ted when the actual rabbit is observed, he may regard
the facts as illustrating the general principle that children need to be
appealed to through the senses. Likewise when he obtains poor results in
composition on the topic, "How I Spent My Summer Holidays," but
excellent results on "How to Plant Bulbs," especially after the pupils
have planted a bed of tulips on the front lawn, he may infer the law,
that the best work is obtained when the matter is closely associated
with the active interests of pupils. By watching the children when they
are on the school grounds, the teacher may observe how far the
occupations of the home, or a current event, such as a circus, an
election, or a war, influences the play of the children. Thus the method
of observation requires that not only individual facts should be
obtained, but also that general principles should be inferred on the
basis of these. Care must be taken, however, that the facts observed
justify the inference.

=B. Experiment.=--An experiment in any branch of science means the
observation of results under controlled conditions. Experimental child
study must, to a large extent, therefore, be relegated to the
psychological laboratory. Such experiments as the localization of
cutaneous impressions, the influence of certain operations on fatigue,
or the discovery of the length of time necessary for a conscious
reaction, can be successfully carried out only with more or less
elaborate equipment and under favourable conditions. However, the school
offers opportunity for some simple yet practical experiments in child
study. The teacher may discover experimentally what is the most
favourable period at which to place a certain subject on the school
programme, whether, for instance, it is best to take mechanical
arithmetic when the minds of the pupils are fresh or when they are
weary, or whether the writing lesson had better be taught immediately
after the strenuous play at recess or at a time when the muscles are
rested. He may find out the response of the pupils to problems in
arithmetic closely connected with their lives (for example, in a rural
community problems relating to farm activities), as compared with their
response to problems involving more or less remote ideas. He may
discover to what extent concentration in securing neat exercises in one
subject, composition for instance, affects the exercises in other
subjects in which neatness has not been explicitly demanded. Thi