36ar 



NATURE 



[November 17, 192 1 



ties are experiencing at the present time in re- 

 cruiting their staffs. 



Upon the strength of this report, together with 

 representations made to Parliament by various 

 interested bodies, the additional annual grant re- 

 ferred to above was made by Parliament. Now it 

 is proposed to ask Parliament to cut down this 

 grant. Such a proposal, in our opinion, can be 

 justified only if it is shown that the grant is 

 neither necessary nor essential in the coming year. 

 Without considering the question of the further 

 development of the universities, all-important as 

 it is, let us examine one of the factors in the situa- 

 tion — university stipends. 



Last July a conference of the heads of university 

 institutions, the non-academic members of uni- 

 versity governing bodies, and the council of the 

 Association of University Teachers approved of 

 a scale of minimum salaries for university 

 teachers. This scale is extremely moderate, and, 

 as a minimum scale, seems likely to meet with 

 general approval. On the basis of these very 

 reasonable proposals it was estimated that it 

 would require an additional sum of about 

 400,000?. to raise the full-time teachers in uni- 

 versity institutions in England and Wales to the 

 minimum salary of the scale. Assuming that 

 since the date when the Estimate was made an 

 aggregate sum of ioo,oooL has been added to 

 the emoluments of the university teachers re- 

 ferred to, there still remains a sum of 300,000/. 

 required to raise these teachers to their minimum 

 on the scale. In this figure no allowance is made 

 for an increase in the number of teachers or in the 

 stipends of those who have reached their minimum. 

 Thus at the very time when an annual sum of 

 300,000!. is required in England and Wales to 

 put university teachers on a minimum scale, 

 which has been drawn up with due and proper 

 consideration of the necessity of national 

 economy, the Lords Commissioners of the 

 Treasury propose to reduce the annual grant by 

 300,oooZ., precisely the sum which, if distributed 

 as an annual grant for salary purposes, would 

 have enabled the university authorities to estab- 

 lish a reasonable and just scale of remuneration. 

 Is it any" wonder that the governing bodies and 

 teaching staffs of the universities are dismayed 

 at the proposal? We trust, however, that Parlia- 

 ment will not deal with our universities in this 

 fashion, but, recognising that their necessities will 

 be no less in the coming year than they are at the 

 present moment, decline to be a party to a pro- 

 posal which, in our opinion, from whatever side 

 it is examined, cannot be justified. 

 NO. 2716, VOL. 108] 



Psychological Medicine. 

 The Basis of Psychiatry. By Dr. Albert C. 

 Buckley. Pp. xii-f447. (Philadelphia and 

 London : J. B. Lippincott Co., 1920.) 30s. net. 



AT the present time, when great interest is 

 being taken by both public and Press jn 

 the questions of body in relation to mind, psycho- 

 analysis in the treatment of the psychoneuroses 

 and psychoses, and the necessity of lunacy reform, 

 a book which deals comprehensively with the 

 subject of psychological medicine is especially 

 welcome. Moreover, now that the conjoint board 

 of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons 

 and many of the universities, notably Cambridge 

 and London, have instituted a diploma of psycho- 

 logical medicine, a book such as "The Basis of 

 Psychiatry " is notably opportune, and we have 

 no hesitation in recommending this book strongly 

 to students and practitioners, for it satisfies a 

 long-felt want. 



The author first discusses biologic phenomena, 

 including the laws of heredity and their applica- 

 tion to mental and nervous diseases. Then follows 

 a brief but useful chapter on cerebral develop- 

 ment and receptive organs, with a description of 

 the autonomic system and its functions. We are 

 rather surprised to find that no mention is made 

 of Hughlings Jackson's levels. The author shows 

 how sensitivity and differential sensitivity con- 

 stitute fundamental biological phenomena, but 

 Head's theory of protopathic and epicritic sensi- 

 bility is not alluded to. This may be an omission 

 on account of space rather than disbelief in its 

 validity. 



Chap. 5 is devoted to psychological processes, 

 and should prove very useful to students and prac- 

 titioners, for it enables the reader to grasp prin- 

 ciples and become familiar with psychological 

 terms sufficiently to enable him to understand and 

 express in suitable language disorders of the 

 mind. 



Since psycho-analysis is at the present time 

 attracting so much attention of the profession, 

 the public mind, and the Press, it will be interest- 

 ing to consider a little fully the views of Prof. 

 Buckley. The doctrine of the unconscious mind 

 is discussed, and the author points out that it 

 was an outgrowth of abnormal psychology led by 

 Charcot and continued by his pupils Janet and 

 Freud. He describes briefly Janet's pioneer work 

 on dissociation of consciousness upon the basis 

 of which the symptoms commonly met in hysteria 

 were explained by the eminent French psychi- 

 atrist. The further development of the. uncon- 

 scious by Freud, according to whom psycho- 

 neuroses are due to a complex carrying with it a 



