380 



SCIEJS'CE. 



[Vol. IX., JNo. 219 



tive, representative, and thought knowledge each 

 year ; 4°. Knowledge can be taught only by oc- 

 casioning the appropriate activity of the learner's 

 mind ; 5°. The primary concepts and ideas in 

 every branch of knowledge must be taugbt ob- 

 jectively in all grades, of school ; 6°. The several 

 powers of the mind are developed and trained by 

 occasioning their natural and harmonious activity ; 

 7°. In the teaching of any school art, clear and 

 correct ideals should inspire and guide practice. 



There seems to us to be more profundity in Mr. 

 White's treatment of pedagogy than in Mr. 

 Hewett's, and for that reason we recommend it 

 rather than the latter. Mr. White's conception of 

 the plan of methods in teaching is good, and he 

 shows no disposition to push it beyond its legiti- 

 mate limits. His chapter on teaching geography 

 shows an acquaintance with the latest advances 

 in that hitherto greatly neglected subject ; and the 

 syllabus of oral lessons on home geography brings 

 out, in a way that any teacher ought to be able to 

 appreciate, the points to be touched on in such a 

 course, and their connection with each other. Mr. 

 Hewett's book contains nothing so good as this, but 

 it does contain a short passage on an entirely 

 different subject which deserves quotation ; for it 

 presents a question now in the fore-front of all 

 educational discussion. It is as follows : " Teach- 

 ing can never become a profession in the same 

 strict sense as law or medicine, so long as the 

 majority of our schools ai*e in session but for a few 

 months in the year, and pay such small wages to 

 the teacher ; nor so long as the oversight of *the 

 work is committed to persons outside of the pro- 

 fession ; nor so long as the majority of teachers 

 follow the employment for a few years only. But 

 the time may come when the person who makes 

 teaching a life-work, and who brings to it the 

 talent, energy, and special preparation which 

 other professions demand, will receive all the 

 respect and deference that are considered due to 

 the members of other professions. How soon this 

 time shall arrive depends chiefly on teachers them- 

 selves : there is no conspiracy on the part of the 

 people to keep teachers below the position to which 

 their worth entitles them, and it is the solemn 

 duty of every teacher to make his full contribu- 

 tion to the sum of influences that shall raise teach- 

 ing to the height it ought to occupy by virtue of 

 its transcendent importance." 



That Prof. Clifford Lloyd Morgan of Univer- 

 sity college, Bristol, is about to publish a ' Text- 

 book of animal physiology,' is an announcement 

 that will give great pleasure to those who have 

 followed his previous work, especially the lucid 



articles which occasionally appear in Mind over 

 Professor Morgan's signature. The volume aims 

 to satisfy the requirements of those who expect to 

 pass the local examinations of Oxford, Cambiidge, 

 and London universities. Its first part deals with 

 the anatomy and physiology of vertebrates, as ex- 

 emplified by the frog, the pigeon and fowl, and 

 the rabbit. In this part there are special chapters 

 on histology, embryology, the genesis of tissues 

 and organs, and animal metabolism. The second 

 part is occupied with the structure and life-history 

 of some invertebrate types ; viz., the crayfish, 

 cockroach, earthworm, liver-fluke and tape-worm, 

 snail, fresh-water niussel, hydra, vorticella, and 

 amoeba. Numerous outline woodcuts have been 

 drawn specially for this work. 



— The following is the report given by the 

 Athenaeum of the paper on ' Recent psycho-physi- 

 cal researches,' read before the Aristotelian society 

 on Feb. 21 by Dr. J. M. Cattell of Philadelphia. 

 The lecturer said that " the present business of 

 psychology seems to be to investigate the facts cf 

 consciousness by means of observation and ex- 

 periment. As an example of the application of 

 scientific methods to the study of mind, he gave 

 an account of experiments he had made on (he 

 limits of consciousness and the time taken up by 

 mental processes. It is possible to measure with 

 great accuracy the time we need to perceive, 

 to will, to remember, and to think. These times 

 are quite constant : we can find to the hundredth 

 of a second how long it takes to see the color blue, 

 or to call to mind that Paris is in France. We 

 thus find that a word can be seen in about the 

 same time as a single letter, that some letters are 

 more difficult to see than others, and get other 

 facts which have practical and educational bear- 

 ings. They are also of theoretic interest. Life is 

 not measured by the years we live, but by the 

 breadth and rapidity of our thoughts. Besides 

 determining the rate at which we think, such ex- 

 periments in other ways throw light on the nature 

 of thought, and help us to put the facts of mind 

 into the great order which is the world." 



— Professors Horsley and Schafer recently pre- 

 sented a paper to the Royal society, on some ex- 

 periments made by them upon the functions of the 

 cerebral cortex. Professor Horsley has within a 

 year operated upon thirteen patients, in ten cases 

 removing portions of the brain and in three cases 

 portions of the skull. In these experiments he 

 used precisely the same anaesthetics and antisep- 

 tics as he had employed in his experiments upon 

 the brains of monkeys, and in no case had the pa- 

 tient complained of any pain being caused by the 

 operation. 



