Various
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899
GENERAL NOTICES
The fact that Mr. Charles A. Dana stood in close personal relations with Secretary Stanton and was officially associated with him during a considerable period of the war for the Union, and was also incidentally brought near Mr. Lincoln, gives whatever he may relate concerning the events of that period somewhat the air of a revelation from the inside. Accordingly, we naturally expect to find things narrated in his Recollections of the Civil War51 that could not be told as well by any one else. The account given in the book relates to events in which the author was personally concerned. Mr. Dana had been associated with Horace Greeley in the editorial management of the New York Tribune for fifteen years, when, in April, 1862, Mr. Greeley invited him to resign. No reason was given or asked for the separation, and no explicit statement of a reason was needed. Mr. Greeley, having expressed in the beginning his willingness to let the secessionist "wayward-sister" States go in peace, was in favor of peace; Mr. Dana was for vigorous war. A correspondence was opened between him and Mr. Stanton in reference to public matters shortly after Mr. Stanton went into the War Department. Then Mr. Dana was intrusted with special commissions that carried him to the front and brought him in contact with the leaders of the army; and finally, in 1863, was appointed Assistant Secretary of War, an office he filled till the end of the contest. His narrative deals as the story of one having knowledge with questions of policy, with the critical phases of the hard conflict, with the perplexities and anxieties of the men charged with responsibilities, with stirring scenes in the councils at the Capitol and in battle at the front, and with personal incidents of the men whose names the nation loves and delights to honor. All is related in the straightforward, fluent style, touching only the facts, of a writer who has a story to tell and makes it his business to tell it. The result of the reading of the book is to arouse a new appreciation of the abilities and virtues of those great men in their various walks of civil, political, and military life, who took our country through its supreme trial.
Mrs. Arabella B. Buckley's Fairy-Land of Science has stood the test of about thirty years' publication as one of the simplest, clearest, and best popular introductions to physical science. Originating in a course of lectures delivered to children and their friends, the thought of publishing the book was suggested by the interest taken in the lectures by all the hearers. It was a happy thought, and the carrying of it out is fully justified by the result. But thirty years is a long time in so rapidly advancing a pursuit as the study of science, and makes changes necessary in all books treating of it. The publishers of this work,52 therefore, with the assistance of the author, have considerably extended the original volume, adding to it notices of the latest scientific discoveries in the departments treated, and amplifying with fuller detail such parts as have grown in importance and interest. A few changes have been made in the interest of American readers, such as the substitution, where it seemed proper, of words familiar here for terms almost exclusively used in England, and the introduction of American instead of English examples to illustrate great scientific truths. The book has also been largely reillustrated.
Some of the essays in Miss Badenoch's True Tales of the Insects53 have already appeared in serials – two of them in the Popular Science Monthly. The essays are not intended to present a view of entomology or of any department of it, but to describe, in an attractive and at the same time an accurate manner, a few special features of insect life and some of what we might call its remarkable curiosities. The author is well qualified for her undertaking, for, while being an entomologist of recognized position, she has those qualities of enthusiasm in her pursuit and literary training that enable her to present her subject in its most attractive aspect. From the great variety of insect forms she has selected only a few for this special presentation, including some of eccentric shape and some of genuine universal interest. She begins with the strange-looking creatures of the family of the Mantidæ, or praying insects, or, as the Brazilians call the Mantis, more fitly, the author thinks, the devil's riding horse, which is characterized as "the tiger, not the saint, of the insect world." The walking-stick and walking-leaf insects, of equally strange appearance, but peaceful, naturally follow these. Then come the locusts, and grasshoppers, which are more familiar, and the butterflies and moths, which attract the most attention and present such remarkable forms as the case-moths and the hawk and death's-head moths. The insects made subjects of treatment are described with fullness of detail, and the record of their life histories. The book is published in an attractive outer style, on thick paper, with thirty-four illustrations by Margaret J. D. Badenoch.
