36 



NATURE 



[April 17, 19 19 



analysis of ;he results cf looo experiments revealed 

 no advantage for psychics ever normal reagents; there 

 were no deviations in right guesses beyond the limits 

 of chance. 



The experiments conducted to test the common belief 

 in sensitiveness to being stared at were equally nega- 

 tive in their results, "regular" and "control" experi- 

 ments being determined in the same way by the throw 

 of a die. A shorter series, in which a single "starer" 

 was replaced by twelve " starers," gave no more 

 definite result. In this series the twelve "starers" 

 were told in the control experiments to image a black 

 cat on the lecture-table. None of the reagents ever 

 thought of black cats. 



In part ii. of the volume previous evidence as to 

 the influence of subliminal impressions on judgment is 

 reviewed and the results of some further experiments 

 are given (guessing letters and digits presented by a 

 tachistoscope, influence of whispering, influence of 

 involuntary signals, e.g. eye-movements of an experi- 

 menter who had a definite number- form). The ex- 

 periments showed, generally speaking, evidence of that 

 "fringe of perceptions, most often unconscious, but all 

 ready to enter into consciousness, and, in fact, entering 

 in in certain exceptional cases or in certain predisposed 

 subjects," with which Bergson has insisted that 

 "psychical research could and should concern itself." 

 And it seems more than probable that this sort of 

 perception has played a rdle in the evidence for tele- 

 pathy, as others have even more definitely asserted. 



After a discussion in part iii. of the influence oJ 

 mental habit upon judgment, and of the confirmation 

 by experiment of results obtained by the theory of 

 probability — matter which we should prefer to have 

 seen given in an introductory chapter — the author passes 

 in part iv. to an account of some interesting exj>eri- 

 ments in " sound-assimilation," i.e. the tendency, 

 when sounds are mal-observed, to record not what is 

 actually observed, but an erroneous inference, e.g. 

 significant words in lieu of nonsense. How much 

 the mind contributes is shown by preliminary experi- 

 ments, in which students who could record correctly 

 a significant communication through the telephone, 

 the dictaphone, or the air (at twenty-five metres' dis- 

 tance) could not hear definitely enough to identify a 

 half of the consonantal sounds in nonsense syllables 

 through the dictaphone, a third of them over the tele- 

 phone, or a quarter of them through the air. As a 

 consequence a dictation garbled into nonsense by sub- 

 stitutions of consonantal sounds when heard, e.g., from 

 the dictaphone is converted by the listener, quite un- 

 consciously, into sense, e.g. " amb vuth lekrogootheth 

 vu lambwaj vap vuth sporeb im vu wax" is taken 

 down by the listener as "and thus reproduces the 

 language that is stored in the wax." The ear can- 

 not be trusted correctly to report names or phrases 

 when spoken under conditions which, however ap- 

 parently satisfactory, permit some degree of indis- 

 tinctness. 



That the authorities of the Leland Stanford Junior 

 University should have had some hesitation in accent- 

 ing the offered endowment will, we think, be readily 

 understood. That Dr. Coover has justified his ap- 

 pointment will, we hope, be agreed. He has pre- 

 sented the results of a series of very careful investiga- 

 tions, organised by a trained worker, which, even if, 

 as in the case of the " card guessing " experiments, 

 they only justify the scepticism of the sceptics, do 

 something at least to clear the field. It may be noted 

 that Prof. Pearson's "Tables for Statisticians and 

 Biometricians " (Cambridge University Press), of the 

 existence of which Dr. Coover seems to be unaware, 

 would have saved him considerable arithmetical work 

 in comparing observed with theoretical distributions. 



NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 



MEETING OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL 

 ASSOCIATION. 



A SPECIAL clinical meeting of the British Medical 

 Association was held in London last week on 

 April 8-1 1 under the presidency of Sir Clifford AUbutt. 

 The various sections met at the Imperial College of 

 Science, and the attendance of members was large 

 and the meeting a success in every way. The social 

 functions included a reception by the president at the 

 Guildhall, a conversazione at the Royal Society of 

 Medicine, and receptions by the Presidents of the 

 Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. 



In the Section of Medicine Lt.-Col. Mott introduced 

 the subject of war-neuroses. He emphasised the pre- 

 ponderating part played by hysteria in the production 

 of these conditions, and had found that patients with 

 such suggestive symptoms as constant vomiting, con- 

 stant headache, and recurring fits might all be sufTer- 

 ing from functional disease. He condemned the use 

 of the term " shell shock," declaring that many of the 

 men returned as suffering from shell shock would 

 have been more appropriately designated "shell shy." 

 At the same time a proportion of the cases suffer from 

 definite injury to the brain — the cerebro-spinal fluid 

 may contain blood and albumin, the drum of the ear 

 be ruptured, and microscopic haemorrhages be 

 present in the brain. Sir James Purves Stewart also 

 deprecated the use of the term "shell shock." The 

 frequent occurrence of neuroses in the present war 

 had' excited comment, but it was to be noted that in 

 previous wars our men had been trained and seasoned 

 soldiers, and he expressed surprise that the number of 

 cases of neuroses occurring in our armies during the 

 last five years had been relatively so few. The general 

 opinion was that the treatment of war-neuroses was 

 unsatisfactory, and Dr. Yealland and Col. Gordon 

 Holmes decried the use of hypnotism and psycho- 

 analysis. 



Influenza was the subject of a joint discussion 

 between the Sections of Medicine and Preventive Medi- 

 cine. Sir Wilmot Herringham dealt with the clinical 

 aspects of the disease. He emphasised its extreme 

 infectivitv, and dwelt on its changed character; so 

 much was the latter the case that he was tempted to 

 ask whether the present disease was influenza at all. 

 Capt. Greenwood, who dealt with the epidemiology 

 of the disease, stated, on the other hand, that we 

 must provisionally conclude that there is no clear-cut 

 formal difference between the outbreaks of 1889-90 

 and 1918-19. 



Major Bowman contributed a paper on the filter- 

 passinf? germ discovered in collaboration with the late 

 Major G. Gibson and Capt. J. Connor (see Nature, 

 April T,. p. 90). It had been found impossible to cul- 

 tivate from the blood of patients Pfeiffer's so-called 

 influenza bacillus. The conclusion was that the 

 primarv cause of influenza is some micro-organism 

 other than Pfeiffer's bacillus, probably the filter- 

 passing germ described. 



In the Section of Surgery Prof. Bayliss discussed 

 his method of injecting a solution of gum-arabic in 

 cases of wound shock. In this condition the blood- 

 vessels become emptied of blood and more permeable, 

 and hence, if thev are to be kept filled, a viscid fluid 

 is necessarv, for which purpose the gum solution 

 answers admirably. 



Dr. Dale discussed the nature and causation of 

 wound shock. The heart and great vessels are ab- 

 normallv emptv of blood in this condition, and the 

 question arises. Where does the blood go? The 

 answer seems to be that the blood collects and stag- 

 nates in the smaller vessels of the skin and other 

 peripheral areas. With regard to the causation of this 

 altered distribution of the blood it has been found 



