AN ELEMENTARY STUDY OF THE BRAIN, BASED ON THE DISSECTION OF THE BRAIN OF
THE SHEEP. By Eben W. Fiske, A.M., M.D. Illustrated with photographs and
diagrams by the author. The Macmillan Company, New. York, 1913.
The study of the brain is confessedly a difficult subject, and particularly
so for the elementary student. There is certainly no royal road to its
conquest, but this is an added reason why an introduction to its study
should be made as simple as the subject permits, and also as interesting.
Dr. Fiske has attempted this task in this book, which he entitles "An
elementary study of the brain." The brain of the sheep is chosen as the
basis of study because of its availability, its relative simplicity of
structure, and its essential similarity to that of man. It appears to the
author, and we think with justice, that the subject should be approached
from a biological standpoint; hence, throughout the book, there is constant
reference to the evolution of nervous structure and to fundamental
conceptions of a biological character. Further than this, the relations of
cerebral anatomy and function, together with allied psychological
considerations, demand continual reference as a supplement to purely
anatomical considerations. The secret of exciting interest in any anatomical
study surely lies in a consideration of the function of the organ or
structure in relation to its anatomical form. Bare descriptions cannot and
should not inspire interest, whereas the driest anatomical facts, if seen in
their broader relationships, at once assume a significance in the student's
mind which may be attained in no other way.
The first chapter is a brief statement of phylogeny, followed, as are
succeeding chapters, by directions to the student regarding means of study.
The second chapter concerns itself with ontogeny, and the student is wisely
advised to make drawings of various stages in the development of the brain
of one of the higher mammals. An actual brain is always to be preferred to a
model. The third chapter gives directions of a simple and practical sort as
to methods of removing the sheep's brain. Thereafter, chapters follow,
descriptive of the various surfaces of the brain, of sagital, horizontal and
transverse sections, and of certain of the internal structures and the brain
stem.
A summary concludes the volume, and a very brief but well selected
bibliography. The illustrations are thoroughly adequate, the excellent
method being used of photographic reproductions, with accompanying
descriptive plates done in outline. In general, the book, modest though it
is, should prove a most admirable laboratory guide, not only for students of
zoology, but also for those who propose, as physicians, to make a final
study of the human brain. It is, no doubt, more difficult to write an
acceptable elementary text-book than a more complete treatise, but the
author, we have no hesitation in saying, has succeeded in this object, and
has added a book of positive value to the long list which has gone before.
The BNA nomenclature has been adopted in part, but by no means to the
exclusion of the old terminology, which is certainly a far more efficient
means of introducing an ultimate uniform nomenclature than an immediate
complete change to the BNA system. The text is well printed and readable,
and the proof reading in general good. We note, however, on page 86, that
the name Von Gudden is spelled with one d instead of two. E. W. TAYLOR.
THE BACKWARD CHILD, A STUDY OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BACKWARDNESS: A PRACTICAL
MANUAL FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. By Barbara Spoffard Morgan. G. P.
Putnam's Sons, New York, 1914. Pp. xvii plus 263.
This book by Mrs. Morgan, which is somewhat unique and certainly very
different from other books on the same subject, promises to be one of the
most widely read educational works which has recently appeared. It is based
on two years' experience in an experimental clinic for backward children in
New York City and the author states that, "It is an effort to persuade
teachers and parents, in spite of a hide-bound educational system, to study
the children that interest them as individuals and to recognize their
faculties and tendencies." It "Looks to a future when teachers will so
understand every child's mental structure that his whole education will be
directed to the fortifying of his weak points and the development of his
tendencies."
The author terms her process "mental analysis" and says it differs from the
Binet and Simon tests in that they are merely to classify children, and her
method discovers peculiarities and also gives the training necessary to
bring the child up to normal. She gives a psychological basis for her work
which will be surprising to many readers because of its great divergence
from the usual psychological treatment. The child's mind is considered as
having four primary processes, namely: (1) Sense Impressions, (2)
Recollections of Sense Impressions, (3) Association Channels (4) Abstraction
Processes. As the child grows older these are elaborated into Imagination,
Reasoning, and Expression. Attention is of three kinds: (1) Homogeneous
Attention or concentrating, which consists in attending to one thing for a
period of time; (2) Simultaneous Attention or observing, which consists in
giving attention to a number of things at once; and (3) Disparate Attention,
or giving attention to two or more things over a period of time. Memory may
be (1) Automatic, (2) Voluntary, or (3) Retentive. The function of the
tests is to determine just which one of these processes are weak or strong
and discover a method of education which is suited to the individual. Other
mental processes, such as sensation, perception, abstraction, and judgment
are discussed, and an interesting treatment distinguishing between the
analytic and synthetic type of mind is given.