Prof. Charles C. James, now Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Ontario, defines the purpose of his book, Practical Agriculture54 to be to aid the reader and student in acquiring a knowledge of the science as distinguished from the art of agriculture – "that is, a knowledge of the 'why,' rather than a knowledge of the 'how.'" The author believes, from his experience of several years' teaching at the Ontario Agricultural College, that the rational teaching of agriculture in public and high schools is possible and would be exceedingly profitable, and that an intelligent knowledge of the science underlying the art would add much interest to the work and greatly increase the pleasure in it. The science of agriculture is understood by him to consist of a mingling of chemistry, geology, botany, entomology, physiology, bacteriology, and other sciences in so far as they have any bearing upon agriculture. He has aimed in this book to include only the first principles of these various sciences, and to show their application to the art of agriculture. The subject is treated as it relates, consecutively, to the plant, the soil, the crops of the field; the garden, orchard, and vineyard; live stock and dairying; and, under the heading of "other subjects," bees and birds, forestry, roads, and the rural home. The appendix contains lists of trees and of weeds, and an article on spraying mixtures. Questions to be answered by the reader are attached to most of the chapters. The illustrations are well chosen and good.
Considerable information about the Philippine Islands and their inhabitants is given by Dr. D. G. Brinton in a pamphlet entitled The Peoples of the Philippines. Dr. Brinton's point of view is the anthropologist's, and accordingly, after a few paragraphs about the geography, geology, and history of the islands, he takes up their ethnology and describes their various peoples as they have been studied by the masters of the science and by travelers. Much valuable as well as interesting information is given respecting their manners and customs, languages, and literature, for the Tagals have had a written language from the earliest known times, and though their old literature does not amount to much they are to-day exceedingly facile versifiers.
The Open Court Publishing Company (Chicago) publishes The Lectures on Elementary Mathematics (Leçons élémentaires sur les mathématiques) of Joseph Louis Lagrange, "the greatest of modern analysts," in a translation from the new edition of the author's collected works by Thomas J. McCormack. These lectures, which were delivered in 1765 at the École Normale, have never before been published in separate form, except in the first printing in the Journal of the Polytechnic School and in the German. "The originality, elegance, and symmetrical character of these lectures have been pointed out by De Morgan, and notably by Dühring, who places them in the front rank of elementary expositions as an example of their kind. They possess, we might say, a unique character as a reading book in mathematics, and are interwoven with helpful historical and philosophical remarks." They present with great clearness the subjects of arithmetic and its operations, algebra, equations of the third and fourth degrees, the evolution of numerical equations, and the employment of curves in the solution of problems. The translator has prefixed a short biographical sketch of Lapouge, and an excellent portrait is given.
A book of Observation Blanks for Beginners in Mineralogy has been prepared by Herbert E. Austin, as an aid to the laboratory course, and is published by D. C. Heath & Co. (Boston, 30 cents). The laboratory course is intended to make the pupil familiar with the characteristics of minerals and the terms used in describing them by directing him to observe typical specimens and describe what he sees, and to develop his faculties of observation, conception, reasoning, judgment, comparison, and memory. A description is given of apparatus that may be home-made. The blanks follow, containing spaces for the insertion of notes under the heads of Experiment, Observation, Statement, and Conclusion.
In Volume No. XXX of the International Education Series – Pedagogics of the Kindergarten – a number of Froebel's essays relating more especially to the plays and games were printed from the collection made by Wichard Lange. A new volume of the series, Friedrich Froebel's Education by Development, includes another selection from Lange's publication, in which the gifts are more thoroughly discussed. "Again and again, in the various essays," the editor of the series says, "Froebel goes over his theory of the meaning of the ball, the sphere, the cube, and its various subdivisions. The student of Froebel has great advantage, therefore, in reading this volume, inasmuch as Froebel has cast new light on his thought in each separate exposition that he has made… The essays on the training school for kindergartners and the method of introducing children's gardens into the kindergarten are very suggestive and useful. In fact, there is no other kindergarten literature that is quite equal in value to the contents of this volume." The few essays in Lange's volume that still remain untranslated are characterized as being mostly of an ephemeral character. With the publication of the present volume, of which, as of the Pedagogics, Miss Josephine Jarvis is the translator, a complete list of the original works of Froebel in English translations has been provided in the International Education Series of Messrs. D. Appleton and Company.
A useful manual for students in chemistry is the Chemical Experiments of Prof. John F. Woodhull and M. B. Van Arsdale (Henry Holt & Co., New York). It embraces directions for making seventy-five experiments with different substances and chemical properties, including oxygen and the air, hydrogen and water, chlorine and the chlorine family, acids, bases, salts, sulphur, nitrogen, carbon, carbon dioxide and the carbonates, fermentation, potash, and problems to illustrate the law of definite proportions. A title is given to each experiment, suggesting what is to be proved by it; the details of the process are given, and the pupil is left to do the rest, entering his particular observations and conclusions on the blank page opposite the text. Questions are appended, of a nature further to develop the thinking powers of the pupils, and tables or lists are added of the elements concerned in the experiments, weights and measures, apparatus, and chemicals.
