OCTOBEB 5, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



431 



and droll, but never caustic, and his 

 chivalrous spirit, will always linger in our 

 memory. 



We desire to tender to the bereaved 

 family of our lamented colleague our pro- 

 found sympathy, and we order spread 

 upon the records of the senate this minute, 

 in remembrance of our appreciation of his 

 work and life among us. 



Warren P. Lombard, 

 Martin L. D'Ooge, 



Committee. 



May 7, 1906. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Les Revelations de I'ecrititre d'apres un coiv- 

 irole scientifique. Alfred Binet, Docteur 

 es Sciences, Directeur du laboratoire de 

 psychologie physiologique. Librairies Fe- 

 lix Alcan et Guillaumin reunies, Paris, 

 108 Boulevard St. Germain. 8vo. Preface. 

 March 24, 1906. 



Dr. Binet continues bis excellent work, be- 

 ginning with the ' Pbilosophie du raisonne- 

 ment ' and ' Recbercbes experimentales par 

 I'bypnotisme ' (1886), which preceded 'Ani- 

 mal Magnetism' (1888), 'Psychic Life of 

 Micro-organisms' (1889), and 'Les alterations 

 de la personalite ' (1892) ; by commencing a 

 new series of studies of certain fetishes which 

 have become rooted in the beliefs of a large 

 number of people. 



These are graphology, phrenology and chiro- 

 mancy. A study of such subjects by a master 

 is of the greatest value to the world, and hence 

 a considerable space is given to the review of 

 the first on the list in order that the reader 

 may judge of both methods and conclusions. 

 The book of 257 pages is a resurae of a 

 series of tests applied by the author to 

 ' Graphologists ' as well as lay experimenters 

 (the latter of all ages and degrees of intelli- 

 gence) as to their ability to detennine the sex 

 (first part, 4 chapters, 21 pages), the age 

 (second part, 5 chapters, 15 pages) ; the in- 

 telligence (third part, 11 chapters, 124 pages) ; 

 and the character (fourth part, 7 chapters, 



77 pages) ; of a writer by his or her chirog- 

 raphy. 



Part I.: By what marks can sex he de- 

 termined in writing? 



Dr. Binet proceeds on the ground that if 

 those professing to be graphologists can de- 

 termine the sex from writing in more than 

 50 per cent, of cases it raises their ability 

 above that of pure chance, which (iii a large 

 series) is just 50 per cent. 



To avoid suggestion he decided to use the 

 addresses on envelopes. Even here the per- 

 centage of error of his experts rises materially 

 when the addresses are from a person of one 

 sex to one of another. The two experts were 

 M. Crepieux-Jamin, of Rouen, and M. Eloy, 

 of Paris. 



Amusing experiments to ascertain how 

 much more reliable were professional graph- 

 ologists than ' ignorants ' (those ignorant of 

 the so-called art of 'graphology') resulted as 

 follows. In 180 addresses M. Crepieux-Jamin,, 

 by far the most skillful graphologist, was cor- 

 rect in 78.8 per cent, of the cases. He di- 

 vided his determinations into ' certain ' and 

 'probable.' Of the former were 129 and of 

 the latter 51, that is, he was uncertain twice 

 in seven times. Of his fifty-one mistakes he 

 had marked 28 'certain' and 23 'probable,' 

 while of the 129 correct replies he had marked 

 but 27 replies 'probable' and 102 'certain.' 



Those ignorant of graphology gave nearly 

 as great a proportion of correct answers. For 

 instance, a studious girl of seventeen was cor- 

 rect in 70 per cent, of her replies. Four in- 

 structors and instructresses in the schools of 

 France reached percentages of 72.9, 73, 73 

 and 73, though quite ignorant of graphology. 



The author concludes with astonishing seri- 

 ousness, " The gift of recognizing sexual char- 

 acter in writing belongs to nearly everybody, 

 but the ablest of the ' ignorants ' are still be- 

 low the best graphologists " — (by less than 2 

 per cent. P. F.). 



Chapter III. is devoted to photo-reproduc- 

 tions of addresses of which some specimens 

 revealed the sex of the writer to all who 

 examined them (18); others were doubtful; 

 and still others were purposely falsified. One 



