of the animal skull into the human skull, and the relation of this
transformation to the facial characteristics of man. These points,
and also various questions connected with the bipedal or quadrupedal
attitude, and with the attitude and function of prehension, are treated
in detail, as are certain other distinctive simian and human characters.
A chapter is devoted to a consideration of the important subject of
retrogressive anomalies and rudimentary organs. In his concluding chapter
Dr. Topinard points out the place of man in animal classification, and
refers to the questions of his single or multiple origin, his genealogy
and his future. In connection with the subject of classification, the
author dwells on the fact that man is not the only relatively perfect
animal, and yet that none of the mammalia, which we admire for their
beauty or for their usefulness, equal the monkeys in the possession of a
brain approaching the human type. The brain, the hand, and the attitude
are the three characteristics which especially connect man with the
monkey, and particularly with the anthropoids, and the question has long
been agitated whether in these particulars the last named is allied more
closely to man or to the other monkeys. Dr. Topinard affirms that in
all these particulars the anthropoids should be classed with the other
monkeys, and therefore that man stands alone.
As to the descent of man, the French anthropologist would seem to agree
with M. Vogt that the type from which man has developed was also the
source of the monkey and anthropoid types, and that it first appeared
at the commencement of the Miocene period, when the earliest monkeys
succeeded to the Lemurian of the preceding Eocene epoch. Dr. Topinard
remarks that this conclusion is agreeable to that of the eminent American
palæontologist, Professor Cope, who makes man descend directly from the
Lemurian without passing through the monkeys and the anthropoids, basing
his opinion chiefly on dentition. The question of the descent of man is
connected with that of the singleness or multiplicity of his origin,
and on this point the author does not express a decided opinion. He
says that all existing types of humanity could be reduced to three, the
Europo-Semitic, the Asiatico-American, and the Negro; if not to two, the
White and the Negro. He adds that, nevertheless, “in losing oneself in
the depths of time, we can conceive the Negro, born the first, giving
birth successively to the Australoid with frizzled hair, to one of the
forms of the Brown stock with straight or wavy hair, and finally to the
white European.” Probably his actual opinion is to be gathered from his
final statement when comparing the order of the Primates to a tree, that
the Lemurians are its roots giving birth to several stems, of which one
is that of the monkey, from which branched the anthropoids, and another,
whose point of contact with the first is unknown, gives the actual human
branch, which runs parallel to that of the anthropoids without being
connected with it, and goes beyond it.
As to the future of the human race, Dr. Topinard affirms that the volume
of the brain will notably increase, that dolichocephaly will give place
to a universal brachycephaly, and that the cellules of the brain will
be perfected in quality. As the human brain is being thus perfected,
the animals nearest to the human type will disappear, and then man will
really think himself the centre round which the universe gravitates, the
sovereign for whom nature has been created. But even then the anatomist
will bring him to himself by uttering the words of Broca, “Memento te
animalium esse.” This work, which forms volume seventy-three of the
International Scientific Library, is sure to be widely read, and it will
be indispensable to the student of anthropology, who will find in it all
the information he requires on the methods of the science.
Ω.
DIE URHEIMATH DER INDOGERMANEN UND DAS EUROPÄISCHE ZAHLSYSTEM. By
_Johannes Schmidt_. Berlin, 1890. Pp. 56.
This essay is an important contribution to the problem of the place of
origin of the Indo-Germanic languages. The author is confident that
while nothing certain was known before, he has established at least one
fact which will give us a clue to the solution of the problem. This fact
is the interference of the duodecimal system with the decimal system.
The former is of Babylonian origin, but its effects are noticeable upon
almost all the Aryan tongues. The duodecimal system is not original with
the Goths or with any of the Teutons, which can be proved by the fact
that 60 or a _Schock_ was a round number, but not twelve, the etymology
of twelve (_twa-lif_) being two above a _lif_, which latter means a
certain set. Thus when the Gothic hundred as a rule meant 120, when for a
long time they distinguished between great hundreds (i. e. 120) and small
hundreds (i. e. 100), this was due to foreign influence. For if twelve
had been the basis of their number system, a _lif_ would have meant
twelve and the numerical arrangement would have progressed not in 10 × 12
but consistently in 12 × 12 or 144. Everything points to the supposition
that the Babylonian _sossos_ is still preserved in the German _Schock_
(60). Accordingly, says Schmidt, the Europeans must have been exposed to
a strong influence of the sexagesimal system; they must have been nearer
to the centre of Babylonian civilisation than are the valleys of the
Indus and the Eastern Iran. Professor Schmidt considers Penka as refuted
and also all those who regard Europe as the home of Indo-Germans.
