Popular Science Monthly/Volume 38/December 1890/Literary Notices
The Principles of Psychology. By William James. American Science Series, Advanced Course. In two vols. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Price, $6.
Prof. James is Professor of Psychology in Harvard University, and this work embodies his class-room instruction in that subject. It is a large work. The first volume contains 689 pages and the second 704 pages. The type is admirable and the illustrations are fresh and well adapted to their purpose. The author says in the preface that he has throughout kept close to the point of view of natural science. He rejects both the associationist and spiritualist theories. His ground is that thoughts and feelings exist and are vehicles of knowledge, and that Psychology, when she has ascertained the empirical correlation of the various sorts of thought or feeling with definite conditions of brain, can go no further. By attempting to explain thought and feeling as products of something deeper, she becomes metaphysical, and Mr. James claims that in dealing with psychology he is strictly a positivist—indeed, this is the only feature of the work for which he claims originality. The author says it is "a mass of descriptive details running out into queries which only a Metaphysics alive to the weight of her task can hope successfully to deal with. That will perhaps be centuries hence; and meanwhile the best mark of health that a science can show is this unfinished seeming front." It is thus seen that although Mr. James deals with the science of psychology as a positivist, he still has faith in metaphysics, and it is this circumstance, it seems to us, that gives the work its most characteristic quality. His style, which is always clear and forcible, is never so brilliant as when he is discussing metaphysical questions. In stating the various theories of the different schools of philosophy he does not conceal his own preferences. Indeed, he is too much in earnest in his beliefs not to be a partisan. And being by descent both a metaphysician and rhetorician, while his science is more of to-day, his inherited tendencies now and then get the better of his scientific judgment.
In Chapter I, On the Scope of Psychology, Mr. James limits his field of inquiry by taking as his criterion of mind "the pursuance of future ends and the choice of means for their attainment." This view answers his purpose much better than would a nearer approach to the "point of view of natural science." The scientific psychologist usually begins with the earliest phenomena of consciousness and the first traces of nervous organization, and uses his earlier results to explain the more complex phenomena encountered later on in his inquiries. But Mr. James is catholic enough to say that "the boundary line of the mental is certainly vague. It is better not to be pedantic, but to let the science be as vague as its subject, and include such phenomena [instinctive and reflex acts of self-preservation] if by so doing we can throw any light on the main business in hand." He recognizes that at a certain stage in every science vagueness best consists with fertility, and quotes in illustration the Spencerian formula that life consists in "the adjustment of inner to outer relations," which he says has done much real service in psychology though it is "vagueness incarnate." He further says that "because it takes into account the fact that minds inhabit environments which act on them and on which they react; because, in short, it takes mind in the midst of all its concrete relations, it is immensely more fertile than the old-fashioned rational psychology which treated the soul as a detached existent, sufficient unto itself, and assumed to consider only its nature and properties. I shall, therefore, feel free to make any sallies into zoology or into pure nerve-physiology which may seem instructive for our purposes." The whole book, we are told, will be more or less a proof of the proposition that the brain is the one immediate bodily condition of the mental operations.
Accordingly, Chapter II treats through *78 pages of the Functions of the Brain, and Chapter III, of over 20 pages, considers the General Conditions of Brain Activity. These two chapters embody the latest assured results of experiment and observation, along with much comment and elucidation, and are very interesting and instructive. In Chapter IV the subject of Habit is dealt with in a most practical and impressive manner. The author supports his statements by liberal quotations from Dr. Carpenter's Mental Physiology. He closes with six or seven pages upon the Ethical Implications of the Law of Habit, addressed chiefly to the young, and bearing on the formation of character. Chapter V, on the Automatic Theory, and Chapter VI, on Mind-stuff, are lively, controversial, theoretical, all-sided, and strikingly display both the author's gifts of expression and peculiarities of method. Beginners are warned against several chapters in the book as too metaphysical, the one on Mind-stuff among them. If the trusting neophyte could read this chapter understanding, it is hard to imagine the state of mind produced in him by the concluding paragraph, wherein all the points that have just been so conclusively refuted are affirmed to be, in the present state of our knowledge, the only ground of a scientific psychology. This backing and filling seem very odd in a text-book; but the author evidently can not help it. His aptitudes and tendencies are too strong to be resisted. And perhaps this non-committal, bantering, disputatious way of presenting all sides of the subject is the best possible one for the author's purpose as a teacher.
