THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GENIUS. 389 



It brings a liigli price, and is largely used in the manufacture of 

 mill rolls and car wheels. Indeed, its superior qualities are so 

 marked that it is used by various manufacturers in the United 

 States in cases where great strength combined with wearing and, 

 in the higher grades, chilling quality is of first importance. 



As an evidence of the splendid quality of this iron the writer 

 gives the following extract from a letter written a short time ago 

 by a leading American manufacturer, viz. : 



"Desiring to make a casting which should combine great 

 strength with a tough wearing surface, we have lately been ex- 

 perimenting with the Canada Iron Furnace Company's metal, and 

 by using it we have raised the transverse strength of our test 

 bars from 2,300 and 2,500 to from 3,900 to 4,000, the test being 

 with one-inch-square bars twelve inches long. We have never 

 been able to accomplish any such results with any other iron we 

 have used, and in addition to this greatly increased strength we 

 find an added toughness which makes the casting work almost 

 like a piece of steel." 







THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GENIUS. 



By Dr. WILLIAM HIESCH. 



OUR knowledge of the physiology of the human body has been 

 so much enriched by pathological facts that we may truly 

 say that some branches of it would, as far as we can see, have re- 

 mained forever closed books if the effects of disease had not been 

 observed. So it is with psychology in its turn. Since mental 

 disease has been systematically studied, the science of the mind 

 has undergone a veritable revolution. Having laid down its con- 

 ceptions and having learned that psychical processes, like all other 

 phenomena of Nature, are subject to definite law, psychology has 

 made an effort to determine the law of the mental processes of 

 genius and to frame a definition of genius that should take into 

 account facts which are now scientifically established. Many at- 

 tempts have been made to determine what genius is, from which 

 various conclusions have resulted, but those inquirers who have 

 sought to penetrate to its psychological laws and to explain its 

 phenomena upon recognized psychological principles have been 

 obliged at last to acknowledge that they had to do with the most 

 diverse psychological conditions which have been promiscuously 

 labeled as genius. The question whether the popular word gen- 

 ius can be used as a scientific term can be decided only by a psy- 

 chological analysis of those poets, painters, virtuosos, scholars, 

 statesmen, and generals who have been generally recognized as 

 geniuses. Famous poets, observant of their own inward condi- 



