Get ebook downloads in full at ebookmeta.

com

Learning pandas Python Data Discovery and Analysis

Made Easy Heydt Michael

https://ebookmeta.com/product/learning-pandas-python-data-
discovery-and-analysis-made-easy-heydt-michael/

OR CLICK BUTTON

DOWNLOAD NOW

Explore and download more ebook at https://ebookmeta.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Python Data Analysis Numpy, Matplotlib and Pandas Bernd

Klein

https://ebookmeta.com/product/python-data-analysis-numpy-matplotlib-
and-pandas-bernd-klein/

ebookmeta.com

Python Data Analytics Data Analysis and Science Using

Pandas Matplotlib and the Python Programming Language 1st
Edition Nelli Fabio
https://ebookmeta.com/product/python-data-analytics-data-analysis-and-
science-using-pandas-matplotlib-and-the-python-programming-
language-1st-edition-nelli-fabio/
ebookmeta.com

Python Data Analytics Data Analysis and Science Using

Pandas Matplotlib and the Python Programming Language 1st
Edition Nelli Fabio
https://ebookmeta.com/product/python-data-analytics-data-analysis-and-
science-using-pandas-matplotlib-and-the-python-programming-
language-1st-edition-nelli-fabio-2/
ebookmeta.com

Believing in Russia Religious Policy after Communism 1st

Edition Geraldine Fagan

https://ebookmeta.com/product/believing-in-russia-religious-policy-
after-communism-1st-edition-geraldine-fagan/

ebookmeta.com
Political Trials Gordian Knots in the Law Second Edition
Revised and Expanded Ron Christenson

https://ebookmeta.com/product/political-trials-gordian-knots-in-the-
law-second-edition-revised-and-expanded-ron-christenson/

ebookmeta.com

Constitutional Oncogenetics 1st Edition Noureddine

Boukhatem

https://ebookmeta.com/product/constitutional-oncogenetics-1st-edition-
noureddine-boukhatem/

ebookmeta.com

Biology of Vascular Smooth Muscle Vasoconstriction and

Dilatation 2nd 2nd Edition Yuansheng Gao

https://ebookmeta.com/product/biology-of-vascular-smooth-muscle-
vasoconstriction-and-dilatation-2nd-2nd-edition-yuansheng-gao/

ebookmeta.com

Pocket Rough Guide Rome Travel Guide with Free eBook 5th
Edition Rough Guides

https://ebookmeta.com/product/pocket-rough-guide-rome-travel-guide-
with-free-ebook-5th-edition-rough-guides/

ebookmeta.com

Introduction to Blender 3.0: Learn Organic and

Architectural Modeling, Lighting, Materials, Painting,
Rendering, and Compositing with Blender 1st Edition
Gianpiero Moioli
https://ebookmeta.com/product/introduction-to-blender-3-0-learn-
organic-and-architectural-modeling-lighting-materials-painting-
rendering-and-compositing-with-blender-1st-edition-gianpiero-moioli-2/
ebookmeta.com
Hack Your Backyard: Discover a World of Outside Fun with
Science Buddies Niki Ahrens

https://ebookmeta.com/product/hack-your-backyard-discover-a-world-of-
outside-fun-with-science-buddies-niki-ahrens/

ebookmeta.com
[1]
Learning pandas

Get to grips with pandas—a versatile

and high-performance Python library for
data manipulation, analysis, and discovery

Michael Heydt

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Learning pandas

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy
of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is
sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt
Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: April 2015

Production reference: 1090415

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78398-512-8

www.packtpub.com
 Credits

Author Project Coordinator

Michael Heydt Mary Alex

Reviewers Proofreaders
Bill Chambers Simran Bhogal
S. Shelly Jang Paul Hindle
Arun Karunagath Rajeevan Linda Morris
Daniel Velkov Christopher Smith
Adrian Wan
Indexer
Commissioning Editor Monica Ajmera Mehta
Kartikey Pandey
Graphics
Acquisition Editor Sheetal Aute
Neha Nagwekar
Production Coordinator
Content Development Editor Arvindkumar Gupta
Akshay Nair
Cover Work
Technical Editors Arvindkumar Gupta
Shashank Desai
Chinmay Puranik

Copy Editors
Roshni Banerjee
Pranjali Chury
Stuti Srivastava
 About the Author

Michael Heydt is an independent consultant, educator, and trainer with nearly

30 years of professional software development experience, during which he focused
on agile software design and implementation using advanced technologies in
multiple verticals, including media, finance, energy, and healthcare. He holds an MS
degree in mathematics and computer science from Drexel University and an executive
master's of technology management degree from the University of Pennsylvania's
School of Engineering and Wharton Business School. His studies and research
have focused on technology management, software engineering, entrepreneurship,
information retrieval, data sciences, and computational finance. Since 2005, he
has been specializing in building energy and financial trading systems for major
investment banks on Wall Street and for several global energy trading companies,
utilizing .NET, C#, WPF, TPL, DataFlow, Python, R, Mono, iOS, and Android. His
current interests include creating seamless applications using desktop, mobile, and
wearable technologies, which utilize high concurrency, high availability, real-time
data analytics, augmented and virtual reality, cloud services, messaging, computer
vision, natural user interfaces, and software-defined networks. He is the author of
numerous technology articles, papers, and books (Instant Lucene.NET, Learning
pandas). He is a frequent speaker at .NET users' groups and various mobile and cloud
conferences, and he regularly delivers webinars on advanced technologies.
 About the Reviewers

Bill Chambers is a Python developer and data scientist currently pursuing a

master of information management and systems degree at the UC Berkeley School
of Information. Previously, he focused on data architecture and systems using
marketing, sales, and customer analytics data. Bill is passionate about delivering
actionable insights and innovative solutions using data.

You can find more information about him at http://www.billchambers.me.

S. Shelly Jang received her PhD degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Washington and a master's degree in chemical and biological
engineering from the University of British Columbia in 2014 and 2009, respectively.
She was an Insight Data Science fellow in 2014. During her tenure, she built a
web app that recommends crowd-verified treatment options for various medical
conditions. She is currently a senior data scientist at AT&T Big Data. Exploring
complex, large-scale data sets to build models and derive insights is just a part
of her job.

In her free time, she participates in the Quantified Self community, sharing her
insights on personal analytics and self-hacking.

Arun Karunagath Rajeevan is a senior consultant (products) in an exciting

start-up, working as an architect and coder, and is a polyglot. He is currently
involved in developing the best quality management suite in the supply chain
management category.

Apart from this, he has experience in healthcare and multimedia (embedded)

domains. When he is not working, he loves to travel and listen to music.
Daniel Velkov is a software engineer based in San Francisco, who has more than
10 years of programming experience. His biggest professional accomplishment
was designing and implementing the search stack for MyLife.com—one of the
major social websites in the US. Nowadays, he works on making Google search
better. Besides Python and search, he has worked on several machine learning and
data analysis-oriented projects. When he is not coding, he enjoys skiing, riding
motorcycles, and exploring the Californian outdoors.

Adrian Wan is a physics and computer science major at Swarthmore College. After
he graduates, he will be working at Nest, a Google company, as a software engineer
and data scientist. His passion lies at the intersection of his two disciplines, where
elegant mathematical models and explanations of real-life phenomena are brought to
life and probed deeply with efficient, clean, and powerful code. He greatly enjoyed
contributing to this book and hopes that you will be able to appreciate the power
that pandas brings to Python.

You can find out more about him at http://awan1.github.io.

 www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

For support files and downloads related to your book, please visit www.PacktPub.com.

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF
and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com
and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in
touch with us at [email protected] for more details.

At www.PacktPub.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign
up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt
books and eBooks.
TM

https://www2.packtpub.com/books/subscription/packtlib

Do you need instant solutions to your IT questions? PacktLib is Packt's online digital
book library. Here, you can search, access, and read Packt's entire library of books.

