iv Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



I 

 as much a romance of the affections as Balzac's 'Passion du Desert.' " 



But we might go on indefinitely. Enough has been selected to 



indicate the spirit of book which is, as we have shown, a somewhat 



heterogeneous but interesting mixture of the conventional anecdote 



book with psychological analysis. c. L. h. 



Helmholtz as a Physiological Psychologist.^ 



Since the death of Darwin the loss of no one in the scientific 

 world has made such an impression as that of Helmholtz. From the 

 early beginnings of his career all his researches were directed toward 

 high ends, and were crowned with great success. Whenever he 

 smote the rock of nature, there gushed forth the living waters of 

 knowledge. The two works upon which his fame most largely de- 

 pends are within the province of physiological psychology. His 

 " Physiological Optics" began to appear in 1856 and notwithstanding 

 the enormous activity of that period, during which the labors of 

 Briicke, Fechner, Brewster, Wheatstone, Maxwell and many others 

 were in progress, Helmholtz took scarcely any results from others 

 without independent verification. Like Reymond and Ludwig, he 

 was of the school of Johannes Miiller, but most of his highest achieve- 

 ments were due to his proficiency in mathematics and an innate me- 

 chanical tact and perception. 



His name is permanently associated with that of Young in the 

 theory of color vision which especially at the present time, is proving 

 stimulating. Helmholtz is an empiricist rather than a nativist. 



The second great psychophysical work, Lehre von Tonemp- 

 findungen, appeared in 1863 and, while many of its views begin to 

 feel the effects of subsequent research, it will ever remain 'a monu- 

 ment of scientific progress. The personal bearing and individual life 

 are described as modest and genial. 



A Location Reaction Apparatus. 



Professor G. W. Fitz of the Lawrence Scientific School attempt- 

 ed to test the power of an individual to quickly and accurately touch 

 an object suddenly disclosed to him in an unexpected position. The 

 apparatus designed for this purpose is described in the Psychological 

 Review, II, i, and consists in an arc within which the subject is con- 

 centrically placed. A drop screen is arranged to register the moment 



^Stumpf, C. Hermann v. Helmholtz and the New Psychology. T/ie Psy- 

 chological Revieiv, II, I, 



