268 NEW BOOKS. routes (Treatment, 27th Oct., 1898). The object of training is to produce a citizen, if possible ; short of that, to make the idiot less of a social burden. This brings us to the legal chapters, which must end in ques- tions of ultimate ethics. Did space allow, many other points might be profitably discussed. In a compound book like this, it is impossible to develop the detailed studies necessary to bring the psychology of idiots into line with the normal, and we may hope that Dr. Ireland will find time and energy to elaborate still more in the light of a fuller psychology his sketch of idiot education. The last chapter on " Wolf Boys" is essentially anecdotal, and does not pretend to more than historical interest. It remains to add that the book is written with great fluency, and has many indications of wide and liberal scholarship. W. LESLIE MACKENZIE. A Study of a Child. By L. E. HOGAN. New York and London : Harper Bros., 1898. Pp. x., 220. ($2.50.) Miss Hogan gives in this volume selected extracts from the diary of a boy's life, beginning with fragmentary first-year notes, and continuing into the eighth year. The topics followed out in greatest detail are language and drawing ; the work is illustrated by over 500 drawings by the child. Miss Hogan is herself more interested in Froebel and moral education than in psychology. Hence her extracts tend towards illustrations discipline and conduct rather than towards a child psychology. Probably the original diary, drawings and cuttings have been preserved ; the;} would be of greater service to the psychologist than the present book. Moreover the reader cannot be certain of the accuracy of all the recordec observations. ' Beceptiveness to sympathy' is not to be dated from the second and third days ; the average baby, at any rate, does not kiss its mirror reflexion at three and a half months, though it may try to get the whole image into its mouth ; humour hardly appears at five months Again, we are told that baby-talk was never employed (p. 5), while instances of baby -talk occur later on (pp. 40, 42, etc.). On 18th July of the second year we read : " He pronounces 1 in clock now " ; on 20th October : " He pronounced 1 in clock for the first time, and then said it only once ". After the child has said ' papa ' for some time (7th, 16th Nov.), we find that the author intended to say merely that the child meant ' papa ' ; up to 23rd November he had actually said ' baba '. ' Ach, Hirnmel ! ' said on 24th November, and then, for the first time, on 14th December or later. A word explained on p. 55 is declared inexplicable on p. 63. It follows from all this that the work cannot be lightly used as a work of reference. The preparing of an index would have called the writer's attention to the many slips, and so have saved the reader much trouble It would be advisable, too, should the book come to a second edition, state the exact scale upon which the drawings and cuttings are reproduced. Anthropometric data are conspicuous by their absence. On the other hand, the child psychologist will be grateful for this history of language development at large, and for the observations or instinctive fears, imitation, etc. Nor will he judge that all intrinsically improbable statements are wrong. The present reviewer can bear out the fact that "two voices, singing in parts," will soothe a child who is deaf to the blandishments of a single voice : though accurate harmony is not essential ! Miss Hogan's plan is quite worth carrying out ; and if she has not done all that could be done by it, she has nevertheless obtainec a good share of positive result, besides furnishing a model for futi ' child study in the home '.