Why subscribe?
• Fully searchable across every book published by Packt
• Copy and paste, print, and bookmark content
• On demand and accessible via a web browser

Free access for Packt account holders

If you have an account with Packt at www.PacktPub.com, you can use this to access
PacktLib today and view 9 entirely free books. Simply use your login credentials for
immediate access.
 Table of Contents
Preface vii
Chapter 1: A Tour of pandas 1
pandas and why it is important 2
pandas and IPython Notebooks 3
Referencing pandas in the application 5
Primary pandas objects 6
The pandas Series object 6
The pandas DataFrame object 11
Loading data from files and the Web 18
Loading CSV data from files 18
Loading data from the Web 22
Simplicity of visualization of pandas data 24
Summary 25
Chapter 2: Installing pandas 27
Getting Anaconda 28
Installing Anaconda 29
Installing Anaconda on Linux 30
Installing Anaconda on Mac OS X 32
Installing Anaconda on Windows 33
Ensuring pandas is up to date 35
Running a small pandas sample in IPython 38
Starting the IPython Notebook server 39
Installing and running IPython Notebooks 43
Using Wakari for pandas 45
Summary 47

[i]
Table of Contents

Chapter 3: NumPy for pandas 49

Installing and importing NumPy 50
Benefits and characteristics of NumPy arrays 50
Creating NumPy arrays and performing basic array operations 52
Selecting array elements 58
Logical operations on arrays 59
Slicing arrays 61
Reshaping arrays 65
Combining arrays 70
Splitting arrays 73
Useful numerical methods of NumPy arrays 79
Summary 82
Chapter 4: The pandas Series Object 83
The Series object 84
Importing pandas 85
Creating Series 85
Size, shape, uniqueness, and counts of values 91
Peeking at data with heads, tails, and take 93
Looking up values in Series 95
Alignment via index labels 100
Arithmetic operations 102
The special case of Not-A-Number (NaN) 106
Boolean selection 107
Reindexing a Series 110
Modifying a Series in-place 117
Slicing a Series 119
Summary 126
Chapter 5: The pandas DataFrame Object 127
Creating DataFrame from scratch 128
Example data 132
S&P 500 133
Monthly stock historical prices 135
Selecting columns of a DataFrame 136
Selecting rows and values of a DataFrame using the index 142
Slicing using the [] operator 142
Selecting rows by index label and location: .loc[] and .iloc[] 143
Selecting rows by index label and/or location: .ix[] 145
Scalar lookup by label or location using .at[] and .iat[] 146
Selecting rows of a DataFrame by Boolean selection 146

[ ii ]
 Table of Contents

Modifying the structure and content of DataFrame 148

Renaming columns 148
Adding and inserting columns 150
Replacing the contents of a column 153
Deleting columns in a DataFrame 154
Adding rows to a DataFrame 157
Appending rows with .append() 157
Concatenating DataFrame objects with pd.concat() 159
Adding rows (and columns) via setting with enlargement 165
Removing rows from a DataFrame 166
Removing rows using .drop() 166
Removing rows using Boolean selection 168
Removing rows using a slice 169
Changing scalar values in a DataFrame 170
Arithmetic on a DataFrame 172
Resetting and reindexing 176
Hierarchical indexing 179
Summarized data and descriptive statistics 185
Summary 191
Chapter 6: Accessing Data 193
Setting up the IPython notebook 194
CSV and Text/Tabular format 194
The sample CSV data set 194
Reading a CSV file into a DataFrame 195
Specifying the index column when reading a CSV file 196
Data type inference and specification 196
Specifying column names 197
Specifying specific columns to load 198
Saving DataFrame to a CSV file 199
General field-delimited data 200
Handling noise rows in field-delimited data 201
Reading and writing data in an Excel format 204
Reading and writing JSON files 207
Reading HTML data from the Web 208
Reading and writing HDF5 format files 211
Accessing data on the web and in the cloud 213
Reading and writing from/to SQL databases 214
Reading data from remote data services 217
Reading stock data from Yahoo! and Google Finance 218
Retrieving data from Yahoo! Finance Options 219
Reading economic data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 222
Accessing Kenneth French's data 225
Reading from the World Bank 226
Summary 234
[ iii ]
Table of Contents

Chapter 7: Tidying Up Your Data 235

What is tidying your data? 236
Setting up the IPython notebook 237
Working with missing data 237
Determining NaN values in Series and DataFrame objects 239
Selecting out or dropping missing data 241
How pandas handles NaN values in mathematical operations 246
Filling in missing data 248
Forward and backward filling of missing values 250
Filling using index labels 251
Interpolation of missing values 252
Handling duplicate data 255
Transforming Data 259
Mapping 259
Replacing values 261
Applying functions to transform data 264
Summary 269
Chapter 8: Combining and Reshaping Data 271
Setting up the IPython notebook 272
Concatenating data 272
Merging and joining data 281
An overview of merges 281
Specifying the join semantics of a merge operation 286
Pivoting 289
Stacking and unstacking 290
Stacking using nonhierarchical indexes 291
Unstacking using hierarchical indexes 293
Melting 298
Performance benefits of stacked data 299
Summary 300
Chapter 9: Grouping and Aggregating Data 303
Setting up the IPython notebook 304
The split, apply, and combine (SAC) pattern 304
Split 306
Data for the examples 306
Grouping by a single column's values 307
Accessing the results of grouping 308
Grouping using index levels 314
Apply 318
Applying aggregation functions to groups 318

[ iv ]
 Table of Contents

The transformation of group data 322

An overview of transformation 322
Practical examples of transformation 326
Filtering groups 333
Discretization and Binning 335
Summary 341
Chapter 10: Time-series Data 343
Setting up the IPython notebook 344
Representation of dates, time, and intervals 345
The datetime, day, and time objects 345
Timestamp objects 347
Timedelta 349
Introducing time-series data 350
DatetimeIndex 350
Creating time-series data with specific frequencies 357
Calculating new dates using offsets 359
Date offsets 360
Anchored offsets 364
Representing durations of time using Period objects 366
The Period object 366
PeriodIndex 368
Handling holidays using calendars 372
Normalizing timestamps using time zones 373
Manipulating time-series data 379
Shifting and lagging 379
Frequency conversion 383
Up and down resampling 386
Time-series moving-window operations 391
Summary 395
Chapter 11: Visualization 397
Setting up the IPython notebook 398
Plotting basics with pandas 399
Creating time-series charts with .plot() 400
Adorning and styling your time-series plot 404
Adding a title and changing axes labels 404
Specifying the legend content and position 406
Specifying line colors, styles, thickness, and markers 408
Specifying tick mark locations and tick labels 412
Formatting axes tick date labels using formatters 415
Common plots used in statistical analyses 421
Bar plots 422

[v]
Table of Contents

Histograms 424
Box and whisker charts 427
Area plots 428
Scatter plots 430
Density plot 432
The scatter plot matrix 433
Heatmaps 435
Multiple plots in a single chart 436
Summary 440
Chapter 12: Applications to Finance 441
Setting up the IPython notebook 442
Obtaining and organizing stock data from Yahoo! 442
Plotting time-series prices 447
Plotting volume-series data 449
Calculating the simple daily percentage change 451
Calculating simple daily cumulative returns 453
Resampling data from daily to monthly returns 455
Analyzing distribution of returns 457
Performing a moving-average calculation 460
The comparison of average daily returns across stocks 461
The correlation of stocks based on the daily percentage
change of the closing price 465
Volatility calculation 467
Determining risk relative to expected returns 468
Summary 471
Index 473

[ vi ]
Other documents randomly have
different content
Centipede
Chiton
Cockle
Cowry
Crab
Crayfish
Cuttle Fish
Earthworm
King-crab
Leech
Lobster
Millipede
Mite
Mussel
Nautilus
Octopus
Oyster
Prawn
Scorpion
Sea-urchin
Shrimp
Snail
Spider
Starfish
Tapeworms
Teredo
Water-flea
Wood-louse
Worm

Zoology, Palaeontology

Amblypoda
Anclyopoda
Anthracotherium
Archaeopteryx
Arsinoïtherium
Creodonta
Dinotherium
Diplodocus
Dryopithecus
Ganodonta
Glyptodon
Graptolites
Ichthyosaurus
Iguanodon
Litopterna
Machaerodus
Mammoth
Mastodon
Megatherium
Multituberculata
Mylodon
Odontornithes
Oreodon
Ostracoderms, or Ostracophores
Palaeontology
Palaeospondylus
Palaeotherium
Phenacodus
Phorohacos
Plesiosaurus
Pterodactyles
Sparassodonta
Tillodontia
Titanotheriidae
Toxodontia
Trilobites
 CHAPTER LX
PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY

