versity, attempts to prove in his new work, The Soul Life of the Child (Das Seelenleben des Kindes). We can, according to Ebbinghaus, compare by means of tests the learning capacity of several persons, by determining the number of repetitions necessary for each to memorize a line of syllables strung together without expressing sense. Six of such syllables are memorized at once; 10 such syllables require from 3 to 7 repetitions, 12 need 14 to 16 repetitions, and 16 syllables require on an average no less than 30 repetitions.

It has been proved, however, that in the child the capacity to learn is as yet very little developed; that an increase in this capacity does not begin until the tenth year of age; that during the time of adolescence an interruption in the process of mental development takes place, which is followed up to the twenty-fifth year of life by a notable acceleration. It is true, as Groos emphasizes, that such tests are to be viewed with great caution, since the child in learning such syllables, senselessly strung together, feels no interest, while the child of more advanced years takes an interest in the test itself and is thereby aided in memorizing.

It is well known that children can memorize in an astonishingly brief time verses (jingle-rhymes, for instance) which please them; that is, either verses which convey ideas to them apperceived by ideas previously acquired or verses which appeal to their esthetic sense through smooth rhyme and melody. The capacity to retain—that is, the memory-may be tested experimentally by having the memorized matter recited at regular intervals, counting the number of repetitions required for the purpose and comparing it with the number needed when first learned. By so doing it has been proved that the child's memory has the advantage over that of the half-grown and the adult person. According to Wessely's investigations, the average memory of pupils of senior grades and of colleges in memorizing poems anew was somewhat weaker than that of younger students, say of middle grades, and much weaker than that of children. Latin words, according to other systematic tests, were best learned by pupils at the age of 12. Experience, as well as systematic tests, have shown, however, that facts, especially such as can be acquired through reasoning, being the final expression of cause and effect, are learned by older students without appeal to the memory.

All of this goes to prove that adults surpass the child in learning when interest, will power, and apperceptive material aid them, but that the capacity to acquire mechanically and retain that which is thus learned is far greater in childhood than in advanced years. This result of systematic tests is quite in accord with the experience of daily life, and simply confirms an old truth. But it does more; it suggests to the teacher that it is quite in accord with nature's processes to allow children below 10 years of age to acquire knowledge by

means of mechanical memorizing, and that it is futile to appeal much to the understanding in the primary grades; furthermore, that as the pupils grow in years appeals to matters previously learned are increasingly useful, and that the practice of mechanical memory drill should gradually give way to a method which builds upon previous cognitions, guides the pupils from cause to effect, or vice versa, and enlists the individual interest and will power of the pupils.

To German teachers these conclusions teach the lesson that the Socratic, or oral, method, which has been exclusively practiced in that country for centuries, is not preferable in childhood, but that its proper place is during the age from 10 to 14 and later. Students of high-school and college age should rely little on mechanical memory drill and more on argumentative acquisition and on self-active discovery of knowledge. Of course there is no hard and fast rule concerning methods of teaching; each teacher must find the way best suited to the age and individuality of her pupil. It is pleasing to Americans, though, to notice that late psychological investigators intimate that our method of early mechanical drill, so frequently criticised, is the right one for childhood, though inappropriate for later years.

EXAMINATION OF WOMEN SCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN PRUSSIA.

All teachers of elementary schools in Prussia, as well as in most other German States, men and women, have to undergo an examination for principalship if they aspire to such a position, while the graduation diploma of a normal school qualifies them to accept a position as class teacher. This examination (called Oberlehrer- or Oberlehrerinnen-Examen) is so arranged as to permit each candidate to select two approved branches in which he or she is to be examined. Since all candidates are normal-school graduates and have been teaching for a number of years, the other branches are omitted. The selection of branches is therefore significant, for it plainly indicates the preferences and talents of the examinees.

During the last thirteen years-that is, since 1895, when women were first admitted to the examination for principalship-only 473 examinees have passed, or 1.92 per cent of the total number of women teachers, while of the men 5.65 per cent have passed. The most interesting feature of these examinations is the selection of branches on the part of the women, showing that they prefer the forms of knowledge, while men prefer the substance, as will be seen from the following figures:

Of the 473 women who passed, 270 had selected German, 176 history, 152 English, 144 French, and 85 religion; but only 62 had selected mathematics, 21 geography, 18 botany and zoology, and 13

physics and chemistry. The following partial list goes more into details:

Other possible combinations occurred only in a few cases. Mathematics and natural science, for instance, were chosen only by 7. Hence it is plain that women evince interest and talent chiefly in the humanities, a fact which the authorities will bear in mind in planning the girls' secondary schools.

The men's preferences in choosing branches to be examined in lean toward mathematics, natural history, biology, natural science; in short, branches which deal more with what the Germans call "Realien," i. e., real knowledge in contradistinction to forms of knowledge.

EDUCATION OF WEAK-MINDED CHILDREN IN GERMANY.

