422 



NATURE 



[April I, 1875 



(Pleuronecies plaffssa), are hatched whilst floating on the 

 waves. Ova of these and other fishes have been found 

 floating in different stages of development. There is no 

 doubt of this fact, and in some of the larger rivers of 

 China the spawn of fishes is known to float on the sur- 

 face, for it is collected at certain places for piscicultural 

 purposes, by means of bunches of grass and soft matting. 

 These, it is known, become the recipients of large num- 

 bers of fish eggs, and are easily removed to other waters ; 

 which, being barren of fish, are in this modercpopulated. 

 There cannot, we think, be a doubt that various fishes 

 spawn in various places, some at the bottom of the sea, 

 some on the surface ; and it is very likely, by this diver- 

 sity, that the varied species are best preserved. The 

 herring {Chipea haroigus), and probably all its con- 

 geners (but this is not quite certain), spawn on the bottom, 

 and the eggs remain there, adhering in masses to the 

 rocks and stones. The eggs of the salmon, we know, 

 when not washed away during deposition by flooded 

 water, sink, by means of their weight, to the bottom, 

 where the parent fish instinctively covers them up with 

 gravel in order to protect them from their numerous 

 enemies. Most sea-fish, we have a strong impression, 

 emit their spawn in the same manner, whatever future 

 direction it may take in the way of motion. All the fish 

 eggs which we have seen gathered from the surface of the 

 water were almost at maturity ; and the late Mr. Robert 

 Buist, of the Tay fisheries, inloimed the writer that he had 

 seen salmon eggs, as the time approached for the eclosion 

 of the fish, rise to the top of the water in the breeding 

 boxes at Stormontfield, but tlicy always sank again before 

 tlic birth of the fish. 



What practical bearing has all this on the economy of 

 our fisheries ? will be asked. There is one point which Mr. 

 Holdsworth makes in detailing M. Sars' discoveries, and 

 it is, briefly stated, " what becomes of all the complaints 

 against the beam trawl net" ? That ponderous instrument, 

 as all of us are aware, has been accused of breaking up 

 the spawning beds and killing the fry ; but naturally, if 

 there is truth in the discoveries of I\I. Sars, and if the 

 spawn float on the waves, that accusation must fall to the 

 ground. That the trawl net " hashes " the fish which it 

 captures, and destroys a large number that it does not 

 capture, is well known, but not any of our modes of fish- 

 ing are perfect. It is not possible to dictate to the fish as 

 to which are to enter or stay out of the death chamber. 

 Nor, if a hundred hooks be set with bait for the line 

 fishery, can we dictate as to what size of cod-fish or 

 haddocks should take the hook. One thirg we can do : 

 we can reject all fish which arc of insufficient size or have 

 not had an opportunity of multipl)ing their kind. Most 

 of the line fish when taken on board are alive, and also a 

 large percentage of fish that are trawled. Those which 

 are too small might be restored to their native element. 

 We are ourselves recommending this plan. So far as we 

 understand Mr. Holdsworth, he only confines himself to 

 an exposition of how we fish ; as to how we shoulii ^%h he 

 is silent ; in fact, he is satisfied with the deliverance of 

 the Royal Commission of 1S63, of which he was the 

 secretary, that our fish supplies have increased and are 

 likely still further to increase. We should not in the 

 least object if the increased supplies kept pace with the 

 augmented machinery of capture. 



JARDINE 'S ' ' PS YCHOLOG V OF COGNITION " 

 The Elements of the Psychology of Cognition. By 

 Robert Jardine, B.D., D.Sc, Principal of the General 

 Assembly's College, Calcutta, and Fellow of the Uni- 

 versity of Calcutta. (Macmillan and Co., 1874.) 



MR. JARDINE has seemingly had some personal 

 reason for writing this treatise ; for in the preface 

 he asks the critic to bear in mind " that the book has 

 been written with considerable haste, in order to secure 

 its publication within a certain limited time." It would 

 have been wiser to ignore the critic : for this unsympa- 

 thetic personage is'only too certain to meet this innocent 

 confidence with the unfeeling remark that perhaps the 

 interests of science would not have suffered had the 

 author taken a little more time over his work. Had 

 nothing been done before Mr. Jardine began to write " to 

 show the inadequacy and unsatisfactoriness of a prevail- 

 ing system of psychology," he would have required to make 

 a much more thorough and more direct attack on the 

 teachings of Mr. Mill and Prof Bain, in order to 

 accomplish " one principal object " that he had in view. 

 Again, we think Mr. Jardine would have better consulted 

 the interests of his readers generally, including the 

 "students," for whom the book was "principally de- 

 signed," had he made more explicit reference to the 

 writers to whom he is indebted for the weapons he has 

 employed in this attack on " phenomenalism." Another 

 general criticism that must be made is, that there is not 

 a sufficient wealth of concrete illustration, and that, 

 though the writer has " endeavoured to express himself 

 in as clear and simple language as possible," his words 

 are, nevertheless, often dark and difficult enough. What 

 will readers " beginning their philosophical studies " make 

 of such a sentence as this ? — " It must be borne in mind 

 that it is in their character as modes of the non-ego that 

 objectified sensations are localised. The localising i«, 

 therefore, not so much an act of consciousness as a pre- 

 cept of consciousness and a form of the non-ego." 



We do not find it easy to review this book fairly. For 

 one thing, the author has no personality ; then, while on 

 the one hand it would be very easy to speak of the ex- 

 cellence of many pieces of exposition, on'the other hand 

 nothing could be easier than to select a few passages for 

 unmitigated censure. On the strength, for example, of 

 the following sentence, one might almost question the 

 claim of the writer to rank as a scientific student of the 

 subject on which he has written : — " In the scientific 

 mind of modern times," says Mr. Jardine, " there has 

 arisen, through the influence of a long-continued and ex- 

 clusive study of phenomena, a predisposition to doubt 

 the occurrence of events which are plainly beyond the 

 sphere of phenomenal laws." The worst of it is that 

 long before we reach this sentence, which occurs 

 near the end -'of the book, we have come to regard 

 Mr. Jardine as a man of such respectable ability that 

 we have the greatest difficulty in believing that he 

 can really think that anything he has said can carry 

 him a single step towards the goal he now seems 

 anxious to reach. The scientific men of modem times 

 are innocent enough of having their minds "vitiated 

 by the prevailing phenomenalism" represented by Mr. 

 Mill and Prof. Bain. They have indulged in an exclusive 



