Literary Notices. 79 



only in so far as the two functions have as factors identical elements'' 

 (p. 80). "Improvement in any single mental function need not im- 

 prove the ability in functions commonly called by the same name. It 

 may injure it" (p. 91). There is no "general ability." Upon this the 

 author repeatedly insists. The present reviewer thinks that Professor 

 Thorndike carries his idea of the independence of the mental func- 

 tions to a point which threatens the unity of the mental life. One won- 

 ders how a mind such as the author describes ever could perform such 

 a synthesis as that involved, for example, in writing book on Educa- 

 tional Psychology. He says that "the mind must be regarded not as a 

 functional unit nor even as a collection of a few general faculties which 

 work irrespective of particular material, but rather as a multitude of 

 functions, each of which is related closely to only a few of its fellows" 

 (p. 29). "The mind is really but the sum total of an individual's feel- 

 ings and acts" (p. 30). "This view is in harmony with what we know 

 about the structure and mode of action of the nervous system. The 

 nervous system is a multitude of connections between particular hap- 

 penings in the sense organs and other particular events in the mus- 

 cles' (p. 30). 



These unguarded statements surely must be accounted for as the 

 result of a violent recoil from the extremes to which the "abstract psy- 

 chological thinker" has carried the faculty psychology. It cannot be 

 that Professor Thorndike means to deny the important structural and 

 functional unities found in the nervous system and in conscious pro- 

 cess. 



Chapter X treats of "Changes in Mental Traits with Age,' 

 and Chapter XI of "Sex Differences in .Mental Traits." No mention 

 is made of Professor Helen Bradford Thomp.son's recent work on 

 "Psychological Norms in Men and Women." Chapter XII is on "Ex- 

 ceptional Children," especially defective children. A brief concluding 

 chapter puts the "Problem of Education as a Science." An Appendix 

 contains an "Index of Tests," of "Common Measures," and "Sugges- 

 tions for Investigations in Educational Science." 



The author is rather cavalier in his treatment of educational th e- 

 ory. But most of his readers will probably forgive him for that. As 

 before remarked, the book is chiefly valuable as setting the task and 

 suggesting the methods of a scientific study of education. It can 

 scarcely be said that it adds much of positive value in the way of con- 

 clusions from data already studied. There are very few of the general- 

 izations contained in this book which it would be safe to adopt without 

 further vindication of their truth. But it certainly will stimulate more 



