o14 
NATURE 
[AuGUST 15, 1912 
from us. Subsequent psychological investigation has 
been influenced in no small measure by the point of 
view which Fouillée worked out in his principal 
work, published in 1893, ‘‘La Psychologie des idées- 
forces’’—the view, namely, that mental evolution 
proceeds by the interplay of ultimate or primordial 
idées-forces. An idée-force, as he conceived it, was 
a process at once sensory, emotional, and appetitive ; 
the force inherent in all states of consciousness had, 
so he maintained, its essential ground in the in- 
separable union of discernment, which was the source 
of intelligence, and preference, which was the source 
of will. He emphasised the intimate connection of 
sensation with motor and appetitive factors, and used 
this principle as a key to some of the leading prob- 
lems of psychology. His treatment of feeling-tone, 
of memory and its relation to conation and move- 
ment, of the perception of time, and of the growth 
of volition, is particularly penetrative and suggestive. 
Fouillée applied the conception of idées-forces to the 
philosophy of history and of law, and to the solution 
of ethical and sociological questions; and also made 
it the basis of a metaphysical monism, according to 
which mechanical movements are regarded as_in- 
separable from ideas. 
In part ii., vol. i., of The Journal of Roman Studies 
Prof. F. Haverfield contributes a valuable paper on 
Roman London. He remarks on Sir L. Gomme’s 
recent work, ‘‘The Making of London,’’ that 
“although it appears under the authority of a Uni- 
versity Press,” he is unable to accept many statements 
contained in it, such as the reference to various Celtic 
dwellings, to the territorium and pomerium of Roman 
London, and the derivation of the name Londinium. 
He thus sums up his conclusions regarding an original 
Celtic city :—'‘ Either there was no pre-Roman Lon- 
don, or it was a small and undeveloped settlement, 
which may have been on the south bank of the 
Thames." Again, he dismisses the suggestion made 
by other writers that the Roman roads did not enter 
London and leave it again, but ran across to the 
south of it. The life of London, he believes, began 
very quickly after the Roman conquest; its first phase 
was an wumwalled town situated in the eastern part 
of what we now call the City, and by a.p. 61 it had 
become important. But we know little of it, the plan 
of its streets, or its public buildings. It doubtless fell 
with other Roman cities in some unrecorded attack 
in the early fifth century, and lay waste for a hundred 
years or more. 
The Eugenics Review is issued quarterly by the 
Eugenics Education Society; it contains a record of 
their proceedings and a general guide to their pub- 
lications and to events which might be of interest to 
students of the subject. Among the contents of the 
July number is much that would appeal to a wider 
public. We would direct special attention to Mr. 
Cyril Burt’s paper on the inheritance of mental char- 
acters. Mr. Burt’s training has been that of physio- 
logist and experimental psychologist, and, approach- 
ing the subject in the latter capacity, he has furnished 
from his own researches evidence which escapes some 
of the objections made to that previously brought for- 
NO. voL. 89| 
OD 2° 
“£99? 
ward. Among the objections referred to are these : 
that native ability has been judged either by measur- 
ing faculties which depend, at any rate partly, and 
according to some schools, wholly, on education, or 
by considering professional success which is due 
largely to family influence and opportunity; thus the 
resemblance between the performances of different 
members of a family may be due to causes other 
than heredity. The experimental psychologist has 
devised tests of qualities which ‘‘do not depend to 
an appreciable degree on acquired skill and know- 
ledge,’ and has thus measured mental capacity 
directly and not by estimating mental contents. The 
evidence of heredity obtained by these means is not 
as yet very complete; it is presented by the author 
in the paper under review in a frank and unassuming 
manner, and considered in conjunction with the results 
obtained previously by statistical methods or by reason- 
ing from known mental characters of different races. 
WE have received from Mr. B. G. Teubner, of 
Leipzig, the first part of the Zentralblatt fiir Zoologie, 
allgemeine und experimentelle Biologie, published 
by his firm. This periodical is an amalgamation of 
the Zoologisches Zentralblatt and the Zentralblatt fiir 
allgemeine und experimentelle Biologie. It contains 
classified reviews and abstracts of current biological 
and zoological literature, and will doubtless prove 
almost indispensable to working zoologists and bio- 
logists. The multiplication of biological journals has 
been so rapid of late years that we cannot but wel- 
come a diminution in their number by such an amal- 
gamation as this. 
Mr. H. W. Kew has favoured us with a copy of 
a paper from the Zoological Society’s Proceedings of 
the current year on the pairing of false-scorpions of 
the subgenera Chelifer and Chernes.. In both the 
male is destitute of an intromittent organ, and fer- 
tilisation is eftected by the two sexes facing one another 
in walking posture, when the male grasps with one 
or both hands (according to the subgenus) the corre- 
sponding organs or organ of the female. The male 
next extrudes a spermatophore, which stands erect or 
obliquely on the surface supporting the creatures, and 
then retires backwards while the female advances 
until the spermatophore comes below her genital 
aperture, into which it is immediately received. 
AccorDING to the first part of vol. xii. of The 
Museums Journal, the Museums Association is in a 
flourishing condition, both as regards finance and 
membership. Discounting certain extraordinary ex- 
penditure, the balance-sheet shows a surplus, while 
the list of members has increased by six during the 
past year. In a lecture reported in the same issue, 
Dr. W. E. Hoyle gives some useful hints on museums, 
from the point of view of both the curator and the 
visitor. He specially insists on the limitation of scope 
in the exhibits, and of the prime importance of illus- 
trating local subjects, particularly the history and rise 
of culture. 
To vol. ii., pt. 4, of the Journal of the East Africa 
and Uganda Natural History Society Mr. R. J. Cun- 
inghame contributes an account of Mr. Le Petit’s 