Definitions Philosophers, says Plato, are “those

who are able to grasp the eternal and
immutable”; their pursuit is wisdom. The history of philosophy is,
therefore, the history of the ideas which have animated successive
generations of man; so that in the wide sense the investigation
includes all knowledge; the natural as well as the moral sciences; and
the Greeks, to whom the western world owes the direction of its
thought, so understood it. The several divisions of Philosophy (Vol.
21, p. 440), as we reckon them, were all fused by Plato in a semi-
religious synthesis, with resulting confusion. Aristotle, the
encyclopaedist of the ancient world, saw that the several issues
should be regarded as separate disciplines, and became the founder
of the sciences of logic, psychology, ethics, and aesthetics. His “first
philosophy,” or, as we should say, “first principles,” which stood as
introductions to his separate special inquiries, gradually acquired the
name metaphysics. In more recent times the natural sciences:
biology, physics, chemistry, medicine, etc., have been regarded as
outside the strict boundaries of the philosophic schools; and
theology, is excluded on the ground that its subject matter is so
extensive that it may be looked upon as a separate science. The main
divisions of philosophy are: Epistemology (Vol. 9, p. 701), which is
concerned with the nature and origin of knowledge, i. e., the
possibility of knowledge in the abstract; Metaphysics (Vol. 18, p.
224), the science of being, often called Ontology (Vol. 20, p. 118),
dealing, that is to say, with being as being; and Psychology (Vol. 22,
p. 547), the science of mind, an analysis of what “mind” means.
Some Important Metaphysics and It will
Articles and Logic be of
Their Writers interest
to the reader if, at this point, we enumerate some of the more
important articles in the Britannica covering this field with the
names of their authors. Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison, professor of
logic and metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh, wrote the
general article Philosophy, which is a key to the whole subject, as
well as the articles Mysticism (Vol. 19, p. 123), Scepticism (Vol. 24,
p. 306), Scholasticism (Vol. 24, p. 346), Spinoza (Vol. 25, p. 687),
and others. Of fundamental importance is the article Logic (Vol. 16,
p. 879), which would occupy 124 pages of this Guide. It is divided
into two parts: the first, by Thomas Case, president of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, formerly professor of moral and metaphysical
philosophy in that university, treats of the science generally, and
examines in detail the processes of inference. The second, by H. W.
Blunt, of Christ Church, Oxford, and formerly fellow of All Soul’s,
gives a brilliant account of the history of logic, that is, the history of
the ideas which have been the basis of all attempts to regulate these
processes of inference. This account is unique in that it is the first
critical review of the types of logical theory that has been attempted.
A lucid discussion of a most difficult subject is that given under
Metaphysics (Vol. 18, p. 224); equivalent to 100 pages in this Guide
by Professor Case, to whom, as one of the most distinguished of
modern Aristotelians, the article Aristotle (Vol. 2, p. 501) was also
assigned. The life and work of Plato are examined in a valuable
article (Vol. 21, p. 808), the equivalent in length to 54 pages of this
Guide, by the late Professor Lewis Campbell, of St. Andrews, one of
the best known Platonists of the time.
Henry Sturt, author of Personal Idealism and many other books, is
responsible for brilliant discussions of Utilitarianism (Vol. 27, p.
820), Nominalism (Vol. 19, p. 735), Metempsychosis (Vol. 18, p.
259), Space and Time (Vol. 25, p. 525), etc. And F. C. S. Schiller, of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who, under the wider, and
historically more significant title “Humanism,” has further developed
the pragmatic philosophy of William James, contributed the articles
on Pragmatism, Herbert Spencer, and Nietzsche.
Psychology The very important article on
Psychology (Vol. 22, p. 54), equal to
nearly 200 pages of this Guide was contributed by James Ward,
professor of mental philosophy, Cambridge, who has devoted his
whole life to psychological research. In addition to Psychology he
also contributed the articles Herbart (Vol. 13, p. 335), and
Naturalism (Vol. 19, p. 274). James Sully, the well-known
psychologist, former professor of the philosophy of the mind and
logic, at University College, London, contributes the article
Aesthetics (Vol. 1, p. 277). The article Ethics (Vol. 8, p. 808),
equivalent to about 100 pages of this Guide, and Will (Vol. 28, p.
648), both of primary importance, were the work of the Rev. H. H.
Williams, lecturer in philosophy, Hertford College, Oxford.
Very interesting articles are Association of Ideas (Vol. 2, p. 784),
Dream (Vol. 8, p. 588), Instinct (Vol. 14, p. 648) and, very
important, Weber’s Law (Vol. 28, p. 458), which expresses the
relation between sensation and the stimulus which induces it.
Of recent years the psychology of crowds has received a good deal
of attention; in fact, the need of an understanding of the phenomena
attending it is of increasing importance in this age of universal
suffrage. Interesting light is thrown upon the subject in the articles
Suggestion (Vol. 26, p. 48), by W. M. McDougall, Wilde reader in
mental philosophy at Oxford; Imitation (Vol. 14, p. 332); and
Religion (Vol. 23, p. 66). A line of inquiry of vital importance to the
social body is examined in the articles Criminology (Vol. 7, p. 464),
by Major Griffith, for many years H. M. Inspector of Prisons, in
which Lombroso’s theory of the possession by criminals of special
anatomical and physiological characteristics is criticized, and the
problem is shown to be one of abnormal psychology; see also Cesare
Lombroso (Vol. 16, p. 936). For discussions of other forms of
abnormal psychology, see the chapter For Physicians and Surgeons
in this Guide, and in particular the article Insanity (Vol. 14, p. 597).
Psychical Perhaps more popular, certainly
Research more sensational, than the more
legitimate branches of psychology, is
that classed under Psychical Research (Vol. 22, p. 544). The title
article was written by Andrew Lang, who wrote Poltergeist (Vol.
22, p. 14), as well as articles on Second Sight (Vol. 24, p. 570),
Apparitions (Vol. 2, p. 209), etc. The article Divination (Vol. 8, p.
332) was written by Northcote Thomas, government anthropologist
to Southern Nigeria, and author of Thought Transference and other
books; and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, formerly principal of Newnham
College, Cambridge, and secretary to the Society for Psychical
Research, was responsible for the article Spiritualism (Vol. 25, p.
705). Among the biographical articles in this section, interest will be
felt in the biography of Daniel Dunglas Home, the original of Robert
Browning’s poem, “Sludge the Medium.”
Classification We now may classify the principal
subjects belonging to the main
divisions of philosophy, the sciences of epistemology, metaphysics,
and psychology. The wider phases of thought roughly belonging to
the division of metaphysics are, in their historical order: Platonism
(see Plato, Vol. 21, p. 808), and Aristotelianism (see Aristotle, Vol.
2, p. 501), the two great Greek systems of the classical period;
Neoplatonism (Vol. 19, p. 372), the last school of pagan philosophy,
which grew up mainly among the Greeks of Alexandria from the 3rd
century A.D. onwards; Scholasticism (Vol. 24, p. 346), which gave
expression to the most typical products of medieval thought;
Idealism (Vol. 14, p. 281), the philosophy of the “absolute,” which,
though it has given a tinge to philosophic thought from the days of
Socrates to the present time, is in its self-conscious form a modern
doctrine; Materialism (Vol. 17, p. 878), which regards all the facts of
the universe as explainable in terms of matter and motion; Realism
(Vol. 22, p. 941), which is a sort of half-way house between Idealism
and Materialism; Pragmatism (Vol. 22, p. 246), the philosophy of
the “real,” which expresses the reaction against the intellectualistic
speculation that has characterized most of modern metaphysics.
Logic (Vol. 16, p. 879), the art of reasoning, or, as Ueberweg
expresses it, “the science of the regulative laws of thought,” clearly
belongs to the division of epistemology. Aspects of psychology, since
they depend essentially upon perceptions of the human mind in
relation to itself or its environment, are Ethics (Vol. 9, p. 808), or
moral philosophy, the investigation of theories of good and evil; and
Aesthetics (Vol. 1, p. 277), the philosophy or science of the
beautiful, of taste, or of the fine arts.
History of The articles enumerated will give the
Thought reader a clear idea of the drift of
Personal thought currents throughout the
course of history, and they will
introduce him to the detailed discussions of the various systems
which have been propounded by the little band of men who have
contributed something vital to the treasury of thought. Each has
been in and out of fashion at different times. In the Britannica the
contributions to philosophic thought by the great philosophers are
discussed in biographical articles, to which we now turn.
Breaking the The father of Greek philosophy and
Ground indeed of European thought was