One of the most important parts of the book is the discussion of the way in
which the tests are given. She insists that the relation of the child and
the examiner be very personal and informal and that the process be varied as
much as possible in order to prevent crystallization. Many of the tests are
the same, or much the same, as those of Simon and Binet, but the greatest of
liberty is taken in adapting them to the particular case. Much use is made
of conversation, puzzle-pictures and other little friendly means by which
the personal characteristics of the child may be learned. After this is
done, the proper training of the child is to be selected and the effort made
to bring him back to normality, for which purpose, some quaint and
interesting devices are used. One case given is that of a little girl whose
senses of sound and form were defective and who therefore could not learn
her letters. These letters were pasted on the keys of a piano and she was
taught to play a piece with one finger, meanwhile chanting over the names of
the letters as they were struck. In this way her sense of sound was trained,
she learned her letters and gained ability to learn more and faster.
Abstraction may be strengthened by having the child measure distances with a
rule, first calculating the distance with his eye. The power of association
may be made stronger by having the individual sort words or pictures which
are pasted on slips of cardboard; he is to arrange them according to meaning
or according to the activities with which they have to do. Simultaneous
attention may be trained by such games as "Hide-the-thimble" or Jack-straws,
and homogeneous attention may be trained by some such action as hammering
nails in the upper left hand corners of all the squares on a board.
Imagination is developed by retelling stories, and invention by solving
puzzles; voluntary memory is strengthened by writing original rhymes and
automatic memory may be strengthened by having the child write out a list of
all the things in his kitchen or any other room with which he may happen to
be familiar.
Different types of backward children are described and a few pages are
devoted to a discussion of hysteria.
It is a book which will, in all probability, arouse considerable discussion
and which will find some warm friends and some determined enemies. As one
more publication calling attention to this important problem, it is of great
value and it will probably be read more widely than any other book in this
field which has appeared. Perhaps its greatest practical value lies in its
suggestiveness as to the ways in which one may use his personality and
initiative in dealing with backward children, rather than sticking so
closely to prescribed tests and methods.
RAYMOND BELLAMY. Emory & Henry College, Emory, Va.
CONTINUITY: THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR 1913.
By Sir Oliver Lodge. G. P. Putnam s Sons, New York and London, 1914. Pp.
v, 131.
The most obvious particular wisdom of the present scientific period is
undoubtedly just that concept denoted by the title of this volume,
continuity. And this wisdom is advanced wisdom and, withal, wisdom which is
very expedient and even indispensable at this day, as a reaction required to
set right the over-specialization of recent minds thoughtful only of some
little branch of knowledge. Just in proportion as one esteems "authority"
will one give heed to the pronouncement of the presidential address before
the British Association, yet for its own intrinsic sake it is a piece of
work which cannot be ignored.
Interesting and revolutionary as are the recent additions to philosophical
physics brought about by the discovery of radium and its like, it is the
other phase of this great physicist's mental trend which particularly
interests the student of human behavior-- that wisdom which gives him (as it
gave William James, and for a like reason), the bravery to look a bit beyond
the more or less materialistic confines of mere science into the broader
realm. And strange, is it not, that a man NEED be brave in this twentieth
century Domini to discuss spiritism and survival and telepathy? Only those
do it who cannot "lose their jobs." Can one indeed honestly doubt that many
an intelligent psychologist to-day is kept from investigating this pressing
phase of knowledge largely, or even solely, by the materialistic incubus
whose continuance still stands for an academic salary usually sufficient to
buy wife and children bread, if not a little meat?
"Material bodies are all that we have any control over, are all that we are
experimentally aware of; anything that we can do with these is open to us;
any conclusions we can draw about them may be legitimate and true. But to
step outside their province and to deny the existence of any other region
because we have no sense-organs for its appreciation, or because (like the
ether) it is too uniformly omnipresent for our ken, is to wrest our
advantages and privileges from their proper use and apply them to our own
misdirection." . . . "I am one of those who think that the methods of
science are not so limited in their scope as has been thought: that they can
be applied much more widely, and that the psychic region can be studied and
brought under law too. Allow us anyhow to make the attempt. Give us a fair
field. Let those who prefer the materialistic hypothesis by all means
develop their thesis as far as they can; but let us try what we can do in
the psychical region, and see which wins. Our methods are really the same as
theirs--the subject-matter differs. Neither should abuse the other for
making the attempt."