The book Defective Eyesight: the Principles of its Relief by Glasses, of Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, is the result of an attempt to revise The Determination of the Necessity for Wearing Glasses, published by the same author in 1888. It was found, on undertaking the work of revision, that the advance in our knowledge of the proper prescription of glasses, especially in the matter of simplicity in method, had been so great as to require a complete rewriting. In doing this the book has been very much enlarged, and illustrations have been introduced. The author hopes his manual may prove a reliable guide to the student and practitioner in ophthalmology, and may also be of interest to persons who wish to know the principles on which the prescription of glasses is based. The special subjects treated of are the measurement of visual power, presbyopia, myopia or short-sightedness, hypermetropia, corneal astigmatism, asthenopia, and the qualities of lenses. (Published by the Macmillan Company. Price, $1.)
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. North Carolina State Agricultural Society: Second Annual Report (1896) of the Experimental Farm at Southern Pines. Pp. 90. – Ohio: Press Bulletin No. 195. Stomach Worms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 196. Comparison of Varieties of Wheat. Pp. 2; No. 197. Successful Treatment of Stomach Worms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 198. Varieties of Wheat and Home-mixed Fertilizers. Pp. 2. – United States Department of Agriculture: Monthly List of Publications (July, 1899). Pp. 4; Report on North American Fauna. No. 14. Natural History of the Tres Marias Islands, Mexico. Pp. 96; No. 15. Revision of the Jumping Mice of the Genus Zaphus. By Edward A. Preble. Pp. 34, with one plate; Report of the Puerto Rico Section of the Weather and Crop Service of the Weather Bureau, for May, 1899. Pp. 8.
Baker, M. N. Potable Water and Methods of Detecting Impurities. New York: The Van Nostrand Company. (Van Nostrand Science Series.) Pp. 97. 50 cents.
Beman, W. W., and Smith, D. E. New Plane and Solid Geometry. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 382.
Bulletins, Proceedings, Reports, etc. Boston Society of Natural History: Vol. XXIX. No. 2. Variation and Sexual Selection in Man. By E. T. Brewster. Pp. 16; No. 3. Notes on the Reptiles and Amphibians of Intervale, New Hampshire. By Glover M. Allen. Pp. 16; No. 4. Studies in Diptera Cyclorhapha. By G. & N. Hough. Pp. 8; No. 5. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. New Series: No. 17. By B. L. Robinson and J. M. Greenman. Pp. 12. – Dominion of Canada: Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization. Improvements In Crop Growing. By Prof. James W. Robertson. Pp. 39. – International Correspondence Schools, Scranton, Pa.: General Circular. Pp. 32. – Liberal University, Silverton, Oregon: Announcements. Pp. 18. – Society of American Authors: Bulletin for July, 1899. Pp. 22. – University of Michigan, Department of Medicine and Surgery: Annual Announcement for 1899-1900. Pp. 91. – United States Artillery Journal: Index to Vol. X, 1898. Pp. 12.
Carpenter, George H. Insects, their Structure and Life. A Primer of Entomology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 404. $1.75.
Daniels, Winthrop Moore. The Elements of Public Finance, including the Monetary System of the United States. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 383. $1.50.
Grotius, Hugo. Proceedings at the Laying of a wreath on the Tomb of, July 4, 1899, by the Commission of the United States to the International Peace Conference. Pp. 48.
Howard, John R., editor. Educational Nuggets. New York: Ford, Howard & Hulbert. Pp. 215. 50 cents.
McIlvaine, Charles, and Macadam, R. K. Toadstools, Mushrooms, and Fungi, Edible and Poisonous. (Specimen pages.) Indianapolis. Ind.: The Bowen-Merrill Company. (Author's Edition.) $10.
Massee, George. A Text-Book of Plant Diseases caused by Cryptogamic Parasites. New York. The Macmillan Company. Pp. 458. $1.60.
Mellen, George E. New Pointers for Amateurs (Photography). Published by the author. Times Building, Chicago. Pp. 46, with blanks. 15 cents.
Miller, Prof. Kelly. The Primary Needs of the Negro Race. Washington: Howard University. Pp. 18.
Oregon Short Line Railroad. Where Gush the Geysers. (Guide to Yellowstone National Park.)
Pelley, W. H., Knoxville, Ill. Christian Government. Pp. 44. 10 cents.
Pfungst, Dr. Arthur. Ein Deutscher Buddhist. (A German Buddhist.) Theodor Schultze. Stuttgart. Pp. 51.