Thales of Miletus (Vol. 26, p. 720),
who founded the Ionian School (Vol. 14, p. 731) at the end of the
7th century B.C. He first, as far as we know, sought to go behind the
infinite multiplicity of phenomena in the hope of finding an all
embracing infinite unity. This unity he decided was water.
Heraclitus (Vol. 13, p. 309), the “dark philosopher,” nicknamed
from his aristocratic prejudices “he who rails at the people,” later
selected fire. The never ending fight between advocates of the “One”
and the “Many” had therefore begun. Sophistry (see Sophists, Vol.
25, p. 418) has now an unpleasant connotation, inherited from the
undisciplined reasonings of the schools of which Protagoras (Vol.
22, p. 464), Gorgias (Vol. 12, p. 257), Parmenides of Elea (Vol. 20,
p. 851), and Zeno, also of Elea (Vol. 28, p. 970), were leaders. The
“science of the regulative laws of thought” had not yet been
developed and fallacies were the rule rather than the exception.
Protagoras, the first of the Sophists, in his celebrated essay on Truth,
said that “Man is the measure of all things, of what is, that it is, and
what is not, that it is not.” In other words, there is no such thing as
objective truth. After nineteen-hundred years we are still seeking the
answer to Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” Gorgias, in his equally
famous work on Nature or on the Nonent (notbeing) maintained that
“(a) nothing is, (b) that, if anything is, it cannot be known, (c) that, if
anything is and can be known, it cannot be expressed in speech.” The
paradoxes with which Zeno, the pupil and friend of Parmenides,
adorned his arguments are proverbial. Who has not heard of Achilles
and the tortoise? And it is a little curious that in quite modern times
his sophisms have, after centuries of scornful neglect, been
reinstated and made the basis of a mathematical renaissance by the
German professor Weierstrass, who shows that we live in an
unchanging world, and that the arrow, as Zeno paradoxically
contended, is truly at rest at every moment of its flight (Vol. 28, p.
971).
The Socratic The teaching of Socrates (Vol. 25, p.
Schools 331) was oral, and his philosophy is
handed down to us in the refined and
elaborated system which Plato (Vol. 21, p. 808) developed in his
dialogues. The “One” and the “Many” were united in the philosophy
of Plato. To him we owe a debt which is simply incalculable, for, as is
shown in the Britannica, “to whatever system of modern thought the
student is inclined he will find his account in returning to this
wellspring of European thought, in which all previous movements
are absorbed, and from which all subsequent lines of reflection may
be said to diverge.” The germs of all ideas, even of most Christian
ones, are, as Jowett remarked, to be found in Plato. The teaching of
Socrates bore fruit in strangely divers forms. Plato, his legitimate
successor, and the expounder of his philosophy, has been referred to,
but there were other very different developments. The Cynics (Vol. 7,
p. 691), of whom Diogenes (Vol. 8, p. 281) is the notorious
prototype, uncouthly preached the asceticism which was to become
so fashionable in a later era; but, their central doctrine, “let man gain
wisdom—or buy a rope,” contains more than a germ of truth. The
Cyrenaics (Vol. 7, p. 703), under Aristippus (Vol. 2, p. 497), starting
from the two Socratic principles of virtue and happiness, differed
from the Cynics in emphasizing the second. The Megarians (Vol. 18,
p. 77), the “friends of ideas,” as Plato called them, united the Socratic
principles of virtue (as the source of knowledge) with the Eleatic
doctrine (Vol. 9, p. 168) of the “One” as opposed to the “Many.” Their
strength lay in the intellectual pre-eminence of their members, not
so much in the doctrine, or combination of doctrines, which they
inculcated.
Aristotle Plato had done much, he had laid
the foundation of modern thought; it
remained to classify it and to systematize it. This task was reserved
for Aristotle (Vol. 2, p. 501), one of the greatest geniuses of any age.
He invented the sciences of logic, ethics, aesthetics, and psychology,
as separate sciences. He was at once a student, a reader, a lecturer, a
writer, and a book collector. He was the first man whom we know to
have collected books, and he was employed at one time by the kings
of Egypt as consulting librarian. His system of aesthetics still
remains the best foundation of the critic’s training. The fundamental
difference between Aristotle and Plato is that Platonism is a
philosophy of universal forms, and Aristotelianism one of individual
substances. As Professor Case puts it in the Britannica: “Plato makes
us think first of the supernatural and the kingdom of heaven,
Aristotle of the natural and the whole world.” His inquiries,
therefore, pre-eminently implied that “transvaluation of all values,”
of which Nietzsche was to boast more than two thousand years later.
A contemporary of Aristotle, whose philosophy occupies a somewhat
independent position, is Epicurus (Vol. 9, p. 683). His advice to a
young disciple was to “steer clear of culture.” His system, in fact, led
him to go back from words to realities in order to find in nature a
more enduring and a wider foundation for ethical doctrine; “to give
up reasonings, and get at feelings, to test conceptions and arguments
by a final reference to the only touchstone of truth—the senses.” A
famous Roman who subscribed to the doctrines of Epicurus was the
poet-philosopher-scientist, Lucretius (Vol. 17, p. 107), whose
theories in his poem De Rerum Natura so curiously anticipated
much of modern physics and psychology.
The Last Greek Two schools remain to be considered
Schools before the Greek philosophy can be
dismissed: the Stoics (Vol. 25, p. 942)
and the Neoplatonists (see Neoplatonism, Vol. 19, p. 372). The
Stoics caught the practical spirit of the age which had been evoked by
Aristotle and provided a popular philosophy to meet individual
needs. They showed kinship with the Cynics, but under the
inspiration of their founder, Zeno of Citium, they avoided the
excesses of that school, and formulated a system which fired the
imagination of the time and finally bequeathed to Rome the guiding
principles which were to raise her to greatness. Zeno is regarded as
the best exponent of anarchistic philosophy in ancient Greece, and
he and his philosophers opposed the conception of a free community
without government to the state-Utopia of Plato; see Anarchism
(Vol. 1, p. 915). Of Neoplatonism Adolph Harnack says in the
Britannica (Vol. 19, p. 372):
Judged from the standpoint of empirical science, philosophy passed its
meridian in Plato and Aristotle, declined in the postAristotelian systems, and set
in the darkness of Neoplatonism. But, from the religious and moral point of
view, it must be admitted that the ethical “mood” which Neoplatonism
endeavored to create and maintain is the highest and purest ever reached by
antiquity.
 The most famous exponents of this system were Plotinus (Vol. 21,
p. 849), an introspective mystic, and Porphyry (Vol. 22, p. 103), who
edited Plotinus’s works and wrote his biography. Neoplatonism,
coming as it did early in our era, formed a link between the pagan
philosophy of ancient Greece and Christianity.
Medieval With the death of Boetius (Vol. 4, p.
Ecclesiasticism 116), in 524 A.D., and with the closing
of the philosophical schools in Athens
five years later, intellectual darkness settled over Europe and hung
there for centuries. When in the Middle Ages, the speculative
sciences once again attracted men’s minds, Christianity had already
impressed its mark. Scholasticism (Vol. 24, p. 346) as a system
began with the teaching of Scotus Erigena (Vol. 9, p. 742) at the
end of the 9th century, and culminated three centuries later with
Albertus Magnus (Vol. 1, p. 504), with his greater disciple Thomas
Aquinas (Vol. 2, p. 250), whose ideas have animated orthodox
philosophic thought in the Catholic Church to this day, and with
Meister Eckhart (Vol. 8, p. 886), the first of the great speculative
mystics (see Mysticism, Vol. 19, p. 123).
Modern Ideas With the Reformation an assertion
of independence made itself heard.
Man’s relation to man assumed an importance comparable to that of
his relation to God; and the first steps on the path which was to lead
to the rationalism of the French Encyclopaedists and of the English
Utilitarians were taken by Albericus Gentilis (Vol. 11, p. 603), and
Hugo Grotius (Vol. 12, p. 621). In England, Francis Bacon (Vol. 3,
p. 135) was independently working out the same problems. In
philosophy his position was that of a humanist. The remarkable
success of Grotius’s treatise De Jure Belli et Pacis brought his views
of natural right into great prominence, and suggested such questions
as: “What is man’s ultimate reason for obeying laws? Wherein
exactly does their agreement with his rational and social nature
exist? How far and in what sense is his nature really social?” The
answers which Hobbes (Vol. 13, p. 545), who was considerably
influenced by Bacon, gave to these fundamental questions in his
Leviathan marked the starting point of independent ethical inquiry
The Utilitarians in England. From this time on the drift
of thought in England, though of
course often profoundly affected by the speculations of continental
philosophers, mainly ran in utilitarian channels; and the succession
of ideas may be traced through Locke (Vol. 16, p. 844), whose
