REVIEWS

An Introduction to the Social Sciences. A Textbook Outline. By EMORY STEPHEN BOGARDUS, PH.D. Los Angeles: University of Southern California, 1913. Pp. 206.

This outline is a notable contribution to the pedagogy of the social sciences. It deserves careful consideration by every American teacher in any department of social science. It is getting to be notorious that we do not know very much about the psychology of social science instruction. The men who are most sure that they know how and when and where different aspects of human experience should be presented to students are most certain to be challenged by other men who may or may not have an alternative program, but they are not convinced that anyone's else program has found the way to do the most cumulative and comprehensive work. In particular, the most enterprising teachers are unable to convince one another as to a best way to begin college instruction in social science.

The first merit of Dr. Bogardus' attempt is that it is not provincial. It is not an introduction to one of our artificially limited departments of social science, but to the whole field of human activities which the different departments of social science survey from their respective points of view.

Because of, or in spite of, their previous school experience, Freshmen have a certain assortment of information and ideas about matters that fall within the scope of the several social sciences. In all probability the logic of the social sciences as it appeals to the maturest scholars is not to be regarded as a sufficient and final guide to the psychology of immature students in their contacts with social science. The pedagogical problems which we have hardly begun to solve in this connection are questions of relation between mental reactions at comparatively early stages of development, and the objective relationships which it is the task of the social sciences to interpret. Otherwise expressed, we have yet to find out what steps in exploration of human experience may be taken to best purpose at different stages of student maturity.

Dr. Bogardus' hypothesis, as represented by this syllabus, is that the best start may be made with college students, not by introducing them first to the special interests of one or another department of social

science, but by enabling them to make a general survey of the development of human activities. Such a survey is of course fundamentally historical in its perspective, and certain historians would say that it is nothing more nor less than history. No one need quarrel about that. At all events it is history which brings into focus all the sorts of things from which all the departments of social science want to make abstractions, and which they want to examine more in detail when their turn comes. The argument behind Dr. Bogardus' proposal is that synthetic views after their kind have their place all along the way of the knowledge process, in alternation with attention to particulars, and that it is good psychology to offer one of these general outlooks at the outset of the college grade of instruction in the social sciences.

Experience will be the teacher that in the long run will be convincing in this matter. It is gratifying that Dr. Bogardus has not only published his hypothesis, but is testing it under favorable circumstances with college classes. If he is right, the students who take his initial survey will presently do more satisfactory work in the more special departments of social science than they could have done without this preliminary orientation.

College teachers who are interested in the pedagogy of the social sciences ought to take the occasion presented by Dr. Bogardus' enterprise to help thresh out the proposition which he is testing. It is to be hoped that many other instructors will experiment with class use of his syllabus. It is not a course that interests sociologists alone. In fact it is an adaptation of the program represented by Schmoller's Grundriss. It might have been the work of a historian, economist, or political scientist; and it might be offered by one of these. If the principle on which it is based is sound, it is fundamental to all parts of social science, not to a particular department. Readers of this Journal are particularly urged to write Dr. Bogardus any criticisms or suggestions which examination of the syllabus may suggest.

The one caution which I feel like expressing at present concerns the "Suggested Topics for Investigation" at the close of chapters. They are, as a rule, over the heads or beyond the reach of the grade of students for whom the course is primarily intended. For example, I open at random to p. 61. On this and the following page are fourteen topics. They range from (1) "History of Playgrounds in Your City" to (11) "Overwork in the United States," (12) "Koch and His Value to Society," (13) "History of Medical Science," and (14) "The United States Public Health Service." My observation leads me to put a high estimate on

the utility of work assigned to college students on subjects typified by the first named. On the other hand there is great danger that writing essays on ambitious subjects like the last four will abort the process of discovering the difference between knowledge and opinion, and of making progress in finding out what is involved in exact investigation ALBION W. SMALL

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Soziale Pathologie. Versuch einer Lehre von den sozialen Beziehungen der menchlichen Krankheiten als Grundlage der sozialen Medezin und der soziale Hygiene. Von DR. MED. ALFRED GROTJAHN. Berlin: Verlag von August Hirschwald, 1912. Pp. viii+691.

In this book human diseases are discussed with respect to their social relationships and importance. The discussion of the different diseases or groups of diseases centers about the following points: The frequency of the disease; the most important manifestation of the disease from the social viewpoint as distinguished from that which considers the individual especially; the part played by social factors in the causation of the disease; the influence of the disease on the social conditions and activities; the social effects of medical treatment of the disease; and the influence of social measures and conditions on the spread and the manifestations of the diseases.

