NATURE 



i8i 



THURSDAY, JULY 8, 187S 



HOLLAND'S ''FRAGMENTARY PAPERS'' 

 Fraomentmy Papers on Science and other Subjects. By 

 the late Sir Henry Holland, Bart. Edited by his Son, 

 Rev. Francis J. Holland. (London : Longmans, 1875.) 



IT is impossible not to be struck with the width of 

 knowledge, the balance of intellect, and the true 

 wisdom shown in the posthumous writings of the late 

 Sir Henry Holland. This distinguished physician was 

 born as long ago as 1788, when many of the most exten- 

 sive and important sciences — Chemistry, Electricity, 

 Heat, Geology, and others — could hardly be said to 

 exist. Yet we find in these papers that he was fully 

 alive to discoveries which were quite recently made. Not 

 only does he appear to have accepted the Evolution 

 Philosophy in a thorough-going manner, and to have 

 ncquired a perfect comprehension of its bearings and 

 results, but the latest discoveries in each branch of 

 physical science were familiar to him, and duly con- 

 sidered in retouching his papers for the last time. 

 Writing in 1873 at the age of eighty-five, he naively 

 remarks that it would be impossible at his age to re-write 

 the whole of his essays so as to bring them up completely 

 to the present day. He therefore proposed to select 

 what was most suitable for publication, making such 

 additions as were suggested by the recent progress of 

 research. 



The essays, as now published, range over most of the 

 physical and moral sciences, and touch upon theology. 

 The Plurality of Worlds, Creative Power, Matter and 

 Force, Divisibility of Matter, the Nature of Electricity, 

 Animal Instincts, the Perfectibility of Man, Infinity, 

 Eternity, Materialism, Scepticism, Subjective Functions 

 of the Eye, Sleep and Dreams, — such are only a part of 

 the topics upon which he discourses. It is, of course, out 

 of the question that an old man writing between the 

 seventieth and eighty-fifth year of his age could give much 

 that is original and novel upon such a wide range of 

 subjects. Of this he must have been fully conscious, and 

 his object appears rather to have been to sum up the 

 results of the progress of science as he had witnessed that 

 progress, and to point out how far it had really gone in 

 comparison with the possible sphere of discovery. His 

 principal conclusion is, that no efforts of scientific men 

 have yet, or indeed ever can, penetrate the mysteries of 

 existence. His favourite expression is that of Laplace : 

 " Notre ignorance est immense." 



He more fully states his convictions in the following 

 words :— 



" The horizon of our knowledge continually, though un- 

 equally, expands — obscure in its boundary on every side, 

 and ultimately defined by limits impassable to human 

 reason. One man by genius or happy accident may 

 press more closely than another towards this horizon ; 

 but the ultimate limit is the same to all, involving those 

 mysteries of matter, force, and creative or governmental 

 power, to which all other problems are subordinate." 



One of the most original and interesting essays is that 



in which Sir Henry Holland treats of " mental operations 



in relation to time." The same subject had, indeed, been 



discussed in two chapters of his " Mental Physiology," 



Vol. XII.— No. 297 



and he had shown how many striking illustrations of the 

 relations of states of mind in succession, one to the other, 

 may be discovered. He wished to see carried out an 

 experimental inquiry into the chronometry of mind, by 

 observing the velocity with which trains of ideas can be 

 made to move through the mind in various circumstances . 

 The following is an example of the kind of self-experiment 

 which Sir Henry tried (p. 106) : — 



" Within a minute I have been able to coerce the mind, 

 so to speak, into more than a dozen acts or states of 

 thought, so incongruous that no natural association could 

 possibly bring them into succession. In illustration I 

 note here certain objects which, with a watch before me, 

 I have just succeeded in compressing, distinctly and 

 successively, within thirty seconds of time — the pyramids 

 of Ghizeh, the Ornithorhynchus, Julius Cccsar, the Ottawa 

 Falls, the rings of Saturn, the Apollo Belvedere. This is 

 an experiment I have often made on myself, and with the 

 same general result. It would be hard to name or 

 describe the operation of mind by which these successive 

 objects have been thus suddenly evoked and dismissed. 

 There is the vohtion to change ; but how must we define 

 that effort by which the mind, without any principle of 

 selection or association, can grasp so rapidly a succession 

 of images thus incongruous, drawn seemingly at random 

 from past thoughts and memories .'' I call it an ejjort, 

 because it is felt as such, and cannot be long continued 

 without fatigue." 



This is a curious subject which easily admits of experi- 

 ment ; but it will be found that the velocity with which 

 thoughts can be made to ; succeed each other depends 

 entirely upon the degree of similarity or connection 

 between them. Judging from my own experience and 

 that of three students, well qualified to test the matter, I 

 find that where the objects thought of are as incongruous 

 as possible, the number which the mind can suggest to 

 itself in a minute varies from twelve, the result of Sir 

 Henry Holland, up to about twenty. Anyone who tries 

 the experiment, however, will find that there is an almost 

 insuperable temptation to go off on lines of association. 

 To avoid these and yet to think rapidly, requires a very 

 disagreeable effort, becoming more and more painful by 

 repetition. 



When the thoughts are restricted within certain grooves, 

 as it were, the result is more rapid succession. Thus one 

 student was able to think in a minute of thirty different 

 kinds of actions, forty-six animals, fifty places, or fifty 

 persons. I can myselt think without much effort of 

 thirty-two animals, or forty persons or places in a 

 minute. Even in these cases, however, it will be found 

 that the rapidity greatly depends upon the degree in which 

 the objects have been associated. When thoughts have 

 been very closely and frequently linked together, the 

 number which may be compressed within a minute is 

 much greater. I find that I can count about ninety-six in 

 half a minute, which, without allowing for the two places 

 of figures, gives 192 thoughts per minute. I can think of 

 every letter in the alphabet in five seconds at most, which 

 is at the rate of more than 300 per minute. Finally, by 

 counting the first ten numbers over and over again, I 

 have compressed nearly 400 changes of idea within the 

 minute. Thus it may be said that the facility of mental 

 action varies something like forty-fold, according to the 

 degree of previous association between the ideas. 



Little has hitherto been done to investigate the action 

 of mind systematically, but there is little doubt that by 



