426 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1003 



bias, and just as soon as I enter politics I 

 begin to act as a partisan and I lose my place 

 as a judge and an unbiased individual. As 

 soon as a professor enters polities he makes 

 the university an object of political purpose. 

 This is so for the reason that the political 

 activity may be utilized and places gained 

 through political control. 



As politics go, you can not escape their con- 

 sequences, and to develop a theory about aca- 

 demic freedom that you can escape them, and 

 still take part in them, is entirely beside the 

 mark. There is no restriction placed upon 

 the teaching of a professor, or upon his speak- 

 ing upon social and economic questions, but as 

 soon as he allies himseK with a political body 

 which seeks to control the political power of 

 the state, there is danger. The life of the uni- 

 versities in this state and elsewhere depends 

 upon their being able to keep above this kind 

 of politics, the kind that you want to engage 

 in. Professor Ross, of the University of Wis- 

 consin, put it in this way: "We (meaning 

 professors) ought to be willing to give over the 

 forum to the politicians for a period of six 

 weeks, when we have it all the rest of the 

 year." 



I do not acquiesce at all in your view that 

 the educational life of the universities and of 

 the state is endangered by this attitude. To 

 my mind, it is good sense and good policy. 



With best wishes for your success, I remain, 

 Yours very truly, 

 Frank L. McVey, 



President 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



OljeMive Psychologie. By W. von Bechterew. 



Authorized translation. Leipzig and Berlin : 



Teubner. 1913. Pp. viii + 468. 16 Mks. 



unbound, 18 Mks. bound. 



The study of animal behavior is developing 

 a tendency among certain psychologists to 

 emphasize motor expression as a research 

 method in human psychology. Professor Max 

 Meyer's " Laws of Human Behavior " is 

 typical of this trend, though it shows the influ- 

 ence of traditional psychology in many re- 

 spects. Other American writers are leaning 



in the same direction, and Professor J. B. 

 Watson has recently thrown down the gaunt- 

 let by proclaiming boldly that behavior is the 

 one fruitful method of psychological inves- 

 tigation, and that the study of consciousness 

 is unscientific and barren. 



In his " Objective Psychology " Professor 

 Bechterew attempts a systematic development 

 of psychology according to the behavior 

 method. He does not expressly reject intro- 

 spective psychology, but proposes to eliminate 

 it from the present work. Starting with the 

 concept of the neuropsychic reflex he aims to 

 describe the whole mental life of man in terms 

 of expression, discarding entirely conscious 

 phenomena, such as sensation, feeling and 

 thought. He calls this science objective psy- 

 chology or psychoreflexology. A better Eng- 

 lish equivalent is behaviorism or behavior 

 psychology. Considering the newness of the 

 field, Bechterew's attempt is fairly successful. 

 He has outlined systematically and with re- 

 markable completeness the various aspects of 

 human mental life as they are manifested in 

 every sort of objective expression. 



A distinction is made at the outset between 

 purely nervous processes and neuropsychic 

 processes. The former depend solely on pres- 

 ent stimuli and inherited nervous mechanisms ; 

 the latter are modified by past individual ex- 

 perience (pp. 16, 22, 24). Every impression 

 " leaves in the nerve centers a certain trace 

 which under certain circumstances can be re- 

 experienced and thereupon appears as an 

 associative or psychic reflex" (105). Impres- 

 sions or stimuli are classed as external (that 

 is, from peripheral sense organs) and internal 

 (organic, etc.) ; the resulting expressions are 

 either movements, vasomotor activity, or secre- 

 tion (164). Responses to external stimuli are 

 termed reflexes, those due to internal stimula- 

 tion are called automatic movements (165), 

 though the distinction is not always sharply 

 marked (166). 



Reactions of every type have become organ- 

 ized into complex " acts " by means of special 

 nervous mechanisms aided by the traces of 

 former impressions. Thus an external stim- 

 ulus may give rise to a complex act such as 