Here is this matter in a nutshell, and the evolution of cosmology in the
last few years makes this argument and this plea greatly more persuasive
still, for it forges one more link in the actual knowledge of continuity.
Twenty-four pages of useful, explanatory notes follow in this volume, the
text of the Address. The book lacks an index. To those sapient ones who
have not already saved the important little work out of Science, the dollar
which this volume costs is a dollar well-spent, unless, indeed, philosophy
be to him but a reproach. GEORGE V. N. DEARBORN. Tufts Medical and Dental
Schools.
ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL. By H. Addington Bruce. Little, Brown & Co.,
1914.
Professor Flournoy, in the Preface to his Spiritism and Psychology, made the
remark: "It will be a great day when the subliminal psychology of Myers and
his followers, and the abnormal psychology of Freud and his school, succeed
in meeting, and will supplement and complete one another. That will be a
great forward step in science and in the understanding of our nature."
(Page VI.)
Any one who attacks the problem from this standpoint, in the right manner,
is to be commended; and this is, very largely, the method of attack taken by
a certain group of "psychical researches"; it is also the method of approach
of Mr. Bruce, in the book under review. Although it will probably contain
but little new to the student of abnormal psychology, it is, nevertheless, a
welcome and extremely sane presentation of the problems discussed; while,
for the general public, the effect of the book cannot be other than
beneficial,-- giving a sound and scientific view-point of many of these
obscure and outlying problems.
Much of this book will be familiar to readers of the JOURNAL. The chapters
on the "Subconscious" (extended and amplified in his final chapter on "The
Larger Self"), "Dissociation and Disease," and "The Singular Case of B. C.
A.," contain a summary of material long familiar to general psychological
students--though this data has not been sufficiently popularized as
yet,--while the case of B. C. A. is a relief after the oft-quoted earlier
cases!
The first chapter, "Ghosts and their Meaning," deals with apparitions of the
living, of the dying, and of the dead--according to the tentative
arrangement of these cases made by the English S. P. R. Most of these are
quoted from the Society's Proceedings, and the usual theories are offered to
account for them; in the case of apparitions of the dead, e. g., "ghosts,"
the theory of deferred telepathic suggestion being held. This brings us
naturally to the second chapter, "Why I believe in Telepathy," which again
contains a summary of much of the S. P. R. work in this field; accompanied,
however, by some other cases and a few interesting incidents which fell
under the author's personal observation. The next two chapters deal with
"Clairvoyance and Crystal Gazing" and "Automatic Speaking and Writing"
respectively. Here, again, the bulk of the material is familiar to
psychical and psychological students; though it must be admitted that this
material is all excellently and carefully summarized. The author's attitude,
throughout, is strictly critical and scientific; and while he believes in
telepathy and other supernormal powers, he rejects spiritism as an
explanation, and his views throughout are temperate and modest.
The remaining chapter, dealing as it does with "Poltergeists and Mediums,"
takes us into the more dubious field of "physical phenomena"--spontaneous
and experimental--and cases are discussed which lie outside the province of
the psychologist,-- since they entrench more upon the domain of physics and
biology. As such they have been treated and discussed by the majority of
Continental savants.
One word more regarding the famous medium, Eusapia Palladino, whom Mr. Bruce
refers to in several passages in this Chapter, referring to her in a
footnote on page 196, as "The discredited Eusapia Palladino, once the marvel
of two continents." May I take this occasion to repeat here what I have
often repeated in public and private, elsewhere? and that is, that I retain
my unshaken belief, amounting to a conviction, in the genuineness of
Eusapia's power, and that, despite the trickery which was undoubtedly
discovered here--and which had also been discovered, I may add, more than
twenty years before she ever came to this country--she yet possesses
genuine, remarkable powers of a supernormal character, and this belief, I
may say, is shared equally by all the continental investigators, who remain
unaffected by the so-called American expose. A statement of their attitude
is perhaps well summarized by Flournoy, in his Spiritism and Psychology
(Chap. VII); while I have published the records of the American seances--
for those who may be interested--in my "Personal Experiences in
Spiritualism," where copious extracts from the shorthand notes of the
American sittings are given.
