NOTES 447 



Nor had he been rivalled by many in combining a thoroughly 

 scientific knowledge of insanity and its many allied subjects 

 with a wide practical experience of the details of clinical 

 treatment, and of the general management and requirements 

 of institutions for the insane in all stages of their disorder. 

 Dr. Mercier's best-known works on his special subject are 

 Sanity and Insanity, the first edition of which appeared about 

 thirty years ago, and the enlarged edition of his Text-book on 

 Insanity and other Mental Diseases, published in 19 14. These 

 books cannot be reviewed here. They are invaluable guides 

 to students of insanity of all ages. 



As a psychologist, he was known far beyond specialist and 

 general medical circles by his work on Psychology, Normal and 

 Morbid, and by numerous articles in many publications deal- 

 ing with this subject. For many years he was a frequent 

 contributor to the Journal of Medical Science, and a prominent 

 and active member of the Medico-Psychological Association. 

 He was fully conversant with the varied literature on psy- 

 chology, both of the past and present day ; but, though he 

 leaned towards what is known as the introspective method 

 of studying psychological phenomena, he could not be rightly 

 classed as an adherent of any special " school." His book on 

 psychology, already mentioned, was largely adapted for the 

 use of students of mental disorders, the author strongly holding 

 the view that, for the correct understanding of insanity, the 

 study of the normal must closely cohere with that of the 

 abnormal. Mercier's other contributions to scientific journals 

 on this subject deal mostly with psychology alone. 



From a study of Mercier's writings on psychology as well 

 as on other matters of a biological nature, or on such as are 

 usually described as subjects of philosophical opinion, it may 

 once more be said that he cannot be strictly classed under 

 any of the philosophical sects which are known by more or 

 less familiar names such as Dualist or Monist, Idealist or 

 Materialist, Vitalist or Mechanist. Deeply impressed, in the 

 early period of his student life, with the writings of Herbert 

 Spencer — he had read them all through twice — his own writ- 

 ings, which treated much of Evolution and Heredity 1 in rela- 

 tion to human development, were, at least the earlier of them, 

 distinctly characterised by this influence ; and, like many 

 medical writers on things of the mind, he held the opinion of 

 the so-called " Neo-Lamarckian " school of biologists that 

 definite " characters," as acquired in the life-time of the parent, 

 were transmissible, as such, to the offspring. He was also, 

 especially in his middle years, a strong believer in the " im- 

 passable gulf " (though also in the closest association) between 

 the functioning of the nervous system and that of the mind. 



