Mat 15, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



111 



guidance to the instructor; like that, too, 

 though not for like reasons, it limits its prac- 

 tical exercises to a rather few problems; yet 

 it shares with Sanford the emphasis of prin- 

 ciples and takes for granted about the same 

 level of maturity and earnestness of interest 

 as does the use of the Sanford volume. Yet 

 Judd's book is compatible with the very mini- 

 mum of hours devoted to practise work, and 

 in that emulates the Witmer volimae. It thus 

 becomes clear that the Judd series should find 

 a place amid the sorts and conditions that 

 affect the instruction in psychology in our 

 colleges, and with a favorable environment 

 and able handling, the volumes will do good 

 service. They will also serve the cause of 

 psychology by making available and thus com- 

 prehensible to a larger body the close relation 

 of views on life and mind and the scientific 

 attitude towards their examination. 



Without risking further so much of the 

 odium of comparison as seemed necessary to 

 place Professor Judd's volume among its fel- 

 lows, one may proceed to some account of the 

 text. Professor Judd favors an indirect and 

 objective attack upon the problems of mental 

 experience. An introductory setting forth of 

 psychology, what it aiins to do and how it 

 proceeds, a survey of the nervous system in its 

 evolutionary phases, a more minute survey of 

 the nervous system of man and of its action, 

 precede the general unfoldment of conscious 

 experience from which the rest of the volume 

 takes its order and unfoldment. For the sys- 

 tematic groupings and analyses of mental ex- 

 perience prove to be those connected with sen- 

 sations and their functional issue in relations 

 to the outer world with its setting in space 

 and time, and then most naturally the cul- 

 mination and motivation of these in the ex- 

 pression of action and behavior. The conduct 

 thus resulting presents gradations and com- 

 plications, and in turn involves subjective atti- 

 tudes and analyses of various degrees of com- 

 plexity. Instinct, memory, imagination, the 

 self feelings, impulse and choice, further en- 

 gage the psychologist's attention, while two 

 concluding chapters, the one upon dissociation 

 and the other upon applications of psychology. 



widen the outlook to include certain corners 

 of the abnormal field and the embodiment of 

 psychological results in educational practise. 

 Every one having to do with texts in his 

 teaching specialty comes to regard a new ap- 

 plicant for favor under apperceptive criteria 

 of his own. The present writer considers first 

 the content, the material presented, the per- 

 spective of topics and the enlightenment avail- 

 able: what kind of a table has the psycholog- 

 ical caterer set? He considers next — though 

 really concomitantly — the spirit of the presen- 

 tation, the tone, the attitude of the craftsman. 

 This is more than the palatability of the 

 viands; it involves the underlying chemistry 

 of food preparation, the esthetics of the art 

 culinary and a knowledge of appetites and 

 their vagaries and shortcomings. He asks 

 thirdly how will the student react when the 

 feast is spread before him, remembering that 

 the diet is to be adhered to for a semester or 

 longer. The notable success of Professor 

 Judd's text is in the first respect. It sets a 

 substantial and admirably selected diet. The 

 emphasis upon the genetic side of things is 

 real and instructive, not forced, superficial and 

 distorted, as appears in so many attempts in 

 " psychology for teachers." The contact with 

 realities of experience is close; and the stu- 

 dent should feel the realism of his study. 

 Again the tone is thoroughly psychological; 

 while thoroughly sympathetic with physiolog- 

 ical results, it insists upon psychological inter- 

 pretations. It equally avoids luidue absorp- 

 tion in controversial issues and philosophical 

 speculations. On the second count, except as 

 already involved, commendation must give 

 way to criticism. The author fails to bear in 

 mind that he is teaching, presenting, expound- 

 ing, not justifying the details of his presenta- 

 tion, or disclosing how he or his brother psy- 

 chologists have come to hold as they do. This 

 fault of Professor Judd's pages both unduly 

 expands and detracts from their merit, and 

 such digressions are an obstacle to the student 

 and wholly foreign to the underlying purpose 

 of the text. It is an error of judgment rarely 

 found in a text-book in physics, but seems to 

 be a temptation for the majority of writers 



