Herrick, Modem Algedonic Theories. 13 



Professor James has made the quite unnecessary admission 

 that if a patient could be found who was quite anaesthetic with- 

 in and without and yet suffered emotional disturbance 

 his theory would be demolished. A very remarkable case 

 has been reported by Sollier, in which the conditions were 

 very nearly realized and Sollier concludes from this and experi- 

 mental work on hypnotics that when totally anaesthetic the pa- 

 tient feels no normal emotion whatever at the suggestion of hal- 

 lucinations and delusions which have the power of moving her 

 strongly when the sensibility is restored. When the anaesthe- 

 sia is solely peripheral, the emotion takes place with almost 

 normal strength ; when it is solely visceral, the emotion is abol- 

 ished almost as much as when it is total, so that the emotion 

 depends almost exclusively upon visceral sensations. This re- 

 porter seems too much like an ex pmte advocate to be entirely 

 convincing, and other cases have been reported which seem to 

 negative the evidence. However, it must be remembered that 

 one positive affirmative case is worth any number of negative 

 instances for the essential conditions to be supplied lie deeper 

 than the surface indications. All depends on where the circuit 

 is cut. It is quite possible for all sensation to be prevented by 

 the degeneration of tracts while concatenated cellular paths by 

 which pain or pleasure stimuli pass remain intact. 



In a series of articles published in the Psychological Re- 

 view, Professor Dewey enters upon the question. Accepting 

 the James-Lange, or as he calls it, the "discharge " theory, he 

 attempts to show that the movements producing emotion all 

 have a teleological value. This is neither new nor remarkable, 

 for it would seem self-evident that from the standpoint of nat- 

 ural selection (a point of view too often neglected in psycho- 

 logical speculation even by those who occupy it in biology) no 

 class of neuroses could acquire an important hold on conscious- 

 ness without having recognized importance. In the second ar- 

 ticle Professor Dewey views the Lange-James theory from the 

 teleological standpoint. 



"Emotion in its entirety is a mode of behavior which is 

 purposive, or has an intellectual content, and which also reflects 