Rector, L. E., Translator and Editor. Montaigne on the Education of Children. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (International Education Series.) Pp. 191.
Reprints: Billings, S. A., and Englehardt, H. A. Observations on a New Coal-Tar Product. Pp. 7. – Goldmann, J. A. Prophylactic Treatment of the Uric-acid Diathesis. Pp. 8. – Kingsley, Carl. Methods of Determining the Frequency of Alternating Currents. Pp. 11. – Kunz, George F. The Production of Precious Stones in 1897. Pp. 22. – Shimer, P. W. Carbon Combustions in a Platinum Crucible. Pp. 12.
Sumner, William G. The Conquest of the United States by Spain. Boston: Dana, Estes & Co.
Smithsonian Institution: Doan, Martha. Index to the Literature of Thallium. Pp. 26; Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Index to Vol. XXI.
United States Commission of Labor: Thirteenth Annual Report. Hand and Machine Labor. Two volumes. Pp. 1604.
United States Geological Survey: Nineteenth Annual Report. Part I. Director's Report, including Triangulations and Spirit Levelings. Pp. 422, with map; Part IV. Hydrography. Pp. 814; Part VI. Mineral Resources of the United States. By David T. Day. Two volumes. Pp. 651 and 706. – Monographs: Vol. XXIX. Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts. By B. K. Emerson. Pp. 790, with maps; Vol. XXXI. Geology of the Aspen Mining District, Colorado. By J. E. Spurr. Pp. 260, with an Atlas of thirty sheets; Vol. XXXV. The Later Extinct Floras of North America. By J. S. Newberry. A posthumous work, edited by Arthur Hollick. Pp. 295, with 68 plates. – Maps and Descriptions of Routes of Exploration in Alaska in 1898. Pp. 138, with envelope containing ten maps.
Young Men's Christian Association, Educational Department: Annual Report for 1899. Pp. 70; Prospectus for 1899 (July 1, 1899 to July 1, 1900). Pp. 112; Fourth International and other Exhibits. Awards of Merit. Pp. 24; The Present Status of Our Educational Work. By Frederic B. Pratt. Pp. 5.
Fragments of Science
Officers of the American Association for 1900.– The American Association, at Columbus, Ohio, elected as president for the next meeting, which is to be held in New York city, June 25 to 30, 1900, Prof. R. S. Woodward, of Columbia University. The vice-presidents-elect are: Section A (Mathematics and Astronomy), Asaph Hall, Jr., of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Section B (Physics), Ernest Merritt, of Ithaca, N. Y.; Section C (Chemistry), James Lewis Howe, of Lexington, Va.; Section D (Mechanical Science and Engineering), J. A. Brashear, of Pittsburg, Pa.; Section E (Geology and Geography), J. F. Kemp, of New York city; Section F (Zoölogy), C. B. Davenport, of Cambridge, Mass.; Section G (Botany), William Trelease, of St. Louis, Mo.; Section H (Anthropology), A. W. Butler, of Indianapolis, Ind.; Section I (Economic Science and Statistics), C. M. Woodward, of St. Louis. The permanent secretary is L. O. Howard, United States Entomologist, Washington, D. C.; General Secretary, Charles Baskerville, of Chapel Hill, N. C.; Secretary of the Council, William H. Hallock, of New York city. The sectional secretaries are: Section A, W. M. Strong, of New Haven, Conn.; Section B, R. A. Fessenden, of Allegheny, Pa.; Section C, A. A. Noyes, of Boston, Mass.; Section D, W. T. Magruder, of Columbus, Ohio; Section E, J. A. Holmes, of Chapel Hill, N. C.; Section F, C. H. Eigenmann, of Bloomington, Ind.; Section G, D. T. McDougal, of New York Botanical Garden; Section H, Frank Russell, of Cambridge, Mass.; Section I, H. T. Newcombe, of Washington, D. C. Treasurer, R. S. Woodward, of New York city.
