throw emphasis upon size of muscle or coarseness of adjustment, such thrusts as Thorndike (36, p. 105, and 37, p. 76) gives concerning these finger and hand movements might be parried and probably would not be made. (I am taking for granted that the implication of Thorndike's criticism are true, i. e., that the muscles used in this early movement are the relatively fine muscles.)

If we note the movements that are controlled by the centres of the lowest Jacksonian level we may see that they are relatively simple; absolutely indefinite so far as control is concerned; definitely separable as to stimuli and appropriate response; relatively indifferent to other movements. They thus have the characteristics of objects far down in the evolutionary scale. We sometimes fail to notice that "the most complex, etc., nervous arrangements, centres and levels, are the least organized; the most simple are the most organized (18).

If

"Thus the centres of the lowest level are much more strongly organized than those of the highest level are. vital' centres of the lowest level were not strongly organized, at birth, life would not be possible; if the centres of the highest level ('mental centres') were not little organized and therefore very modifiable we could only with difficulty and imperfectly adjust ourselves to new circumstances and should make few new acquirements. . . . The highest layers are the least organized, least automatic, and their activity is attended by most vivid consciousness."

In viewing the ascent in the hierarchy of control we may note that the movements become gradually more complex, more definitely under control, more fully co-ordinated and integrated, thus following the lines of evolutionary development (6, p. 98; 5, p. 154; 2, pp. 25-26). But throughout, this seems to mean the control of the same muscles by these different levels. This may be illustrated by the grasping movement already referred

to.

The new born babe seems to use just the same muscles to grasp the pencil reflexly as does the child of six months when he grasps the pencil to pull it towards himself and as you would do should you now, at my suggestion, grasp your pencil. And so with many, if not all the other movements. After their appearance in reflex use, if they ever pass beyond the purely reflex, they can only become compounded, or rather complexed.

Are there any voluntary acts of the adult that involve muscles that are not themselves present at birth? We know that the striped muscles are incomplete at birth, and more completely incomplete in man than in other animals (7, p. 383). We know, too, that some muscles do not function at birth, but the writer is not aware that any of the adult muscles are actually absent.

During the last 25 years there has been an emphasis upon the fact that immaturity of the nervous system at birth is a prominent characteristic of the educable animal (42, 41, 22, 10). It is the condition that makes infancy at the same time both so dangerous and so promising.

The nerve fibres necessary to the control of movement by the highest centres are not medullated at birth (7, p. 383). Flechsig, in his investigations, found that the direction of growth of medullation was not from these highest cerebral centres toward the periphery, but rather, through the mediation of the medulla, in the opposite direction. Such conditions have supported the supposition that the development of these highest centres comes through the movements in the periphery, and that gives support to the thought that we move voluntarily not because we think, but rather we are led to think volitionally because we have moved. So that Mosso (7, p. 383) is led to say that "in man the brain develops later than in all other animals, because his muscles also develop later." (Cf. 40, p. 366.)

It is believed that movements produce development of nervous substance. One of the most convincing instances of the development of the centres from the periphery is the "Psycho-Physiological Training of an Idiotic Hand," reported by Seguin (21). He probably believed that cortical centres for more proximal joints (such as the shoulders in contrast to the elbows) tend to relatively speedy organization and therefore become to some degree a thoroughfare for impulses controlling more distal groups. (3, p. 355.) The teacher of the idiotic boy referred to, began "the training of that hand from the shoulder by movements which, starting from the elevators of the arm, would involve successively the muscles of the arm and the hand. Thus by a series of operations, whose willed or obedient starting point descended gradually from the spine, the child became capable of moving his hand and fingers by imitation at first, and propio motu for simple willed operations, later."

"In the first place, the movements commanded to R. were those commencing nearer the spine; the trainer gradually extending the operations of the will (the will communicated to the pupil by imitation or command) to the groups of muscles approaching the extremities. Thus the limb in training not only became capable of a few willed movements of totality-later applicable to a great number of operations and convertible into smaller movements of the farther extremities-but the mind being drilled to be carried over regions previously ruled by automatism alone, extended its dominions and circulated as if at home, from the great centres to the most delicate groups of sensitive and contractile tissues at the periphery, and soon thence reached centripetally." "In the second place, when these reciprocal conductions between the mind and the periphery, and mainly from the periphery to the centre were taking place, the invitations to the

periphery, not only to enter in action, but to provoke the centres of intelligence, were incessant."

In one year, to quote the report verbatim, "his hand has learned to help himself, to amuse himself, not to bite itself, nor to slap his friends, though it is yet sometimes subject to its automatic agitations. His tact has been cultivated to the point of being conscious of the ordinary variations of the temperature, of water, food, etc.; and of recognizing and naming (without the help of sight) about fifty things by their shape, and quite as many by their texture. His eye-after his touch-has been drilled to appreciate the typical forms in substance at first, and later painted, delineated and hardly indicated; then to cut the same out of paper, etc. In regard to the appreciation of dimensions R. can find out objects gradually shorter or longer, and arrange them accordingly. . . . He has learned to scent, to recognize and name about thirty flowers without fail. . . . He loves the flowers, is ready to plant and nurse them, etc."

After a month's vacation R's teacher (M. E. Mead) found that he had not forgotten, but yet "his hands show that they have done nothing." "Thus, what was gained mentally through the sensesmainly through the hand-remained acquired to the mind. But the training of the hand having been too soon discontinued, the hand relapsed to its former 'lifelessness.'"