To return, however: If there is a criticism to make of Mr. Bruce's book, it
is that it displays a lack of personal investigation and experimentation,
and bears throughout the ear-marks of a literary compilation. But this is,
after all, not a serious detraction from a work of this character,--which
is, as I have said before, excellently done. HEREWARD CARRINGTON.
DES TROUBLES PSYCHIQUES ET NEVROSIQUES POST-TRAUMATIQUES, Par R. Benon.
Ancien interne de la Clinique des Maladies Mentales et de l'Encephale a la
Faculte de Paris, Medecin de l'Hospice General de Nantes (Quartiers
d'Hospice). G. Steinheil, editeur, Paris, 1913; pp. x-449.
The author in this volume has written a clinical and medico-legal treatise
on traumatic nervous affections from a broad and philosophical standpoint.
The subject is treated under the following headings: "Generalities," in
which is discussed the historical development of our knowledge of the
effects of traumatism, the etiology, the evolution of the various
disturbances, and the legal side of the questions at issue.
Following this introduction, under Chapter I, the general topic of what the
writer terms the traumatic dysthenias or the traumatic sthenopathies is
discussed under the following subheadings: (a) Simple post-traumatic
asthenia; (b) Post-traumatic astheno-mania; (c) Prolonged asthenia and
chronic traumatic asthenia, under which he includes traumatic neurasthenia,
traumatic hystero-neurasthenia, traumatic neurosis, and traumatic
psychoneurosis; (d) Chronic post-traumatic mania; (e) Periodic
post-traumatic dysthenias; (f) Asthenic mania and pathological anatomy.
Chapter II, under the general heading, "Traumatic Dysthymias: (a) Anxiety
post-traumatic hyperthymia; (b) Traumatic hypochondriasis and traumatic
hysteria; (c) Special hyperthymia of accidents; (d) Hysterical and traumatic
crises; (e) Prolonged or permanent post-traumatic disturbances of character
in children and adults. Chapter III, under the general heading, "Traumatic
Dysthymias": (a) Traumatic amnesia; (b) Post-traumatic Korsakoff syndrome;
(c) Traumatic mental confusion; (d) Post-traumatic agnosia; (e)
Post-traumatic dementias; (f) Systematized chronic post-traumatic deliriums.
Chapter IV, under the general heading, "Psychic states and Diverse
Post-Traumatic Neuroses": (a) Post-traumatic epilepsy; (b) Traumatic
aphasia; (c) Alcoholism, traumatism and hallucinatory conditions; (d)
Post-traumatic sensual perversions; (e) Pains, vertigos, deafness, etc.,
following trauma; (f) Distant post-traumatic psychic disorders with cerebral
lesions; (g) Unclassifiable observations. To this comprehensive material is
added an appendix on the topic of psychic and neurotic disturbances as
indications for trephining.
This outline of the contents of the book, which contains in addition many
subheadings, gives a sufficiently clear idea of its scope and of the pains
which the author has taken to subdivide his subject matter to the last
possible degree. Whether such a detailed classification has merit sufficient
to justify its complexity must be left to the individual reader to
determine. It may, however, with justice be said that the author has spared
no pains to illustrate by case reports the various phases of traumatic
disorder which he enumerates. He has a keen sense of the significance of
psychiatric knowledge in a proper understanding of the various results of
trauma, and lays special stress upon the breadth of the psychiatric field,
under which he properly enough includes the various so-called psychoneuroses
as well as epilepsy, tics and aphasia. He believes that one may only arrive
at a diagnostic criterion of such affections through the sensations and
emotions expressed by the patients. The somatic phenomena he regards as
always subordinate and accessory. Under this point of view, he attacks his
problem, and with considerable success An admirable brief historical review
of traumatism in relation to the nervous system constitutes a valuable
section of the book, in which he brings out the conflicting views which have
prevailed since the earlier work of Erichsen down through the fundamental
investigations of Westphal, Charcot, Knapp, Oppenheim and others.
The author finds fault with the common use of the word traumatism in the
sense of trauma, and correctly draws attention to the fact that traumatism
should express a general condition, whereas, trauma should be used as
indicative of a local lesion. This distinction has been too often
overlooked, with resulting confusion.
In general, the book represents a vast amount of painstaking thought and an
earnest but somewhat confusing attempt to bring light into the somewhat dark
places of a much-discussed subject, which has frequently been the source of
more or less acrimonious discussion. Not the least significant part of the
volume is the constant reference to the legal implications of the traumatic
affections. It should therefore be useful, not only to the physician, but
also to the legal profession. It will doubtless be used rather as a book of
reference than as a readable treatise. E. W. TAYLOR.
