NATURE 



\June 30, 1 88 1 



The work concludes with a chapter of "Results," which 

 shows that illusion in general consists in a " bad 

 grouping of psychical elements," and as such shade 

 off into fallacies of reasoning ; in both there is a 

 want of correspondence between internal and external 

 relations. In the future and for the race natural selec- 

 tion and "direct equilibration" can only be expected to 

 remedy the sources of any such mal-adjustment in so far 

 as it may be of actual injury to life. Thus we can have 

 no absolute criterion of illusion. " Science cannot prove, 

 but must assume the coincidence between permanent 

 common intuitions and objective reality. To raise the 

 question whether this coincidence is perfect or imperfect, 

 whether all common intuitions known to be persistent are 

 true, or whether there are any that are illusory, is to pass 

 beyond the scientific point of view to another, namely, the 

 philosophic." This consideration leads to an exceedingly 

 able statement of the relations between scientific and 

 philosophic thought, but the discussion necessarily runs 

 into an abstruseness that it is not desirable here to enter. 

 In general, however, it maybe said that in this, as in some 

 of his other works, Mr. Sully shows that while he has 

 perceived more distinctly than most of our leading psy- 

 chologists the sharpness of the boundary between science 

 and philosophy, he displays an admirable clearness of 

 thought in never allowing the methods of the one sphere to 

 encroach upon those of the other, while in whichever sphere 

 he chooses to work he enjoy?, the privilege, almost unique 

 among psychologists, of finding himself equally at home. 

 George J. Romanes 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Studies in Biolooy for New Zealand Students. No. i. — 

 The Shepherd's Purse {Capsella Bursa-Pastoris). By 

 F. W. Hutton, Professor of Biology, Canterbury Col- 

 lege, University of New Zealand. (New Zealand : By 

 Authority. 1S81.) 

 This is a detailed study of the coarse and minute 

 anatomy of a very familiar and widely-diffused weed. A 

 native originally of the palaearctic region, it has now found 

 its way to all temperate climates. It has certainly re- 

 ceived at Prof Mutton's hands, in the Antipodes, a more 

 systematic investigation than ever fell to its lot in Europe. 

 The treatment is much the same as that given to the 

 bean {Faba vul^^aiis) in Kuxley and Martin's "Elemen- 

 tary Biology," though with a more botanical bias. The 

 weakest part is the treatment of the root, where nothing 

 is said about the mode of origin of branches. An earlier 

 stage should have been taken, showing the arrangement 

 of the fibro-vascular tissues before they had coalesced 

 into a central cylinder. This however is simply by way 

 of criticism. The method of treatment is excellent, and 

 the Canterbury students are fortunate in being in the 

 hands of a teacher who has such a thorough appreciation 

 of the biological method as applied to botany. 



A Text-Book of Indian Botany, Mar biological, Physio- 

 logical, and Systematic. By W. H. Gregg, Lecturer 

 on Botany at the Hugli College. (Calcutta : Thacker, 

 Spink, and Co., 18S1.) 

 This is the first eighty pages of a book which, when com- 

 pleted in 500-600, will apparently be practically Henfrey's 

 Elementary Course, adapted to the local requirements of 

 Indian students. There does not seem anything particu- 

 larly novel or noteworthy in the treatment of the subject, 

 as far as can be judged from the portion printed. As is 

 usual in books of this type, some space is devoted to the 



Linnean classification. But, as the author points out, 

 there is the excuse that Roxburgh's Flora Indica, which is 

 still unsuperseded, is arranged in accordance with it. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond tuith the writers of, rejected mamtsiripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and ncrei facts.'\ 



Re W. I. Bishop 



I CANNOT but feel greatly surprised that Mr. Romanes, when 

 reporting the result of the inve>tigations made by his colleagues 

 and himself upon the power of " thought-reading " claimed by 

 Mr. VV. I. Bishop, should have stated that the letter of intro- 

 duction which I gave to Mr. Bishop » as "doubtless intended 

 to recommend him to the attention of the credulous," since this 

 letter most distinctly expressed my desire to obtain for him " an 

 assembla'i;e of gentlemen specially qualified to appreciate the im- 

 portance " of what 1 described in it as (in my judgment) ** experi- 

 ments of great v.ilue to the Physiologist and Psychologist." Nor 

 can I see how my having thus recommended '*him to the atten- 

 tion of the scientific " is a thing "to be regretted " ; since the 

 careful testing of the one set of experiments whicli Mr. Bishop 

 has shovvn to Mr. Romanes and his colleagues has resulted in a 

 precise confirmation of my statement that the power of "thought- 

 reading" which he claims is "derived from his careful study ol 

 the indications nnconsciously given by the subjects of his experi- 

 ments, and from his peculiar aptness in the interpretation of 

 those indications." ■ 



What I think "is to be regretted " is that Mr. Bishop did 

 not offer for like careful testing another remarkable set of experi- 

 ments which Jie had repeatedly performed in tlie presence of 

 distinguished medical and scientific men in the United States 

 (from whom he brought introductions to me), and also before a 

 like assemblage in Edinburgh ; showing his power of naming 

 words and numbers previously written and sealed up in private, 

 by his acute recognition of indications unconsciously given by 

 their writers when the alphabet or digits were "called." 



As I have never credited Mr. Bishop « ith any other power of 

 "thought-reading" than this, I have been surprised to leani that 

 I am accused of "fathering a new humbuif." 



Another "experiment " which he performed in my own house 

 some time ago struck me as well worthy of careful testing : — 



The "subject" of the experiment being asked to draw a card 

 from the pack, to identify it, and then to return it to Mr. Bishop, 

 the latter, after shuffling the pack, dealt out sixteen cards with 

 their faces downwards, arranging them in four rows (which I 

 indicate by letters and numbers), as thus : — 



The "subject," having been caused to stand at the table with the 

 cards directly before him, Mr. Bishop, standing at his right side, 

 and taking his right hand into his own left, said to him, "Drop 

 your left hand down on either row (whether horizontal, as A, B, c, 

 D, or vertical, as E, F, G, H), that you wish taken away." Row 

 u having been selected and taken away, there remained the three 

 rows. A, c, D. "Now," said Mr. Bishop, "drop down on 

 another row." Row D being selected, there remained rows A 

 and C. "Now drop down on a third row." Row A being 

 selected, there remained only row c. " Now drop down upon 

 either the two upper or the twolower cards of the remaining row." 

 The two upper (3 and 7) being selected and taken away, there 

 remained only the two lower (II and 15). "Now drop down 



