THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF DR. CHARLES 

 HENRY TURNER* 



During his lifetime, Dr. Turner published about fifty 

 treatises on Neurology, Invertebrate Ecology, and Ani- 

 mal Behavior. In addition to these, he wrote, for a num- 

 ber of years, reviews of the literature on Comparative 

 Psychology in the Psychological Bulletin and in The 

 Journal of Animal Behavior. This alone is an index of 

 the esteem in which sdentists in his own line regarded 

 his work. 



His first work was published in 1892 in the Journal of 

 Comparative Neurology. A few years later an impor- 

 tant volume on The Entomostrica of Minnesota was pub- 

 lished jointly with Herrick. In this 500-page treatise, 

 with eighty-one plates, many new species were described 

 and much attention was paid to the ecology of these 

 creatures. 



Then, suddenly, his attention was turned from the 

 microtome, and he produced a most interesting series of 

 experimental investigations on the behavior of insects. 

 His researches on homing, on reaction to light, on death- 

 feigning, on tropisms, have cleared up some of the most 

 perplexing problems of comparative psychology and have 

 thrown new light on the subjects of the interrelations of 

 tropisms, instinct, and what may, to a certain extent, be 

 called intelligence. 



But most interesting of all was his technique of experi- 

 menting. Dr. Turner spent much thought on his method 

 of work before he ever went into the field, and there with 

 ingenious devices, some simple, some intricate, he solved 



•Paper read at the memorial to Dr. Charles H. Turner, at Sumner 

 High School, May 25, 1923. 



