756 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 489. 



special child study to this end is one of the 

 needs of the hour. 



SUMMARY. 



The evolution of comparative psychol- 

 ogy has followed in the main the evolution 

 of biology and of psychology, and the gen- 

 eral trend of human thought. 



AVheu man's mental attitude toward 

 nature in general changed, animals also 

 were regarded in a new light. 



Until comparatively recently the contri- 

 butions to the subject have been character- 

 ized by many-sidedness, but at the same 

 time by looseness and often inaccuracy, 

 with a tendency to undue credulity and an- 

 thropomorphism. 



The 'experiments' of the laboratory 

 school of comparative psychology have been 

 chiefly valuable in their negative and in- 

 direct results. A large proportion of the 

 tests used thus far have been inadequate 

 and often positively misleading; but they 

 have also indicated the directions in which 

 we need not hope to succeed, and suggested 

 more fruitful methods. These experiments 

 have shown that under even unfavorable 

 conditions animals may form new mental 

 associations with surprising rapidity. 



The laboratory methods have proved 

 themselves best adapted to the study of in- 

 vertebrates and the lower vertebrates. 



The most fruitful work thus far done 

 has been the observation of the development 

 of animals from birth upward by the con- 

 secutive or (fairly) continuous method, to- 

 gether with such experimentation as has 

 been oarried out under freer and more 

 natural conditions generally than those un- 

 der which the laborators worked. 



It is important that similar observations 

 and experiments be made on other of our 

 domestic animals and especially on wild 

 animals. 



In all cases the investigator should be, if 

 possible, a man with a knowledge of animal 

 life in general, and a special knowledge of 



the animals to be subjected to critical ob- 

 servation ; and if he can combine this with 

 a scientific acquaintance with both biology 

 and psychology, so much the better. The 

 sooner it is realized that the man is as im- 

 portant as the method, the better for the 

 development of comparative psychology. 



Much light is likely to come to compara- 

 tive psychology from judicious child study, 

 and it is important that both biologists and 

 psychologists turn towards it and if pos- 

 sible work in concert in dealing with so 

 large a field .as comparative psychology. 

 Wesley Mills. 



McGiLL UNnrERSITY. 



literature. 

 Lubbock, Sir John. 



' Ants, Bees and Wasps.' D. Appleton & Co., 



New York, 1883. 

 ' On the Senses, Instincts and Intelligence of 

 Animals,' 1897. 

 ROSfANES, G. J. 



' Animal Intelligence.' ' Mental Evolution in 

 Man,' 1899. 

 Thorndike, E. L. 



' Animal Intelligence.' Monograph Supplement 



to Psychological Review, 1898. 

 ' The Mental Life of the Monkeys.' lUd., 1901. 

 ' The Evolution of the Human Intellect.' Pop- 

 ular Science Monthly, Vol. 60, No. 1, Nov., 

 1901. 

 ' The Intelligence of Monkeys.' Ibid., Vol. 59. 

 Small, W. S. 

 ' Notes on the Psychic Development of the Young 

 White Rat.' American Journal of Psychol- 

 ogy, Oct., 1899. 

 ' Experimental Study of the Mental Processes of 

 the Rat, II.' Ibid., 1901. 



HOBHOXJSE, L. T. 



' Mind in Evolution.' Macmillan & Co., 1901. 

 Mills, Wesley. 



' The Nature and Development of Animal Intel- 

 ligence.' Macmillan & Co., 1898. Psycholog- 

 ical Review, Vol. VI., No. 3. 



KiNNAMAN, A. J. 



' Mental Life of Two Macacus Rhesus Monkeys 

 in Captivity.' American Journal of Psy- 

 chology, Vol. 13. 

 MiNOT, C. S. 



' The Problem of Consciousness in its Biological 

 Aspects.' Science, N. S., Vol. 16, No. 392. 



