242 



SCIENCE. 



[Yoi. VI., No. 137. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



%* Correspondents are requested to he as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The study of logic in the scientific schools. 



That logic should be thoroughly studied in our 

 scientific schools is a thesis which we support most 

 strenuously, but, so far as we know, without the in- 

 dorsement of any of the faculties of those schools. 

 At all events, such courses of study in scientific 

 schools as have come to our notice, make no provision 

 whatsoever for the study of logical science. 



The reason for this is, perhaps, indifference on the 

 part of the faculties; but we think it more likely to 

 be the crowded condition of the scientific curriculum. 

 That the last mentioned is a legitimate excuse, may 

 be seen from the fact that our scientific schools are 

 continually raising the standard of the entrance ex- 

 aminations, so putting as much work as possible into 

 the preparatory years. A glance at the catalogue of 

 any first-class institution will show this, as well as 

 that the four years of the course are even now fully 

 occupied. In the School of mines of Columbia col- 

 lege, for instance, a student of the second-year class 

 must pursue fourteen or fifteen subjects; and five 

 hours of attendance are the average number required 

 of him each day. With the students of the third and 

 fourth year classes the case is the same. Even if 

 members of the first-year class had the time, they 

 are too immature, and not sufliciently advanced, to 

 gain the desired benefit from logical study. 



Of course there can be no two opinions as to the fea- 

 sibility of adding logic to such a curriculum as this. 

 There is absolutely no time for it. 



Our point is, that logic should have time made for 

 it, and for two main reasons. First, because of its 

 importance to the intellectual culture of the student; 

 and, secondly, because of its importance to the value 

 of any subsequent thought and investigation. As an 

 intellectual gymnastic, logic, when properly appre- 

 hended and taught, is superior even to mathematics, 

 and capable of far more general and varied applica- 

 tion. The truth of this statement does not depend 

 upon the dogma of any of the much-despised class 

 of 'mediaeval metaphysicians,' but numbers among 

 its defenders men of the intellectual stamp of Jevons 

 and John Stuait Mill. 



But this is not the main support of our present 

 argument. We prefer to lay more stress upon the 

 second specification; namely, the great importance 

 of a logical training for the value of any scientific 

 work. 



As a matter of course, we do not mean by logic any 

 dry rattling of syllogistic bones, important as a 

 knowledge of the syllogistic process and rules cer- 

 tainly is. But we have in mind such a treatment of 

 the great philosophical organon as will introduce 

 our scientific students to the elements of a theory 

 of knowledge, teach them the nature and relations of 

 the mental processes involved in a train of reasoning 

 or proof, investigate with them the nature, limits, 

 and canons of hypothesis and inductive inquiry, 

 and discuss the nature of evidence, and the theo- 

 ries of proof and probability. All of these subjects 

 should be familiar ground to every man of science, 

 young or old. His work should be along the lines 

 laid down by a correct logic, and his conclusions 

 conformable to its canons. The logical writings of 

 Herschel, Whewell, and Mill offer innumerable 

 examples of the value of strictly logical processes ap- 

 plied to scientific investigation; and our common 

 sense must assuredly emphasize their testimony. 



The truth is that many an absurd deduction, many 

 a false inference, would be avoided, were the investi- 

 gator in possession of some knowledge of elementary 

 logic. To say that men have reasoned and do reason 

 correctly witiiout logic, is no answer. So do children 

 count marbles correctly while yet in ignorance of the 

 rule for long division and the multiplication table. 

 Not only does logic aid and clarify men's reasoning, 

 and give it a defensible foundation to stand on, but it 

 is the instrument for the detection and explanation of 

 fallacies and false steps in scientific investigations 

 by whomsoever they are made. 



Other and cogent reasons for the acceptance of our 

 thesis could be easily urged. But those just briefly 

 stated seem to us sufficient at this time and place. 



The instruction we plead for need not be elaborate. 

 It need not be on the same scale as that desired by a 

 specialist in mental science. A competent instructor 

 could probably make two hours a week for a half-year 

 suffice for what we have sketched above as desirable. 

 And to secure the benefits that would arise from that 

 instruction, we claim that any faculty in the land 

 should gladly rearrange its course of study. 



Nicholas Mukray Butlee. 



Color and other associations. 



In 1880, while I was in Washington, I read Mr. F. 

 Galton's note on ' Visualized numerals,' in Nature of 

 Jan. 15 of that year. 



After I came to Madison, probably late in 1881, or 

 early in 1882, I mentioned my own entire inability 

 to visualize numerals, or any thing else of the kind, 

 to a member of the university faculty, Professor O. 

 I was interested to learn, that, when a boy, he bad 

 always conceived the vowel sounds as having color, 

 and that he still retained some traces of this early 

 habit. 



I spoke of this subject at ray dinner-table shortly 

 after; and my daughter Mildred, then about eight 

 years old, said she also had colors for the days of 

 the week, as follows: Monday, blue ; Tuesday, pink ; 

 Wednesday, brownor gray; Thursday, brown or gray; 

 Friday, white ; Saturday, pure white ; Sunday, black. 

 It was said laughingly ; and at the time it passed to 

 my mind as a joke — that she wished in sport to as- 

 sume the idiosyncrasies of elder persons. A few days 

 after, I questioned her on these colors; and she gave 

 the same replies. It was again spoken of as a kind 

 of joke and a question of memory, but I wrote the 

 colors down in my memorandum- book for 1882. A 

 year later I produced this, and again questioned her, 

 this time seriously, and found her answers the same 

 as at first. Again, Aug. 5, 1885, her replies were 

 the same. The tenacity of a child's memory is very 

 remarkable; but I was convinced this was not a case 

 of memory and imagination, but a true phenomenon 

 of the kind referred to. I therefore went farther, 

 and asked her if there were any other phenomena of 

 the same kind (she is now eleven and a half years 

 old). I found that each of the letters of the alpha- 

 bet had a color to her, as follows : — 



A, white; B, blue; C, yellow, cream color; D, dark 

 blue; E, red; F, black; G, green; H, white; I, black; 

 J, gray, brown; K, gray; L, dark blue; M, N, brown, 

 not much color; O, yellow; P, green; Q (?) R, 

 brown; S, yellow; T, green; U, yellow; V, white; 

 W, brown; X, Y, not much color; Z, greenish. 



The prevalence of yellow and green, and the scar- 

 city of reds and pinks, are noteworthy. I found she 

 knew these colors instantly, and when I asked for 

 them in any order. What is more remarkable, she 

 can instantly name the brown letters in a group, the 