We have to add that the eminent philologist when, discussing the problem
of the cradle of the Indo-Germanic languages does not touch upon the
other problem of the home of the Aryans, the latter being mainly an
anthropological question. Schmidt says (p. 13): “I do not intend to enter
into the problematic domain of anthropology. The original race-characters
of the Indo-Germanic nations, their causes and the home in which they
were moulded, also the physical conditions and mixtures of the races
which speak our languages, undoubtedly can be treated with success
only by the representatives of physical anthropology. But exactly so
the problem of the cradle of the original Indo-Germanic speech and the
evolution of its several languages, as they are known in history, can be
solved only by philologists.”
This is very true. Perhaps we shall approach the subject with better
success if we learn to distinguish between the anthropological problem
of the origin of the Aryan race and the philological one of the origin
of the Aryan languages. A European origin of the one might not exclude
an Asiatic origin of the other, and it still remains possible, that
European Aryans when migrating south and east developed through their
intercourse with semitic and other races the beginning of a civilisation
which powerfully affected all the Aryans, since there is ample evidence
that even in olden times a lively commerce took place between them.
When Prussian amber is found in Pelasgian graves, why should not the
sexagesimal system of the wealthy nations of the south have spread over
northern countries?
κρς.
LEHRBUCH DER HISTORISCH-KRITISCHEN EINLEITUNG IN DAS NEUE TESTAMENT. By
_Heinrich Julius Holtzmann_. Dritte verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage.
Freiburg, i. B.: J. C. B. Mohr. 1892. Pp. 508. Price, 9 M.
It has been said that the scientific purpose of an academical text-book
should be to educate the student to scientific independence, and its
practical purpose to make it available for the adherents of all parties
and denominations; and these two purposes are the surer attained the
less the author represents his own conception as that which alone can be
justified. This is the principle according to which Professor Holtzmann’s
_Lehrbuch_ has been written. That he has fully attained his aim, will
not be doubted by those who know his previous and painstaking labors, in
which he proves himself as a theologian fully imbued with the spirit of
science and scientific critique.
The first edition of this work appeared in 1885, the second in 1886, and
the present and third edition can make the just claim of being carefully
revised and perfected in every respect, so that it is to be regarded as
a comprehensive, concise, and clear review of the critical materials of
the New Testament. There is no doubt that the work as it now stands will
remain the best book for reference of its kind.
Professor Holtzmann in a brief introduction of seventeen pages sketches
the history and literature of New Testament criticism. The book is
divided into two parts, the first treating the subject in a general way,
the second entering into its several details. In the first part the
author presents us with a history of the text and of its traditions,
explaining the causes of the alterations that were introduced either
unintentionally or by mistake; he reviews the critical apparatus for
text-revision and also the history of the printed and revised editions
up to the present attempt at emendation. Then a history of the canon
is given, from the oldest Christian literature down to the radical
criticisms of the present time. In the second and special part we find
a careful compilation of all the criticisms concerning the single books
and epistles of the New Testament. The first chapter treats of St.
Paul’s epistles to the Thessalonians, Galatians, Corinthians, Romans,
to Philemon, the Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, the pastoral
epistles; further, the epistle to the Hebrews, which is non-Paulinian,
the two epistles of St. Peter, the epistle of St. Jude, and that of St.
James. The second chapter introduces us into the historical books of the
synoptic gospels and the Acts, where, in a brief review of fifty-seven
pages, we find the same data presented which are more fully explained in
another publication of our author, reviewed in _The Monist_, Vol II, No.
2.
A new period in the development of Christian literature begins with
all those writings which go under the name of St. John. A discussion
of these books is contained in the third chapter, which treats of the
apocalypse, the fourth gospel, and St. John’s epistles. Not the least
interest attaches to the fourth chapter, the subject of which is the
vast domain of the apocryphal books of the New Testament, the number of
which has, of late, been greatly increased by several new discoveries.
The subject divides itself naturally into apocryphal gospels (Chap. II),
apocryphical stories about the lives and deeds of the apostles (Chap.
III), apocryphical epistles (Chap. IV), and apocryphical apocalypses
(Chap. V).
κρς.
