Aprit 8, 1915] 
NATURE 
143 

science defined by this exclusion obviously differs 
widely from the psychology based upon intro- 
spection; it may be regarded as an extension into 
the human field of the methods developed by 
Lloyd Morgan in his experiments on the instinc- 
tive behaviour of chickens, and by other workers 
who have followed his highly important lead. 
(1) The point of view is explained and defended 
by von Bechterew in the first fifty pages of his 
volume. As he conceives it, objective psychology 
is the science of “ psycho-reflexes,” that is, of the 
neural mechanisms the activities of which are 
either known or supposed to be accompanied by 
psychoses, whether the subject is conscious of 
them or not. The remainder of the work is a 
systematic exposition of the results hitherto ob- 
tained by the objective methods, from the analysis 
of the simpler primary and secondary reflexes to 
that of the complicated forms of behaviour covered 
by such terms as will. Many of the researches de- 
scribed have been carried out in von Bechterew’s 
own laboratory in Petrograd; those of other 
workers are summarised with much ability and 
with copious references to the original sources. 
The whole argument is, in fact, developed so 
clearly and is so elaborately documented that 
even students who do not accept the author’s 
methodological postulates will find in his book a 
very valuable collection of material, admirably 
organised. 
(2) Prof. Miinsterberg’s book is directed less to 
the student than to the educated layman—par- 
ticularly to the business man who has heard of the 
remarkable achievements (and still more remark- 
able claims) of the pioneers in the “scientific 
management ” of industrial processes and desires 
to know what a competent psychologist has to say 
upon the subject. 
The author shows by a number of interesting 
examples, largely from his own laboratory, that 
the psychologist can help the leader of industry 
in two specific and important ways. In the first 
place, by submitting candidates for employment 
to laboratory tests, he can differentiate with con- 
fidence between those whose psychophysical outfit 
is suitable for the work to be done and those who 
are unlikely ever to become efficient. Among his 
illustrations Miinsterberg describes, in this con- 
nection, the ingenious devices he uses to test the 
capacity of a man to drive an electric car through 
busy city streets. In the second place, the 
psychologist can determine the conditions of rapid 
and effective training in the performance of skilled 
acts (e.g., typewriting), and the conditions which 
will secure the most economical use of the trained 
worker’s skill while minimising the deleterious 
influences of fatigue and monotony. 
NO! 2371, VOL. 95)| 

In both these departments the “psychology of 
industry’ leads directly to social efficiency in 
both the narrower and the wider sense; for it 
tends to the increase both of the productivity and 
of the happiness of the worker. It is difficult to 
view with equal approval the investigations into 
the effects of advertisements and the psychology 
of the shop-counter, though Prof. Minsterberg’s 
studies of these topics have undoubted interest 
as explorations of human frailty. ie (Pa 
ZOOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS. 
(1) Reptiles and Batrachians. By E. G. Boulenger. 
Pp. xiv+278. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 
Ltd.; n.d.) Price 16s: net: 
(2) Some South Indian Insects and Other Animals 
of Importance, considered especially from an 
By T. Bainbridge 
(Madras: Govern- 
Price gs. 
economic point of view. 
Rletcher. | Pp: 
ment Press, 1914.) 
(1) HE prominent features of this convenient 
volume are the notes on habits, and the 
illustrations—mostly prints of photographs from 
life taken by Mr. W. S. Berridge in the Zoological 
Society’s Gardens. Comparative anatomy and 
the general principles of vertebrate zoology do not 
come within its scope; but a knowledge of these 
things being taken for granted, the two classes 
of reptilia and amphibia are surveyed as detached 
assemblages. Much after the fashion of the best 
type of museum catalogue, the distinctive char- 
acters of every subordinate group of each 
class are defined, and the geographical distribu- 
tion of the minor groups determined; and, much 
after the fashion of the best type of guide-book, 
the notable species are succinctly characterised 
and carefully considered as objects of living 
interest. A vast amount of well-arranged and 
easily assimilated information is thus presented 
to the intelligent reader, not only in respect of 
structural features, taxonomic relations, — life- 
history, habits, range, and mode of life, but also 
with regard to popular beliefs and native super- 
stitions, economic bearings, and numerous other 
matters of interest. Beyond this the author, as 
one of the curators of the Zoological Society’s 
Gardens, has taken every opportunity of recording 
interesting facts concerning the behaviour, adapt- 
ability, and treatment of reptiles and batrachians 
in captivity, and of noting their peculiarities, 
preferences, and other interesting phenomena of 
their growth and being. 
Snakes occupy exactly one-third of the book, 
and the author has done justice to the subject. 
With regard to venomous snakes, however, he 
has scarcely made it clear that in order to inject 
its venom in lethal amount a snake must not only 
XX11+ 565. 
