56 NATURAL SCIENCE. 



JAN., 



It is this experimental method, familiar of course to every 

 modern psychologist, that marks the difference between the old school 

 and the new. It is necessary to do no more than to commend most 

 heartily to all readers these lectures of Wundt. They were designed 

 originally as an introduction to psychology, and they are so written 

 and so translated as to be intelligible and interesting to those who 

 are unfamiliar with the new science. We congratulate the translators 

 on their performance of a difficult task ; but we cannot forgive their 

 slovenly omission of an index. 



Professor Lloyd Morgan has written a very interesting book on 

 a totally different side of psychology. He sets out from the philosophy 

 of experience, which he claims as an aspect of Monism. Instead of 

 cumbering himself with the dualistic hypothesis that subject and 

 object are separate and independent, that the conscious being is 

 placed in the midst of a separate and objective world, he simply 

 assumes what we all know — things happen, and we are conscious 

 of them. He makes the further assumption that Nature is wider 

 than experience, that things happen when we are not conscious of 

 them. Further, he assumes the Monistic view that the organism is 

 the product of evolution ; " that mind is not extra-natural nor supra- 

 natural, but one of the aspects of natural existence." 



On this basis, clearly stated in his ' Prolegomena,' he proceeds 

 with the study of the mental conditions of animals with the clear 

 view of tracing an evolution of mind parallel with the general 

 evolution of organisms. A large part of his data are the result of 

 his own careful investigations and experiments, some already 

 published in our own columns or elsewhere, some appearing now for 

 the first time. 



Comparing man with animals, Professor Morgan believes that 

 the emotional states resulting from sense experience are of the same 

 nature in both. He distinguishes carefully between emotional states 

 and " emotional tones " resulting from the perception of relations. 

 In the case of pleasure, for instance, the mere emotion is a sensuous 

 phenomenon resulting directly and sub-consciously in some form of 

 action. Supposing that the common interpretation of sexual 

 selection be true, the female does not consciously judge between 

 two males and choose that which she decides more gaudy. The one 

 produces a stronger sensuous state in her than the other, and she 

 moves towards it, drawn by sub-conscious chains, without any 

 deliberate choice. 



The main difference he sees between the psychology of animals 

 and of man resides in the perception of relations. An animal acts 

 directly, using perhaps intelligent association of means and end, but 

 not sitting in judgment on his own action nor acting consciously with 

 intelligence. " A man perceives the particular relations among 

 phenomena, and builds the generalised results of these perceptions 

 into the fabric of his conceptual thought." A man in fact is intelligent, 

 and conscious that he is intelligent. 



For the Amateur of Ferns. 



A Manual of Exotic Ferns and Selaginella. By E. Sandford. 8vo. Pp. 286. 

 London : Elliot Stock. Price 3s. Cd. 



This little book should prove of considerable use to the grower of 

 ferns ; it contains not only a description of one thousand species, but 

 various hints of a practical kind, which will put the beginner in the 

 right way. The owner of a greenhouse who may be deterred by the 



