EDITORIAL. 



OBJECTIVE NOMENCLATURE, COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY 

 AND ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. 



Although it has not come into general use, the objective nomen- 

 clature for nerve physiology proposed in 1899 by the German 

 physiologists, Beer, Bethe and von Uexkull^ has served a good 

 purpose, for it has stimulated discussion of the methods of des- 

 cription in biology and of the scientific status of comparative 

 psychology. 



In following the history of the development and influence of this 

 nomenclature scheme during the past seven years, I have noted 

 that certain facts which would seem to be of primary importance 

 in connection with its use have been wholly neglected. I wish, 

 therefore, after restating briefly the essential features and purposes 

 of the scheme, to call attention to such facts, to discuss the rela- 

 tions of the objective nomenclature to comparative psychology, 

 and to suggest certain considerations which should influence the 

 standpoint from which we view" psychic phenomena, and our 

 methods of describing the behavior of animals. 



First, by way of restatement, the objective nomenclature had 

 as its chief purpose the avoidance of the implication of subjective 

 phenomena in descriptions of neural processes. Our terms for 

 stimuli, for the neural organs which are affected by stimuli, for 

 processes in the central nervous system and for the responsive move- 

 ments of the organism in many instances imply some form of con- 

 sciousness, as the above mentioned physiologists have pointed out. 

 Now, organs which receive stimuli may or may not be sense organs, 

 hence it is obviously more accurate to use the term "receptor," 

 proposed by Beer, Bethe and von Uexkull, than the term sense 

 organ. We should speak of "photo-receptors" instead of visual 

 organs or eyes, of "phono-receptors" instead of ears, of "tango- 



iBeer, Bethe und von Uexkull. Vorschlage zu einer objectivierenden Nomenclatur in der 

 Physiologic des Nervensystems. Zoologischen Anzeiger. Bd. 22, S. 275-80. 1899. Biologisches 

 Centralblatt. Bd. 19, S. 517-21. 1899. Centralblatt f. Physiologie. Bd. 13, S. 137-41. 1899. 



