Iviii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



problem of so-called unconscious cerebration. Some familiar facts are 

 set forth in a new light. The application of organic memory to hered- 

 ity, while not new, is aptly put. 



The second article is an enthusiastic plea for Johannes MilUer's 

 theory of specific energies of nerves and an attempt to apply it more 

 widely to the rest of the nervous system and indeed to the body as a 

 whole. This doctrine has been in the main supplanted by that of cen- 

 tral analysis and control and its revival is another indication of the 

 growing tendency among biologists to emphasize the importance of the 

 periphal activities of the body as contrasted with the older idea of a 

 dominant central control of all bodily faculties. 



But the reviewer fails to understand why the doctrine, if accepted at 

 all, should be confined to the peripheral parts of the nervous system. 

 At birth each of the sensory nerves is accredited with a specific energy, . 

 but the higher centres of the brain are spoken of as " virgin." By a 

 process of education each element of these parts of the brain acquires 

 " an increased abihty to reproduce the same kind of irritation by a per- 

 manent change of its internal structure " until finally the cerebral cells 

 all acquire specific energies. Is not this a far worse extreme than the 

 one controverted ? For why deny to the cerebrum those hereditary 

 predispositions which are so freely granted to the peripheral nerves, 

 and this too in the face of all which we know of cephalization and the 

 allied principles ? If we may be permitted to apply the doctrine of in- 

 herited specific energies to the whole nervous system and particularly 

 to the central nervous system, it becomes a useful principle. 



Perhaps the most valuable point made in the essay is on the ques- 

 tion of method. Speaking of the difficulty of demonstrating the physical 

 basis of specific energies, he says, " To reveal the delicate secret of 

 living matter by the comparatively crude methods of chemistry, would be 

 like trying to explain the mechanism of a watch by melting it in a cru- 

 cible, and examining the molten mass with respect to its ingredients." 



c. J. H. 



The Illinois Society for Child Study.i 



It has become quite the fashion in some quarters to ridicule every 

 attempt at popularizing the study of child-psychology and more especi- 

 ally the introduction of the study of these problems into the home. It 

 cannot be gainsaid that the results of such study are in many cases highly 

 ridiculous ; and yet the most unscientific observer, even though she be 



1 Transactions of the Illinois Society for Child Study. Vol. I, Nos. I and 

 2. Chicago, III., The Werner Co., Dec, 1894 and May, 1895. 



