2o6 Literary Notices. 



lar form of energy and possessing for the adequate stimulus a low threshold, but 

 instead it is to the advantage of the organism to have in certain naked nerve endings 

 themselves, which are called by Sherrington the noci-ceptive nerves, a form of 

 receptor which is capable of responding to a wide range of different kinds of stimuli. 

 The noci-ceptive function would be cramped, as the author puts it, by the specializa- 

 tion of an end-organ. 



The lecture on adapted reactions is of special interest to students of behavior 

 and of psychology since in it the author considers the purposes of reflexes, the nature 

 of spinal shock and its relation to the brain, the local sign of reflexes, and the rela- 

 tions of reflexes to emotion and its expressions. We may not do more than note a 

 few of the main results of this lecture. With reference to the purposive aspect of 

 reflex action the author writes: 'Tn the flexion-reflex of the hind limb excited by 

 noxuous stimuli, e. g., a prick of a faradic current, the limb itself is drawn up — if 

 weakly, chiefly by flexion at the knee; if strongly, by flexion at hip as strongly as at 

 knee. At the same time the crossed hind limb is thrown into action, primarily in 

 extension, but this is soon followed by flexion, and alternating extension and flexion 

 is the characteristic result. The rate of this alternation is about twice a second. 

 That is to say, the foot which has stamped on the thorn is drawn up out of way of 

 further wounding, and the fellow hind limb runs away; and so do the forelegs when, 

 — which is more difficult to arrange, owing to the height of the necessary spinal 

 transection — they also are included, fairly free from shock, within the 'spinal' 

 animal" (p. 240). 



Although it is well known, it may not be amiss to mention the fact that the 

 James, Lange and Sergi notion that emotion is the result of certain organic pro- 

 cesses, vaso-motor, visceral, cutaneous, has been tested experimentally by 

 Sherrington and found to lack satisfactory support. There can be no doubt 

 that Sherrington effectually did away with the possibility of influence of the 

 organic process to which the above writers had ascribed an all important role in 

 the production of an emotional state, but in the opinion of the reviewer, it may 

 fairly be objected that he has not conclusively proved that the emotion-expressing 

 reflex figures, which he observes after spinal transection, are not the result ot 

 changes induced in the central nervous system by these same organic processes 

 previously to the spinal transection. In an attempt to meet this possible objection 

 the author writes: "But it is noteworthy that one of the dogs under observation 

 had been deprived. of its sensation when only nine weeks old. Disgust for dog's 

 flesh could hardly arise from the experience of nine weeks of puppyhood in the 

 kennel" (p. 265). Surely, however, during that time the puppy may have ac- 

 quired the experience of the disagreeable, perhaps it need not be that of the taste 

 of dog's flesh. 



Investigation of the effects of stimulation of the cortex of the anthropoid apes 

 and of the influence of strychnine and tetanus toxin upon the reflexes induced by 

 stimulation of the motor cortex has brought into clear light the fact that excitation 

 and inhibition constantly accompany one another. Under certain conditions inhi- 

 bition is converted into excitation and serious confusion results. The disorders 

 brought about by tetanus and by strychnine poisoning "work havoc with the 

 coordinating mechanisms of the central nervous system because in regard to certain 

 great groups of musculature they change the reciprocal inhibitions, normally 

 assured by the central nervous system, into excitations. The sufferer is subjected 



