REVIEWS The Psychology of Special Abilities and Disabilities. AUGUSTA F BRONNER. Boston. Little, Brown and Company, 1917. 269 p. $1.75. The use of measuring scales like the Binet-Simon scale, for the determination of the degree of intelligence and especially for the discovery of mental defect, has for a time overshadowed the older and more fundamental work of measuring special mental functions. The scales have emphasized the idea of unity of intelligence, while Dr. Bronner reminds the reader that intelligence is a blanket term covering many specific mental functions more or less independently variable. She discusses two types of cases, that of special mental disabilities in persons otherwise normal, and that of special abilities in persons otherwise subnormal. Thirty-eight case histories refer to persons normal except for a very special defect, which if not recognized, might force the individual into the defective class. The discussion of this type of case covers the first 195 pages of the book. Special defects in number work, in language ability such as reading and writing, defects in special mental processes such as rote and logical memory, immediate and remote memory, defects in reasoning and judgment, defects in ability to handle concrete material and in the ability to handle abstract material are discust and illustrated. The case histories cited do not seem always to support clearly the diagnosis of specialized defect. By far the most important class of defects, in the reviewer's opinion, is that discust under the head of Defects in Mental Control. "Without entering into any discussion of vexed points concerning 'the will,' it may be fairly said that defective powers of control of actions may be due, on the one hand, to inability to repress the feelings; that is, to lack of emotional control; and on the other, to failure to arouse inhibiting ideas. From this it may be seen that defective power of control involves both emotional and ideational or volitional aspects of mental life." (p. 166) The author recognizes that people may differ in the intensity of their emotions as well as in the capacity for resisting impulses, emotions, and desires. Seven case histories illustrate this type of defect. Present educational devices are considered quite inadequate to handle the specialized defect problem. “We must view critically the present means for meeting the situation. Ungraded classes, 'floating teachers,' junior and senior high schools and other administrative measures, advancement in school by subjects rather than by grades, are all helpful, but inadequate. Courses in household and practical arts, commercial, industrial, and agricultural training, offer greater scope for adapting education to individual capacities and interests than was possible in the past, but these, too, are not enough. More fundamental than all of these, because offering the basis of the wise and rational use of all special training, is the need for educational diagnosis. Before undertaking treatment the ailment must be known; the cause of the trouble must be determined before steps can be taken looking toward effective remedy." (p. 220) A second part of the book considers individuals who are mentally subnormal but with some special ability. The recognition of this special ability may do much to make a subnormal person partially self-supporting and happier, but these cases are less encouraging than the group just discust, and are a less vital school problem. The special abilities illustrated by seven case histories are number work, language ability, memory of different kinds, and ability to work with concrete material. One "borderline" case is described. An appendix contains a brief description of all of the special tests used, and a concise record of the tests made upon each case cited in the book. The value of the book lies in the detailed case histories and their test records, rather than in the analyses made of the cases, or in the recommendations for solving the case prob lems created by the defects. The author rarely suggests types of corrective training or occupations suitable for persons with special mental disabilities. The educational problem presented by these cases is a real one, and it can not be pointed out too often that the Binet-Simon scale is at best a measure of general rather than of specialized disability. A. T. POFFENBERGER COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY The New Greek Comedy-Kwμydia Néa. By Philip E. LeGRAND. Translated by James Loeb. New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1917. p. xx and 548. $4.50. Professor Legrand of the University of Lyons, well known to the world of classical studies by his admirable Étude sur Théocrite (1898), published a few years ago a work on the New comedy of the Greeks; that is, the phase in which comedy appears from (approximately) the death of Alexander the Great till about one hundred years later. This work: Daos, Tableau de la comédie grecque pendant la période dite nouvelle, is a most learned and comprehensive book. Tho written in the good style from which no amount of erudition seems able to estrange the French scholars, it contains a wealth of information of value only to profest students of antiquity. Mr. Loeb, with the excellent plan of making it accessible to English readers unacquainted with French (of whom, alas! there are still many), wisely persuaded Professor Legrand to abridge it by omitting the most technical parts. Thus condensed and modified it is now published in an English version which displays anew Mr. Loeb's skill in translation. The debt which we already owe him for his capital renditions of Maurice Croiset's Aristophanes and the political parties at Athens, and Decharme's Euripides and the spirit of his dramas, is thus notably increased. A brief introduction by Professor John Williams White, one of the last things to come from the pen of that able scholar, now past away, gives an interesting sketch of the conditions of life at Athens toward the end of the fourth century B. C., and at the beginning of the third. After an introductory chapter, Plan and Scope of the Work, the book falls into three divisions: The Subject Matter of New Comedy; The Structure of the Plays of New Comedy; The Purpose of New Comedy and the Causes of Its Success. An excellent index closes the work. By one of the strangest caprices of fortune, until some ten years ago this whole period of intense dramatic activity was known to moderns only from brief tho numerous quotations preserved in later writers, or at second hand from the imitations of Latin comedians. Now we are better off, tho our appetite is still only whetted, and far from being satisfied. From time to time the tombs of Egypt have yielded up fragments of papyrus manuscripts containing portions of plays that belong to the period of New Comedy; and a single Mss. found by Lefebvre at Aphroditopolis in 1905, tho greatly mutilated, restored to us over 1,300 verses from four different plays of Menander, most famous of later Greek playwrights. For the first time in many centuries it became possible to read whole scenes, practically, no doubt, in the condition in which Menander composed them. The first main division of Legrand's book is given to a discussion of the principles followed by the writers of New Comedy in retaining or rejecting subject matter inherited from previous generations. It has often been pointed out that the Old Comedy, known to us almost exclusively from its most brilliant representative Aristophanes, left no direct descendant to perpetuate its traditions. The later phases of Comedy connect rather with Tragedy, which also had become moribund in the first quarter of the fourth century, tho its existence was artificially prolonged for another hundred years or more. The bitter political satire, the violent personal abuse and unrestrained obscenity, of the comedy of the fifty century, became impossible in the course of the fourth, and gave way to a gentler manner, a truthful portrayal of every day life. According to modern principles of classification, most of the plays of the "New" period, like many of those technically called "tragedies," would be regarded rather as melodramas. In the course of a few decades certain types of character were elaborated which became indispensable parts of the stock-in-trade of dramatists. In the interesting and acutely studied Characters of Theophrastus we have good examples of the definiteness with which this classification of types was carried out. Legrand traces out with great care and ingenuity the gradual transformation from earlier to later methods of treatment and subject-matter. For the second problem, the structure of individual plays, the answer has had to be sought hitherto chiefly in the acknowledged imitations of Greek originals by Roman authors, and next in such statements as could be gleaned from ancient writers on literary history and technique. It is just here that the discoveries of recent years have given us most help. For the purpose and moral value of the plays, and for the elements of the comic and the pathetic that made them successes or failures, we are dependent upon the fragments, numbered by thousands, of separate plays. Thru all this maze of testimony, of evidence at first, second, or third hand, Legrand leads us with the sure step of a guide really familiar with the ground. This book will be not only indispensable to the conscientious student of literary history, but of genuine interest to the intelligent general reader who might be repelled by the mass of technical material, wisely omitted in this case, which so many writers on classical subjects seem to think it ignominious to spare him. E. D. PERRY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY American Ideals. Edited by NORMAN FOERSTER and W. W. PIERSON, JR. Boston. Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1917. 326 p. $1.25. The word ideals has been much abused. By many it is appealed to as argument when logic fails. To others it is the guidon of impossible crusades. But in its best sense it represents that group of sentiments and beliefs which enables us to triumph over an all but convincing selfish materialism. As |