October 19, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



605 



TSE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 

 PSYCHOLOGY. 

 The Congress was held in Paris, in the 

 Palace of Congresses on the Exposition 

 grounds, from the 20th to the 25th of 

 August, 1900. Its president was Professor 

 Eibot, its vice-president Professor Eiehet, 

 and its indefatigable secretary, on whom 

 rested most of the work of organization, Dr. 

 Pierre Janet. The registered membership 

 numbered over 350, but a large proportion 

 of these were not present. France was of 

 course very fully represented, but the Ger- 

 man and English contingents were small, 

 and the American contingent lacked, among 

 others, Professors James and Baldwin, who 

 had expected to attend, but were prevented. 

 Among the visitors present were Ebbing- 

 haus, Kiilpe and O. Vogt, Ladd and Miin- 

 sterberg, Sergi and Ferrari, Myers, Flour- 

 noy, Demoor, Tschisoh, Mile. Manaceine, 

 and others whose writings are well known* 

 The Congress was divided into six sec- 

 tions : the physiological and comparative, 

 under the presidency of Ives Delage ; the 

 introspective and philosophical, under Seail- 

 les ; the experimental, under Binet ; the 

 pathological, under Magnan; hypnotism 

 and suggestion, under Bernheim ; and social 

 psychology, under Tarde. The morning 

 was usually devoted to section meetings, 

 and the afternoon to general sessions. 



The presidential address of Eibot was 

 concerned with the progress made in psy- 

 chology since the Munich Congress. Among 

 the other principal addresses were those of 

 Ebbinghaus, comparing the psychology of 

 the present with that of 100 years ago ; of 

 Demoor, on the functions of nerve cells and 

 of the cerebral cortex, as deduced from 

 histological observations ; of Sergi, on the 

 treatment of consciousness in modern psy- 

 chology ; of Solokov, on ' colored hearing ' 

 considered as a sort of symbolism ; of Tar- 

 khanoff, on illusions and hallucinations of 

 frogs. 



Vogt aroused an animated discussion by 

 attacking Flechsig's doctrine of association 

 centers, and by denj^ing any psychological 

 value to anatomical studies of the brain. 



Mile. Manaceine presented the results of 

 some experiments concerning the effects of 

 different foods on the disposition of animals. 

 She found dogs to be more tranquil and less 

 quarrelsome on a vegetable diet than on a 

 meat diet. In this connection, Eiehet re- 

 ported similar observations of his own, lead- 

 ing to a similar conclusion, except that only 

 raw meat differed in its psychic effects from 

 a vegetable diet. On a diet of raw meat 

 the dogs were more quarrelsome, but also 

 more affectionate to their master ; all their 

 instincts and passions were sharpened. 



Eiehet presented a remarkable musical 

 prodigy in the person of a little boy who at 

 the age of two and a half years had sur- 

 prised his parents by spontaneously playing 

 pieces on the piano. Now, after a year of 

 training, he not only uses his tiny hands 

 with considerable ' virtuosity,' but shows 

 a wonderful memory for classical music, a 

 genuine grasp of expression, ability to com- 

 pose and improvise — in short, the mastery 

 and independence of an artist. A strange 

 fact is that the child can play only on the 

 poor, broken-toned old piano on which he 

 started. Every attempt to substitute a 

 better instrument has led to failure. 



Vaschide read a paper summarizing and 

 adding to the evidence for the independence 

 of the muscular and cutaneous senses. Cut- 

 ting the cutaneous nerves does not demor- 

 alize the movements of an animal, as cut- 

 ting all the sensory nerves does. 



Alrutz reported some observations on the 

 temperature sense. He is able to evoke a 

 sensation of cold by stimulating the cold 

 spots with warm objects (under certain con- 

 ditions) . The sensation of heat or burning, 

 as distinguished from that of simple warmth, 

 is, he believes, produced by the simultaneous 

 stimulation of both hot spots and cold spots. 



