Ixviii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



A discussion of sex results in the conclusion that the stronger of 

 the parental influences tends to reproduce the opposite sex. 



The author agrees with Lichtenberg that we should say "it 

 thinks" rather than " we think," and draws a contrast between the 

 peripheral and central soul. Several chapters are devoted to halluci- 

 nations, hypnotism and the like. The author rejects the hedonism of 

 Bain, but it is difficult to make out just what he substitutes for it. 



With more metaphysical portions of the book we need not here 

 concern ourselves, though the positions are far enough from recog- 

 nixed tenets of conservative philosophy or orthodox theology. It is 

 noticeable, however, that the writer is powerfully influenced by the 

 indirect effects of religious training and association which impart a 

 moral flavor to the book and serve in many cases to modify the phrase- 

 ology very materially, while in others it seems to the reviewer they 

 have led to conclusions which otherwise would not have been derived 

 from the premises. The style is catchy and rendered simply piquant 

 by an occasional hint of its step-motherly English. The arrangement 

 is faulty, but it is fairly indexed. 



Caunibalism Among Insects.^ 



We have been familiar for some time with a habit of self-mu- 

 tilation prevailing among certain insects in confinement. In 1891 

 William Brodie described the cannibalism of crickets in confinement. ^ 

 an observation which was confirmed by Mr. Philip Laurent.^ 



It remained for Dr. Berg to discover the same habit in insects ^^ 

 a state of nature and to call attention to the laws governing' its appear- 

 ance. During a visit to Southern Patagonia, he observed repeatedly 

 that caterpillars of various lepidoptera, particularly Hcliothis anntger, 

 eagerly devoured their fellows. 



The remarkable development of this "contrary instinct" in 

 Patagonia was explained as an incident to the dry and arid climate, 

 which so limits the vegetation that only a small number of vegetarian 

 insects could be supported by it. 



At another time in Eastern Uragua, during a severe drought, 

 cannibalism was found to prevail among the locusts, Pezotettix, to an 

 enormous extent, the viscera being devoured by the strongest or most 



^ Berg, Carlos, Canibalismo entre Insectos. Anales de la sociedad cientifica 

 Argentina, XXXIV, 5, 1892. 



^ Canadian Entomologist, XII, p. 137. 

 ^ Entomological Nevjs, p. 180. 



