400 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J. 



intensity difierences give the Local Sign for sounds of high pitch. Increases of 

 physical intensity are transformed into increases of psychological loudness, eitlier 

 through more fibres of the Basilar Membrane being set into motion by the louder 

 sound, thus setting up an increased number of nervous impulses, or by stronger 

 impulses being produced, or by both more and stronger impulses being originated. 



These two separate systems (time-diSerence and intensity) will account for the 

 facts of localisation. 



7. Dr. R. D. Gillespie. — Heredity and Environment in the Production 

 of Morbid Mental Reactions. 



The estimate of the relative importance of inherited (instinctive) and acquired 

 reactions has been changing in recent years. The work of Watson and others has 

 suggested a comparatively limited instinctive endowment in man, in contrast with 

 the assumptions of most writers. The point is of importance in pathological 

 psychology also, not only because a wider and more significant incidence of acquired 

 reactions would make for greater hopefulness in prevention and therapy, but because 

 in pathological psychology, where certain reactions, being morbid, are very obvious, 

 and so have a more easily traceable history, an opportunity is afforded for contributing 

 something to the problem in psychology generally. An inquiry into the histories of 

 fifty-three psychoneurotic patients showed that in seventeen of them, many of the 

 leading symptoms could be demonstrated to be the revival in adult life of reactions 

 impressed upon them by early environmental (especially familial and scholastic) 

 influences. In the majority of the seventeen cases there were distinct evidences of 

 mental instability in the ancestors and collaterals. But whether or not this 

 instability be considered heritable in a general way, the cases under investigation 

 showed that in them outstanding specific morbid traits were derived directly from 

 personal contact with parents and others in the early environment. In these 

 psychoneurotics the conclusion seems justifiable that the illness is attributable in type 

 at least to acquisition, while its actual occurrence depends in part on the acquired 

 habits of reaction. It is obvious that what at first glance appears to be inherited in 

 an unstable family may simply be transmitted by personal contact. The conclusions 

 are of some practical significance for the prevention of mental illness. 



Friday, August 6. 



8. Prof. C. Burt. — Estimations of Temperament and Character. 



9. Dr. J. C. Maxwell Garnett, C.B.E. — The Psychology of Patriotism. 



This fortress built by nature for herself 



Against infection and the hand of war ; 



This happy breed of men, this little world. 



This precious stone set in the silver sea. 

 The land we live in, the people who belong there, their ways of life and habits of 

 mind — for all these we have a sentimental attachment. We feel proud, if they prosper ; 

 dejected, if they fail ; angry, if they are attacked by word or deed ; anxious, if they 

 are in danger. Here is a plain case of a ' sentiment,' as Mr. Shand calls ' an organised 

 system of emotional tendencies centred about the same object.' 



The precise nature of the object is discussed in the paper. Here it is enough to 

 say that these emotional tendencies are just what we call patriotism, if only their 

 object is sufficiently clear-cut. York or Devon, Kentucky or Idaho, with their 

 peoples and their ways of life, are not distinct enough. But Switzerland is ; Canada 

 is, or soon will be ; while England used to be English, and now, officially at least, is 

 British. 



Patriotism, then, is a sentiment. Like other sentiments, it is not innate. On 

 the contrary, it is the product of environment and education. Among environmental 

 influences that tend to produce intense patriotism are sharp geographical boundaries, 

 distinctive race or language, a noble literature, a glorious tradition with a period of 

 intense endeavour and strong emotion, common ideals and a common purpose, and, 

 last but not least, the nation-state where people who already, as a nation, have dis- 



