FRENCH WORK IN COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY 

 FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS. 



The zeal with which investigations in comparative psychology are being pursued 

 in France is testified to by the contents of the Bulletin de Vlnstitut general psy- 

 chologtque, whereof the reports of the Groupe d'etude de psychologie zoologique 

 form something like four-fifths. It is further witnessed by the long bibliography 

 attached to this paper, the extent of which, however, is partly due to the fact that 

 many of the titles refer to short communications in the Compfes rendus of the 

 Soctete de Biologie and the Academie des Sciences. In some cases the contents of 

 these are repeated in the longer articles. 



The work of Georges Bohn is, as usual of late years, the most voluminous 

 and the most important French contribution to the science. This writer's earlier 

 papers may be found summarized by Professor Yerkes in this Journal, vol. i6, 

 p. 231. During the two years since the appearance of that summary, Bohn has 

 devoted himself especially to experiments and observations on actinians and 

 starfish. He has gained what he considers to be new confirmation of one of 

 the cardinal facts upon which he has long insisted: the influence upon the present 

 reactions of an animal of the conditions which have acted upon it in the past, les 

 causes passees. Further, he has definitely rejected Jennings' conception of "trial 

 and error" in favor of the position of Loeb, and maintains that the oscillations 

 and variations in tropisms which have given rise to the former idea are the effect 

 partly of the influence of past conditions, partly of that "sensibility to diff^erence," 

 or susceptibility to changes in the intensity of a stimulus, which Loeb assumes 

 in addition to the tropism, and which, in Bohn's opinion, Loeb's critics have too 

 much ignored. A special case of the influence of past causes is to be found in the 

 preservation under laboratory conditions of certain oscillations in tropisms which 

 coincide with tidal rhythms and with the alternation of day and night. The 

 study of these oscillations, to which he and others had previously called attention, 

 has been continued by Bohn, and observations bearing on the matter have been 

 made by Pieron and by Drzewina. Bohn's statements regarding the preserva- 

 tion of the tidal rhythms in the laboratory have been received with some scepticism 

 by L. Lapicque. 



Of the other contributors whose names are to be found in the bibliography, Pieron, 

 in addition to his work on actinians, has been making studies of the sensory factors 

 which play a part in the life of ants, and has also been investigating the phenomenon 

 of "autotomy," or the amputation by an animal of one of its own members. A 

 discussion has arisen in connection with this point between him and Drzewina, 

 the nature of which will be later explained. Faure-Fremiet has been observ- 

 ing the behavior of certain protozoa. Lecaillon has been continuing his studies 

 of the instincts of spiders. Hachet-Souplet, pursuing his conception of animal 

 education, for which he has, with the approval of two members of the Academy, 

 adopted the word "zoopedie," has succeeded in obtaining the vote of the Institut 



