cxxx Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



general those methods requiring simple apparatus or none at all are 

 treated more fully than the more intricate studies in which refine- 

 ments of precision are aimed at. This is in accord with the author's 

 repeated statement that these latter methods, so assiduously cultivated 

 in Germany, though extremely accurate and delicate and though 

 reaching great simplicity in the results by the elimination of all indi- 

 vidual differences, yet often have the defect of reducing the reacting 

 subject to a mere automaton and thus losing the most valuable results 

 which should follow from such experiments by confining the research 

 within the circle of the preconceived idea. The author's practice is 

 to have the subject in the same room as the operator and to encourage 

 him to close self-observation during the entire course of the experi- 

 ment and at the close to express his mental states fully and not by arbi- 

 trarily limited symbols. Many valuable truths have thus been unex- 

 pectedly brought to light. It seems to us that he here confuses two 

 very distinct points ot view. We do indeed often try an experiment 

 merely " to see what comes of it;" but any result which may be ob- 

 tained in this way is by no means an established fact until it has been 

 repeatedly verified and substantiated by that very method of pains- 

 taking elimination of the variable factors in which the German psy- 

 chologists are so proficient. Both methods of research are required, 

 for each will supplement the other. The author certainly does well to 

 emphasize the highly artificial character of the conditions in the ordi- 

 nary laboratory experiment and to insist on the reduction of this ele- 

 ment of error to the minimum. 



Psycho-physics is treated respectfully, but rather conservatively. 

 The chapter on psychometry is rather more full and includes a de- 

 scription of the Hipp chronoscope. But little space is devoted to 

 descriptions of apparatus or the details of experiments. Those which 

 are cited are merely for the purpose of serving as illustrations of gen- 

 eral principles. Anything like abstruseness, either of matter or treat- 

 ment has been avoided and the book is very readable throughout. 



A work of a very different character is Dr. Sanford's Laboratory 

 Course in Psychology. 1 This brochure of 183 pages comprises ad- 

 vance sheets merely of the contemplated work and includes a portion 

 of Part I. This portion of the work is based on the course published 

 in The American Journal of Psychology (1891-1893). Some addi- 

 tions have been made and a few other changes, but in the main the 



1 Sanford, Edmund C. A Course in Experimental Psychology. Boston, 

 D. C. Heath & Co., 1894. 



