Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

the curve of forgetfulness, as we all know, is by no means limited to the lower schools.

To sum up, pedagogy is more than a skilful guidance of immature boys and girls. The college and university student is in the best sense still a mais, and the art of advancing him to the proper use of his powers is worthy of the thought of the most advanced master in his science.

TEACHERS' COLLEGE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

JULIUS SACHS

A much more than usually profound study of taxation is found in The methods of taxation by David MacGregor Means. The author's treatment of this vitally important subject is not only based upon a wide knowledge of economic processes and literature, but also an acquaintance with actual political conditions. The book demands and deserves serious study. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1909. 380 p. $2.50 net.)

The never old Agricola of Tacitus has been edited by Professor Duane R. Stuart of Princeton with a useful introduction and notes. It is a pity that on purely stylistic grounds the Germania and Agricola of Tacitus are not more read than is now the case. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909.

III p. 40c.)

Professor Alden's Introduction to poetry is a careful and sound bit of literary exposition and criticism. It contains ample material for discussion in class or seminar, and is thoroly well arranged. (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1909. 370 p. $1.25.)

An interesting contribution to American educational history is contained in Dr. Harlan Updegraff's Origin of the moving school in Massachusetts. The ground covered by Dr. Updegraff is very little known, and he sets out in attractive fashion the educational as well as the social and political aspects of his topic. (Teachers College, Columbia University, New York: 1908. 195 p. $1.00.)

Greek architecture by Professor Allan Marquand of Prince

ton is at once a textbook and a book of reference.

The illus

trations are unusually good. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909. 424 p. $2.25.)

A useful book for supplementary reading on the part of students of American history is Romance of American expansion by H. Addington Bruce. & Co., 1909. 244 p. $1.75.)

(New York: Moffat, Yard

President King of Oberlin College continues to contribute thoughtful and stimulating essays on subjects of high importance. We welcome his latest volume, entitled The laws of friendship. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909. 159 p. $1.25.)

Under the editorship of Professor Nielson of Harvard, there has been prepared a collection entitled English and Scottish popular ballads. The annotations are scholarly and most helpful. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909. 187 p. 40c.)

An indication of the new tasks being laid on the public schools in the large cities is found in the appearance of a little textbook entitled English for foreigners by Miss Sara R. O'Brien of Springfield, Mass. The book is cleverly made. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909. 155 p. 50c.)

In Civics and health, Mr. William H. Allen presents an impressive argument for development of the work in school hygiene and preventive medicine. His book should be widely read by teachers for whom it contains many practical suggestions. (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1909. 432 p. $1.25.)

The new conditions under which our national government is being carried on are suggestively indicated in a book entitled The federal civil service as a career, by E. L. Foltz. The operation of the merit system is described and the practical working of the civil service set out in some detail. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909. 325 P. $1.50.)

For many years Stopford Brooke's little Introductory primer of English literature was much used in America, and now a new book of the same type, entitled A new primer of English literature, has just appeared, written by Professors Tucker and Murdoch of the University of Melbourne. London: George Bell & Sons, 1909. 216 p. 2s. 6d.)

cess

ΧΙ

NOTES AND NEWS

The physiologi- At the Winnipeg meeting of the British cal basis of suc- Association one of the most interesting addresses was that by Professor E. H. Starling, of the University of London, who, as president of the year in this section on physiology, took for his topic the physiological basis of success. From the full report in the London Times we take the following paragraphs:

Professor Starling began by pointing out that the physiologist had one guiding principle which played but little part in the science of the chemist and physician, namely, adaptation. Every phase of activity in a living being was a sequence of some antecedent change in its environment, and was so adapted to this change as to tend to its neutralization and so to the survival of the organism. This was what was meant by adaptation, which therefore must be the deciding factor in the origin of species and in the succession of the different forms of life upon the earth. In every case, whatever part of the living world we took as an example, we found the same apparent perfection of adaptation. Whereas, however, in the lower forms the adaptation was within strictly defined limits, with rise in type the range of adaptation steadily increased. Especially was this marked if we took those groups which stood, so to speak, at the head of their class. It was therefore important to try and find out by a study of various forms the physiological mechanism of mechanisms which determined the increased range of adaptation. By thus studying the physiological factors, which might have made for success in the struggle for dominance among the various representatives of the living world, we might obtain an insight into the factors which would make for success in the further evolution our race was destined to undergo.

EDUCATION BY EXPERIENCE

The factors which determined success in the struggle for predominance were, in the first place, foresight and power to react to coming events, and, in the second place, control of the whole activities of the organism by that part of the central nervous system which presided over the reaction. That animal therefore profited most which could subordinate the impulses of the present to the exigencies of the future. An organism thus endowed was still, however, in the range of its reactions, a long way behind the type which had attained dominance today. With the formation of the vertebrate type, and probably even before, a new faculty made its appearance. Up to this point the reactions of an animal had been what was termed “fatal,” not in the sense of bringing death to the animal, but as inexorably fixt by the structure of the nervous system inherited by the animal from its precursors. The next great step in the evolution of our race was the modification of the nervous system which should render possible the education of the individual. The mechanism for this educatability was supplied by the addition, to the controlling sensory ganglia of the head, of a mass of nervous matter which could act, so to speak, as an accessory circuit to the various reflex paths already existing in the original collection of nerve ganglia. This accessory circuit, or upper brain, came to act as an organ of memory. Without it a child might, like a moth, be attracted by a candle-flame and approach it with its hand. The injury ensuing on contact with the flame would inhibit the first movement and cause a drawing back of the hand. In the simple reflex mechanism there was no reason why the same series of events should not be repeated indefinitely, as in the case of the moth. The central nervous system, however, was so constituted that every passage of an impulse along any given channel made it easier for subsequent impulses to follow the same path. In the new nerve center, which presented a derived circuit for all impulses traversing the lower centers, the response to the attractive impulse of the flame was succeeded immediately by the strong inhibitory impulses set up by the pain in the burn. The effect of such a painful experience on the new upper brain

must far outweigh that of the previous impulse of attraction. The next time that a similar attractive impression was experienced the derived impulse traversing the upper brain aroused, not the previous primary reaction, but the secondary one, viz., that determined by the painful impressions attending contact with the flame. As a result, the whole of the lower tracts, along which the primary reaction would have traveled, were blocked, and the reaction—now an educated one-consisted in withdrawal from or avoidance of the formerly attractive object. The burnt child had learnt to dread the fire.

THE FACULTY OF SPEECH

If we considered for a moment the vastness and complexity of the stream of impressions which must be constantly pouring into the central nervous system from all the sense organs of the body, and the fact that, at any rate in the growing animal, every one of these impulses was, so to speak, stored in the upper brain, and affected the whole future behavior of the animal, even the millions of nerve cells and fibers to be found in the human nervous system would seem to be insufficient, to carry out the task thrown upon them. Further development of the adaptive powers of the animal would probably have been rendered impossible by the very exigencies of space and nutrition, had it not been for the development of the power of speech. Every word was a shorthand expression of the vast sum of experience, and by using words as counters it became possible to increase enormously the power of the nervous system to deal with its own experience. Education now involved the learning of these counters and of their significance in sense experience; and the reactions of the highest animal, man, were for the most part carried out in response to words and were governed by past education of the experience-content involved in each word. As soon as experience could be symbolized in words, it could be dissociated from the individual and became a part of the common heritage of the race, so that the whole past experience of the race could be utilized in the educationi.e., the laying down of nerve tracts-in the individual himself.

« AnteriorContinuar »