VERBRECHERTYPEN. 1 Heft. Geliebtenmorder von Albrecht Wetzel und Karl
Wilmanns. Verlag Julius Springer, Berlin: 1913.
With a better understanding of psychopathic phenomena, the underlying
psychology of criminology becomes more clearly defined. Maladjustment may
express itself in an insane outbreak, criminal act, or in an anti-social
deed, indeed, in all of them the underlying phenomenon is a psychopathic
condition which comes under the realm of abnormal psychology. The large
group of criminals SHOULD not be looked upon as a homogenous class, but the
individuality of criminal and the type of the delinquent act in reaction to
his heredity, mental make-up and environmental influences should be fully
considered. Herein lies the great value of Wetzel's and Willmann's
Monograph--these authors report three cases in which criminal acts were
attributed to abnormal mental life.
The first case was that of a young man of twenty-three, who showed a
psychopathic personality with tainted heredity on the paternal side. He was
subject to convulsive attacks, which were regarded as hysterical and not
epileptic. In his intelligence he was above the average. He was engaged to
a young woman, and because she refused to marry him, he at first
contemplated to take his life, but later shot at her three times without
injuring her, and then made an unsuccessful attempt at suicide. His
delinquent act was determined not only by his environment, but also by his
peculiar type of personality, which was taken into consideration by the
court, and on this ground he was acquitted.
In the second case, a young man of twenty shot his fiancee through the
temporal region, injuring her severely. Soon after committing this act he
surrendered himself to the police. He also showed striking evidences of a
psychopathic personality with a strong suggestion of epilepsy, but with
intact intelligence. He was given to periods of depression and was unstable
mentally. He was easily suggestible and his general conduct was not only
controlled by environmental influences, but also by his mood. Suicidal ideas
and jealousy played a very important role in his mental life; especially
they were marked when he began to keep company with the young woman.
Although his abnormal constitution was taken into account, nevertheless he
was punished by one year's imprisonment. During confinement he attempted
suicide, but was unsuccessful. Some time after his release he committed
suicide, the cause of which he assigned to an abortion that was induced by
his sweetheart.
The third case is very interesting and rather intricate, by reason of the
fact that murder or double suicide was suspected. The following are the
details of this case: A young man of eighteen kept company with a young
woman about the same age, from another town. The girls of the town were
jealous of her and began to gossip about her to the extent of casting
aspersions upon her character, etc. The young man's father, without
investigating this case, forbade his son to marry her. However, the two
lovers would have frequent secret rendezvous, and his fiancee became
depressed over this scandalous and groundless rumor and also because of the
peculiar attitude her young man's father assumed. One evening the young man
returned home late, and upon confessing to his father of his secret meetings
with his fiancee, he was severely beaten and prohibited to see her again.
A few days later the young man wrote a letter to his sweetheart, telling her
of his father's emphatic determinations, but soon they met again and she
suggested that they should die together on account of this gossip that was
circulated about her. A day following this meeting both of them were missed,
and after some search the young woman was found lying on the ground with two
shots in her head and one in the breast, and the young man was hanging from
a tree, in a near-by wood; the latter was resuscitated, but the former was
dead. It is interesting to note that the autopsy showed that death in her
case was due to strangulation and not to the bullets. This young man was
endowed with a psychopathic personality, and there was a history of short
attacks of depression. He received several head traumata and suffered from
enuresis in his early life.
Following the resuscitation, he grew confused and excited, and within
twenty-four hours he recovered from the acute episode but showed incomplete
amnesia for his act. He stated that he remembered firing the shots, but had
no remembrance of strangulating her. Soon after this he passed into a
peculiar state of confusion; in addition, fabrications and retention defect
were also demonstrated. The cerebrospinal fluid revealed some abnormal
changes which were suggestive of an organic brain disease. The Wassermann
test was negative. Finally, he made a complete recovery except for the
incomplete amnesia.
Since the death of the young woman was caused by strangulation, the question
had to be decided whether he was the cause of her death or she died as the
result of her own hand. The court favored suicide, and held that the bodily
injury was inflicted with the pistol by the young man. He received a lenient
sentence--only nine months imprisonment. In this case, the type of his
personality, and all the circumstances that led to the development of the
act were taken into consideration.
