380 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J. 



nature of intelligence and ' its meaning in psychological and physiological terms.' • 

 The present paper reports the results of measurements of the speed of reactions of 

 varied complexity of a small group of boys, the reactions ranging from reflex time 

 as given in the patellar tendon reflex to speeds in the higher processes. 



Miss Maegaret Drummond. — Magic and the Child. 



There are three modes of interpretation which may be applied by man to his 

 environment : (a) magical (self-power) ; (6) supernatural (other-power) ; (c) rational 

 (power through understanding or insight). Infantile experience necessitates the 

 priority in time of (a). Mental progress consists in the gradual substitution of (6) 

 and more particularly of (c) for (a), though few, if any, human beings eliminate (a) 

 entirely. In times of stress reversions to (a) are common. 



A specifically human power is the power of escape from reality — a power which 

 is found at every level of intelligence, and is indeed necessary for the progress of 

 thought. In such escapes (a) retains or regains dominance, unless the escape is 

 made under the guidance of insight, in which case the results are brought back to 

 the test of experience. 



Innate differences probably existin the force of the escape tendency. Unhappiness 

 in reality produced by fear, lack of satisfaction, &c., will foster it, and favour complete 

 divorce from reality. 



The yoimger the child or the lower the intelligence the greater is the likelihood 

 that (a) not (c) will govern the mental activity, and that the divorce from reality will 

 be complete. 



Many cases of primary mental defect, of delinquency, of educational retardation, 

 may be due to arrest of mental progress from (a) to (c), an arrest rendered possible 

 by the power to escape from reality. 



Mental development takes place only under the stimulus of the environment, so 

 that withdrawal from the influence of the environment must be a potent factor in 

 mental retardation. 



Illustrative cases. 



Miss M. D. Vernon. — Distractions in Reading. 



During the reading of letters, disconnected words and sentences, the liability to 

 distraction by different kinds of visual obstructions interposed between the lines 

 varied considerably for different individuals. Those in whom the tendency to fixate 

 the obstructions was strongest and most variable were greatly affected by a number 

 of subjective factors, of which the most important was the effort to arrange and 

 organise their perceptions of the experimental material in accordance with previously 

 formed patterns of language and thought. Apprehension of the content of the 

 reading matter was much impaired by the connections and conflicts which arose 

 between these organisations of meaning. But in reading sentences the motor reactions 

 were directed and regulated by the deeply rooted motor habits formed in normal 

 reading. 



Other individuals who were less readily distracted by the visual obstructions 

 were much more objective in their attitude. They paid less attention to the meaning 

 and interest of the experimental material and more to the efficient execution of the 

 necessary eye-movements. 



Thursday, August 1. 



Prof. T. M. Forsyth. — The Significance of Holism. 



Holism means the tendency to the origination and development of wholes or 

 unities in nature or the universe generally. 



As thus defined, holism is a principle or concept in the philosophy of science that 

 claims to replace, or at least to supplement, that of mechanism. 



According to the principle of mechanism, the essential character of even the most 

 highly developed products of any natural process is expressed by showing them to 

 be only very complex cases of the same kind of action and the same intrinsic qualities 

 as are exhibited in lower or simpler occurrences. Or again, on this principle, any kind 

 of whole or unity is nothing but the sum of its parts, the mechanical resultant of 



