34 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 259 



New York. That association is the recognized centre of the man- 

 ual-training movement, and in these monographs we may expect to 

 find some able expositions not only of manual training, but of other 

 educational subjects. We notice that Sir Philip Magnus of London, 

 Professor Paulsen of Berlin, Professor Sluys of Brussels, Dr. 

 Hannsk of Vienna, Professor Salicis of Paris, Oscar Browning of 

 Cambridge, Colonel Parker of Chicago, Dr. Channing of Harvard, 

 Superintendent Mac Alister of Philadelphia, Dr. A. G. Haygood of 

 Georgia, and Dr. Wey of Elmira, are on the announced list of 

 contributors ; and we await from their pens some of the best edu- 

 cational writing, in a convenient and inexpensive form, that has 

 ever been printed in this country. 



The present issue is a double number, and the two papers com- 

 plement each other. President Gilman writes in an easy, graceful 

 way of the training of the hand, and puts his argument so simply 

 that the veriest novice in educational matters should be able to un- 

 derstand it. His summary of the principles of manual training (pp. 

 11-13) is very comprehensive, as is the following concise summary 

 of the whole question : " Manual training is an essential part of a 

 good education, whether that education be restricted to the common 

 school or carried on to the highest discipline of technical schools 

 and universities" (p. 13). 



Dr. Belfield of Chicago, whose paper forms the second part of 

 the number, makes a powerful argument on the practical side, for 

 the introduction of manual training into the common school. He 

 is able to show from his own experience that better progress is 

 made in other studies with manual training than without it. This 

 is the natural result of the intellectual tonic administered by manual 

 training, as well as of its harmonious development of all the facul- 

 ties. For the student or teacher who is making a study of manual 

 training, this first number of the Educational Monograph Series is 

 the best possible introduction to the subject. 



Dr. Hailmann is a gentleman who has written much, and on the 

 whole well, on education. He is a student and translator of Froe- 

 bel, and a firm believer in kindergarten methods. In his preface 

 he expressly states that the present work is issued in response to 

 the growing demand among primary teachers for ' busy work ' and 

 ' kindergarten methods.' The book is eminently practical, and, so 

 far as it goes, gives an excellent manual-training course for the 

 primary school. We will only say that clay can be used more than 

 the author provides for, and that drawing is the very foundation of 

 manual training. The latter fact seems to have escaped Mr. Hail- 

 mann's attention while he was engaged on this book. 



' Industrial Instruction ' is a translation from the German of 

 Robert Seidel, by Miss Smith of Oswego Normal School. It is a 

 philosophical treatise on manual training, and yet it is sufficiently 

 easy of comprehension to be of assistance to all teachers. An un- 

 fortunate disjointedness of style, the usual attribute of German 

 writing, mars the book, but the translator seems to have worked 

 hard to counteract the effect of this. The second chapter, which 

 is entitled ' Errors, Contradictions, and Inconsistencies of the Op- 

 ponents of Industrial Instruction,' is respectfully commended to the 

 attention of the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education 

 and the superintendent of schools at Worcester, Mass. ; for both of 

 these gentlemen are not only utterly in the dark about manual 

 training, but they are using their influence on the platform and in 

 educational journals to keep others in the same condition. Seidel 

 shows that the sort of industrial instruction which such persons de- 

 claim against has for its aim " principally the development of certain 

 kinds of manual skill, partly by this means to promote domestic 

 industry, partly to prepare for a later profession, to supply trained 

 strength to hand-labor, and thus to elevate it." All sane men who 

 know any thing of public schools unite in insisting that instruction 

 of this sort must not be permitted to find a place. But this in- 

 struction is diametrically opposed to that which the advocates and 

 expounders of manual training are upholding. Their manual train- 

 ing is educational, not technical : it develops the judgment and 

 reason, not the power of imitation. Inasmuch as the opponents of 

 manual training in this country seem to be unable to distinguish 

 it from technical instruction, we hope that they will read Seidel's 

 book. Every possible confusion that they can fall into is there 

 explained, and every possible objection that they can raise is there 

 answered. 



