LITERAKY NOTICES. 



Margaret Floy Washburn. The Animal Mind. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1908. Pp. x + 

 333. $1.60. (Second volume of the Animal Behavior Series, edited by R. M. Yerkes.). 



During the past few years the prohlems of animal behavior have attracted 

 the attention of nnnierous zoologists and psychologists. The older "anecdotal" 

 school has finally given place to a school of strictly experimental investigators. 

 The result of a decade of experimentation is an accumulation of data which 

 seems destined to provide a secure foundation for a science of comparative 

 psychology ; but as yet these data are, in many instances at least, so frag- 

 mentary and so ill-organized that writers wholly fail to agree upon their 

 interpretation. Several obstacles are encountered by the reader who attemiits 

 to keep in totich with the worlv which is being done in this field. The investi- 

 gations have been concerned, in the main, with circumscribed and isolated 

 I)roblems ; and no thorough-going attempt has ever been made to correlate the 

 various groups of experimental findings, or to present a systematic resume and 

 interpretation. Then, too, the data are scattered through a great number of 

 psychological and biological periodicals which are not readily accessible. 

 Moreover, with the advance of scientific achievement in this field there has 

 been developed a refinement of technic and of method which must, of course, 

 be mastered before one can hope to evaluate the results or discover their 

 significance. And, it may be added, the literature is replete with controversial 

 clashes between opposing factions, who advocate a more mechanical or a 

 more anthropomorphic interpretation of observations upon animal behavior. 



This, in brief, is the situation which confronted Professor Washburn when 

 she undertook to prepare a volume on "The Animal Mind." In her attempt 

 to clear up the situation she sunnnarizes numerous investigations, evaluates 

 their resiilts in the light of the experimental methods employed, and she 

 discusses the bearing of these results upon the general question : What must 

 be the characteristics of the animal mind, — granting that such a mind exists." 

 The magnitude of the author's task may be inferred from the fact that she 

 cites 4TG references from the literature ; and her presentation of the results 

 of other investigators is but a small fraction of this exceedingly valuable 

 contribution to the science of comparative psychology. 



After an introductory discussion dealing with the difficulties and the methods 

 of comparative psychology (pp. 1-2G), and with the evidences of mind (pp. 

 27-36), she proceeds to the specific question of the protozoan mind (pp. 37-57). 

 The author's attitude toward her problem is illustrated by the following 

 quotation (pp. 36-7) : "We know not where consciousness begins in the animal 

 world. We know where it surely resides — in ourselves ; we know where it exists 

 beyond a reasonable doubt — in those animals of structure resembling ours 

 which readily adapt themselves to the lessons of experience. Beyond this 

 point, for all we know, it may exist in simpler and simpler forms until we 