influence on the French Encyclopaedists was far reaching, Hume
(Vol. 13, p. 876), Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 3, p. 747) with his famous
principle of the “greatest happiness for the greatest number,” J. S.
Mill (Vol. 18, p. 454), and Herbert Spencer (Vol. 24, p. 634), with
his philosophy of the “unknowable.”
Back to Dreams Meanwhile, on the continent of
Europe, Descartes (Vol. 7, p. 79), in
the Discourse of Method, had stated his famous proposition “Cogito,
ergo sum,” and had laid down those fundamental dogmas of logic,
metaphysics, and physics, from which started the subsequent
inquiries of Locke, Leibnitz (Vol. 16, p. 385), and Newton (Vol. 19,
p. 583). But Cartesianism (Vol. 5, p. 414), as Dr. Caird points out in
the Britannica, includes not only the work of Descartes, but also that
of Malebranche (Vol. 17, p. 486) and of Spinoza (Vol. 25, p. 687),
who, from very different points of view, developed the Cartesian
theories, the former saturated with the study of Augustine, the latter
with that of Jewish philosophy.
The Rights of There follows a group of men whose
Man speculations left a deep mark on the
course of events in Europe and
America: Voltaire (Vol. 28, p. 199), Montesquieu (Vol. 18, p. 775),
Jean Jacques Rousseau (Vol. 23, p. 775), and Denis Diderot (Vol. 8,
p. 204). The antiecclesiastical animus which informed the writings of
the first, the Esprit des Lois of the second, the Contrat Social of the
third, and the famous encyclopaedia of the last, had political results,
but their influence on metaphysical inquiry was practically nil.
Transcendentalis Outstanding, of course, in the 18th
m century was the influence of Immanuel
Kant (Vol. 15, p. 662), who summed
up the teachings of Leibnitz and Hume, carried them to their logical
issues, and immensely extended them. In fact, Kant and his disciple
Fichte (Vol. 10, p. 313), as Prof. Case shows in the article
Metaphysics (Vol. 18, p. 231), “became the most potent philosophic
influences on European thought in the 19th century, because their
emphasis was on man.” They made man believe in himself and in his
mission. They fostered liberty and reform, and even radicalism. They
almost avenged man on the astronomers, who had shown that the
world is not made for earth, and therefore not for man. Kant half
asserted, and Fichte wholly, that Nature is man’s own construction.
The Kritik and the Wissenschaftslehre belonged to the revolutionary
epoch of the “Rights of Man,” and produced as great a revolution in
thought as the French Revolution did in fact. Instead of the old belief
that God made the world for man, philosophers began to fall into the
pleasing dream “I am everything, and everything is I”—and even “I
am God.” The term Transcendentalism (Vol. 27, p. 172) has been
specially applied to the philosophy of Kant and his successors, which
is based on the view that true knowledge is intuitive, or supernatural.
The famous Transcendental Club founded, 1836, by Emerson (Vol.
9, p. 332) and others in New England, was not “transcendental” in
the Kantian sense; its main theme was regeneration, a revolt from
theological formalism, and a wider literary outlook; see also Brook
Farm (Vol. 4, p. 645), Thoreau (Vol. 26, p. 877), A. Bronson Alcott
(Vol. 1, p. 528), and Margaret Fuller (Vol. 11, p. 295).
Idealism Schelling’s position (Vol. 24, p.
316), like that of his disciple Hegel
(Vol. 13, p. 200), differed from the transcendentalism of Kant and
Fichte in regarding all noumena, or things comprehended (Vol. 19, p.
828), as knowable products of universal reason—the Absolute Ego,
and, the absolute being God, nature as a product of universal reason,
“a direct manifestation not of man but of God.” This was the starting
point of noumenal idealism in Germany, and showed a reversion to
the wider opinions of Aristotle. Hegelianism in which this idealism is
carried to its limit is professedly one of the most difficult of
philosophies. Hegel said “One man has understood me and even he
has not.” His obscurity lies in the manner in which, as William
Wallace shows in his article on the philosopher (Vol. 13, p. 204), he
“abruptly hurls us into worlds where old habits of thought fail us.”
The influence of Hegel on English thought has been wide and lasting.
Realism Schopenhauer (Vol. 24, p. 372) was
essentially a realist. He led the
inevitable reaction against the absorption of everything in reason
which is the keynote of the Kantian system. In the very title of his
chief work, The World as Will and Idea, he emphasizes his position
in giving “will” equal weight with “mind” or “idea” (Vorstellung). His
“Will to Live” embodies a wholesome practical idea. Eduard von
Hartmann (Vol. 13, p. 36) in his sensational Philosophy of the
Unconscious established the thesis: “When the greater part of the
Will in existence is so far enlightened by reason as to perceive the
inevitable misery of existence, a collective effort to will non-existence
will be made, and the world will relapse into nothingness, the
Unconscious into quiescence.” He thus goes a step further in
pessimism than did Schopenhauer, and the essence of his doctrine is
the will to non-existence—not to live, instead of a will to live. German
realism is, however, so strongly coloured by the idealistic cast of the
national thought that we have to go to France and England for the
most thorough-going statement of the realist position. In France the
eclecticism of V. Cousin (Vol. 7, p. 330) marked a doctrine of
comprehension and toleration, opposed to the arrogance of
absolutism and to the dogmatism of sensationalism which were the
tendencies of his day. In England a reversion to Baconian ideas
produced the natural or intuitive realism of Reid (Vol. 23, p. 51),
Dugald Stewart (Vol. 25, p. 913), Sir William Hamilton (Vol. 12,
p. 888) and their followers, and led to the synthetic philosophy of
Herbert Spencer (Vol. 25, p. 634).
Materialism The materialists go a step further
than the realists. In its modern sense
materialism is the view that all we know is body (or matter), of which
the mind is an attribute or function. This attitude was induced by the
rapid advances of the natural sciences, and by the unifying doctrine
of gradual evolution in nature. It was also heralded by a remarkable
growth in commerce, manufactures, and industrialism. The leaders
of the movement were Büchner (Vol. 4, p. 719) whose Kraft und
Stoff became a text book of materialism, and Haeckel (Vol. 12, p.
803) who in his Riddle of the Universe asserts that, sensations being
an inherent property of all substance, neither mind nor soul can have
an origin.
The 19th Century In the inquiries of Lotze (Vol. 17, p.
and Beyond 23), and Fechner (Vol. 10, p. 231), the
latter an experimental psychologist,
lies the germ of much of the speculative thought of the present day.
Lotze, as the well-known psychologist Henry Sturt says in his article
in the Britannica (Vol. 17, p. 25), “brought philosophy out of the
lecture room into the market place of life.” He saw that metaphysics
must be the foundation of psychology, and that the current idealist
theories of the origin of knowledge were unsound; and he concluded
that the union of the regions of facts, of laws, and of standards of
values, can only become intelligible through the idea of a personal
deity. Like a brilliant meteor Nietzsche (Vol. 19, p. 672) flashed
across the philosophic sky. His theories of the super-man are known
to everyone. His brilliant essays are all in the nature of prolegomena
to a philosophy which, embodied in a master work, the “Will to
Power,” was to contain a transvaluation of all existing ethical values.
Unfortunately he did not live to complete the work, which remains a
fragment; but the drift of his thought is clearly indicated. One other
system should be mentioned, that of Positivism (Vol. 22, p. 172),
which its founder, Auguste Comte (Vol. 6, p. 814) hoped would
supersede every other system. Comte’s philosophy confines itself to
the data of experience and declines to recognise a priori or
metaphysical speculations. The system of morality which he built up
on it, and in which God is replaced by Humanity, has largely failed,
in spite of the brilliant ideas which animate it, because it is in many
of its aspects retrograde. A most interesting review of present day
tendencies in the regions of Metaphysics will be found at the end of
that article, with special reference to the brilliant work of Wundt
(see also Vol. 28, p. 855), who constructing his system on the
Kantian order—sense, understanding, reason, exhibits most clearly
the necessary consequence from psychological to metaphysical
idealism. His philosophy is the best exposition of modern idealism—
that we perceive the mental and, therefore, all we know and conceive
is mental.
The Historical This sketch of the course of events in
Clue philosophical speculation will at least
enable the reader to follow the
historical clue to the evolution of ideas. Every student must, in order
to attain a true perspective, know the genealogy of the ideas he is
studying. It will therefore be best that he first read the general
articles referred to in the beginning of this chapter, supplementing
them by the accounts given of the separate systems under the
headings of their authors.
 A list of the philosophical and psychological articles (more than
500 in number) in the Britannica will be found in the Index (Vol. 29,
p. 939) and it is not repeated here.
 Part III
Devoted to the Interests of Children
 CHAPTER LXI
FOR PARENTS

