April 7, 192 1] 



NATURE 



165 



claim. But one must remember that the propor- 

 tion of inherited nature that is actually realised 

 in any given individual depends in large measure 

 on his nurture through education. That is where 

 opportunity comes in. It may be true enough 

 that equal opportunities for all do not produce 

 equal abilities in all. None the less, educational 

 opportunity does raise the realisable value of the 

 inherited bequest in capacity, and that in no 

 slight degree. How much we do not know. 



As to transference, it is assumed on the "formal 

 discipline " view that training of one sort affects 

 capacities of other sorts, irrespective of identical 

 elements, or of similarity in the activities de- 

 veloped. On the basis of a careful discussion, 

 Dr. Starch concludes that, as a general estimate 

 In the case of closely allied subjects, there is prob- 

 ably from 20 to 30 per cent, of transfer, and from 

 that point down to a very small proportion or 

 none in the case of subjects which have little in 

 common. The book abounds in detail which is 

 worthy of careful study. Few who follow the 

 treatment with understanding and critical judg- 

 ment can fail to profit in the practice of their 

 profession. 



"The Psychology of Childhood " (2) is a con- 

 tribution to the Brief Course Series in Education 

 published under the editorial supervision of Dr. 

 Paul Monroe. Dr. Naomi Nors worthy, who 

 began the work, and Dr. Mary Theodora 

 Whitley, who has completed it since the 

 death of her colleague, reflect the influence 

 of Prof. Thorndike in the Teachers College 

 of Columbia University, the scene of their activi- 

 ties. The text-book is written with a view to its 

 use in normal schools, and presupposes some 

 knowledge of general psychology. Statistics are 

 freely used, and a section is devoted to the 

 methods adopted in their employment ; but the 

 treatment, on the whole, is on lines which are 

 sanctioned by custom, with chapters on sense per- 

 ception, memory, imagination, habit formation, 

 play, and so forth. Although the lines are 

 familiar, there is a good deal of freshness and 

 individuality. English teachers will read it with 

 profit, but should do so, perhaps, with discretion. 

 For the basis is, in the main, frankly physiological. 

 The inheritance of an individual is in terms of 

 structure in the nerve-system, not in terms of 

 mental states. A baby is not heir to any ideas; 

 he does not even inherit consciousness as such ; 

 what he does inherit is a complicated system of 

 neurones acting and derveloping in accordance 

 with certain laws of growth. A child acts as a 

 human being rather than as an animal because 

 he inherits a human nervous system. No matter 

 NO. 2684, VOL. 107] 



how general a mental trait may be, no matter 

 how minute its character, it is dependent on some 

 connection of the neurones. Possibly Dr. Drever 

 in Edinburgh might suggest to teachers in train- 

 ing some modification of the principles that are 

 current in Columbia University. 



It is quite clear from Prof. H. C. Warren's 

 " Human Psychology " (3) that definitions ad- 

 vanced in Princeton would not find ready accept- 

 ance at St. Andrews. That is part of the trouble 

 in this field of exposition. If in half a dozen text- 

 books on physics, or works in which physical con- 

 cepts play a leading part, we found not only such 

 a word as "acceleration," but even the word 

 "physical," used in half a dozen different senses, 

 we should be perplexed and perturbed. Unfor- 

 tunately, something like this state of matters ob- 

 tains in psychology. By " conation " Prof. Stout 

 means this ; Prof. Alexander that ; Prof. Warren 

 something else. For Prof. Titchener it has no 

 scientific meaning. Even the word " mental " is 

 in like case. What is for most psychologists dis- 

 tinctively mental — the flow of ideas (somehow de- 

 fined)- — is for Prof. Alexander typically non- 

 mental ; and while for some the mind is the 

 "stream of consciousness" (in some sense), for 

 others it is that which gives direction to the stream 

 and, in part at least, makes it flow. Further- 

 more, the notion that what is mental or psychical 

 is that which is revealed in consciousness — even 

 this is rejected by the exponents of the "new 

 psychology," who urge that its major part is con- 

 cealed in the unconscious. 



Much, of course, depends on the method of 

 approach to the subject, from below through 

 physiology or from above through philosophy. 

 The one (from the other point of view) is either 

 tainted with materialism or tinted by metaphysics. 

 Prof. Warren takes the low-level route from the 

 plains of biology and physiology ; and if this 

 method of approach is somewhat out of fashion 

 in England to-day, that is no reason for refusing 

 to one who travels along it with careful steps a 

 patient, if critical, hearing. 



For Prof. Warren psychology is the science 

 which deals with the mutual interrelation between 

 an organism and its environment. The interaction 

 between them involves three stages — stimulation, 

 adjustment, and response. Each single inter- 

 action is an experience, and the sum-total of such 

 experiences makes up the mental life of the 

 organism. The special structures and types of 

 function which bring about the interaction con- 

 stitute its mental (or psychical) organisation. The 

 investigation of mental life is the study of experi- 

 ence, whether that experience be accompanied by 



