NATURE 



409 



\ 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1903. 



PSYCHOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS IN 

 ML RR AY ISLAND. 



Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition 

 to Torres Straits. Vol. ii., Physiology- and Psycho- 

 log\-. Part i., Vision. Pp. vi+140. By W. H. R. 

 Rivers, with an appendix by C. G. Seligmann. 

 Part ii.. Hearing, SmelJ, Taste, Cutaneous Sensa- 

 tions, Muscular Sense, Reaction-Times. By C. S. 

 Myers and \V. McDougall. Pp. 141-223. (Cam- 

 bridge: University Press, 1901, 1903.) 

 IN his short preface to this second volume of the 

 Cambridge anthropological reports, Dr. Haddon 

 remarks that no investigation of a race of people can 

 be considered as complete unless it embraces observ- 

 ations on such psychological phenomena as admit of 

 definite determination. In order to carry this into 

 practice, he appears to have resolved that such branches 

 of study should be efficiently dealt with in the second 

 expedition to Torres Straits. Dr. Haddon is to be 

 congratulated on having framed this comprehensive 

 and truly scientific conception of ethnographical study, 

 and he is further to be congratulated on having secured 

 the services of such efficient psychological representa- 

 tives as Dr. Rivers, Dr. Myers, and Dr. McDougall. 

 The psychometric observations carried out by these 

 gentlemen have, as was to be expected, been conducted 

 on thoroughly sound lines, and the results described 

 in the reports thus form not only an extremely valu- 

 able addition to anthropological knowledge, but an 

 almost unique contribution to the physiology of the 

 special senses. To Dr. Rivers in particular, special 

 praise is due for the thoyghtful care which he has 

 bestowed upon the conduct of the inquiry, and for the 

 way in which he has collated and presented the 

 results. 



The main part of the work was carried out in 

 Murray Island, where the observers lived for four 

 months. This island was originally selected by Dr. 

 Haddon as being, in his judgment, particularly favour- 

 able for the study of a simple primitive people ; it is 

 out of the track of commerce, and its inhabitants still 

 retain their simple natural characteristics ; it is true 

 that they have come into contact with missionaries 

 and have acquired a certain knowledge of pidgin 

 English, but this was found to be a distinct advantage 

 from the point of view of the expedition, since it 

 facilitated the establishment of a good understanding 

 between the natives and the members of the expedi- 

 tion, besides enabling the observers, to converse more 

 freely with those selected for psychometric experiment. 

 The limited population, 450 all told, was ah obvious 

 aid to the inquiry, and, judging from the reports, it 

 appears doubtful if any other community, European 

 or Polynesian, has been psychometrically investigated 

 under more favourable conditions as . regards both 

 absence of disturbing factors and simplification of 

 method. 



The observations discussed in the reports are mainly 

 those involving sensation, their scope being deter- 

 mined by the time at the disposal of the investi- 

 NO. 1766, VOL. 68] 



gators, the available apparatus, and the natpre of 

 the individuals on whom the experiments were made. 

 In the first part of the reports Dr. Rivers gives an 

 account of various visual experiments chiefly made on 

 the Murray islanders, but also carried out with the aid 

 of Dr. Seligmann on some of the other small islands 

 in Torres Straits. The chief points aimed at were the 

 determination of visual acuity, of colour vision, and 

 of visual spatial perception. As regards visual acuity, 

 the most trustworthy test seemed to be the well-known 

 E type method, which consists in determining at what 

 distance a given size of this letter can be recognised ; 

 the letter was placed in various positions (sideways, 

 upside down, &c.), and recognition was indicated by 

 the observed person placing in a similar position a 

 corresponding E on a card which he held in his hand. 

 The conclusion arrived at by Dr. Rivers is that the 

 visual acuity of the Torres Straits islanders is only 

 slightly more pronounced than that of normal Euro- 

 peans, and that probably this difl'erence would dis- 

 appear on taking into account the refractive errors, 

 myopic and other, of the latter class. The unanimity 

 with which travellers ascribe a high degree of visual 

 acuity to savage races does not, therefore, mean that 

 these races have organs which are abnormally sensitive 

 to stimulation by light, but is related to the power of 

 the primitive savage to make correct inferences from 

 comparatively insignificant visual data. This power 

 does not depend on a more perfect organ, but is associ- 

 ated with the close attention which the savage pays 

 to the natural objects which surround him. Dr. 

 Rivers appears to agree with Ranke in believing that 

 this close attention to detail can be acquired by prac- 

 tice, but that in primitive races it is associated with 

 lower mental development and with incapacity to feel 

 any marked aesthetic interest or enjoyment even in 

 scenes which the European regards as of great natural 

 beauty. 



A very large number of observations Vvere made upon 

 the extremely interesting phenomena of colour vision. 

 It is well known that the references to colour in 

 classical literature show a limited variety of colour 

 nomenclature as compared with modern colour vocabu- 

 laries. The view, of Gladstone and others that this 

 indicates a difference between the range of colour 

 sensations of the ancients and those of their modern 

 successors has, however, been generally rejected on 

 the ground that sensations may have been undoubtedly 

 experienced even when no special terminology has 

 been framed in order to describe them. It appears, 

 however, from the observations on the Murray 

 islanders that it is precisely those colour sensations 

 which are more or less defective for which there is 

 no definite descriptive word, thus supporting Glad- 

 stone's views. In Murray Island 107 individuals were 

 tested for colour, and it is remarkable that not a single 

 case of red-green blindness could be detected, although 

 in Europeans such defects amount to quite 4 per cent. 



The colour vocabulary is largely framed from the 

 names of such natural objects as force themselves on 

 the attention ; thus the word for '* red " is derived from 

 blood, that for •' green "from the bile of the turtle, 

 it being common knowledge that if the turtle's gall- 

 bladder was accideiitally opened in preparing the 



