pedagogical significance of this fact has long since been realized, but in Germany its legal importance has not been sufficiently recognized. In Dr. Baginsky's opinion, children's statements in court are, as expressions of the actual knowledge of the child, entirely worthless, and the more worthless the oftener they are repeated, since the repetition increases the belief of the child in their reality. In Sweden, no witness under fifteen years is legally competent. I would almost pledge myself, said Prof. Baginsky, to obtain from a child, up to eight or nine years, under examination, whatever statement I desired to obtain. The address was concluded with a plea for the exclusion of child witnesses from court.

Dr. Ernst Meumann, Professor of Philosophy and Pedagogy at Königsberg, read a paper on the Scientific Investigation of Differences in the Mental Endowments of Children and its Practical Significance. This was a discussion of the pedagogical problems involved and the need of some methods of distinguishing between the natural capability of a child and his actual performance. Any scheme for classifying pupils according to their ability must depend upon the scientific solution of the psychological problems involved and the discovery of adequate tests. Dr. Meumann's paper aroused an interesting discussion on the comparative value of the methods of observation and experiment, ending with the agreement that they should supplement and not oppose each other.

Director Christian Ufer of the School for Girls at Elberfeld, discussed the Relation of Child Study to Pedagogy. He expressed some doubt as to whether child study can ever, as some of its more enthusiastic advocates have claimed, furnish an exact scientific basis to pedagogy. Its present achievements, at least, do not justify that claim. The mental development of the first six or seven years have been well studied and the results are of great value for the home and kindergarten, but for the school years we have as yet comparatively little that can be used to ground pedagogy on an exact scientific basis. Dr. William Ament, of Wurzburg, gave a historical sketch of child study from the close of the 18th century, including a sketch of the literature from Locke (1695) to Preyer (1882). The title pages of the various works mentioned were shown by lantern slides.

Dr. Felisch, Privy Councillor of the Admiralty, discussed ways and means of caring for children who leave school between fifteen and eighteen to become wage earners. Here, state, church, school and citizen association should work together. Dr. Felisch would have a special organization to look after these children. Its duties would be to help the child choose his vocation, and here his teachers can give aid and counsel, to help him avoid bodily and moral harm, to aid in establishing good relations between the child and his employer, to see that young workers away from home are provided with suitable boarding places and to provide for the continuance of education by special tevening classes, etc. For the children brought up in Berlin orphanages, his programme is actually carried out, and Dr. Felisch would widen the scope of this parental care to include all those needing it.

Dr. Heubner, Professor of Children's Diseases at the University of Berlin, gave some statistics in regard to the number of idiotic and feeble-minded children occurring in his own practice. Out of 9,200 children examined by him, there were 307 with enfeebled intellects of whom 259 were actually imbecile. His address was chiefly a plea for institutions where these children can be given proper instruction and care. Much may be done to alleviate and improve their condition, under favorable environment, but for poor children the number of such institutions is at present utterly inadequate.

Dr. Eduard Martinak, Professor of Philosophy and Pedagogy at the University of Graz, spoke on the Nature and Problems of a Science of Pupils (Schülerkunde). Under the term Schülerkunde are included all problems of investigating the bodily and mental life of school pupils, with especial emphasis on all phenomena which stand in causal connection with the school life as such. This would include pupils of all ages from the legal age of school entrance, six years, to the close of the secondary school period or about twenty. Dr. Martinak paid a high tribute to Dr. Hall's work in Child Study and announced the forthcoming German translation of "Adolescence" by Dr. Joseph Stimpfl.

He suggested that sources from which valuable data could be obtained for such a science would be a statistical collection of the later history of former pupils, exercise books kept throughout the entire school life, biographies, etc.

The preparation of the teachers should, he thought, include a broad training in psychology and a practical experience with children both in and out of school. Among the numerous problems of "Schülerkunde" suggested were:

1. The pupil and his daily life (programme of the day, sleep, mealtimes, cleanliness, clothing, order, etc.).

2. The pupil and the school; (a) his relation to the teacher and the school; (b) to his fellow pupils; (c) to the subject matter of the curriculum (the range of interests of the pupil: undercurrents in his mental life); (d) reflex influence of school life upon the total behavior of the pupil.

4. The pupil and nature, (a) nature as an object of knowledge; (b) nature as an object of æsthetic feeling; (c) influence of nature, i. e., climate, seasons, on the pupil.

5. The pupil and art, and the beautiful in general. (Art Education.)

6. The pupil and his relation to religion (storm and stress period). 7. The pupil in relation to his fellow men; friendship, egoism, altruism; relation to rich and poor, old and young, high and low, to the sick, to societies and associations, and especially relations to the other sex (awakening inclination, love, co-education).

