September 27, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



215 



sons were given each of the following ten concrete and ten abstract 

 words, and were required to name a suggested idea as quickly as 

 possible ; viz., kotise, tree, ship, chair, clock, bird, shoe, hat, child, 

 Jtand, and ii?ne, courage, form, virtue, art, love, strength, part, 

 beauty, number. Of the 4,650 " concrete " words, the ten words 

 most frequently suggested by the ten given words form no less than 

 t,2io, or more than one in every four. Two hundred and nine- 

 teen (or nearly one-half) responded with finger to the word hand, 

 and 212 responded with leaf to the word tree : of the 4,650 words 

 associated with the ten abstract words, the ten most frequent asso- 

 ciations amount to 760 occurrences, or one in six ; the most frequent 

 associations being good or goodness with virtue (127 times), and 

 painting with art (115 times). 



An analysis of the associating processes here involved shows that 

 in part they harmonize with the ordinary laws of association, but 

 in part necessitate an extension of their interpretation. Dr. Cattell, 

 regarding contrast as a variety of similarity, makes the latter and 

 contiguity in space and time the two fundamental types of associa- 

 tion. The latter associations are given us ready-made by sensa- 

 tion, and so may be termed objective or outer associations, while 

 similarity may be displaced by logical associations. The objective 

 are subdivided into co-existetice and succession ; the co-existence, 

 into co-ordination, whole to part, and part to whole ; the succes- 

 sion, mto forwards and backwards. Again, the logical are either 

 cases of .■specification or causation. The former, again, are either 

 cases of correlation, specialization, or generalisation ; the latter, 

 fi?ial or efficient. These classes are not natural kinds, nor does 

 every association fall unambiguously into one class ; but they 

 call attention to real classes, and serve as a starting-point for fur- 

 ther investigation. Associations occur that only by straining fall 

 into any of the classes, associations by sounds of words (alliteration, 

 rhyming) being an important example of these. From the tables 

 printed in their essay, the authors conclude that with concrete 

 nouns the link is " not quite as often supplied by thought as by 

 sensation." Whole to part and specialization are very much more 

 frequently used than part to whole and generalizatio7i. A com- 

 parison of the associations made by the writers and two other pro- 

 fessional persons with those made by the pupils of several schools 

 shows that " logical and verbal associations are favored by the first 

 four observers, who teach and write. With the students, whole 

 /o /rtr/ is the favorite category : they seem to visualize the object 

 and name some part of it. . . . The largest proportion of logical 

 associations was made by E and C, who are engaged in abstract 

 studies." The word itself often suggests the special kind of as- 

 sociation. Thus, " tree and hand are natural objects which are 

 easily pictured, and have parts (leaves and fingers respectively) 

 readily named. With child, on the other hand, specialization was 

 the favorite category. Final cause was the largest class in the case 

 of clock, a thing made and used for the special purpose of measur- 

 ing time. Conversely, time often suggested the means of its 

 measurement. Of the other abstract nouns, art and nwnber were 

 commonly specialized, while courage and love most frequently sug- 

 gested a similar or contrasted idea." 



In all such experiments the subject himself, by going over his 

 experience just after the association, can recover the lost links 

 which the mere statement of a word and its association would 

 neglect. A few very suggestive appendices, founded upon such 

 introspections, are given, that show how very complicated the as- 

 sociative process may be, and how very cautiously one must pro- 

 ceed in the discussion of them. However, these uncertainties do 

 not seriously vitiate the value of experimental studies, and it is only 

 by such studies that a practical insight into our mental processes 

 can be gained. The ease with which association studies can be 

 made should lead one to expect many valuable contributions in the 

 near future. 