The Science of The new Encyclopaedia Britannica is

Rearing Children full of encouragement for parents who
are tempted to feel that the proper care
and training of a child require almost superhuman skill and energy.
Many of the fears and doubts by which they are beset rest upon
vague traditions, handed down from a day when a child’s health was
threatened by more dangers and greater dangers than now, and
when much less was known than is known to-day about the training
of a child. Statistics are dull things, as a rule, but it would be difficult
to find pleasanter reading than the statistical tables which show how
much the modern progress of science has done for children. And
these figures, in many Britannica articles on various diseases and
localities, by showing how much safer children’s lives are than they
used to be, also indicate a decrease of children’s suffering and an
increase of children’s happiness which cannot be expressed in
numbers. Sheer ignorance caused much of the pain that children
used to suffer and also much of the neglect that led to bodily and
mental deficiency in later life. There is still room for improvement;
but it is no exaggeration to say that the child of the average American
mechanic is more intelligently cared for than was, a hundred years
ago, the heir to a European kingdom.
Every branch of science has contributed to these improved
conditions. Medical and surgical research have no doubt been the
great factors, as disease and deformity were the worst evils; but the
child’s mind has been as carefully studied as its body. Here, again,
figures cannot tell the whole story. They can show the universal
benefits of our public school system, but they cannot show how
greatly the children of well-read and thoughtful parents benefit by
home influences intelligently exerted. That element of education
begins as soon as a child is born, and it is based upon such
observation of its individual needs as only a parent’s affection and
sympathy can achieve. And in this part of the parent’s task, as in the
case of the child’s health, it is essential to be guided by specialists of
the highest authority, such as those who wrote for the Britannica the
articles of which a brief account is given in this chapter.
The child’s individuality, physical and mental, is largely inherited.
What is Known The vast subject of heredity has
about Heredity indeed not yet been reduced to an
exact science, but the newest theories
advanced by Weismann, Hertwig, and others, with such
confirmation as has already been obtained, are clearly set forth in Dr.
P. Chalmers Mitchell’s article Heredity (Vol. 13, p. 350). As for our
knowledge of the physiological process of heredity, the foundation
may be said to have been laid by the labours of the Austrian monk
Mendel, and biologists are rapidly extending his work in various
directions. What has been done in the past thirteen years since
scientists rediscovered Mendel’s work is described in Mendelism
(Vol. 18, p. 115), by R. C. Punnett, professor of biology, Cambridge
University. There is no subject of greater interest or fascination
before the world to-day, and there is no better or simpler
introduction to it than Professor Punnett’s able article. As he says,
“Increased knowledge of our heredity means increased power of
control over the living thing.” We know very little as yet, but that
little “offers the hope of a great extension at no very distant time. If
this hope is borne out, if it is shown that the qualities of man, his
body and his intellect, his immunities and his diseases, even his very
virtues and vices, are dependent upon the ascertainable presence or
absence of definite unit-characters whose mode of transmission
follows fixed laws, and if also man decides that his life shall be
ordered in the light of this knowledge, it is obvious that the social
system will have to undergo considerable changes.”
The relations between parent and offspring are also dealt with in
Reproduction (Vol. 23, p. 116), by Dr. Mitchell; and those who wish
to study the development of the organism will find such information
in Embryology (Vol. 9, p. 314), by Adam Sedgwick, who is professor
of zoology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology,
London. This masterly account is supplemented by a section (p. 329)
on the Physiology of Development by Dr. Hans A. E. Driesch, of
Heidelberg University.
The New-Born The article Infancy (Vol. 14, p. 513),
Child by Dr. Harriet Hennessy, is devoted to
the care of the child during its first
year. The first bath, care of the eyes, clothing, increase of weight, etc.,
are thoroughly discussed, and the directions for artificial feeding
contain tables of milk-dilution and of the amounts to be given. In
Child (Vol. 6, p. 136) will be found a valuable table of average
heights and weights of children from the ages of one to fifteen, and a
full bibliography of works relating to child-study.
The main points to be considered for each sex in the difficult
period between childhood and maturity are concisely set forth in
Adolescence (Vol. 1, p. 210). An ideal system of child raising is
outlined, dealing with hygiene, clothing, and moral and physical
training. See also Gymnastics and Gymnasium (Vol. 12, p. 752), by
R. J. McNeill.
The Vital Parents must have a thorough and
Question of Food clear understanding of the question of
bodily nourishment. This is most
imperative. It means sound bodies for the children, their good health
in after years, their efficiency and success in life. On this point the
new Britannica provides information of a character that for
authoritativeness and completeness can nowhere else be matched.
The important matter of feeding a family is treated at great length
in Dietetics (Vol. 8, p. 214), by the late Prof. W. O. Atwater of
Wesleyan University, known the world over as an authority on this
subject, and R. D. Milner, formerly assistant in the U. S. Department
of Agriculture. The article gives information as to the composition
and nutritive values of foods and their adaptation to the use of
people in health. There are tables of food composition, of the
digestibility of nutrients, of the quantities of available nutrients, etc.
The hygienic and pecuniary economy of food are discussed in such a
way as to be of real service. For those who desire further information
on the subject of food assimilation reference may be made to
Nutrition (Vol. 19, p. 920), by Dr. D. Noel Paton, professor of
physiology, University of Glasgow, and Dr. E. P. Cathcart, lecturer in
chemical physiology in the same institution.
Maintenance of In regard to the maintenance of
Health general health of children without
reference to specific ailments there is a
vast fund of information to be extracted by consulting the new
Britannica. The titles of a few of the articles will sufficiently indicate
information to which every parent should have constant access:
Antiseptics (Vol. 2, p. 146); Disinfectants (Vol. 8, p. 312);
Carbolic Acid, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, (Vol. 5, p. 305);
Salicylic Acid, Medicine and Therapeutics (Vol. 24, p. 70); Emetics
(Vol. 9, p. 336); Aconite, Therapeutics (Vol. 1, p. 152); Colchicum,
Pharmacology (Vol. 6, p. 662); Phenacetin (Vol. 21, p. 363); Pepsin
(Vol. 21, p. 130); Rhubarb (Vol. 23, p. 273); Senna (Vol. 24, p. 646);
Poison, with list of poisons and antidotes (Vol. 21, p. 893);
Haemorrhage, how to tell the different kinds (Vol. 12, p. 805);
Wound, nature of bruises and treatment (Vol. 28, p. 837); Burns
and Scalds (Vol. 4, p. 860); Sunstroke, nature of heat prostration
(Vol. 26, p. 110); nature and treatment of frost-bite, Mortification
(Vol. 18, p. 878); Ulcer (Vol. 27, p. 565); Chilblains (Vol. 6, p. 134);
Eczema (Vol. 8 p. 920); relief from choking, Oesophagus (Vol. 20, p.
14); Bone, Fractures, special fractures in the young (Vol. 4, p. 201);
Drowning and Life Saving (Vol. 8, p. 592); Sleep, amount of sleep
necessary at different ages (Vol. 25, p. 238); Diseases of Vision (Vol.
28, p. 142); with its special section (p. 144) on the care of the eyesight
of children; Blindness, Causes and Prevention (Vol. 4, p. 60), by Sir
F. J. Campbell, principal, Royal Normal College for the Blind,
London; Shock, injuries and accidents (Vol. 24, p. 991). There is a
section on Action of Baths on the Human System, in Baths and
Bathing (Vol. 3, p. 518), telling of the effects of cold, tepid, warm,
hot, and very hot baths.
Parents will be most grateful to the Britannica for the complete
descriptions of infantile diseases, dealing with symptoms and
principles of cure and treatment.
Treatment of The British Medical Journal
Infantile commenting on the nature of the
Diseases medical section of the new Britannica
has said that it is “an admirable
example of the kind of exposition which will enable the head of a
family, without embarrassing him with technical details, to deal with
a situation with which he may be confronted at any moment.”
Realizing the great necessity for a popular yet authentic discussion of
diseases, the editors have produced a work which has received the
highest approval of the medical world for its quality of practical
usefulness.
In the first place, parents should devote much study to Sir T.
Lauder Brunton’s most clear and able discussion of Therapeutics
(Vol. 26, p. 793), dealing in a general manner with the means
employed to treat disease. Here we learn about the action of
microbes, the nature of inflammation and fever (which are protective
processes calculated to defend the organism against the attacks of
microbes but which often become injurious), about defensive
measures and principles of cure, proper nutrition and elimination,
flatulence, constipation, etc. It is also important to know something
about the action of drugs, and this is fully explained in
Pharmacology (Vol. 21, p. 350), by Dr. Ralph Stockman, of Glasgow