SAMMLUNG VON POPULÄR-WISSENSCHAFTLICHEN VORTRÄGEN ÜBER DEN BAU UND DIE
LEISTUNGEN DES GEHIRNS. By Professor _Theodor Meynert_. Vienna and
Leipsic: Wilhelm Braumüller. 1892. Pp. 253.
This latest publication of Professor Meynert’s was mentioned in the last
number of _The Monist_ by Mr. Christian Ufer, in the department “Literary
Correspondence.” Since its appearance Professor Meynert has died. His
name has stood foremost for a great number of years in the ranks of
psychiatrical investigators, and his contributions to the science to
which he was devoted, have, perhaps more than those of any other, tended
to its permanent advancement. The activity of his life has extended
over a great number of years, and his labors have not only been applied
to the theoretical interests of his science alone, but have also been
directed—and this is the most important part of every scientist’s work—to
bringing the results of his investigations into connection with the great
body of knowledge at large, and especially to putting in popular form,
and bringing within the reach of the general reader, the facts of the
science which he contributed so much to establish.
The present lectures date from the year 1868. They owe their origin to
the identification in later years of the interests of medicine with
the interests which every human being has at heart, of resolving the
mysteries of mental operations generally. Their main subject is the
description and investigation of the structure of the cerebral organs;
and the elucidation in the light of such description of the psychical
operations of the brain. The fundamental facts of this province are
not difficult. The main thing required is to free ourselves from the
impediments which artificial thought on this subject has at all times
imported into the consideration of intellectual facts. Our knowledge
in this domain is founded on observation and introspection; not upon
dialectics. Phenomena, simply, are presented to observation, and not
the ultimate essences of forces. So, too, the apparatus of observation
and introspection give only their own phenomena. Their contents are
the animated external world as it affects conscious beings, and
involves, besides intuition, the facts of memory. Unpersonal inherited
memories, which take the form of instinct, are not forthcoming. The
present lectures do not pretend to give instruction in the anatomy of
the brain _per se_, but simply in so far as it is necessary to the
understanding of the brain’s mechanism. All things viewed, all things
intuited are contents of consciousness, which in its limitations to the
sense-impressions of the individual being, we term the ego, or _I_. In
so far as the external world is the intuited contents of consciousness,
the extent of the latter is increased, the ego, the _I_, expands into
the secondary ego, or _I_. In this doctrine of a secondary ego the
problems which grow out of the behavior of individuals towards the
external world are resolved in the single explanation that the ego of
each particular group of things seeks to preserve itself by internal
and external motions. The ego is simply in the possession of itself
in every extension which it acquires; if such extension consists of a
common possession, its desire and tendency to preserve such is simply
explained by the fact that such possession is the ego itself. Amongst the
intuited objects of the ego are to be classed also as component parts of
the secondary ego of every individual, the other living individualities
of the world. From the point of view of this fact, the ego appears
in its social rôle. The present lectures consequently extend to the
consideration of the interactions of brains in society, to culture and
civilisation, and seek to establish the phenomena of these domains as
facts of physical knowledge. The method of physical inquiry is that of
comparison by the alteration of the attendant circumstances in which
the psychical mechanism acts. Physiology bases it on experiment. Nature
also supplies experiments with the results that also embrace phenomena
of culture. In the directions indicated here, the diseases of the mind
afford a comparative means for the investigation of the phenomena
of consciousness, a doctrine of natural cerebral experiments, and a
foundation for a knowledge of the phenomena of mind.
μκρκ.
PERIODICALS.
ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR PSYCHOLOGIE UND PHYSIOLOGIE DER SINNESORGANE.
CONTENTS: Vol. III. No. 5.
UEBER EIN OPTISCHES PARADOXON. By _Franz Brentano_.
“FLATTERNDE HERZEN.” By _Adolf Szili_.
UEBER BEGRÜNDUNG EINER BLINDENPSYCHOLOGIE VON EINEM BLINDEN. By
_Friedrich Hitschmann_.
BEMERKUNGEN ÜBER DIE VON LIPPS UND CORNELIUS BESPROCHENE
NACHBILDERSCHEINUNG. By _Otto Schwarz_.
CONTENTS: Vol. III. No. 6.
BEITRÄGE ZUR DIOPTRIK DES AUGES. By _M. Tscherning_.
OPTISCHE STREITFRAGEN. By _Th. Lipps_.
CONTENTS: Vol. IV. Nos. 1 and 2.
UEBER DIE SCHÄTZUNG KLEINER ZEITGRÖSSEN. By _E Schumann_.
