DISCOVERY 



307 



bj' his occasionally unfortunate use of words, notably 

 the term Sexuality, which he has used to include all 

 kinds of things which are only ver\' remotely connected 

 with sex as commonly understood." It is true also that 

 the patiently worked out results of experienced 

 practitioners were and are being exploited by charla- 

 tans. \\'hat, however, may well be emphasised is the 

 fact that ps\xho-analysis, in the hands of the more 

 moderate schools of Jung and Adler, is being developed 

 into a science of inestimable value to mankind, that 

 these schools should not be confused with the extreme 

 Freudians, and that specially qualified practitioners in 

 psvcho-analvsis should not be condemned together 

 with charlatans. 



^ * * if * 



On these points we are thoroughly in agreement with 

 the editor of Psyche. But we are not quite so sure if 

 we agree with him in his suggestions as to persons 

 qualified to undertake psycho-analysis. He questions 

 the necessity of demanding a full medical qualification 

 from psycho-analysts, and sees no haiTn in the idea that 

 cases should be referred (after diagnosis) by doctors to 

 men " qualified in all the matters truly relevant to the 

 application of the treatment." It seems to us, however, 

 that these " matters " must include a thorough and 

 examined knowledge in zoology, physiology, bio- 

 chemistn,-, biology, psychology, and anthropology — 

 practically a full medical course, and something besides. 

 The work of a psycho-analj^t cannot be placed in the 

 saine position as that of a masseur. By reason of his 

 task he must be a highly intellectualised man. We 

 are inclined to think that for the present it is the best 

 course to leave the practice of psycho-analysis in the 

 hands of medically-qualified specialists. The new 

 science will automatically attract to it the more 

 imaginative, sj-mpathetic, and penetrating minds 

 amongst the medical profession. 



***** 



We cannot conclude these notes without a reference 

 to one of the greatest precursors of psycho-analysis, 

 the Russian novelist Dostoevsky, the centenary of 

 whose birth has recently taken place. Though op- 

 pressed by epilepsy throughout his life of sixty years, 

 he produced a great number of first - rate novels, 

 including such well-known classics as The Idiot and 

 Crime and Punishment.^ In these he plumbed the very 

 depths of the human soul, and showed the divine fire 

 that can smoulder to life in the most broken and 

 dissolute characters. His works will always afford a 

 treasure-house to the psychologist, for to his knowledge 

 of morbid psychology he added an ability to penetrate 

 the characters of everj'day men and women. 



1 Translations of both these novels, as well as of various other 

 works by him, are published in the Everyman's Library (J. M, 

 Dent & Sons, Ltd., 2S. 6d. each.). 



CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS NUMBER 



" Rafex," whose identity we are requested not to divulge, 

 is a well-known " air " expert and an authoritative >vriter on 

 aeronautics. 



Mr. C. S. S. Hicham, sometime Scholar of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, was awarded the Prince Consort Prize for Historical 

 Research by Cambridge University last year. He was recently 

 appointed Lecturer in Colonial History at Manchester Uni- 

 versity. He is the author of The Development of the Leeward 

 Islands under the Restoration, 1660-1688, and A Guide to the 

 Colonial Records in the Public Record Office before 1696. 



The Rev. Walter Weston wrote on Rural Japan in the 

 September number of Discovery, He spent many years in 

 Japan, first as the British Chaplain at Kobe, later as the 

 almoner of the funds of the European Community in the Far 

 East for the relief of the great famine in Northern Japan in 

 1903-4. and finally as British Chaplain at Yokohama, which 

 appointment he occupied till 1915. .\ taste for mountaineering 

 took him on long expeditions into the Japanese Alps and enabled 

 him to obtain an unrivalled knowledge, for a European, of 

 the life of the peasants. He is a member of the Committee of 

 the Alpine Club and of the Council of the Japan Society. 



Dr. E. W. Shanahan was brought up on a farm in New 

 Zealand, and has a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge 

 of agriculture. He came to England ten years ago, after gradu- 

 ating at the University of New Zealand, obtained his D.Sc. in 

 Economics at London University, was recently awarded the 

 Hutchinson Research Medalbythe London School of Economics, 

 and is the author of The Production and Consumption of A nimal 

 Food-stuffs with a Special Reference to the British Empire. 



Dr. Mariette Soman gained high distinctions in her studies 

 of Mediaeval and Modern Languages at Cambridge and the 

 Sorbonne. During the war she worked in the Secret Intelli- 

 gence Department of the Admiralty, and after the Armistice 

 attended the Paris Peace Conference as Secretary in the Naval 

 Section. 



CORRECTION 



We regret that in the Books Recommended at the end of the 

 article on " Suggestion and Autosuggestion " in our last issue, 

 the publishers of the English translation of Baudouin's 

 Suggestion et Autosuggestion were incorrectly described. The 

 actual publishers are George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., who have 

 now brought out a third edition at the reduced price of los. (>d. 



THE RHODESIAN SKULL 

 The old question of the " missing link " has been revived by 

 the recent discovery of a human skull in a cave in Rhodesia. 

 But as yet it is quite uncertain whether this is the oldest known 

 human fossil extant. Thirty years ago the most ancient 

 human remains that had been excavated were those of the 

 Neanderthal men, found in various parts of Europe. But in 

 1894 the remains of a far earlier type, Pithecanthropus erectus, 

 were unearthed in Java by Dr. Dubois, a Dutchman ; and 

 these were assigned to the Pliocene Age, whereas the Nean- 

 derthals probably existed in the Middle Pleistocene or last 

 Glacial Age. Dubois' " find " was, in fact, hailed in certain 

 quarters as the " missing link " between man and ape, but 

 most prehistorians have since agreed that this belief is 

 impossible. Further examinations of the Rhodesian skull have 

 yet to be made, but it is very doubtful whether they will prove 

 its priority in age to the Java remains of Pithecanthropus erectus. 

 The new " find," however, is almost certainly more ancient 

 than Neanderthal man, and the interesting theory to which it 

 gives additional proof is that the human race started its career 

 in Africa, and migrated to Europe before the e.xistence of the 

 Mediterranean. 



