Organic Connection Between Physical and Psychical 263 



tion I have to offer lies very much on the surface. . . . We 

 see that the inferior animals, when the conditions of life are 

 favorable, are subject to periodical fits of gladness, affecting 

 them powerfully, and standing out in vivid contrast to their 

 ordinary temper. And we know what this feeling is this 

 periodic intense elation which even civilized man occasionally 

 experiences when in perfect health, more especially when 

 young. There are moments when he is mad with joy, when 

 he cannot keep still, when his impulse is to sing and shout 

 aloud and laugh at nothing, to run and leap and exert him- 

 self in some extravagant way." 



The reader is asked to note what Hudson says about pick- 

 ing out such evidence as will help the case for sexual selec- 

 tion, and saying nothing about evidence which will not help 

 it. Beyond question the dogma of natural selection, espe- 

 cially the Weismannian perversion of it, has flourished 

 largely on this sort of thing. Nor has natural selection alone 

 among biological theories had the benefit of assorted evi- 

 dence. Indeed the whole elementalistic mode of interpret- 

 ing living nature may be characterized as one whose doc- 

 trines depend largely upon "special privilege," to adopt a 

 phrase lately much used in the economic world, as to evi- 

 dence for their support. 



The other investigator upon whom we draw is Prof. Julian 

 S. Huxley, whose work is that of a field zoologist imbued 

 with the exacting spirit of the present day. Huxley's stud- 

 ies are devoted to the mating habits of birds, so there can 

 be no question that the activities he describes are intimately 

 connected with reproduction. Of the numerous species 

 dealt with in the paper now before us, we notice first the 

 Great Crested Grebe. It is highly significant that in this 

 species mating takes place before the so-called courtship 

 performances begin, so this latter process can not be es- 

 sential to securing a mate. The female is "courted" after 

 she is got possession of. The courtship activities begin soon 



