316 'Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



closed within itself, instead of as the last eliancc product of an an- 

 cestral series that has Ix-en speculated together, then form and color 

 gain a new interest and a heightened brilliance" (30, p. 318). 



"Driesch succeeded in proving that the germ cell does not possess 

 a trace of machine-like structure, but consists of throughout equiva- 

 lent parts. With that fell the dogma that the organism is only a 

 machine. Even if life, occurs in the fully organized creature in a 

 machinedike way, the organization of a structureless germ into a 

 complicated structure is a power sui generis, which is found only in 

 living things and stands without analogy" (33, p. 9). 



''It is not to be denied that the vitalists are the victors all along 

 the line. After having put an end to Darwinism, they have seized 

 u})on the entire field of the production of animal form, and now 

 threaten the last positions of their opponents" (33, p. 14). 



''So there persists in the outer world of objects an unresolvable con- 

 tradictoriness— " (29, p. 129). 



TxTnODUCTORY CirARACTKRTZATTO:V. 



J. von Uexkull, of Heidelberg, has long been one of the most 

 active and original workers in the physiology of behavior ; his work 

 will be found of the highest interest to all seriously concerned with 

 these matters. It undertakes for the lower animals much the same 

 sort of analysis that Sherrington gives us for higher ones, though 

 with many features that are in the highest degree original. Further, 

 an examination of his work has hardly less interest as a study in 

 scientific ideals and method than for the concrete results attained. 

 That he has been led to radical and iconoclastic views, and that he is 

 not afraid to express these views with decision and picturesqueness 

 will be evident from the quotations given above. The pessimistic 

 impression given by the quotations taken together will not escape 

 the reader ; this pessimism appears rather an unintentional result 

 than as characteristic of the animated and niib'tant si)irit of our 

 author. The sweeping and ]ierliaps ill-found<Ml character of some 

 of the propositions advanced should not prejudice the reader against 

 the accuracy of the author's work in his own field; this would be 

 a serious mistake. 