University, while Dr. H. L. Hennessy in the same article (p. 352)
explains the terms used in the classification of drugs.
Before describing the material devoted to the special diseases of
children, it is well to remind parents of a valuable illustrated article
on Parasitic Diseases (Vol. 20, p. 770), by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead,
professor of pathology in Cambridge University. It is about the
length of 52 pages in this Guide. The information as to the origin of
various diseases, of those which are due to vegetable and those due
to animal parasites, of the infective diseases in which no organism
yet discovered has surely been connected with the malady (as is the
case with scarlet fever), and of infective diseases, such as measles,
mumps, and whooping-cough, not yet traced to microorganisms, will
prove of the highest interest because the facts related have a most
important influence upon present methods of treatment.
Diseases most Croup (Vol. 7, p. 511) is a concise
Common to account of spasmodic croup—so
Childhood terrifying to all parents. The treatment
is carefully described. The same is true
of Tonsillitis (Vol. 27, p. 11). For other common throat diseases see
Bronchitis (Vol. 4, p. 634); Respiratory System, Pathology of (Vol.
23, p. 195) by Dr. Thomas Harris, a noted authority, and Dr. Harriet
Hennessy, and Laryngitis (Vol. 16, p. 228), which fully describes the
paroxysmal laryngitis so peculiarly fatal to infants. In all these
articles reference is made to adenoids as a contributing cause of the
maladies described. There is a separate account of these recently
discovered troublesome growths, Adenoids (Vol. 1, p. 191), and of
the comparatively simple operation for their removal, by Dr.
Edmund Owen, consulting surgeon to the Children’s Hospital,
London.
The great attention which, in recent years, has been paid to
Diphtheria (Vol. 8, p. 290) has produced most striking results. We
know its cause and nature, we understand the conditions which
influence its prevalence; and a “specific” cure in an antitoxin has
been found. Specialists now trace to diphtheria many of the serious
cases which would formerly have been thought due to other diseases,
and especially to croup.
Whooping Cough (Vol. 28, p. 616) is one of the most common
diseases of infancy, but, except in the most extreme cases, does not
require the regular attendance of a physician. The malady has three
recognized stages, in the second of which complications are apt to
arise which may become a source of danger greater than the malady
itself. Parents should also understand the curious structural changes
in the lungs which sometimes remain after the disease has run its
course.
Of all the diseases of earlier childhood, Measles (Vol. 17, p. 947) is
the most prevalent, and its spread is largely due to the fact that its
initial symptoms are slight and not easily recognizable. The proper
understanding of these is, therefore, most necessary, as well as a
thorough appreciation of possible complications and their
consequences. The best mode of treatment is also indicated in this
article. There are several well-marked varieties of Scarlet Fever
(Vol. 24, p. 303) of which the chief are simple scarlatina, septic
scarlatina, and malignant scarlatina; and the complications and
effects of the disease are among the most important features which
should be understood. The list of infantile diseases is too long for
specific description, but parents can appreciate the value and
significance of this valuable department of the work by referring to
such articles as Mumps (Vol. 18, p. 968); Dysentery (Vol. 8, p. 785);
Cholera (Vol. 6, p. 262), with a special section on children’s simple
cholera; see also Digestive Organs, General and Local Diseases
(Vol. 8, p. 262) by Dr. A. L. Gillespie, lecturer on modern gastric
methods, Edinburgh Post-Graduate School, and Meningitis,
Cerebro-Spinal (Vol. 18, p. 130), with an account of the new and
successful serum treatment.
Mental Training In planning the groundwork of
education, parents should have a clear
idea of the principles of modern instruction. Here the Britannica
again comes to their assistance. The biographies of Pestalozzi (Vol.
21, p. 284) and of Froebel (Vol. 11, p. 238) describe the insistence of
these leaders on the need of educating a child through his own
activity, and the results they obtained by this method. Further
elaboration of the subject is given in Education, Theory (Vol. 8, p.
951), by James Welton, professor of education in the University of
Leeds, to which article there are added detailed accounts of national
systems of education. An interesting supplementary article is
Schools (Vol. 24, p. 359), by A. F. Leach, describing the stages of
experiment by which our modern idea of a school has been
developed. There is an admirably instructive article, Technical
Education (Vol. 26, p. 487), by Sir Philip Magnus, formerly member
of the Royal Commission of Technical Instruction.
Assistance at The new Britannica performs a
Home in School service of the greatest importance in
Education responding to the opening mind of the
child. Children are the greatest of
question askers, and the Britannica is the best question answerer
ever devised. They want to know about the races of men, the
different animals and plants they see; in fact, almost every object
that comes under their observation. The inestimable advantage of
answering an inquiry fully and correctly and not in an offhand
manner is too obvious to need mention. Let your young children see
you go to your Britannica for information and as soon as they are
old enough they will naturally do the same, and then the volumes
will be performing their most efficient work in the household.
For helping children with their school “themes” and
“compositions,” for elucidation or amplification of any topic that
comes up in the course of their studies, there is no medium so useful
as the new Britannica—the most exhaustive compendium of
knowledge which has ever been devised, with its elaborate index of
500,000 alphabetical references, giving instant access to every fact
in the whole work. Of equal assistance will be its employment in
connection with Sunday School lessons; for the accounts of the Bible
and its separate books, giving the latest results of Biblical criticism,
are the product of the highest learning of the age.
The World of For the instruction of children about
Nature the history of mankind, the nature of
the universe, the animal, plant, and
mineral world, the new Britannica offers a complete fund of
necessary knowledge. There are 277 astronomical articles, including
biographies; 889 zoological articles; 675 on plants; 380 on minerals
and rocks. The classified subject-list in the Index Volume places the
whole of this material immediately before the eye.
The articles Anthropology (Vol. 2, p. 108), by Dr. Edward B.
Tylor of Oxford University, dean of living anthropologists, and
Ethnology and Ethnography (Vol. 9, p. 849) describe the races of
mankind, man’s place in nature, the origin of man, and his antiquity.
The main article Zoology (Vol. 28, p. 1022), by Sir Edwin Ray
Lankester, of London University, is an introduction to knowledge of
the whole of the animal world, which is amplified, with minute
details, in separate accounts of all members of the animal kingdom.
Zoological Distribution (Vol. 28, p. 1002), by the noted naturalist,
Richard Lydekker, is a mine of information about the distribution of
living animals and their forerunners on the surface of the globe.
Articles of great importance are Botany (Vol. 4, p. 299), by Dr. A. B.
Rendle of the British Museum, and the great article Plants (Vol. 21,
p. 728), in the various sections of which the whole story of the
vegetable world is told by eight famous specialists. There are, of
course, separate articles on all plants. We also recommend to parents
a careful study of the section (Vol. 23, p. 120) of Reproduction,
Reproduction of Plants, by Dr. S. H. Vines, and Pollination (Vol.
22, p. 2), from which they can give their children much necessary
instruction. Such a course is now strongly advised by educators and
authorities in child-study as the best method of preparing the mind
for a healthy, sane knowledge of sex matters in later years.
What Happens All the facts about the earth’s surface
on the Earth and will be found in Geography, in the
in the Air section Principles of Geography (Vol.
11, p. 630), by Dr. H. R. Mill, formerly president of the Royal
Meteorological Society; and see also Ocean and Oceanography
(Vol. 19, p. 967), by Dr. Otto Krümmel, professor of geography,
University of Kiel, and Dr. H. R. Mill. Everything about the weather,
storms, etc., may be learned from Meteorology (Vol. 18, p. 264), by
Dr. Cleveland Abbe, professor of meteorology in the U. S. Weather
Bureau; and from Atmospheric Electricity (Vol. 2, p. 860), by Dr.
Charles Chree of the National Physical Laboratory, England.
Clouds always appeal strongly to a child’s imagination. The article
Cloud (Vol. 6, p. 557), by A. W. Clayden, author of Cloud Studies,
has beautiful illustrations of cloud forms, with explanations.
Lord Rayleigh, a winner of the Nobel prize and one of the most
distinguished of living scientists, in the article Sky (Vol. 25, p. 202)
explains why the blue of the sky varies as it does.
Parents will find a great deal to tell their children about
phenomena of nature in such articles as Earthquake (Vol. 8, p. 817),
by F. W. Rudler, formerly president of the Geologists’ Association,
England, and Dr. John Milne, author of Earthquakes; and Volcano
(Vol. 28, p. 178), by F. W. Rudler. Glaciers and their effects are
described in Glacier (Vol. 12, p. 60), by E. C. Spicer.
In teaching rudimentary things about the heavens, it is well to note
