Literary Notices. cxci 



term, "functional disposition" (or predisposition as we should say.) 

 A dynamic theory is substituted for the cell theory. 



To this so far as its meaning is clear we heartily agree, but the 

 idea has various " Bedenklichkeiten " and must be extended to its 

 limit. The condition for all psychical processes (in consciousness) is 

 interaction. One cell cannot generate a sensation even. It is the 

 nervous interference which is the basis for thought. Not the number 

 of cells but the complexity, variety and conductivity of the communi- 

 cating fibres determines mind power. Now under these circumstances 

 the search for a " seat of consciousness " is absurd. Nor would the 

 discovery of a physical continuum help the matter at all. The last 

 fact on this side is a form of activity, the first thing on the other is a 

 modification of consciousness. The fact that the first form of activ- 

 ity resides in any place does not explain this origin of the second 

 form which we call conscious. Only this must be admitted, that such 

 connections must exist as permit the complexity of interaction which 

 is the only known condition of the conscious process. 



The extended and interesting passage on the feelings we may 

 omit'from the present review in the hope of referring to it in connec- 

 tion with the recent literature of the subject in exlenso. 



It is interesting to note that the sense of volition felt when striv- 

 ing against a corporeal or mental obstacle etc. is regarded by the 

 author as a complex of more or less vivid organic sensations either of 

 external or internal origin. These sensations are also accompanied 

 by motor innervation. It is a little strange that the resemblance to 

 feelings in this respect is not more clearly seen. In that case the na- 

 ture of the intimate connection between feelings and will would be 

 clearly revealed. 



Sensations and feelings constitute the elements of consciousness 

 and they may fuse and connect in all possible ways. Such combina- 

 tions form the real content of consciousness, their elements being ab- 

 stractions not isolated in experience. In the case cf musical tones 

 the fusion may not reasonably be regarded as extra-psychical so that 

 a 'really simple stimulus is perceived in the case of a chord, etc. 

 Facts, however, seem to prove that this is not the case. The difficul- 

 ties of a physiological explanation of this fusion drive the author to 

 accept Stumpf's idea of specific synergy which nevertheless has so far 

 found no concrete significance. [We might suppose, we presume, 

 that when rates of repetition of the stimulus are properly related to 

 the excitation in the various cells of a sensory these stimuli are super- 

 posed, being in like nodes, and that thus an irradiation is facilitated 