ZUM BEGRIFF DER LOKALZEICHEN. By _C. Stumpf_.
ZUR KENNTNISS DES SUCCESSIVEN KONTRASTES. By _Richard Hilbert_.
LITTERATURBERICHT.
The first article is on an optical paradox. Let two equal parallel lines
be drawn, as in the cut below; then let two small straight lines be drawn
from the extremities of these in such a way that in the first they form
acute angles with the line and in the second, obtuse angles. The first,
it will be seen, appears shorter than the second. What is the explanation
of this phenomenon?
[Illustration: Cut 1.]
[Illustration: Cut 2.]
[Illustration: Cut 3.]
[Illustration: Cut 4.]
[Illustration: Cut 5.]
The author’s answer is, that this phenomenon is a consequence of the
well-known fact that we overestimate small angles, and underestimate
large ones. The presence of the lines has nothing to do with the optical
illusion, as the inserted cut, in which the lines are omitted, shows.
(Cut 2.) The optical illusion is also not present when the lines are
rectangularly attached, as is Cut 3. These facts prove that angular
_inclination_ is the decisive factor. The following cuts show this, the
first in a more and the second in a less marked degree. (Cuts 4, 5.)
The simplest case in which the explanatory factor of this phenomenon
is involved, is that of the estimation of the distance of an isolated
point from the extremities of a short straight line. The estimation of
this distance is dependent upon our estimation of the angle made by
lines drawn from the point to the extremities of a short line. If this
estimation is false, it produces by an exact trigonometrical law, an
error in the estimation of the corresponding distance. This explains all.
In our first figure the factor of illusion is eight times presented:
hence its marked character.
The second article consists of a rather long series of experiments on the
so-called “flatternde Herzen” by Adolph Szili.
The third article is on the foundations of a psychology of the blind,
by a blind man, Friedrich Hitschmann, of Vienna. This article contains
a number of interesting facts concerning the sensory, intellectual, and
emotional life of blind people, and affords a great many valuable hints
for the development of the special psychology which the author has in
view.
The first article of No. 6 of the _Zeitschrift_ is a very exhaustive
one, some sixty pages in length, filled with special and technical
investigations concerning the dioptrics of the eye. When light passes
from one refracting medium into another it is partially reflected at the
dividing surface, and transmits by reflection the objects from which it
has proceeded. This is also the case with the human eye, which is itself
a lens. The refracted pictures are the only pictures of importance to
the possessor of the eye; but just as in the construction of optical
instruments, the reflected or “lost” images are of supreme importance to
the optician in the determination of the properties of his productions,
so these same pictures in the human eye are of supreme importance to
the physiologist and the psychologist. This is the subject of Dr.
Tscherning’s researches.
In the second article Dr. Th. Lipps discusses some mooted questions of
optics. The first part of the article is a reply to Schwarz’s criticism
in the preceding number of the _Zeitschrift_. The second part is a
review of Franz Brentano’s explanation of the optical paradox, discussed
in the second paragraph of this notice. Lipps declares, that, though
there is some truth in Brentano’s explanation, it is nevertheless an
error to believe that acute angles, _as such_, are overestimated, and
obtuse angles, as such, are underestimated. On the contrary, every time
such errors in estimation occur, there exist particular reasons for it,
the character of which renders the attempt impossible to derive the
estimation of distance directly from the estimation of angles. Lipps
supports his position by actual facts. His chief and most philosophical
remark is, that it is a perilous and improper thing to do to explain
isolated optical illusions by isolated and independent hypotheses;
optical illusions are not exceptions: they constitute a class of
phenomena in themselves, and they should be considered in their natural
and logical connection. (Hamburg and Leipsic: Leopold Voss.).
μκρκ.
VIERTELJAHRSSCHRIFT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTLICHE PHILOSOPHIE. Vol. XVI. No. 3.
UEBER REAL- UND BEZIEHUNGS-URTHEILE. By _J. v. Kries_.
WAS IST LOGIK? By _A. Voigt_.
ZUR PSYCHOLOGIE DER LANDSCHAFT. By _R. Wlassak_.
DES NIC. TETENS STELLUNG IN DER GESCHICHTE DER PHILOSOPHIE. By
_M. Dessoir_.
The articles of this magazine are usually very rigorous and learned; and
the contents of the present number are in keeping with its reputation.