Chapter VII, on The Methods and Snares of Psychology, and Chapter VIII, on The Relations of Mind to Other Things, are also too difficult for beginners. They treat of the "outer world of objects and relations to which the brain states correspond."
In Chapter IX, on The Stream of Thought, the author enters upon the exposition of mind from within, or subjective psychology. Instead of adopting the synthetic method, and beginning, as is usual, with sensations, he begins with the process of thinking, which is treated analytically. He rejects the idea that because sensations are the simplest things they should be taken up first, and affirms that "the only thing which Psychology has a right to postulate at the outset is the fact of thinking itself, and that must first be taken up and analyzed." In this chapter he treats the subject of consciousness in a general way, and in Chapter X he discusses The Consciousness of Self. More than half of this long chapter of 110 pages is devoted to Pure Self, and treats of the Spiritualist Theory, the Associationist Theory, and the Transcendentalist Theory. He winds up the section upon The Soul Theory with the following words: "My final conclusion, then, about the substantial soul is that it explains nothing and guarantees nothing. Its successive thoughts are the only intelligible and verifiable things about it, and definitely to ascertain the correlations of these with brain-processes is as much as Psychology can empirically do."
One section of this chapter treats of The Mutations of Self, both normal and abnormal. The abnormal alterations are classed as —(1) insane delusions; (2) alternating selves; (3) mediumships or possessions, and their discussion is popular, anecdotal, and tolerant, as becomes a member of the Society of Psychical Research. Mr. James tries to interpret the phenomena of mediumship. He speculates on the brain-condition during perversions of personality, and says "we must suppose the brain capable of successively changing all its modes of action, and abandoning the use for the time being of whole sets of well-organized association paths. And not only this, but we must admit that organized systems of paths can be thrown out of gear with others so that the processes in one system give rise to one consciousness and those of another system to another simultaneously existing consciousness."
Chapter XI, on Attention, discusses the question whether this is a faculty or a resultant—a cause or an effect. The author accuses the psychologists of the English empiricist school, naming Locke, Hume, Hartley, the Mills, and Spencer, of neglecting to notice it at all, and explains the motive of this ignoring by saying that "these writers are bent on showing how the higher faculties of the mind are pure products of 'experience'; and experience is supposed to be of something simply given. Attention, implying a degree of reactive spontaneity, would seem to break through the circle of pure receptivity which constitutes 'experience,' and hence must not be spoken of under penalty of interfering with the smoothness of the tale." The following extracts from his summary of the chapter may be taken as a fair sample of his style, and of his mode of dealing with subjects.
Mr. James says that he inclines to the cause-theory; but he also says that, "as regards immediate sensorial attention, hardly any one is tempted to regard it as anything but an effect." And, again: "Derived attention, where there is no bodily effort, seems also most plausibly to be a mere effect." And, again: "Even where the attention is voluntary it is possible to conceive of it as an effect and not a cause, a product and not an agent." Viewing it thus he says: "The stream of our thought is like a river. On the whole, easy flowing predominates in it, the drift of things is with the pull of gravity, and effortless attention is the rule. But at intervals an obstruction, a setback, a logjam occurs, stops.the current, creates an eddy, and makes things temporarily move the other way. If a real river could feel these eddies and set-backs as places of effort, 'I am here flowing,' it would say, 'in the direction of greatest resistance. My effort is what enables me to perform this feat.' ... The agent would all the while be the total downward drift of the rest of the water, forcing some of it upward in this spot. . . . Just so with our voluntary acts of attention. They are momentary arrests, coupled with a peculiar feeling of portions of the stream. ... But the feeling of effort may be an accompaniment more or less superfluous, and no more contribute to the result than the pain in a man's finger when a hammer falls on it contributes to the hammer's weight. Thus our notion that our effort in attending is an original faculty, of which brain and mind are the seat, may be an abject superstition. Attention may have to go like many a faculty once deemed essential. It may be an excrescence on psychology. No need of it to drag ideas before consciousness or fix them, when we see how perfectly they drag and fix each other there."
