592 'Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



have the possibility of ideation, of forecasting the future. But now comes 

 a surprise for the reader. There was a third psychic revolution, and it 

 occurred when man entered upon the scene. "Man did what no animal had 

 been able to do : he discovered fire, he made tools, he used speech ; in a word, 

 he did more than foresee phenomena, he became in some sort their master. 

 There is a hiatus between the intelligence of animals and human intelli- 

 gence ; I do not think that we are ready to fill this hiatus." Here we can 

 only regret that our author is not a student of the human mind : as such, 

 he might not have been able entirely to supply the missing terms, but he 

 could have made a better attempt than this. Must genetic psychology give 

 up in despair at the most interesting point? Finally, we may have "psychic 

 regressions" occurring when the effects of associations are handed down to 

 later generations as "false," /. e., secondary, tropisms ; an illustration being 

 the attraction of insects to flowers. The only comment necessary upon this 

 la that it stands or falls, of course, with Lamarckianism : Bohn is an avowed 

 Lamarckian. 



On the whole, one cannot feel for the theoretical discussions contained in 

 this book the cordial admiration one felt for the author's experimental I'e- 

 searches. The reason, however, lies rather In the general conditions under 

 which we judge the work of others than in anything peculiar to the present 

 case. The truth is that one is never so grateful for theory as for fact, 

 because theory always arouses the critical instinct, while in the presence of a 

 newly ascertained fact we have still something of the humility which is our 

 natural attitude towards the Unknown from which the fact has so lately 

 emerged. We are so much better acquainted with the origin of theories 

 than with that of facts ! Nevertheless the theories may be actually more 

 valuable, through the very opposition they arouse, than many facts ; and com- 

 parative psychologists should find their debt to Bohn, already great, largely 

 increased by the courage and force with which he has set forth the broader 

 views that guide and result from his researches. 



Mabgaret Floy Washburn. 