Graphite.– An interesting account of the history and manufacture of graphite is given by E. G. Acheson in the June issue of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. In the year 1779 Karl Wilhelm Scheele, a young apothecary in the town of Köping, Sweden, discovered that graphite was an individual compound. It had up to this time been confounded with molybdenum sulphide. In 1800 Mackenzie definitely added graphite to the carbon group by showing that, on burning, it yielded the same amount of carbon dioxide as an equal amount of charcoal and diamond. Graphite in a more or less pure state is quite freely distributed over the earth, but only in a few places is it found under conditions of purity, quantity, ease of mining, refining, and transportation to market that permit of a profitable business being made of it. Statistics for the last six years (1890-'95) show an average yearly production of 56,994 short tons. The countries contributing to the supply were Austria, Ceylon, Germany, Italy, United States, Canada, Japan, India, Russia, Great Britain, and Spain. Great differences exist in the structure and purity of the graphites furnished from the various mines. There are two general forms – the crystalline and the amorphous. The product of the Ceylon mines is crystalline of great purity, analyzing in some cases over ninety-nine per cent carbon, while that of the Barrowdale mines is amorphous and also very pure. The chief impurity in graphite is iron. It is probable that the first use made of graphite was as a writing substance. The first account we have of its employment for this purpose is contained in the writings of Conrad Gessner on Fossils, published in 1565. Its present uses include the manufacture of pencils, crucibles, stove-polish, foundry-facing, paint, motor and dynamo brushes, anti-friction compounds, electrodes for electro-metallurgical work, conducting surfaces in electrotyping, and covering the surfaces of powder grains. For most of these purposes it is used in the natural impure state. The mining and manufacture of graphite into articles of commerce give employment to thousands of people. The mines of Ceylon alone, when working to their full capacity, employ about twenty-four thousand men, women, and children. The rapid increase in the use of graphite has led to considerable discussion in recent years regarding the possibility of its commercial manufacture. It has been made in a number of different ways in the laboratory, all, however, depending on the same fundamental principle – viz., the liberation of the carbon from some one of its chemical compounds, under conditions which prevent its reassociation with the same or other elements. Mr. Acheson, who has been working for several years in an endeavor to devise a commercially successful process of manufacture, found, somewhere back in 1893, that graphite was formed in the carborundum (electric) furnaces of the Carborundum Company of Niagara Falls. Since then he has been following up this clew, and now believes that "the only commercial way to make graphite is by breaking up a carbide by the action of heat." A building for its manufacture in this way, by the use of the electric furnace, is now in course of erection at Niagara Falls.
Commercial Education in England. 55 – It is only of comparatively late years that the Government has had anything to do with the education of the people. For some centuries back all English education was practically controlled by our two ancient universities – Oxford and Cambridge. They decided what subjects were to be taught, and how they were to be taught. The control they exercised over our English schools was an indirect one, but it was none the less effectual. The schools themselves were, like the universities, independent of Government, or, indeed, of any control. The principal of these are known as "public schools," though the term "public" has of late years also been applied to the public elementary schools. These are nearly all developments of ancient foundations. Winchester, founded in the fourteenth century, and Westminster, in the sixteenth, grew up under the shadows of great religious houses; Eton was established in the fifteenth century by the monarch, close to his own palace at Windsor; Harrow, which dates from the sixteenth century, is the most important example of the most numerous class of all privately founded local schools – grammar schools, as they were generally entitled – which have developed beyond their original founders' intention, and have eventually come to attract boys from all parts of the kingdom. The best boys from all of them went to the universities, and the course of study which was most successful at the university was naturally the course of study which was preferred at the school. The literæ humaniores, which were the sum total of university education, included only Greek and Latin language and literature, mathematics, and logic. Science – I have now in my mind the education of but a single generation back – was ignored. The teaching of modern languages was perfunctory in the extreme; the same may be said of history and geography, while even English language and literature were almost entirely neglected. Now an education modeled on these lines was not ill suited for professional men – men who went from the university into law, the Church, or medicine. But it was by no means suited, especially when cut short in its early stages, for boys whose future destination was the counting-house or the shop. We are not met to consider the training of scholars, but the sort of education best adapted to the requirements of the ordinary man of business, and given under the limitations inevitable in the conditions of the case – that is to say, in a very limited period and during the early years of life – intended also not only to train the mind but to provide a means of earning a living. Commercial education must in fact be a compromise between real education and business training. The more it inclines to the former the better. With the growth of modern industry and commerce the necessity for a training better suited for the requirements of modern life became more and more evident, and the place was supplied, or partially supplied, by private-adventure schools, which undertook to provide the essentials of a commercial education. Of late years also some important middle-class schools have been founded by institutions like the Boys' Public Day Schools Company, and the Girls' Public Day Schools Company, the teaching in which is of a modern if