Literary Notices. 533 



It is especially to be noted that the author devotes one chapter to the evolution 

 of the nervous system (22 pp.)» ^"d another to the human nervous system (28 pp.)- 

 Both of these chapters will give the neurologist the feeling that their writer was not 

 at home with his materials, for they lack the touch of the master. Nevertheless 

 there can be no doubt that under existing conditions they will prove valuable to 

 the average student. The pity is that the beginner in psychology is not expected 

 to get his neurology from the specialist previous to his study of psychology, instead 

 of being permitted to get a meager, vague, and confused knowledge of the structure 

 and functions of the nervous system from the psychologist. It is not Professor 

 Judd's fault, however, that psychology is generally taught to students who lack 

 adequate preparation in neurology. In his way, he has undertaken to remedy 

 the evil. 



The chapter on the evolution of the nervous system is excellent in plan and 

 defective in form. It needs to be worked over carefully, rearranged, and rewritten. 

 Several statements whose truth is extremely doubtful are to be found. For example 

 on p. 25 we read of the bee, "Individual experience does not modify its modes of 

 behavior, for there is no part of its nervous structure which is left undeveloped at 

 the beginning of its life, to be mapped out in the course of individual contact with 

 the world." And again, on p. 25, the reader may be permitted to doubt whether 

 it was worth while for the author to guess at the kind of consciousness which may 

 be associated with a certain type of nervous system. 



The chapter on the human nervous system is devoted largely to a discussion of 

 functions, and the influence of Sherrington's views is everywhere apparent. 

 Fortunately it is a good influence. There is an inexcusable lack of a general 

 description of the chief structural divisions of the nervous system, and of illustra- 

 tions to make clear the structural relations of those portions of it whose functional 

 significance is considered. 



Sensation is dealt with effectively, but aff'ective consciousness receives far less 

 convincing treatment. That the author, like many others of us, is at the beginning 

 of his thinking concerning modes of expression ("experience and expression") is 

 clearly shown by the chapters which he devotes to the subject. 



In concluding this fragmentary and inadequate discussion of the book, I wish 

 to say that it appeals to me as an admirable text-book, the work of a teacher whose 

 personality should do much to inspire his students, and whose enthusiasm and 

 good judgment should go a long way toward making psychologists of them. 



R. M. Y. 



Herter, Christian A., and Clark, L. Pierce. Diagnosis of Organic Nervous Diseases. With 109 

 illustrations. G. P. Putnam's Sons, Nezv Tork and London. 1907. 



It always appears to me like a rebuke to the methods of teaching that the student 

 should need a special book summing up the prop.Tedeutic knowledge of neurology. 

 Either the introduction of anatomy and physiology or the discussion of the princi- 

 ples of analyses of the facts of observation in the examination of the patient or of 

 autopsy material must be at fault to account for the difficulty of many students 

 in this relatively well differentiated field. The feeling that such a gap exists between 

 the teaching of anatomy and physiology and the teaching of the clinical and post- 

 mortem study of neuropathology was no doubt the origin of the excellent little 

 volume which Doctor Herter wrote in 1892. Before and since that time a num- 