Mrs. Franz Weigl reports in Soziale Kultur that 73 cities of Germany have established auxiliary schools for weak-minded children. An inquiry into the subsequent life of most of the pupils of these schools revealed the following results:

These results are surprisingly gratifying. In 43 of the 73 cities between 50 and 100 per cent of all the children in special schools turned out to be self-supporting after leaving school, and many of the others were not entirely helpless, but could earn enough and were intelligent enough to lead useful lives. These results are the more

gratifying when compared with Doctor Stelzner's report, who investigated the lives of 200 weak-minded persons who had not received instruction in auxiliary schools for backward children. She found that of that number 44 had been convicted as hopeless tramps, 19 for begging, 146 for larceny, 10 for housebreaking, 3 for forging, 8 for fraud, and 5 for assault. The sum of convictions being 235, shows that some of these unfortunates had been convicted repeatedly.

CRIPPLED CHILDREN IN GERMANY."

The statistical bureau of the Grand Duchy of Baden published recently the results of an inquiry into the number of deformed children of school age in Baden. There were found 2,763 children between 6 and 14 years of age who suffered in consequence of inherited or accidental physical defects or loss of limbs. It was found that many of these 2,763 children (among whom were 31 deaf and 7 blind) were mentally deficient, i. e., one-tenth of them were nearly or wholly idiotic. It was found also that among each 1,000 inhabitants 1.4 were seriously or only slightly deformed, and this is precisely the same proportion that was found in the entire Empire of Germany in 1905. That there should be more crippled boys (57.3 per cent) than crippled girls (42.7 per cent) needs no explanation. Of the 2,763 children enumerated in Baden, 2,372 attended elementary schools, 141 secondary schools, 43 schools for the feeble-minded, and 18 were taught by private teachers. In 2,583 cases the parents themselves, in 79 cases the poor-relief fund supported the children, in 92 cases small aid was rendered the parents, in 101 cases the children were supported by relatives. In 791 cases successful operations had been performed, 633 operations had ameliorated the condition. of the children somewhat, while in 573 cases attempts to cure the deformities had proved unsuccessful.

CARE OF DEPENDENT CHILDREN IN PRUSSIA.

The last Prussian report on "Fürsorge-Erziehung" (1906) states the results of four years. Since 1901, when a law was passed concerning the education of children who require special care, being either criminally inclined or subject to criminal influences through their environments, the increase of such children has kept pace with the increase of the population. The number of such children was 6,523 (4,359 boys and 2,164 girls) in 1903; 6,458 (4,303 boys and

For further information on this subject, see Chapter XI of this report-" Schools for Crippled Children Abroad."

2,155 girls) in 1904; 6,636 (4,375 boys and 2,261 girls) in 1905; 6,923 (4,591 boys and 2,322 girls) in 1906.

Concerning their ages the report says: "Two and seven-tenths per cent were less than 6 years old; 29.5 per cent were between 6 and 12; 67.8 per cent were between 12 and 18." Sixteen per cent of all these children in 1906 were illegitimate, a considerable decrease since 1904. On the other hand, the number of families of which father or mother, or both, had been convicted of crime had slightly increased. The number of such neglected, though not always depraved, children is proportionately greater by far in large cities than in small communities.

There were in communities of less than 2,000 inhabitants, 1,226 such children; of between 2,000 and 20,000 inhabitants, 1,614; of between 20,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, 1,474; of over 100,000 inhabitants, excluding Berlin, 1,808; Berlin alone contributed 801; making a total of 6,923.

In Prussia, as well as in other States of the German Empire, such children are assigned by the juvenile courts to private families, the heads of which report to the probation officers, or directly to the court, at stated intervals, how the children are progressing, and the children's school-term reports must be shown. There is now a perfect system of juvenile courts in German cities, a recent law having designated the probate courts of each judicial district to act in cases of juvenile criminality and in cases of neglect. These courts were selected in 1907 to act as juvenile courts, because the judges of such courts have heretofore dealt with the care of orphans.

It was the city of Frankfort on the Main which, following the example of some cities in the United States, appointed separate judges for juvenile criminality. The Prussian legislature took the matter up and passed the law which added the functions of juvenile courts to those of the probate courts in the kingdom. While it may be supposed that some of these judges are not ideal judges of children's peccadillos, it is reasonable, on the other hand, to think that there will be many men among them quite fit for the office, since their former duties included the care of orphans.

FEEDING SCHOOL CHILDREN IN BAVARIA.

Miss Eugenie Abresch gives an account (in Die Lehrerin, No. 50, vol. 24) of the efforts made in Bavaria (south Germany) in feeding children so as to secure the greatest regularity and punctuality. An inquiry set on foot in 18 cities of the Kingdom revealed the fact that in 12 of them regular meals are provided, in the other 6 sporadic efforts are made whenever necessity demands them. In none of the