not of a commercial character. The growth also of science had its natural and obvious effects on educational methods. Scientific teaching was introduced at the universities – it had been practically ignored at Oxford, and recognized at Cambridge only as a department of mathematics. The more important of our public schools introduced what was known as a "modern side," that is to say, an alternative course which a boy might take, and in which science, modern languages, and mathematics took the place, to a greater or less extent, of the classical languages. Other schools modified their whole curriculum in a like direction; others again almost abandoned the ancient knowledge in favor of the modern. Such, in briefest and baldest summary, is the condition at which our system of secondary education has now arrived. In the meantime, elementary education in England had been organized and systematized. At the beginning of the century elementary education was imparted to the children of the peasants and agricultural laborers in village schools, most of which were sadly inefficient. In the towns there were various charitable institutions for educating the children of those who were unable to provide education for themselves, and there were also what were known as ragged and parochial schools, which were more or less of the same character as the elementary schools of to-day. Early in the century several important societies were established – they were mostly of a religious character – for the improvement of elementary education. By their assistance schools were founded throughout the country. These were maintained by voluntary effort, and so gained their name of voluntary schools, though they received aid from the Government, an annual grant being allotted for the purpose. In 1839 a committee of the Privy Council was created to regulate the administration of Government grants for education, and this committee still remains the governing body of our education department. The Elementary Education Act of 1870, with later acts of 1876 and 1880, laid down the principle that sufficient elementary education should be provided for all children of school age, and established a system of school boards, which boards were to be and were formed in all districts where such sufficient provision for education did not exist. By a later act of 1891 education was made gratuitous as well as compulsory. We have, therefore, now two great classes of elementary schools – school-board schools, in which education is free, and voluntary schools, in which a fee may be charged. Both alike receive Government aid under certain conditions. As a rule the voluntary schools are connected with the Church of England or with one or other of the nonconformist bodies. The boards which control the board schools are elected bodies, and the teaching is undenominational.
Genius and Habit.– W. L. Bryan and N. Harter are the authors of an interesting monograph in the Psychological Review for July, from which the following paragraphs are taken: "There is scarcely any difference between one man and another of greater practical importance than that of effective speed. In war, business, scientific work, manual labor, and what not, we have at the one extreme the man who defeats all ordinary calculations by the vast quantity of work he gets done, and at the other extreme the man who no less defeats ordinary calculations by the little all his busyness achieves. The former is always arriving with an unexpected victory, the latter with an unanswerable excuse for failure. It has seemed to many psychologists strongly probable that the swift man should be distinguishable from the slow by reaction time tests. For (a), granting that the performances demanded in practical affairs are far more complicated than those required in the laboratory tests, it seems likely that one who is tuned for a rapid rate in the latter will be tuned for a rapid rate in the former, when he has mastered them. Moreover (b), a rapid rate in elementary processes is favorable to their fusion into higher unitary processes, each including several of the lower. Finally (c), a rapid rate in elementary processes is favorable to prompt voluntary combinations in presence of new emergencies. In face of these a priori probabilities, eleven years' experience in this laboratory (the first three being spent mainly on reaction times) has brought the conviction that no reaction time test will surely show whether a given individual has or has not effective speed in his work. Very slow rates, especially in complicated reactions, are strongly indicative of a mind slow and ineffective at all things. But experience proves that rapid rates by no means show that the subject has effective speed in the ordinary, let alone extraordinary, tasks of life. How is this to be explained? The following answer is proposed: The rate at which one makes practical headway depends partly upon the rate of the mental and nervous processes involved; but far more upon how much is included in each process. If A, B, and C add the same columns of figures, one using readily the method of the lightning adder, another the ordinary addition table, while the third makes each addition by counting on his fingers, the three are presently out of sight of one another, whatever the rates at which the processes involved are performed. The lightning adder may proceed more leisurely than either of the others. He steps a league while they are bustling over furlongs or inches. Now, the ability to take league steps in receiving telegraphic messages, in reading, in addition, in mathematical reasoning, and in many other fields, plainly depends upon the acquisition of league-stepping habits. No possible proficiency and rapidity in elementary processes will serve. The learner must come to do with one stroke of attention what now requires half a dozen, and presently, in one still more inclusive stroke, what now requires thirty-six. He must systematize the work to be done, and must acquire a system of automatic habits corresponding to the system of tasks. When he has done this he is master of the situation in his field. He can, if he chooses, deal accurately with minute details. He can swiftly overlook great areas with an accurate sense of what the details involved amount to – indeed, with far greater justice to details than is possible for one who knows nothing else. Finally, his whole array of habits is swiftly obedient to serve in the solution of new problems. Automatism is not genius, but it is the hands and feet of genius."