REVIEWS 727 



not of a purely statistical character, but include reports by medical men and others 

 which prove (as was to be expected) that the fall is due to artificial limitation and 

 not to decrease of natural fertility. The reports also prove the disgraceful pre- 

 valence of the sale and use of abortifacients, which as Miss Elderton says should 

 be brought more within the reach of the law. As to the cause of limitation, the 

 authoress thinks that it is largely due to the Factory Acts, which reduced or 

 destroyed the economic value of children, and she attaches much importance to 

 the notorious Bradlaugh trial in 1877. Her remedy is the endowment of the 

 well-born child. 



Miss Elderton has as usual done her statistical work well, but many of the 

 tables would have been more valuable if they had included the actual numbers as 

 well as the percentages and averages. The worst instance of this omission is in 

 the detailed study of Bradford on pp. 224 to 231. Such figures as are given appear 

 to mean that in this town large net families (number of children surviving) belong 

 predominantly to mothers who are healthy in spite of unfavourable surroundings 

 (a truly hopeful fact, if it be a fact), but the tables are so inadequate that it is 

 impossible to be sure. 



We think the authoress exaggerates greatly the importance of the differential 

 nature of the fall. Man differs from other animals in "inheriting" a complex 

 social environment which affects him from (and even before) birth. And these 

 social environments differ greatly, of course, in different classes and even between 

 different members of the same class. Thus, although it is probably true that the 

 "less desirable" classes really have a slight inborn inferiority, they are certainly 

 much less inferior than appears on the surface. This immense source of error is 

 not discussed by Miss Elderton. 



The book has a number of printers' errors and there is no index. 



A. G. Thacker. 



MEDICAL 



A Text-Book of Insanity and other Mental Diseases. By C. A. Mercier, 

 M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. [Pp. xx + 368. Second Edition.] (London: 

 George Allen & Unwin. Price ys. bd. net.) 



An authoritative text-book on Mental Diseases is worthy of notice, for it needs 

 to be written by a medical man of large and long experience with the insane, 

 and who himself should be a physiologist, a pathologist, and a psychologist of 

 repute and standing. Too rarely is such a combination of qualifications found, 

 but it is not too much to say that the author of this manual fulfils all these 

 requirements, being, in addition, a recognised master of metaphysical subtleties. 

 The text-book under review is lucid, original, and informing, but it is also lacking 

 in some essentials, and to these deficiencies we shall refer later. 



The first edition, brought out a dozen years ago, was designed for the student, 

 but, as the present preface suggests, this new edition is intended also for the 

 instructed, and we recognise this must be so, for the author is frequently tempted 

 to reflect upon the ignorance of the alienist and the uselessness of the psychologist, 

 and he proceeds to repair these imperfections in a dogmatic, cynical, albeit 

 original fashion. " A knowledge of text -book psychology is of no more value 

 to the student of insanity than a knowledge of cuneiform inscriptions." " The 

 nature and varieties of attention, the association of ideas, imagination, and the 

 relation of thought to language are no concern of the alienist, the analysis of 

 sensation or the nature of apperception are useless acquisitions, and the sooner 



