Literary Notices. 539 



is so objective, the discussion so subtle and free from polemic, the 

 whole spirit so just, that one may well devote time and effort to mas- 

 ter this latest and fullest review of visual sensation. 



R. p. ANGIEE 



Meehan, Joseph. The Berlin "Thinking" Horse. Nature. 1904, 70, 602, 



603. 

 Cole, R. Langton. Thinking Cats. Nature, 1904 71, 31. 



Both of these articles were called forth by notes which had appear- 

 ed in previous numbers of Nature. The first is in response to a note 

 in Vol. 70, p. 510 (Sept. 22, 1904), stating that a committee which 

 had examined the performances of a horse at Berlin, known as "Clev- 

 er Hans," had decided that several remarkable things he was capable 

 of doing were not "tricks," but "due to the mental powers of the ani- 

 mal." Mr. Meehan takes exception to this view on the ground that 

 fully as wonderful performances of a horse named "Mahomet" he 

 knows to have been tricks pure and simple, the horse being entirely de- 

 pendent upon the prompting of his trainer. He cites also a similar 

 case of a collie dog which could spell out words by selecting the prop- 

 er letters of the alphabet, play a game of cards, etc., and explains that 

 the trick was accomplished by slight and almost unnoticeable signals 

 given by its trainer. Mr. Meehan mentions a cat which climbs a door- 

 post and opens the latch with her paw, and this he thinks "for a cat 

 is more wonderful than are all the performances of the Berlin 'think- 

 ing horse' for a steed." It is apparently this observation which called 

 out a note by "Y. N." in Nature Vol. 71, p. 9 (Nov. 3, 1904) and 

 that referred to by the second title given above, both of which relate 

 anecdotes which are supposed to bear on the "thinking" powers of 



cats. LEON J. COLE 



van Rynberk, G. Tentativi di localizzazioni funzionali nel cervelletto. Arch- 

 ivio di Fisiologia, Vol. I, pp. 569-574, 1904. 

 The investigator follows the anatomical scheme of Bolk (Grund- 

 linien der vergleichenden Anatomic der Saugetiere, Monatschrift fiir 

 Psychiatric und Neurologic, Bd. XH, S. 432, 1902) and finds that a 

 partial lesion of the lohulus simplex of the cerebellum in the dog 

 causes unstable oscillations of the head. From this he concludes that 

 the lobulus simplex is the control center for the muscles of the neck. 



J. c. B. 



Baglloni, Silvestro. Contributo alia fisiologia sperimentale dei movimenti 

 riflessi ; specificita qualitativa degli stimoli e specificity, qualitativa dei ri- 

 flessi. Archivio di Fisiologia, Vol. I, pp. 575-585, 1904. 

 An interesting study of certain respiratory and other reflexes in 