The Mental Powers of the Chimpanzee. — The female 

 chimpanzee in the Zoological Gardens at London, says Nature, has 

 recently been rnade the subject of experiments by Dr. G. J. Ro- 

 manes, that shed interesting light upon animal psychology. The 

 general intelligence of the creature is very high. She understands 

 a great many words, is ingenious in her play, and gives expression 

 to her feelings in a variety of ways. If, instead of being constantly 



exposed to the distracting influences of an inquisitive public, she 

 were carefully reared. Dr. Romanes suggests that a higher degree 

 of mental development might be expected. The experiments be- 

 gan by asking the chimpanzee to hand out one, two, or three 

 straws from her cage. If the wrong number of straws was given, 

 they were refused ; but, when the action was correct, she was re- 

 warded with a piece of fruit. The straws were taken one by one, 

 and held in the mouth until the requisite number was gathered. 

 She soon learned to associate these three names with the number 

 of straws, and unfailingly gave the right number. Ta&nfour, and 

 \cAer five, was added to her vocabulary. Her keeper has attempted 

 to teach the chimpanzee to count up to ten, but with only partial 

 success. She rarely mistakes numbers up to five, and, when 

 asked for seven, eight, nine, or ten, understands that this means 

 " more than five ; " but the accuracy of her count does not extend 

 further than this. Dr. Romanes thinks it possible that the crea- 

 ture's patience may be exhausted in these high numbers, since she 

 has to collect the straws one by one. As evidence of this, the 

 creature has been observed to double a straw and offer it as two, 

 thus showing a knowledge of multiplication. The mechanism of 

 this process is hardly that of notation, but simply the appreciation 

 of sense-impressions such as we see in a child and in savage 

 people. Tribes to whom " more than five " is ascribed in an in- 

 definite " many " have been observed. Dr. Romanes has also at- 

 tempted to teach the chimpanzee the names of colors by holding 

 out two straws of different colors, and requiring her to select the 

 color named. She learned to distinguish the white straw from 

 any other color, but never went further. Dr. Romanes sees no 

 reason why this distinction should be easier than any other, and so 

 regards the failure as probably due to color-blindness. 



n(3tes and news. 



Locomotive engineers are inclined, it is said, to obesity. 



— Gum-chewers' paralysis is the latest form of professional 

 neurosis recorded in medical literature. 



— The chemists of the United States Agricultural Department 

 are about to begin the work of investigating the different artificial 

 foods and infant foods now on the market. 



— The will of John W. McCoy, who died in Baltimore recently, 

 contains a bequest of $100,000 to the Johns Hopkins University. 

 He also gives his library to this institution. 



— The following appointments are announced at Clark Univer- 

 sity : Professor Arthur Michael of Tufts College, professor of 

 chemistry ; Professor J. Playfair McMurrich of Haverford College, 

 decent in biology ; Dr. Franz Boas, docent of the University of 

 Berlin, docent in anthropology ; B. C. Burt of Michigan University, 

 docent in historical psychology ; Professor Alfred Cook of Bryn 

 Mawr College, docent in psychology; Dr. Arthur McDonald, 

 docent in psychology ; Professor Herman C. Bumpus of Olivet 

 College, Michigan, fellow in biology. 



— The English Silk Association is arranging to hold in London, 

 next spring, an exhibition of the silk manufactures in the United 

 Kingdom and Ireland. In order to place before the public the 

 capabilities of the home industry for supplying its requirements, it 

 has been decided that the exhibition should contain specimens of va- 

 rious branches, consisting, among others, of broad and narrow silk 

 fabrics, including poplins, etc. ; also lace, embroidery, silk hosiery, 

 costumes, fans, trimmings, sewing and embroidery silks, twists, 

 cords, etc. ; thrown silks, Indian and British colonial raw silks, etc. ; 

 exhibits illustrative of the growth of silk, of the processes of manu- 

 facture, and of the printing, dyeing, and finishing of silk ; various 

 silk handicrafts in operation ; industrial and decorative design as 

 applied to silk fabrics. 



— The recently published statistics of criminality in Germany 

 confirm once more a fact brought out in earlier reports. For 

 many years the character of criminal acts in that country has been 

 undergoing a radical change : while those against property have 

 shown a constant decrease in number, the number of crimes 

 against life has as constantly increased. Some think they can 

 trace a connection between an increase in the crimes against life 

 and the increase in the use of alcoholic drinks, the greatest increase 