Then, after this persuasive statement of the effect-theory, he gives the other side a chance by answering the question as to "what the effort to attend would effect if it were an original force." "It would deepen and prolong the stay in consciousness of innumerable ideas which else would fade more quickly away. The delay thus gained might not be more than a second in duration—but that second might be critical; for in the constant rising and falling of considerations in the mind, where two associated systems of them are nearly in equilibrium, it is often a matter of but a second, more or less, of attention at the outset, whether one system shall gain force to occupy the field and develop itself, and exclude the other, or be excluded itself by the other. When developed it may make us act, and that act may seal our doom. The whole feeling of reality, the whole sting and excitement of our voluntary life, depend on our sense that in it things are really being decided from one moment to another, and that it is not the dull rattling off of a chain that, was forged innumerable ages ago. This appearance, which makes life and history tingle with such a tragic zest, may not be an illusion. As we grant to the advocate of the mechanical theory that it may be one, so he must grant us that it may not. And the result is two conceptions of possibility face to face with no facts definitely enough known to stand as arbiter between them." And he adds that one can leave the question open, or let one's general philosophy incline the beam. In his own case, for ethical reasons unstated, he sides with the believers in the cause-theory, or that consciousness is a spiritual force.
The remainder of Vol. I is Chapter XII, Conception; Chapter XIII, Discrimination and Comparison; Chapter XIV, Association; Chapter XV, The Perception of Time; Chapter XVI, Memory. They are spirited and in(ter)esting, and especially instructive to teachers.
The opening chapter of Vol. II is upon Sensations, and discusses such general questions as the Cognitive Function of Sensation and The Relativity of Knowledge, which answers the question whether our objects of knowledge contain absolute terms or consist altogether of relations. These sections occupy twelve pages of the chapter, and the remaining thirty pages are devoted to The Law of Contrast. Then follows the chapter on Imagination, which contains an especially interesting section upon the differences of individuals in the power of imagination. The work done in this field by Fechner and Galton is set forth, and Mr. James gives also the results obtained from his own psychology-students' descriptions of their power of visual imagination. The entire chapter is very readable, although less disputatious than usual. The next three chapters are upon The Perception of Things, The Perception of Space, and The Perception of Reality, the two latter being among those the beginner is advised to omit on a first reading. The chapter on Reasoning is popular and entertaining. Of course, Mr. James insists on the intellectual contrast between brute and man, and does not admit any of the instances adduced by evolutionists to prove that the essential mental process involved in reasoning is sometimes exhibited by dogs and elephants. The chapters enumerated occupy 382 pages of the volume. The next three chapters, occupying 200 pages, are upon Instinct, The Emotions, and Will. There is a short chapter on Hypnotism, in which the various theories concerning it are discussed in the usual vein. These theories are (1) Animal Magnetism; (2) Neurosis; and (3) Suggestion, the latter of which, Mr. James says, is quite triumphant at the present day over the neurosis theory, as held at the Salpêtrière.
The last chapter in the book, on Necessary Truths and the Effects of Experience, is an elaborate effort to discredit all attempts of the experience philosophy to explain the genesis of our mental structure. As Mr. Spencer is the thinker who has done most in this direction, of course it is his especial doctrines that are first of all overthrown. This is done in the usual way by means of half statements and unwarranted assumptions. To gain his point he regards the process of adaptation, which Mr. Spencer calls direct equilibration, as the way of experience proper, the front-door way, but the process which Darwin named "accidental variation," and which Mr. Spencer terms indirect equilibration, he calls the back-door way, and says: "Both these processes are of course natural and physical; but they belong to entirely different physical spheres." (The Italics are ours.) This is a pure assumption, the contrary of which is made more and more manifest as the observations of naturalists are extended. Yet on this assumption the meaning of experience is given as "processes which influence the mind by the front-door way of simple habits and association" (the Italics are the author's); and backdoor processes are said to be "pure idiosyncrasies, spontaneous variations, fitted by good luck to take cognizance of objects without being in any intelligible sense immediate derivations from them." It is in such ways as this that Mr. James is able to be both scientist and metaphysician, evolutionist and anti-evolutionist, as the peculiarities of his own mind determine.