that Constellation (Vol. 7, p. 11), by Charles Everitt, contains star-
maps by which the positions may easily be recognized. After reading
Star (Vol. 25, p. 784), by A. S. Eddington, of the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich, many wonders of the heavens about the number of the
stars, their distances, the variable and double stars, etc., may be told
the child. The same is true of the articles Planet (Vol. 21, p. 714), by
Dr. Simon Newcomb, director of the American Nautical Almanac and
professor of mathematics in the Navy, and of the separate accounts
of all the different planets; Comet (Vol. 6, p. 759), by Dr. Newcomb;
and Nebula (Vol. 19, p. 332), by A. S. Eddington, etc. These are all
very fully illustrated. Ideas as to the structure of the universe, the
origin of the solar system, etc., will be found in Nebular Theory
(Vol. 19, p. 333), by Sir Robert S. Ball, professor of astronomy,
Cambridge University.
The Training of A great many children show a liking
the Hand for the mechanical arts and are curious
about processes of manufacture.
Parents will find in the new Britannica complete information about
the marvelous things ingenious machines do and how they do them;
for example, Spinning (Vol. 25, p. 685), by T. W. Fox, professor of
textiles in the University of Manchester; Cotton-Spinning
Machinery (Vol. 7, p. 301), also by Professor Fox; Weaving (Vol. 28,
p. 440), by Professor Fox, with illustrations; Hosiery (Vol. 13, p.
788), by Thomas Brown, of the Incorporated Weaving, Dyeing and
Printing College, Glasgow; Carpet (Vol. 5, p. 392), by A. S. Cole,
assistant secretary for art, Board of Education, England; Silk (Vol.
25, p. 96), by Frank Warner, president of the Silk Association of
Great Britain and Ireland; Richard Snow, examiner in silk throwing
and spinning for the City and Guilds of London Institute, and Arthur
Mellor; Flour and Flour Manufacture (Vol. 10, p. 548), by G. F.
Zimmer, author of Mechanical Handling of Material; Rope and
Rope Making (Vol. 23, p. 713), by Thomas Woodhouse, head of the
weaving and textile department, Technical College, Dundee; Sugar,
Sugar Manufacture (Vol. 26, p. 35), by A. Chapman, designer and
constructor of sugar machinery, and Valentine W. Chapman.
The Foundation An important service to education is
of Good Taste rendered by the Britannica in the way
that it supplements and extends
education received in the school. There, far too often children learn
little or nothing of the world of art, of the beautiful creations of the
human intellect by means of which, even before the dawn of history,
men attempted to express in concrete form their sense of beauty. It is
surely most desirable for children to have an idea, at least, of
principles and styles of architecture; of ancient and modern painting
and sculpture—to know the chief characteristics of schools of art; to
have a little knowledge of musical forms, of what a symphony, a
concerto, a sonata, an opera, are; to be able to recognize a piece of
Dresden, Sèvres, Italian faience, Copenhagen, or Wedgwood ware
when they see it; to know the different periods and styles of
furniture; to tell Bohemian from Venetian glass; to be familiar with
lovely textiles and fabrics and to appreciate their true value. Such
knowledge is the foundation of good taste. It serves to arouse
appreciation of, and respect for, the objects with which a child is
surrounded, and leads to delightful interests, recreations and
occupations in later years. There are few better and more constant
uses to which the Britannica can be put than the systematic
education of children in matters of general culture and refined taste.
Knowledge of the A list of articles to serve this purpose
Fine Arts would be too long to give here. They
are easily found by means of other
chapters in this Guide. But special mention may be made of
Architecture (Vol. 2, p. 369), by R. Phené Spiers, master of the
architectural school, Royal Academy, London, by John Bilson, of the
University of Manchester, and others; Painting (Vol. 20, p. 459), by
Prof. G. B. Brown of Edinburgh University; L. Bénédite, keeper of the
Luxembourg Gallery, Paris; Richard Muther, professor of modern
art, Breslau University; and John C. Van Dyke, professor of history of
art, Rutgers College; Sculpture (Vol. 24 p. 488), by Marion H.
Spielmann, formerly editor, Magazine of Art, P. G. Konody, art critic
of the Observer, L. Bénédite, and Dr. J. H. Middleton, Slade
professor of fine art, Cambridge University; Ceramics (Vol. 5, p.
703), by Hon. William Burton, chairman, Joint Committee of Pottery
Manufacturers of Great Britain, R. L. Hobson of the British Museum,
and other authorities; Glass (Vol. 12, p. 86), by Alexander Nesbitt,
H. J. Powell, author of Glass Making, and Dr. W. Rosenhain of the
National Physical Laboratory, England; Lace (Vol. 16, p. 37), by A. S.
Cole, author of Embroidery and Lace; Furniture (Vol. 11, p. 363),
by J. Penderel-Brodhurst. All of these articles are superbly
illustrated, and this feature alone would give them a direct
educational value for young people.
The Best Picture- In fact, the new Britannica may be
Book in the said to be the greatest and most varied
World picture book in existence. There are
7,000 text illustrations and 450 full-
page plates. This suggests at once a special use for the work in
making children familiar, by purely pictorial means, with objects
they should learn to recognize. When a child asks for a description of
some object whose name has aroused his curiosity, it is safe to say
that an accurate picture of it will be found in the new Britannica.
Suppose that he has heard of a dirigible balloon and wants to know
how it differs from the ordinary balloon which he has seen. The
index will guide his instructor to the article Aeronautics (Vol. 1, p.
260), with two full-page plates of dirigible balloons. A child can learn
to distinguish the breeds of domestic animals from the illustrations
alone. Thirst for mechanical knowledge may be satisfied by such
articles as Steam Engine (Vol. 25, p. 818), with about 70
illustrations, by Prof. J. A. Ewing, of Cambridge University; Watch
(Vol. 28, p. 362), by Lord Grimthorpe and Sir H. H. Cunynghame;
Lighthouse (Vol. 16, p. 627), by W. T. Douglass and N. G. Gedye;
Telephone (Vol. 26, p. 547), by Emile Garcke; and Lock (Vol. 16, p.
841), by A. B. Chatwood—all fully illustrated.
Sport and The new Britannica is an exhaustive
Recreation and practical compendium of sports,
games, and recreations of all kinds.
Part 6 of this Guide contains a survey of this department in the book.
There are over 260 articles on sports and games alone, and they
describe clearly how each is played, and also give expert advice.
There is also much that is extremely interesting in the historical
development of pastimes, a knowledge of which heightens the
interest and pleasure of those who participate in them; and parents
can be of real assistance to their children in instructing them about
their sports, and by acquiring this information themselves can give
sympathetic appreciation to the children’s amusements. Among the
noteworthy contributions on sports and games there are Children’s
Games (Vol. 6, p. 141), an article for parents by Alice B. Gomme, an
expert on this subject; Games, Classical (Vol. 11, p. 443), an account
which every boy will read with pleasure, by Francis Storr, editor of
the Journal of Education, London; Athletic Sports (Vol. 2, p. 846);
Base-Ball (Vol. 3, p. 458), by Edward Breck; Basket-Ball (Vol. 3, p.
483), Football (Vol. 10, p. 617), of which the American section is
written by Walter Camp, the football expert; Kite-flying (Vol. 15, p.
839), by Major-Gen. Baden Powell; Marbles (Vol. 17, p. 679), by W.
E. Garrett Fisher; Lawn Tennis (Vol. 16, p. 300), by R. J. McNeill;
Swimming (Vol. 26, p. 231), by William Henry, founder and chief
secretary of the Royal Life Saving Society; Skating (Vol. 25, p. 166),
and Coasting (Vol. 6, p. 603).
Diverting Recreation in the form of diverting
Occupations occupations is sometimes more
attractive to children, especially to
those of a practical turn of mind, than sports and games. It is often
difficult for parents to encourage these inclinations, since they
themselves may not be familiar with the subjects for which their
children show a special aptitude, and a real talent may thus fail to be
cultivated. As soon as any particular bent in the child is discovered, a
parent ought to consider it a duty to learn to help the boy or girl.
The new Encyclopaedia Britannica will, on all subjects of diverting
occupations, prove of immense practical assistance to parents. They
will find all that they need to know to help their children under such
headings as Photography (Vol. 21, p. 485), by Sir William de
Wiveleslie Abney, formerly president of the Royal Photographic
Society, James Waterhouse also a former president of the same
society, who writes on photographic apparatus, and A. H. Hinton,
author of Practical Pictorial Photography, etc.; Bee, Bee Keeping
(Vol. 3, p. 628), by W. B. Carr, formerly editor of the Bee-Keeper’s
Record; the article Aviary, on the keeping of birds (Vol. 3, p. 60), by
David Seth-Smith, formerly president of the Avicultural Society;
Poultry and Poultry Farming (Vol. 22, p. 213), by Lewis Wright,
author of The Practical Poultry-Keeper; Basket, Basket Making
(Vol. 3, p. 481); Horticulture (Vol. 13, p. 741), by M. T. Masters,
late editor of The Gardener’s Chronicle, W. R. W. Williams,
superintendent of London County Council Botany Centre, John
Weathers, author of Practical Guide to Garden Plants, Prof. Liberty
Hyde Bailey, director of the College of Agriculture, Cornell
University, and Peter Henderson; Carpentry (Vol. 5, p. 386), by
James Bartlett, lecturer on construction, at Kings College, London;
Conjuring (Vol. 6, p. 943), by John Algernon Clarke, G. Faur, and
John Nevil Maskelyne.