Prof. J. v. Kries discusses in an essay, evoked by the recent articles
of Riehl, the subject of “real and relational judgments”; his object
is to establish a classification, and display the logical connection,
of judgments generally. Real judgments are predications concerning
reality or actual facts; relational judgments predicate simple relations
of concepts, etc. The first requisite of a scientific exactness of
thought, says Kries, is the distinction and determination in any given
case of judgments which are real and judgments which are relational. In
the second article, which is long and exhaustive, Dr. Voigt endeavors
to determine the characters and functions of the different kinds of
logic. In view of the great prominence into which algebraical logic
of late years has come, this article is one of considerable interest.
Voigt defines the pretensions and powers of the two opposing systems
of philosophical and algebraical logic, and attempts to set forth the
justification of each. Voigt, as opposed to Husserl, cordially recommends
the study of algebraical logic to philosophers, that both disciplines may
profit by the intercourse. (Leipsic: O. R. Reisland.)
μκρκ.
PHILOSOPHISCHE MONATSHEFTE. Vol. XXVIII. Nos. 5 to 8.
CONTENTS: Nos. 5 and 6.
DIE WIRKLICHKEIT ALS PHÄNOMEN DES GEISTES. (Concluded.) By _A.
Rosinski_.
WESEN UND BEDEUTUNG DER IMPERSONALIEN. By _R. F. Kaindl_.
ZUR GESCHICHTE UND ZUM PROBLEM DER AESTHETIK. By _E. Kühnemann_.
CONTENTS: Nos. 7 and 8.
UEBER DIE GRUNDFORMEN DER VORSTELLUNGSVERBINDUNG.
Psychologische Studie. By _M Offner_.
ZUR GESCHICHTE UND ZUM PROBLEM DER AESTHETIK. (Concluded) By
_E. Kühnemann_.
WERKE ZUR PHILOSOPHIE DER GESCHICHTE UND DES SOCIALEN LEBENS
(Second Article: _G. de Greef, Introduction à la sociologie_).
By _F. Tönnies_.
RECENSIONEN.
LITTERATURBERICHT.
A. Rosinski’s contribution is a metaphysical essay on reality viewed as a
phenomenon of the mind. The results of his discussion are these: that the
world of experience, with all its laws and phenomena, and all we assume
to exist _per se_, is referable wholly to ourselves; that the primal
source and cause of all reality is not a something which lies absolutely
outside us, but is simply our own self, or ego. In what sense reality is
reality, the author proposes to discuss in future articles.
Dr. Raimund Friedrich Kaindl discusses, in the second article, the
character and meaning of the impersonal verbs. The discussion is made
both from the psychologico-logical point of view, and from the point of
view of comparative philology.
The _Philosophische Monatshefte_ contain, in each issue, a very
exhaustive bibliography of all the works which have appeared during
the month in the provinces connected with philosophy. This department
is conducted by Dr. Ascherson, the librarian of the Berlin University
library, and forms a very important and valuable feature of this
magazine. (Berlin: Dr. R. Salinger.)
μκρκ.
ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR PHILOSOPHIE UND PHILOSOPHISCHE KRITIK. Vol. 100. Nos. 1
and 2.
This well-known magazine, formerly edited by Dr. J. D. Fichte and Dr.
Ulrici, is now presided over by Dr. Richard Falckenberg, of Erlangen.
It has reached its hundredth volume, and with the present two numbers
begins a new series. Its reviews and lists of newly published works
are comparatively complete. Its articles, though generally tinged
with scholasticism and chiefly treating of philosophico-historical
subjects, deal, nevertheless, with some modern and living questions; for
example, Dr. Max Schasler’s discussion of the proceedings on the recent
Prussian school law; Dr. Eugene Dreher’s consideration of the law of
the conservation of force; and Dr. Nikolaus von Seeland’s discussion
of the deficiencies of the current theory of force. The other articles
are contributed by A. Wreschner, G. Frege, J. Zahlfleisch, and Robert
Schellwien. (Leipsic: C. E. M. Pfeffer.)
μκρκ.
THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY. August, 1892. Vol. IV. No. 4.
CONTENTS:
THE EXTENT OF THE CORTEX IN MAN, AS DEDUCED FROM THE STUDY OF
LAURA BRIDGMAN’S BRAIN. By _Henry H. Donaldson_.
SOME INFLUENCES WHICH AFFECT THE RAPIDITY OF VOLUNTARY
MOVEMENTS. By _F. B. Dresslar_.
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH UPON THE PHENOMENA OF ATTENTION. By
_James R. Angell_ and _Arthur H. Pierce_.