Dr. Woodward's book is not so satisfactory, but it has a value of 

 its own. It deals with the manual-training school only, considered 

 as a separate institution. This it discusses in full detail, and the 

 theory and practice of the work done at St. Louis are clearly pre- 

 sented. Much of the information as to cost and character of equip- 

 ment is that which is frequently called for at this time by the school 

 authorities of cities where manual training is being introduced. 

 Almost half the book, however, is given up to Dr. Woodward's 

 various addresses, some of them delivered fifteen years ago. No- 

 attempt'seems to have been made at editing them, or striking out 

 redundancies and inconsistencies. However forcible they may 

 have been when delivered, they lose much in the present arrange- 

 ment. 



We would close as we began. All of these books are valuable 

 and suggestive. All of them should be widely read, especially by 

 teachers and by parents who have children to educate. All of them 

 approach manual training in the right spirit and with intelligence. 

 The insight of the authors is sufficient to guard against any such 

 ludicrous presentation as that given by Mr. Love in his ' Industrial 

 Education,' a book which we had occasion to notice a few months 

 ago {Science, x. No. 247). Taken together, they would form an 

 excellent beginning for a library on manual training. 



La Psychologie Physiologique. Par G. SerGI. From the Italian 

 byM. MoUTON. Paris, Felix Alcan, 1888. 8°. 



The flourishing condition of science in Italy has of late been the 

 subject of frequent remark. The universities have filled their chairs 

 with a new generation of men, well schooled in the best methods 

 that the continent can offer, full of enthusiasm for their special pur- 

 suit, and gifted with a taste for original research as well as with a. 

 comprehensive appreciativeness for the work of others. As the re- 

 sult, there have been appearing from the press of Italy many very 

 valuable contributions to all departments of science, and, what is 

 especially noteworthy, publications tracing distinct novel lines of 

 thought. This has made all scientists look more carefully into the 

 Italian periodicals ; has set Frenchmen, Germans, and Englishmen 

 to translating their books ; and promises to make a knowledge of 

 Italian quite as requisite a possession for the scientist as a knowl- 

 edge of French and German. 



In the scientific study of mental phenomena the Italians stand in 

 the foremost ranks. They have developed a school of criminal 

 anthropology, setting forth the true nature of the criminal as an 

 aberrant form of humanity, that has gained a world-wide recogni- 

 tion. Their studies of the insane are full of ingenious methods 

 and suggestive results. Some of the best work on the localization 

 of function in the brain has been done in Italy. It is, then, not sur- 

 prising that they see in experimental psychology the completion of 

 the circle of the sciences, and do all in their power to develop and 

 spread its teachings. Nothing could better illustrate the truly ad- 

 mirable character of their work than this manual of psychology. 

 The author is professor of anthropology in the University of Rome, 

 but his conception of anthropology is broad enough to include an 

 intense mterest in all that pertains to the human mind. The vol- 

 ume is written in an entirely modern spirit, and is quite different 

 from the type of text-book that prevails in our colleges. 



Perhaps no easier method of indicating the character of its con- 

 tents could be pursued than that of rhumding the table of con- 

 tents. It begins with a terse description of the physiological ele- 

 ments of which the body is composed, with a special description of 

 nerve cells and fibres. Then follows a chapter on the objects of 

 psychology, showing its very intimate connection with physiology 

 and the insensitiveness with which the unconscious shades into 

 consciousness. There is no attempt at abstract, pure distinctions, 

 but a straightforward account is given of what it is that a student 

 of psychology must know and be interested in. Then sensation is 

 treated, and covers nearly a hundred pages. After a general con- 

 sideration of what sensibility implies, follows a more than usually 

 good and full account of the facts summed up by the psychophysic 

 law. Then the special senses are treated, though not at as great a 

 length as might be desired ; a surprisingly large amount of informa- 

 tion, however, is expressed in a very few pages. This section is 

 concluded by an interesting chapter on the interpretation of sensa- 

 tions. The next part of the book deals with the intellect, and be- 



