Literary Notices. cxxxiii 



the weights were arranged in the exact order of their size. The small- 

 est weight was on the average judged three times heavier than the 

 largest. A different set of subjects estimated the smallest to be 2.4 

 heavier, on the average, than the largest if only these two extremes 

 were presented to them. Again eight weights were made of sheet lead 

 all of the same area and weight but varied in shape from a circle to 

 an irregular cornered figure. The weights which appear smaller, that 

 is, are of a compact form, were judged to be heavier than those not 

 so compact. The author concludes: (1) The more intelligent the 

 children, other things being equal, the stronger are the associations 

 between the ideas of size and weight of a given material. (2) The 

 stronger this associative element becomes, the more likely it is to dom- 

 inate and pervert the true sensations, when the conditions are such 

 that these associations do not hold. (3) The elements the mind fur- 

 nishes, keeping these conditions, have far more influence in determin- 

 ing the judgement than the sensations directly received. (4) Illusions 

 are easily built up when suggested along the lines of firmly fixed asso- 

 ciations. (5) Consequently the brightest children are more suggesti- 

 ble under these conditions than the dullest ones. (6) The method 

 used in this research furnishes a means of measuring suggested illu- 

 sions of this type. (7) Adults have stronger associations between the 

 ideas in question than children, and, despite the fact that they have a 

 higher degree of sensibility for difference in weight, their sensations 

 are more transformed and influenced by the element which the mind 

 itself furnishes than are those of children. (8) Facts which vary, 

 within limits, from our established habits of apperception are simply 

 not taken account of at all; or, if on some occasion the conditions 

 force us to see how our minds have become insulated against the re- 

 ception of different relations, we do so with a wholly new feeling of 

 personal fallibility. (9) The pedagogical significance of the facts em- 

 phasized in this research is of the utmost importance. It has to do 

 with one of the most fundamental laws which regulate our mental life. 

 The foregoing tests as a whole show how strong and dominating an 

 association between ideas may become when they are practically un- 

 separated and immediate in their sequence. 



The Care of the Insane. 



In the July number of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis. 

 ease appears Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's "Address before the Fiftieth An- 

 nual Meeting of the American Medico-Psychological Association," 

 delivered last May. Speaking to the representative medical superin- 



