336 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 478. 



phenomenally or existentially, participates in 

 one case in the content, in the other in the 

 being of absolute personality, and as such, so 

 far as individual man is concerned, is the 

 objectification of the conditions of higher in- 

 dividual development. 



Retinal Local Signs: Mr. Walter F. Dear- 

 born. 



This paper was offered as a critique of the 

 first of the three Lotzean hypotheses concern- 

 ing the nature of the retinal local sigTis. Ex- 

 periments to determine the accuracy of the 

 motor impulse, as shown by the ability to 

 fixate directly eccentric visual stimuli forty 

 degrees to the right of the primary line of 

 regard, found an average error of corrective 

 movements considerably in excess of the 

 threshold value of local discrimination for the 

 same part of the retina. These discrepancies 

 between the accuracy of the motor impulse 

 and the delicacy of local discrimination seem 

 to necessitate some modification of the tradi- 

 tional view in regard to the nature of the 

 local signs, or at least in regard to the relative 

 importance of the motor factor. 

 Dewey's 'Studies in Logical Theory': Dr. 

 Henry Da\ies. 



In this paper only the four chapters con- 

 tributed by Professor Dewey to the above work 

 were considered. 



Toward the right understanding of the work 

 two conditions of a historical character must 

 be borne in mind. One of these is the rela- 

 tion of recent logical theory to the Kantian 

 diialism of sense and reason whicli tended 

 to separate thought from its object. The 

 other is the influence of the evokitionary 

 method, which drives the investigator to study 

 logical distinctions in the light of their 

 genesis in experience. 



Both of these conditions exert a profound 

 influence over Dewey's thought. For it is 

 the essence of his contribution to logical theory 

 that he shows that the obstinate manner in 

 which logicians have accejjted the Kantian 

 reading of experience is the most fruitful 

 historical cause of the contradictions, e. g., in 

 Lotze's ' Logic ' as well as in that of Bradley 

 and Bosanquet. Dewey claims that this is a 

 complete misreading of the thought situation. 



On the other hand, common sense and em- 

 pirical science with their pragmatic and evo- 

 lutionary method disclose the real situation. 

 Thought is a question of specific purposes, 

 specific contexts and specific conflicts. Com- 

 mon sense and empirical science assume for 

 these specific aims the unity and continuity 

 of experience. The logical problem emerges 

 when this is broken up by an inward conflict 

 into fact and theory, datum and ideatum. 

 The content of thought is just this conflict, 

 which is only a temporary phase of the logical 

 situation, the outcome of which must always 

 be the reestablishment of the original unity 

 in our experience. 



It follows from this that logic can not con- 

 template as its aim a completely rationalized 

 metaphysics. Rather its function is to act 

 as a philosophy of experience, as a method by 

 which experience may be advanced towards 

 better and more complete knowledge. But the 

 rectification of experience and the complete 

 correlation of all the functions of experience 

 presuppose a logic of genetic experience. It 

 is Dewey's merit to have pointed this out and 

 to have, in large part, supplied the need in the 

 present work. 



The Distrihution of Errors in Spelling Eng- 

 lish Words : Professor Egbert MacDougall. 

 Dr. MacDougall made a provisional report 

 upon an investigation of the distribution of 

 errors in spelling English words. These oc- 

 cur characteristically in the latter part of the 

 word, but do not present a continuous in- 

 crease from beginning to end. The curve of 

 error is an anticlinal having its maximum 

 in the third quarter of the word and its 

 points of origin the initial and final letters, 

 of which the latter is the higher in the scale 

 of errors. Similar relations are presented by 

 the component syllables, fewest errors occur 

 in the initial, most in the median letters. 

 Considered apart from their relation to the 

 termination of the word, the frequency of 

 error in successive letters is found to increase 

 with each remove from the beginning of the 

 word. 



The Ultimate Relation between Magic and 

 Religion: Dr. lR'\aNG King. 

 Magic and religion can not be legitimately 