A Text-book of Comparative Physiology. By Wesley Mills, M. D., D. V. S. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 636. Price, $3.
Like the author's Text-book of Animal Physiology, recently published, this work is designed primarily for students and practitioners of veterinary medicine. It is intended to replace the text books of human physiology, which such students have been using, with something adapted to their special needs. The physiology of man is so different from that of most of the domestic animals, that books of the former class are very unsatisfactory for the use of veterinary students. Prof. Mills has accordingly prepared a volume somewhat smaller than his Animal Physiology, embodying the same general plan, but with greater specialization for the domestic animals. The plan of both books is thus described: "I have endeavored to set before the student a short account of what has been deemed of most importance in general biology; to furnish a full account of reproduction; to apply these two departments throughout the whole of the rest of the work; to bring before the student enough of comparative physiology in its widest sense to impress him with the importance of recognizing that all medicine, like all science, is, when at its best, comparative; and to show that the doctrines of evolution must apply to physiology and medicine as well as to morphology." Its comprehensive scope and clearness of style make it an excellent introduction to the study of comparative physiology for the use of the general student. The volume is finely printed and contains 476 illustrations. Among the pictures of especially wide usefulness are several pages of cuts showing the appearance of the teeth of horses, oxen, and other domestic animals at different ages.
An American Geological Railway Guide. By James Macfarlane, Ph. D. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Edited by James R. Macfarlane. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 426. Price, $2.50.
There are three classes of people whom this book is intended to serve: first, the general traveler who is interested in the interpretation of the various aspects of nature; second, geologists, and especially students of geology; and, third, those who wish to know where useful minerals are likely to be found. The body of the work consists of lists of the stations on the railroads of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with the name of the geological formation at each place. The distance of each station from one terminus of the road is given, and the altitude above sea-level of most. Prefixed to these lists are descriptions of the geological formation "intended for railway travelers who are not versed in geology." A multitude of foot-notes give interesting facts in addition to the information contained in the lists. To the traveler this work offers an opportunity to learn something of geology during the usually tedious hours of railway journeys; to the geologist it will furnish aid in selecting routes for geological excursions; to the man interested in the material development of new regions it may serve as a key to the capabilities of any given locality as regards products of the soil and underground wealth. The second edition, edited by the son of the author, contains twice as much matter as the first. The editor has had the assistance of the State Geologist or of some other gentleman well acquainted with the local geology in each State. The lightness which the traveler demands in what he carries has been secured in this volume by the use of thin but tough paper and a strong, flexible cloth cover.
Economic and Social History of New England: 1620-1789. By William B. Weeden. In two volumes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, $4.50.