Excitation of the senses and impulses to movement hasten the development of the nerves that are implicated. "The experiments of Ambronn and Held and others (17, 4) have shown that if one eye of a new-born kitten is opened to the light, the other remaining closed, the optical fibres of the eye which is stimulated by the light are more quickly surrounded with myelin than those of the other." (Mosso (7), p. 384.)

Let us pause long enough to recall that the child starts out at birth with movements, almost all of which are of the fundamental nature. They are reflexes, automatics, instinctive movements and random movements. But before he is three months old he acts in response to sight, sound, and other such stimulations, the movements being controlled more fully by the centres of the middle level. Before he is a year old, he acts sometimes with volition-he decides, with infantile decision, what he will do. Thus movements advance from the fundamental toward the accessory, chronologically. But this does not mean that he ceases to act somewhat under the control of the lowest level. As he grows older he has learned, e. g., to walk and talk, so that he no longer needs to think of how to make the step or to form the word. What has happened with these accessory movements used in walking and talking? They have gradually changed from accessory control of the highest level to that of the middle level, toward that of the lowest level, so that many of the walking movements have come under the control of the spinal cord and the bulb and so are of the fundamental nature.

To my mind this typifies a direction for much of the educative process, and so it seems to me that Hall is only partially

correct when he says (5, p. 156): "Nature and instinct determine the basal and education the accessory parts of our activities." For education founded upon the basal determines the final basal as well as the final accessory parts of our activities. It determines what ones of our accessories shall be solidified into basal ones and what ones shall be combined into more complex accessories. If the child could be permitted to recapitulate racial history, he would need no other education than that that he would get in such recapitulating. But racial history has made possible his congenital fundamental movements, and that he may survive and be properly adjusted in the complex environment in which he is placed he must get possession of himself, or rather he must give over to the direction of his spinal cord many of his movements so that he may use his higher nervous centres in the management of the very complex situations in which he is to be placed. "L'éducation est l'art de faire passer le conscient dans l'inconscient (45).”

The child must take many "short-cuts' in his recapitulation and should remain in the lower stages only so long as he needs to remain there in order to make the successive stages of his development secure (39, 5, 42, 41, 43).

The experiments on the prematurity of the optic nerves of cats, rabbits, and dogs have shown that maturity can be hastened. But there were some side results to these experiments to which our attention has never been called, so far as I am aware. I have in mind the induced pathological condition of at least some of the animals as a result of the experimentation. Especially was there in evidence a soreness of the eyes. Again, so far as I know, no animals have thus been experimented on and been permitted to live to see if, after maturity, they were as efficient as other animals that have developed normally. Was Preyer's child, for instance, as well off, better off, or worse off than he probably would have been had his eyes not been prematurely developed? To my mind, this points to the real question at issue for us along this line. It is not what can be done, but what is it safe to do in putting the child into possession of adult powers early? As an application of this thought, I notice that Patrick says we should ask, "Not what can the child be taught, but what studies for him are most rational and therefore most economical?" (33, P. 387.)

We hear the complaint that the preparation for college takes too long. It is said that we should hasten the development of the children. Surely we could not permit the child to recapitulate all racial history if we would, and we would not if we could. Short-cuts are both necessary and desirable. What is the limit of safety in acceleration of control? My belief is that we have already exceeded the limit of safety in this accel

eration; but my search for evidence reveals none that is incontrovertible. The tangible fibres in the highest brain centres increase in number and complexity contemporaneously with increase in intelligence. The accessory movements are those controlled by these highest centres. The more completely these centres are developed the more complex may the movements be. If the development of the brain centres is brought about through movements, why not hasten the development by the use of these accessory movements? Is not the development, at least at some times, brought about in this way? When the child is learning to write, for instance, he is learning to make accessory movements. In doing this, his nervous impulses are so diffused that he makes many unnecessary movements (35). Such a decidedly conventional mode of expression in orthodox form could never be mastered in ontogeny by any other means. That it so unnatural to children is what makes it so difficult to learn. They must have many movements from which to select the effective ones. The mode of learning is not changed materially (48) by changing the learning to a slightly earlier or a slightly later time in the child's development. May not the use of these accessory movements be a means to increase the control and to shorten the time of obtaining control? And if so, what is the limit of safety in the use of this means for this end? Again, although I believe that in this also we in our practices pass the bounds of safety, I find no indisputable evidence.1

But there is one phase of the question that at first seems to give some gleam of light. There is no need of experiment to show that there is a period in ontogeny when the individual is too immature to learn to do certain things-he cannot learn to walk when one day old, and if he should live to be a very old man, there would come a time when he could not learn to do a similarly complex thing. Between these limits of almost infinitely great and almost infinitely little plasticity there are variations that, in the main, change in degree as the individual gets older. It is said that there are certain times that are "ripe" for the learning of certain things. Whole chapters and books have been written on Instincts and Habit and the general truth is recognized. But just when do these tendencies come? Exactly what are their evidences? What is the limit

1 Consideration of further practical problems in schoolroom practice are omitted for the lack of time. Such are excessive fatigue and nervousness due, it is alleged, to accessory movements in the fine adjustments of attention with visual and auditory stimuli; inability of children to be still (vide Hancock (16)); of increasing myopia and astigmatism in the ascending school grades; of increased chorea at examination periods; of possibly greater strain and a strain of possibly greater consequence on girls than on boys, etc., etc.