Although the authors presented this subject purely objectively, yet their
studies are extremely interesting and important, and show conclusively the
importance of psychopathological methods in criminology. One who is
interested in this subject will find this monograph of great value and help.
It may also be added that the authors give a complete list of the casuistic
literature of the murder among lovers. MORRIS J. KARPAS.
DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE. AN ESSAY TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION. By L.
T. Hobhouse, Martin White Professor of Sociology in the University of
London. Macmillan & Co., London: 1913; pp. xxix, 383.
"Development and Purpose" is essentially the complement of Professor
Hobhouse's well-known and valuable "Mind in Evolution," published in 1901;
if it were rather a continuation than the complement, many would be pleased,
for the exposition already made practically guarantees a rich application,
were it undertaken, to matters still further "away" in the realm of thought.
The present volume lacks the multitude of scientific data and references
which make "Mind in Evolution" so important for the study of psychology (as
behavior or not as behavior, as the reader pleases), but it contains in
their space many timely discussions, in some cases seemingly prophetic, of
teleology in its relation to evolution.
The seventeen chapters of the book (there is also an extremely thoughtful
Introduction and a full Index), are divided into two parts, one entitled
"Lines of Development" and the other "The Conditions of Development." The
reviewer's lazy cortex, and possibly those of other and more leisurely
readers, is made glad by a complete chapter-synopsis or syllabus, occupying
seven pages). So much of the whole treatise is suggested in the synopsis of
the first three chapters that it is well to give them in full, as follows:
"I. The Nature and the Significance of Mental Evolution. (1) The biological
view regards Mind as an organ evolved to adapt behavior to the environment,
(2) and tends to reduce its action to a mechanical process. (3) Parallelism
in the end reduces Mind to an epi-phenomenon {an important undoubted fact
which has been often ignored by what are left of the Parallelists!] (4) The
object of Comparative Psychology is to determine empirically the actual
function of Mind in successive stages of development. (5) It involves a
social as well as an individual psychology. (6) The statement of the higher
phases also opens up philosophical questions, (7) and on the solution of
these depends the final interpretation of the recorded movement.
"II. The Structure of Mind. (1) Mental operations are known in the first
instance as objects of consciousness. (2) Mind is the permanent unity
including consciousness and the sum of processes continuous with
consciousness and determining it. (3) These processes involve, but are not
identical with physical processes, constituting with them a psychophysical
unity.
"III. The General Function of Mind and Brain. (1) The generic function of
Mind, as of the nervous system, is correlation (2) The special organ for
effecting fresh correlation is consciousness. (3) The deliverances of
consciousness arise from stimuli acting upon structures built up by
experience, (4) on foundations laid by heredity, (5) which supplies not only
specific adaptations, but a background to the entire life of consciousness."
It would be hard to find a more concise, complete, and timely
formularization of the seeming trend of present resultants in this
particular direction than these sentences set forth for whomsoever will
ponder each carefully-built statement and really understand what it means as
part of a system. "Mind is the permanent unity including consciousness and
the sum of processes continuous with consciousness and determining it. These
processes involve, but are not identical with, physical processes,
constituting with them a psychophysical unity,"--this quotation might almost
serve as the motto of early Twentieth Century scientific philosophy. It
seems to the present reviewer to have almost as much philosophy in it as
Harold Hoffding's well-known sentence has of psychology: ("the unity of
mental life has its expression not only in memory and synthesis, but also in
a dominant fundamental feeling, characterized by the contrast between
pleasure and pain, and in an impulse, springing from this fundamental
feeling, to movement and activity"). It might be the creed of the
Neoidealism.
Hobhouse's discussion of mechanism in relation to teleology and to the
universal harmony and reality is fairly representative of the drift of
thought as set forth by recent English and French writers such as J. S.
Haldane, Oliver Lodge and some of the prominent biologists, and by Henri
Bergson: "An organic whole is therefore like a machine in being purposive,
though unlike it in that its purpose is within." "A purposive process is one
determined by its tendency to produce a certain result, purpose itself being
an act [sic] determined in its character by that which it tends to bring
about. As such it differs fundamentally from a mechanical cause." "The
empirical and philosophical arguments point to the same general conclusion,
that reality is the process of the development of Mind." As a guide to
one's thinking, and as integrators of one's subconscious intuitions and
resultants, such concise formulae certainly have much value, especially
when, as here, clearly and ably expounded in the text proper. Tufts College.
GEORGE V. N. DEARBORN.