History, which formerly chronicled only the doings of kings and chieftains, and later developed into the life-record of the state, has now extended its scope to the affairs of the people. Its field is thus made to include a multitude of forces, individually small but mighty in the aggregate, which have always had a potent influence in shaping the courses of nations and in causing the success or the overthrow of rulers. Events otherwise inexplicable are seen to be natural sequences, when the temper of a people becomes known as revealed in their conduct of commercial, social, religious, and family affairs. Probably no region with an equal length of history is so rich in materials for a record of social life as New England. The early New-Englanders conscientiously recorded their business and public transactions, and complacently wrote out their ideas and opinions upon current topics, and later generations have proudly preserved these memorials, Hence the wealth of detail that Mr. Weeden has been able to include in his panorama. Among the important institutions of New England to which the author early calls attention are the towns. These, he states, "were founded on three leading principles: (1) Freehold land regulated by the best usage of many centuries. (2) A meeting, the local and social expression of religious life and family culture. (3) A representative democratic gathering, corresponding to the old folk-mote of the Germanic races." We find town regulations affecting all the affairs of daily life, even some of the most minute and personal. Many of them had to be repealed almost as soon as made; yet the fact that others were allowed to stand and were tolerably observed shows in the colonists a great reverence for the wisdom of the majority. The approved method for dividing the land in a town was that each grantee should have a home lot near the "place for Sabbath assembly," and a field for cultivation farther away. There were also tracts for pasturing the cattle in common herds. The holding and transfer of real estate were among the matters closely regulated. Dorchester, in 1634, enacts that "no man within the Plantation shall sell his house or lott to any man without the Plantation, whome they shall dislike off." In Nahant, colonized by Lynn in 1657, the householders are to have lots of equal size, "noe man more than another." The co-occupation of the country with the Indians had its influence on the customs of the colonists, and the trespasses which the latter committed upon their red-skinned brethren reveal some weaknesses of the Puritans' character that their religion did not save them from. Church and civil government were closely interwoven. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the franchise depended on connection with the church; on the other hand, ministers were commonly chosen in open town meeting, and marriages were performed only by magistrates. The trade in beaver-fur and that in cured fish were of much importance. Permission to keep taverns was voted as early as 1630, but inn-keepers must not force meals at 12d. and above on "pore people." The sale of wines and liquors was wholly prohibited in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637, but the very next year licenses began to be granted. Ship-building and commerce had a rapid growth, and the colonial merchants were soon able to build "fair and stately houses." Many industries were early established; the first saw-mill was set up at Piscataqua (Portsmouth, N. H.) in 1631. Gristmills were already in use. Nicholas Easton established a tannery at Ipswich in 1634. Goodman Fitt, a tailor, is empowered by Charlestown "to set up a salt pan, if he can live upon it, and upon his trade." In 1639 John Hull notes in his diary, "We began to print at Cambridge." Iron-works were established at Lynn in 1643, and at Braintree soon after. Among the colonial laws none seem now so quaint and preposterous as those regulating manners and morals. The "blue laws" of Connecticut are proverbial. In that colony no food or lodging could be given to a Quaker, Adamite, or other heretic. Whoever brought cards into the dominion paid a fine of five pounds. No one could read common prayer, keep Christmas or saints' days, make mince pies, dance, play cards, or play on any instrument of music except the drum, trumpet, and jew's-harp. Tobacco must not be taken "publiquely in the street, highwayes, or any barne-yards, or uppon traineing days in any open places." Massachusetts made rules no less meddlesome. Sunday observance and economical dress were strictly enforced. Class distinctions were strong, and often caused much bitterness. They ruled the seating of the people in church; thus Stamford, Conn., in 1673 votes to seat its people according to "dignity, agge, and estate in this present list of estate." At Saco, in 1669, two men were voted into the first seat, and their wives into the third. Tithing-men with long staffs, having a knob at cne end and a fox-tail at the other, rapped or tickled the sleepers in meeting. The above is a sample of the material that fills Mr. Weeden's nine hundred pages. Among the other topics upon which he gives information are means of travel and communication, agriculture, forced service of Indians which was followed by negro slavery, currency of wampum, coin, and paper, privateers and pirates, whaling, the East India trade, the lives of notable men of the time—such as Hull, the Pepperells, Sewall, Amory, the Faneuils, Edwards, Franklin, and Derby—and the effects of England's regulations upon colonial life and commerce. The sources from which Mr. Weeden has drawn his material include the archives and probate records of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, manuscripts and newspapers in the possession of various historical societies, the diaries of John Hull and Judge Sewall, and various town histories and other historical works. Numerous specific references to sources are given in foot-notes. Appendixes contain a list of prices of labor and commodities in different years from 1630 to 1789, examples of early accounts, reminiscences of Samuel Slater, the first cotton manufacturer in America, etc. An index of fifty pages makes all the references to any topic easily accessible.
