588 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1198 



autistic thinking to making it worth while to 

 live." 



Pages 71 to 113 are devoted to Symbolic As- 

 sociation, in a chapter showing a remarkably 

 wide range of resources of reading, and lead- 

 ing from the symbolisms of language and of 

 normal waking life to those of dreams. 



The discussion of emotion is given the title 

 " The continuity of emotion," and deals with 

 "aifective displacement" (a somewhat ques- 

 tionable term for affective diffusion and dis- 

 proportions) and affective compensation. The 

 more specific types of " affective displacement " 

 are exemplified by a number of " unaccount- 

 able" dislikes and in the use of contrast and 

 exaggeration in humor. " Loaded " experi- 

 ences and transference are reduced to the prin- 

 ciple that emotions are to be viewed as reac- 

 tions, which are switched in and out accord- 

 ing to the principle of associated reflex and 

 conditioned and associated responses. The 

 switching off of the affect is spoken of as a de- 

 emotionalizing and siphoning process. The 

 role of various complexes and affective sym- 

 bolism is illustrated by many examples. The 

 phrase " Objekt vergeht, Affect besteht " ex- 

 presses the meaning of the title of the chapter. 



The discussion of " Types of Dissociation " 

 is more clearly systematic than most of the 

 rest of the book and is a valuable survey for 

 the student, although perhaps somewhat 

 heavily loaded with varieties and subvarieties 

 for those readers who have but little concrete 

 experience, and who might have a desire for 

 principles rather than for details. Chapter 

 VT. (pp. 204-226) takes up the dynamic im- 

 portance of factors which determine repres- 

 sions and its various degrees. Chapter Vll. 

 takes us into the field of available experi- 

 mental approaches, with a discussion of vari- 

 ous types of intelligence tests, the association 

 method, and those involving what is called 

 measiurements by relative position (the " better 

 or worse "), free association, the schedule of 

 personality study; and a final chapter dealing 

 with •' Balancing Factors " gives a valuation of 

 various trends for life and the quest of happi- 

 ness and application to education. 



It is, I suppose, both a merit and a draw- 



back of the book that it resists a brief sum- 

 marizing survey. Clearness of principles and 

 the ease of reading might readily gain by 

 moderation in the amount of illustration and 

 in the use of metaphors, or, since most of 

 these are really well chosen, by paragraphs of 

 orientation. The few paragraphs of this char- 

 acter certainly do much to make one more 

 receptive. 



Wells puts forth as his aim not to tell us 

 things, but to enable us to see for ourselves 

 what we would otherwise miss. He does, in 

 fact, tell us so many things that one feels very 

 much the importance of what he himself calls 

 " strategic regrouping," of the author's treas- 

 ure of reading and of observation. Every 

 ■ reader of the replete volume must be willing 

 to do his share; those who do so will certainly 

 find a rich material and ample work. How 

 readily the book would lead one not abeady 

 experienced in the field wiU have to be tried 

 out. The reviewer can not help feeling that 

 medical responsibilities with the cases and the 

 material might have added a kind of practical 

 simplicity and directness where the reader 

 might be apt to lose himself in the detail. 

 Wells does, however, make it clear that the 

 normal and the abnormal are made of much 

 the same material, and his book, with its soft- 

 ened rendering of Freudian conceptions, will 

 be a stimulus and a help along sane and useful 

 lines. Adolf Meyer 



The Combination of Observations. By David 

 Brunt, M.A. (Cantab.), B.Sc. (Wales), Lec- 

 turer in Mathematics at the Monmouthshire 

 Training College, Cffirleon, Mon. Cam- 

 bridge University Press. 1917. Pp. x -f 

 219. 



This book gives an elementary treatment of 

 the methods of adjusting observations. The 

 normal or Gaussian law of error is derived 

 from Hagan's hypotheses regarding the nature 

 of errors, and the presentation in this connec- 

 tion is very attractive. The book gives a brief 

 and simple treatment of certain important 

 parts of the theory of statistics. This includes 

 Pearson's generalized frequency curves first 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions of 