8. The pupil's attitude toward himself, health, purity, strength, beauty, the spiritual ego: self feeling, honor, depressive truth, etc. In addition to this group of problems belonging to the general subject are many other topics of a more specialized nature, some of which have already received monographic treatment but in which there is still much to be investigated. Such are speech problems, reading, play, collecting instinct, money sense, punishment, faults and crimes, political understanding and interest, ideals, etc. In closing Dr. Martinak emphasized the need for concentrating and unifying the work already done in those lines.

Wilhelm Kulemann, Councillor of the Provincial Court at Bremen, discussed the Legal Treatment of Youth. The line of demarcation between classes of youth in the existing criminal code is at fault in so far as it is grounded on the purely intellectual ability of the culprit to distinguish right and wrong and does not take into consideration the factor of will. It would be better to replace the anthropological by a pedagogical distinction which should take into account the environment and personality of the culprit. In the treatment of juve. nile offenders, three modes of reaction on the part of the state are possible namely, education, punishment and such course of action as shall prevent further offences. The first is applicable exclusively to children, the second to adults; adolescents form a middle class. The possible modes of treatment for this class are either educational, (a) supervision and direction by the state of the offender in the home,

(b) placing the offender under guardianship of another home, (c) placing the offender in an institution; or punitive, (a) reproof, (b) fines, (c) arrest, (d) imprisonment. All cases of this class should be in the hands of a special court consisting of a judge and other members among which should always be a teacher and a physician.

The foregoing lectures were all given before the assembled congress. Those given in the three sections were so numerous that space permits mention of only a few of them. In the anthropological section, Dr. William Stern, Private Docent at the University of Breslau, spoke upon the Fundamental Questions of Psychogenesis. These questions are of special importance to (1) child psychology, (2) for pedagogy which can reach its ideal of the normal development of the child only through knowledge of the fundamentals of soul development, and (3) to the science of culture. Dr. Stern treated the subject under three heads, (1) the facts of psychogenesis, (2) its causes, (3) the genetic parallelism. Quantitatively considered, all evolution is ascent or growth; qualitatively considered, it is not proportional growth, but a series of metamorphoses with continual alteration of relations. Temporarily considered, all psychic evolution is rhythmical. Causes of psychogenesis were discussed under the heads external and internal. Under the former were included food, climate, education and environment. Under internal causes were included heredity, sex distinctions and individual peculiarities. On the one hand stands empiricism and on the other nativism; the truth must be sought in a synthesis of the two. The third section, the psychogenetic parallelism was a tracing of the familiar analogy between the child and the race.

Dr. Alfons Engelsperger, teacher in the peoples school at Munich, contributed a statistical study to the knowledge of the physical and psychic nature of the six-year-old child on entrance to school. The subjects of the study were five hundred six-year-old children entering the Munich schools. Careful measurements of their height and weight were taken at entrance and again after eight weeks of school life. 85% of these children were found to lose from two to three pounds in weight during the eight weeks. It was also noted that the children entering school under six were less amenable to instruction than those entering at the full age. These facts point to a need of co-operation between family and school to lessen this evident injury to the children. Here there is a pressing need for the students of child psychology to investigate ways and means by which the critical passage from home to school life may be made without interfering with normal development.

Director Johann Delitsch, of the high school at Plauen, spoke on the subject of Individual Inhibitions of Attention in School Children. These were frequently not due to any moral delinquency and should not be so treated, since they may be due to physical causes. They may be (1) somatic, e. g., tooth and headache, stomach troubles, hunger, thirst, anæmia, circulation, etc., (2) sensorial that is due to eye or ear defects or (3) purely cerebral, associative inhibitions. The teacher, the school physician and parents should co-operate in the investigation and proper treatment of such pathological cases.

Dr. Theodor Elsenhaus discussed the Natural Endowments (Anlage) of Children. This concept of natural endowment is practically an unknown quantity which conditions the development of the child. On the one hand we have those who make the natural endowment the main thing and on the other those who would exalt education and lay little stress on inborn disposition. But neither is sufficient in itself. Natural endowments must be cultivated and controlled by educational methods to bring them to their fruitage.

Dr. Ferdinand Kemises, of the Real-gymnasium at Weissensee, Berlin, contributed a valuable study on the Question of Children Lies,

giving some results of an extensive research which has been carried on by the Berlin Verrein für Kinderforschung.

Dr. Friedrich Schmidt, teacher in Wurzburg, presented an experimental study on home and test exercises. Composition work at home and in school was used as subject matter and the errors of each class of work marked according to a specified scale. The chief general result of this study was that the home work in the case of the girls showed a better style than the school work and the reverse was the case with the boys. Some qualitative differences in error between school and home work were also shown.

Dr. Alwin Pabst, Director of the Teachers Seminary for Manual Training at Leipzig, spoke on the Psychological and Pedagogical Significance of Manual Training.