Outlines of General Chemistry. By Wilhelm Ostwald, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Leipzig. Translated by James Walker, D. Sc. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 396. Price, $3.50.
This is a work on chemical philosophy adapted to college students who have some acquaintance with descriptive chemistry. An especially notable feature of it is the pains taken by the author to make his subject plain, and to give the student just ideas in regard to the relative importance and trustworthiness of the results which the science has thus far attained. To this fact the large size of the volume is chiefly due. As it is not designed for those who intend to go into the higher aspects of the science, the higher mathematics has not been employed. Another feature of the work is the connected account it gives of the discoveries of van't Hoff in regard to solution and those of Arrhenius concerning electrolytic dissociation, made within the last three or four years, and not yet generally recognized by English-speaking chemists. The translating is evidently well done, but the inconvenient German style of index is retained.
The papers and discussions found in the Circular of Information No. 2, issued by the United States Bureau of Education in 1889, are especially valuable to those interested in the question of educational methods. In The Relation of Manual Training to Body and Mind, Prof. Woodward gives an outline of the work undertaken in the St. Louis Manual Training School. This department of Washington University has been in operation nine years, and the verbatim reports of parents show that the students are not only physically benefited by this system, but accomplish as much mentally and develop greater zest for acquirement than when trained merely in an intellectual direction. Dr. Harris, treating of the psychology, gives his reasons for preferring the drill in reading, geography, arithmetic, and especially grammar, to any discipline in tool-work. He insists upon the distinction between higher and lower faculties; that "we do not get at the true reality by sense perception but by thought"—"man elevates himself above the brute creation by his ability to withdraw his attention from the external world of the senses and give attention to forces, causes, principles." The province of the school, therefore, is to make the pupil master of the tools of thought, to furnish him "with means for availing himself of the mental products of the race." Superintendent Seaver gives, as a result of experience, that "such instruction takes a strong hold on the minds of a large class of boys who are either not so well reached, or not reached at all, by the subjects and methods of teaching current in the older high schools." Other suggestive papers are those on Psychology in its Relation to Pedagogy, by Dr. Butler; How can Manual Training be introduced into Ungraded Schools? by Prof. Allen; and The State and Higher Education, by Superintendent Campbell and Prof. Adams. The discussions on the training of teachers and on the value of examinations will tend to alter the gauge of any narrow-minded educator who may read them.
A History of Education in Alabama, prepared by Willis G. Clark, is the subject of Ciruclar of Information No. 3, 1889. This is the eighth monograph in the series, and, apart from its historical and local worth, it is deserving of study as an exhibit of intellectual growth remote from well-recognized centers. The fact that Alabama has possessed a State institution of learning for seventy years, supplying from one of her professors a President for Columbia College—the late Dr. Barnard—and that Howard College, in the same State, has furnished Harvard with a Professor of Hebrew and Assyrian, shows that the East and North do not monopolize thoroughness in scholarship. It is well to learn that "the Southern city of Mobile, in 1853, could boast of a public school system with methods as advanced... and discipline as effective as in the justly famed schools of New England." As early as 1867 the public-school commissioners acted in concert with the Freedman's Bureau to extend education to colored children. The report for 1888 shows an enrollment in the schools of 98,919 colored pupils, with salaries paid to colored teachers amounting to $183,933.97. Among the State institutions enumerated as educational is the Alabama Insane Hospital. The classification is scarcely warrantable, although the leading forth and restoration of mind rest on the same psychological basis. The institution is worthy of note on its own account. Under the care of the distinguished alienist, Dr. Boyce, 1,011 patients are managed without mechanical constraint, healthful and varied occupation having been substituted for irrational confinement and isolation. This pamphlet is fully illustrated with views of colleges, library, and laboratory interiors.
