2 2 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



some attempt to examine critically the accumulation. We further claim that no 

 line of research is better adapted to produce the particular mental discipline re- 

 quired by a student of nature than the attempt to interpret (under careful guid- 

 ance) such phenomena as those of animal intelligence. The dispassionate atti- 

 tude possible in a field somewhat apart from the well-trodden arena of historical 

 philosophical debate is not the least of the advantages. 



We predict that the time is not Tar distant when many of our universities 

 will offer e.xtended courses in Comparative Psychology, where Physiological Psy- 

 chology as usually limited will constitute but a coherent portion of a systematic 

 study of the phenomena of psychosis and neurosis throughout the entire animal 

 kingdom. The expression of emotion and physical foundation of proclivity, 

 desire, and choice will be investigated by minute verbal and photographic record 

 under the most careful experimental control Camps will be formed in the wil- 

 derness for the express purpose of studying natural expression and instinct where 

 camera and note-book may supplant rod and gun. The laboratory will contrib- 

 ute the most detailed study of nerve paths and connections, seeking to explain 

 where po.ssible the physical laws of associated motions. Experiment will ivesti- 

 gate the complicated interplay of inhibitory and stimulating discharge in the 

 cells of brain and cord. But all of these will be combined and co-ordinated 

 under the direction of the data of consciousness so that all may contribute posi- 

 tively or negatively to the edifice of a true psychology. 



Returning to the volume which suggested these reflections, the first portion 

 is in reality a brief course in theoretical Biology, covering in 240 pages such 

 subjects as the relation of the animal to the environment, vital processes and 

 their analogies, reproduction and development, variation, the law of increase, 

 elimination and selection, protective resemblance and mimicry, isolation and 

 segregation, divergence and convergence, heredity, 'pangenesis, continuity of the 

 germ-plasm, panmyxia, origin of variation, etc., etc. 



These difficult topics are discriminatingly and conservatively handled so 

 that the discussion forms an admirable introduction to the works of Weismann, 

 Wallace and Cope. (Parenthetically we might remark that, while recognizing 

 the feebleness of Wallace's attempt to explain the origin of sexual coloration 

 and the like as a result simply of a superabundance of vitality wh?th spontane- 

 ously effloresces in plume and pigment, the author does not discuss the obvious 

 substitnte for it, viz: Unusually perfect and highly vital individuals will exhibit 

 unusually great excitement, and, as it has been shown that the cranial nerves 

 have an intimate association with the skin especially of the head and neck, it is 

 quite probable that this superabundant excitement will exhibit itself in reflex 

 modifications of comb, coloration, etc. But such highly organized individuals 

 will tend to reproduce themselves, not because of the coloration but by virtue of 

 . the vitality expressed by the colorotion. Again, the antics of the male bird or 

 insect may be but an expression of the intense excitement which may have been 

 a simple reflex at first, but, by the selection of most excitable individuals, has be- 

 come an hereditary instinct.) 



The chapter on the senses of animals covers acceptably familiar ground, but 



