Clinical manual of mental diseases : for practitioners and students / by A. Campbell Clark.

  • Clark, Archibald Campbell.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical manual of mental diseases : for practitioners and students / by A. Campbell Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    reaction-time will show his mental pace so far as simple observation is concerned. When the test is applied to more complicated mental pro- cesses, the reaction-time may be quicker under some tests than under others; and here becomes evident some special aptitude, as, e.g., for arithmetic, mathematics, poetry, languages. One boy's psychic element in reaction-time is quick for arithmetic, slow for grammar, and quick, again, for seeing the solution of problems in Euclid, while with another the case is just the other way. If the reaction-time is slow in any direction, it must not be inferred that it will always be so, for many boys ultimately excel in those very subjects which are at one time the most difficult for them to comprehend. The reaction- time is also judged of by the responsiveness in school-drill. Here also may be obtained indications as to decision of character—the boys who lead, and those who follow. The faculty of attention may be difficult to arrest for any length of time, and without this faculty, and that of observa- tion duly applied, education does not make much progress. But it has to be noted whether at all times this faculty is more or less in abeyance. Is the same boy as restless, inattentive, and purposeless at play as at school ? What ■does he do with his recreation-time ? These inquiries must be made; and unless he is listless and unimaginative, there may still be good hope for him. As already remarked, attention to the state of the sight will assist negatively or positively in determining the cause of marked inattention. The memory should be tested. Some boys have marvellous gifts in this way, while others feel it so hard to remember that school-hours are very trying, and the}^ would rather get away from lessons altogether. School children find instinctively that repeating their lessons aloud makes them more easily remembered. This is, again, on the principle of the summation of stimuli; for with some the eye impresses memory more (visual memory), while with others the ear does so (auditory memory). Some, again, require not only these senses to aid memory, but object lessons and associations of ideas as well. It may be found with backward boys that the difficulty is here, the memory being unimpressionable and