have been forced 

 to studj^ each condition as if the others 

 were not at the same time active. That 

 is, in isolating the matter of temperament 

 for the curves under discussion, we have 

 disregarded native ability, habit, health 

 and all the rest between which and tem- 

 perament there may exist a fixed relation. 

 In fact, it would be quite reasonable to sup- 

 pose that such a relation did exist between 

 some of them, and perhaps the most prob- 

 able would be that between temperament 

 and health. It was proved that children 

 of poor health were seldom found at the head 

 of the class. But children of poor health 

 are not infrequently excessively nervous. 

 Putting these two facts together, the failure 

 to find the greatest number of nervous 

 children in the 1st quarter of the class 

 seems quite reasonable. For the other ex- 

 treme of nervousness, which I have char- 

 acterized as ' stolid,' there is a gradual in- 

 crease in number from the head to the foot 

 of the class. With the girls there seemed 

 to be the greatest diflBculty in overcoming 

 the seeming impediment of stolidity, there 

 being but a fraction over 1 per cent, of 

 those so characterized in the 1st quarter 

 of the class. Perhaps they lacked to an ex- 

 treme the elements of pride, which is such 

 an instigation to work. 



HOME CONDITIONS. 



The directions for answering this ques- 

 tion stated that home conditions which 