The development of the brain as an organ not merely for thinking but also for human will and action is dependent upon motor as well as sense training. The usual sharp distinction between brain work and handiwork is a false one. There is no handiwork which does not at the same time demand more or less brain work and the question is one of the degree in which the brain is called into activity. For this reason bodily movements, play, gymnastics and manual work are necessary to the development of the brain. Motor activities condition character and will and are a needful part of education. The skilled handwork involving the finer muscles works upon the brain quite differently from the movement of the heavier muscles, and the skilled hand is a sense organ comparable to the eye or ear. Speech, music, painting and sculpture are all forms of psychological activity in motor terms. The education of the future must include muscle training as a necessary part of the developmental process.

Dr. Hans Schmid kunz, of Berlin, spoke upon the later years of Adolescence, especially in its importance for academic pedagogy. His concluding remarks briefly summarized the conclusions to be drawn from the congress as follows:

1. Pedagogy must still more than it has yet done be based upon Child Study, which must not be limited to the earlier stages of childhood but must take into consideration later childhood and adolescence. 2. In Child Study, as in medicine, the method of experiment and the method of observation are not in opposition to but supplement each other.

3. Psychological instruction in the teachers seminaries must be a child psychology; not merely the normal phenomena of the child's psychic life but also the most freqnent pathological phenomena must be treated.

4. In education practical instruction must be emphasized more than formerly. THEODATE L. SMITH.

NOTES.

The Bureau of Education has received, through the Department of State, the following report from the American legation in China in regard to educational reform in that country:

"This Legation has sent a number of reports to the Department upon the subject of Educational Reform in China.

"In more than one of these attention was invited to the rapid increase in the number of Chinese students who were being sent abroad for education. Most of these students have gone to Japan, but a number have been sent to Europe and America.

"The adoption of a public school system on modern lines, and the abolition of the old system of examinations, gave a strong impetus to the movement.

"No definite arrangements have been made as yet for the conferring

of degrees in connection with the new public school system, but, as an increasing number of students are returning from foreign colleges and universities, it has become necessary to make special arrangement for their examination with a view to granting them Chinese degrees and assigning them to official posts. This is the more imperative because of the great need for men acquainted with modern sciences and international law in various branches of the government service.

"The first degrees conferred upon such students by the Imperial Government were granted in the summer of 1905, when fourteen returned students were thus honored.

"This year arrangements were made for another examination, the results of which have been made known. The number of applicants for examination was 53, but only 42 were admitted, of whom 23 had studied in Japan, 17 in the United States, and one each in Great Britain and Germany.

"The students were examined in the branches covered by their foreign degrees. By a mistake of the examiners two of the American students were improperly classed and failed to receive the examination intended.

"Those receiving marks of 80 per cent. or upwards were granted the degree of chin shih, or Doctor; those marked from 70 per cent. to 80 per cent., a first grade chu jen, or M. A., and those between 60 per cent. and 70 per cent. a second grade M. A.

"The papers were prepared in English by students who had studied in the United States, Great Britain and Germany, and in Chinese by those who had studied in Japan.

"The result was that 9 gained the Doctorate, 5 the first grade M. A., and 18 the second grade M. A. Ten failed, including the two American students who were improperly classed.

"Of the nine Doctors, eight studied in the United States and one in Great Britain. The first place was taken by a graduate of Yale. One of the Doctors is Mr. W. W. Yen, a professor in St. John's College (American Episcopal Mission), Shanghai, who is, I believe, a graduate of the University of Virginia.

"Among the first grade M. A.'s are Mr. S. Alfred Sze and his brother, Thomas Sze, graduates of Cornell. The former was Secretary to Professor Jenks during his conference with the Chinese Government upon the subject of the establishment of a new monetary system for China. Mr. Sze has since been appointed General Superintendent of the Peking-Hankow Railway." ELMER ELLsworth Brown, Commissioner of Education.

A movement in the direction of play-education, something radically different from the formal, prescribed kindergarten course, has recently been made in London by the promoters of the Guild of Play. In a recent conference of the teachers under the London County Council, as reported in "Education" (London), for Feb. 1st, 1907, Mrs. Kimmins describes the plan and purpose of the venture.

There has been, of late, a feeling against the stiffness and severity of the physical drill in the prescribed school course even for the better class of children, those physically fit for it, and schoolyard games are being more encouraged; but the educational value of the old singing and dancing games, that were in vogue before formal schooling laid its mandate on the little players, and which are so rapidly declining, has not been recognized. The Guild of Play seeks to revive the old country dances, such as the morris-dance, which, it is claimed, is superior to all others as a physical exercise. The minuet, also, is arranged both simply and elaborately for younger and for older children. For the youngest, the singing games, so many of which have been collected from all parts of England by Mrs. Gomme, in her two vols. contributed to the "Dictionary of British Folk-Lore," have proved most beneficial. Of games, ball in its various forms is best,