WATSON'S "BEHAVIOR" 467 



in judging work by the truth and usefulness of its results rather 

 than by the orthodoxy of its presuppositions or methods. For 

 students of the subjective side of the world by personal inspec- 

 tion of one's own inner life to regard their work as that of a 

 psychological elite, pure-breds, untainted by physiology, sociol- 

 ogy, psychiatry or education, would now be amusing rather 

 than objectionable. For students of objective behavior to re- 

 gard themselves as martyrs, heroes or prophets is now unneces- 

 sary. E. L. Thorndike. 



The writer has been asked to add some comments from the 

 biological standpoint to Professor Thorndike's review of Wat- 

 son's Behavior. It is a pleasure to do this, for Doctor Watson's 

 biological training, wide reading and accurate scholarship are 

 everywhere reflected in this work. There are only a few addi- 

 tional points where comment from the biological side suggests 

 itself to me. 



The first point is a very minor one, which suggests, however, 

 some reflections of wider import. In commenting upon the 

 backward condition of the anatomy and physiology of the 

 nervous system, a number of interesting problems are suggested, 

 such as the nature of nervous impulses, the processes which 

 make for the adaptation of sense organs and the like. Then 

 follows the rather disquieting statement, "In this day of ad- 

 vanced physiological and neurological technique surely the only 

 difficulty in obtaining satisfactory answers to these questions 

 is the lack of sufficient interest on the part of the men who are 

 competent to carry out such researches." 



The fact is that the number of researches directed toward 

 such neurological problems is fairly large — far greater than one 

 man who devotes his whole time to neurological work can master 

 if he attempts any original work himself. Must we then infer 

 that the fundamental difficulty is that so few of these numerous 

 workers are really "competent to carry out such researches"? 

 Possibly; but the real explanation for the relative sterility of 

 so much of this arduous labor lies in the fact that the "advanced 

 physiological and neurological technique" of today is wholly 

 inadequate to open up most of the problems mentioned. "If 

 the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he 

 put to more strength." We need to whet the edge of our neuro- 