The special discussion includes practically all human diseases, notably the infectious and the sexual diseases, the diseases of women with special reference to childbearing, diseases of children, nervous and mental diseases, and diseases of special organs. Then follows a general discussion of the relative social importance of individual disease groups, of the interrelationships of conditions and diseases, of general methods of prevention, of the problems of degeneration and eugenics.

The book deals especially with conditions in Germany, being based largely on German observations and statistics; but the facts are representative and their lessons have wide application. Exception may be taken to the nature of the recommendations for the prevention of sexual diseases, but the book in general is sound, reliable, and has a distinct value.

The Contributions of Demography to Eugenics. By DR. CORRADO GINI. London: Chas. Knight & Co., 1913. Pp. 99.

This brief statistical study by the professor of statistics at the University of Cagliari aims to bring together the significant figures which throw light upon the principles of literal "good breeding." The data, while scanty in regard to a few topics, are drawn from a wide range of sources, and appear to be painstakingly used.

The first problem considered relates to the effect of the month of birth upon the offspring. In European countries the maximum of births occurs from January to March, and in Italy it is during these months that the percentage of still births rises to a maximum and the mortality of infants is greatest; this is attributed to the inadequate protection of the people against the inclemency of the winter season. Not only is immediate mortality high for those born in winter, but vitality in after life, as shown by statistics of survival to various ages, appears to be diminished. In higher latitudes the summer months exert a similarly unfavorable influence, as is well known.

The next problem treated at length is the effect upon the offspring of the age of the parents. The author concludes (p. 74): "All data examined as to the characters of the children according to the age of the parents-their weight and length, their longevity, their intelligence and temper-agree in showing that the younger the mother at delivery the better are found to be the characters of the offspring." On another page (p. 87) he writes: "It is to be hoped that the knowledge of the improvement in the vitality of the offspring to be derived from the early age of the bride may spread. . . . . To have shown and proved these advantages represents, according to our point of view, the chief

result of this article."

....

The author's views on the significance of the difference of birth rate between the higher and lower classes are refreshingly optimistic and afford a pleasant contrast to the cocksure pessimism of some eugenists: . . . . it does not necessarily follow from what we know of heredity that the children of the higher classes-if they were subjected from birth, or better, even from conception, to the same life 'régime' to which the children of the lower classes are subjected—would succeed better than these" (p. 83). He even ventures the opinion that possibly "Artificially to stimulate reproduction in the higher classes and check that of the lower ones would be equivalent to trying to improve society by increasing the duration of the life of the old and preventing new generations from taking their places" (p. 84). Degenerate individuals,

of course, of whatever social class, should be restrained from reproduction by the exercise of social control.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

ERVILLE B. WOODS

The Larger Aspects of Socialism. By WILLIAM ENGLISH WALLING. New York: Macmillan. Pp. xxi+403.

This work completes the study of Socialism begun by Walling in his Socialism As It Is. The former volume treated the economic and political features of the movement, while the latter deals with its cultural bearings. The Socialist attitude toward science, history, morality, religion, education, and the relations of the sexes is presented chiefly through quotations from authors whom Walling considers most advanced in their views upon these subjects. By no means all of these writers are Socialists, but in Walling's opinion they are pragmatists—at least regarding the subject in question-and for Walling pragmatism is only another name for Socialism. The pragmatism of Professor John Dewey, according to Walling, is twentieth-century Socialism.

In one sense the work contains little that is new, being composed largely of quotations from other authors; at the same time, it is probably the most original work yet produced by an American Socialist, for it does not follow the beaten paths of European writers. It is also refreshing in its freedom from the formulas and stock phrases of most Socialist works.

In accordance with his pragmatic viewpoint, Walling looks forward, rather than backward. He believes that man will rapidly increase his power to control his physical environment and social relations, and that consequently social progress will be rapid in the future. His criticism of the science, "evolutionism," biology, and history which dwell too much on the distant past and too little with the present and future is keen, if at times somewhat overdone. These chapters constitute the strongest part of the work and undoubtedly will go far to give Socialists, as well as other readers, a more pragmatic point of view.

On the other hand, the chapters dealing with the position of the individual in the "new society," and the Socialist view of morality, are extremely disappointing. It is hard to understand how a pragmatist should seriously concern himself with the ethics of a society not yet in existence, the form of which can only be conjectured at the present time. We should expect a pragmatist to study the Socialist movement as it is and is becoming, in order to discover the morality that is actually being