In the preface to A Report on Medical Education, Medical Colleges, and the Regulation of the Practice of Medicine in the United States and Canada, it is asserted that there has been greater progress in the direction of a higher medical education in the year 1889 than in the preceding five years. Various States have made obligatory a preliminary examination of those intending to pursue medical studies, and three additional States have passed acts requiring, as a condition of practice, evidence of graduation at a medical college in good standing, or, a satisfactory examination by an authorized board. Twenty-seven colleges now insist upon four years' study and three annual courses of lectures, while only four made such requirement in 1889. It is suggested that the standard will be further advanced in seven institutions by the provision of four annual series of lectures. The total number of colleges now in existence in the United States and Canada is given as one hundred and thirty-nine; forty-seven of these are open to both sexes. More than a hundred colleges have chairs of Hygiene and Medical Jurisprudence; lectures on bacteriology are given in six colleges and two post-graduate schools, while a large number afford laboratory practice. The information furnished by the pamphlet includes titles, locations, addresses of corresponding officers, curricula of study, fees, number of matriculates and graduates. The records of a large number of fraudulent institutions are also given. The data are arranged in alphabetical order as to States; but a full index is appended, by means of which any medical school may be readily located.
In the Educational Value of Manual Training, Prof. C. M. Woodward dissects the arguments contained in a report on the subject made to the Council of Education in July, 1889. To ground the reader fairly in the debate, the report itself is printed in full, also a critical review of it, by Gilbert B. Morrison. The author fears that the report, which has been published many times, may lead to wrong inferences concerning manual training. It is the fugitive side-discussions and incidental definitions to which he objects. He discusses the curriculum of the manual training school; school tool-work vs. trade work; the age of pupils; relation to social evils; comparison with pure science; intellectual powers; the economic value, and the argument against liberal culture in tool-work. The gist of the matter appears to be that, while the committee considers manual training per se, Prof. Woodward urges that the system of manual training—i. e., intellectual, scientific, and manual combined—shall be the subject of investigation.
The spread of educational interest is illustrated in A Short History of the Educacational Society of Japan, 1890. It is published by the society, and printed at the Tsukijo Kwappan Teizösho, Tokyo, Japan. The present association is the resultant from the union of two former societies, and it has been in existence six years. Its outlook is flourishing. It issues a journal, of which 331,559 copies have been published and has a library of 28,140 volumes, including 750 European books as well as Japanese and Chinese works. Rules for the government of the society are given, and to these is added a list of the patrons, officials, and members. His Imperial Highness Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, is honorary president of the society.
A course of Progressive Exercises in Practical Chemistry has been prepared by Dr. Henry Leffmann and Mr. William Beam (Blakiston). It includes the exercises that have been given for several years in the Woman's Medical College and in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, in Philadelphia. The first fourteen pages are devoted to descriptions of apparatus and manipulations, illustrated with forty-two cuts. The rest of the book is occupied by directions for 253 experiments arranged to illustrate successively the general principles of chemistry, the properties of the important elements, and electrical decomposition. The authors state that they have "given much attention to details as to quantity of materials to be used and arrangements of apparatus. Some of the experiments and forms of apparatus are new, and have been devised especially with a view to economy." The book is "adapted for use in conjunction with any manual of elementary chemical principles, or to be supplemented by lectures."
Henry C. Northam has prepared a Manual of Civil Government (Bardeen), intended for public instruction in the State of Missouri. It is arranged in the form of a catechism, and takes up the history of the organization of the Government of the United States; city, village, and State government as existing in Missouri, giving the duties and salary of each officer; the organization and jurisdiction of the various courts; presidential elections; the two Houses of Congress; etc. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are appended. The State Constitution of Missouri is not given.
A little calisthenic manual, entitled Home Exercise for Health and Cure, by D. G. R. Schreber, M. D., has been translated by Charles R. Bardeen (Bardeen). It consists of directions for forty-five exercises which require no apparatus. These are followed by combinations of the exercises, adapted to different forms of weakness and to the daily needs of persons of different ages and both sexes. General suggestions and remarks precede and follow the above matter. Where clearness requires it the exercises are illustrated. The publisher states that in Germany teachers are expected to be familiar with the book, and that 140,000 copies of it had been sold up to 1889.