July 12, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



51 



lie devoted his life, viz., the amelioration of 

 the condition of the insane, and the pro- 

 gress of nenrological and psychological 

 medicine. 



With the view of carrying out this object, 

 an influential and representative committee 

 has been appointed, and they are of opinion 

 that the memorial should take the form of 

 a prize or medal to be awarded as an en- 

 couragement to the studj^ of the above- 

 mentioned subjects. 



The committee venture to make an ear- 

 nest appeal to all those who desire to honor 

 the memory of Dr. Tuke and to promote 

 his life's work, for subscriptions to carry 

 out this object. 



The subscriptions may be sent to the 

 Honorary Treasurer, Henry Kayner, M. D., 

 2 Harly street, London, W. 



G. F. Blandford, M. D., 



Chairman. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 L 'Annee psyeJwlogique. Premiere Annee, 



1894. Publiee par MM. H. Beaunis et 



A. BiNET. Alcan, Paris, 1895. Pp. vii., 



619. 10 fi-ancs. 



This new annual combines two main fea- 

 tures, both of which will prove of interest 

 and value to psychologists : it publishes the 

 results of the investigations undertaken at 

 the psychological laboratory of the Sor- 

 bonne, together with some other original ar- 

 ticles, and a general review on some im- 

 portant question ; and it gives an extended 

 analysis and bibliography of all the impor- 

 tant psychological literature which appeared 

 in 1894. With the lai'gely increasing mass 

 of Uterature appearing iu this field , the lat- 

 ter feature will render the annual extremely 

 helpful. As to the original matter, every 

 one who is familiar with the previous work 

 of M. Binet, the director of the laboratory, 

 will be assured beforehand of its high qual- 

 ity, its thoroughness and its insight. 



I. After a brief introduction by M. Beau- 



nis, we find the original articles occupying 

 in all 255 pages. They are as follows : 



(1) A. Binet and V. Henri : Memory for 

 Words (Pp. 1-23). The number of iso- 

 lated words retained after a single hearing 

 varies with age and with the number of 

 words heard ; onlj' one- third to one-half as 

 many are preserved in memory as can be 

 repeated immediately after hearing them 

 read ; the first and the last words heard 

 are the ones best retained ; in immediate 

 repetition, errors of sound, and in later repe- 

 tition, errors of sense predominate. Errors 

 of omission are much more numerous than 

 errors of imagination, where for one word 

 is substituted another entirely different. 

 The principles of contiguity and of resem- 

 blance are not sufficient to account for the 

 recall of particular words ; the direction of 

 the attention towards the experiment as a 

 whole is a further essential condition. 



(2) A. Binet and V. Henri : Memory for 

 Phrases (for ideas). (Pp. 24-59). The 

 number of words retained was found, under 

 the conditions of the experiment, to be 

 about 25 times as great when they occur in 

 connected phrases as when they are iso- 

 lated. 



(3) A. Binet and J. Passy : Psychologi- 

 cal Studies of Dramatic Authors. (Pp. 60- 

 119). This paper gives the results of an 

 attempt to throw light on the question of 

 the creative imagination by means of inter- 

 views with Victorien Sardou, Alexandre 

 Dumas, Alphonse Daudet, Edouard Pail- 

 leron, Henry Meilhac, Edmond de Gon- 

 court and Francois Cappee. The following 

 results were attained: (1) The work of 

 literary composition does not manifest itself 

 in any exceptioaal phj'sical or moral condi- 

 tion distinguishing it from other mental oc- 

 cupations. The belief in an 'artistic hallucin- 

 ation,' as well as in the importance of the 

 influence of the seasons, of the environ- 

 ment, of artificial excitants, is unfounded. 

 The work of artistic creation demands full 



