THE MECHANISM OF THOUGHT 321 



for the stressing, on the one hand, and the belittling, on the other, which 

 Dr. Hollander has found necessary in order to make his point. The second 

 volume is disappointing. One was prepared for a restatement of the old 

 faculty psychology, and in this expectation was fulfilled ; but one was 

 certainly intrigued at the prospect as to how the author would incorporate 

 such vivifjang modern conceptions as that of the defence mechanisms of the 

 organism as a whole, of the repressions and the activities in the out-of- 

 consciousness sphere of the mind, etc., and of these there is no mention at all. 

 Dr. Hollander's speculative chapters do not really appear to throw any 

 new hght on the problems of present-day psychology or metaphysics, and 

 in regard to his chapters on the practical extension of the Gallian thesis to the 

 realm of medicine and surgery, though they may be safely left to the judgment 

 of the professional reader, yet one feels that it is necessary to pass just one 

 comment for the benefit of the layman, who might otherwise gain, perhaps, 

 a mistaken impression. The day when a delusional state can be treated 

 by means of a surgical operation is not yet come, and an operation for any 

 disorder of the brain is only undertaken when there is very definite evidence 

 of the locality of the disease process or injury ; even so, in the very limited 

 number of cases in which this condition is fulfilled, the manufacture of an 

 artificial aperture in the bony skull-case is a matter not unattended by 

 unfortunate sequelae for the patient, as many a man wounded in the head 

 in the late war knows to his cost. 



THE PRODUCTIVITY OP THE SEA PISHERIES, by Prof . J. John- 

 stone, D.Sc. : on The Resources of the Sea. By Prof. W. C. McIntosh, 

 M.D., LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S. Second Edition. [Pp. xvi-f- 352, with 32 

 tables, figs, in the text, and 19 plates.] (Cambridge : at the University 

 Press, 1921. Price 355. net.) 



A FEW words about the early history of the British fisheries may be useful to 

 readers of Professor Mcintosh's book. Towards the end of the medieval 

 period both the English fisheries and the great Skanian one in the Baltic had 

 become decadent. The latter nearly disappeared because of natural causes — 

 the decrease in the inflow of salt, Atlantic water through the Skagerak 

 which was the consequence of a periodic decrease in tide-generating force. 

 The former diminished (though it did not disappear) because of the relaxation 

 of ecclesiastical discipline that followed the dissolution of the monasteries, 

 and possibly also because of economic changes that are now difficult to trace. 

 About the same time also the great Dutch herring fishery of the North- East 

 Coast of Britain began to attain great dimensions. It is said that about 

 2,000 vessels came annually from Holland to fish in British waters. 



The success of the Hollanders was regarded with much jealousy by James I 

 and his son. Therefore this British Solomon, with the assistance of his law- 

 yers, invented the theory of a Traditional British Naval Sovereignty for the 

 discouragement of the Dutch, and attempts were made to exact a tribute. 

 These were unsuccessful, but, from the time of Cromwell onward, the 

 great Dutch herring fishery began to dwindle away. The wars of the Spanish 

 Succession, the necessity for the defence of a long land frontier, and the 

 Dunkirk privateers diminished the fishing marine so much that by the time 

 that the Peace of Utrecht was concluded the Dutch maritime and fishery 

 dominance had almost passed away. So far as fishery is concerned, nothing 

 took its place. 



In spite of repeated efforts by British statesmen from the time of Elizabeth 

 to that of George II, no success in establishing a national fishery industry on 

 a big scale was attained . All these efforts took much the same form — the crea- 

 tion of Royal Fishery Societies or Companies under Court patronage. The 

 methods advocated and tried were, as a rule, rather slavish copying of the 



