Mat 22, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



819 



ing interest in tiie topic of abnormal psy- 

 eliology, there have been practically no sum- 

 maries of doctrine suitable to the use of 

 students approaching this topic from the psy- 

 chological point of view. The literature is 

 a medical one, appealing to the alienist; and 

 from this the psychologist has had to gather 

 his material and make his interpretations. 

 The appearance of Dr. Storring's lectures to 

 students at Leipzig was one of the first at- 

 tempts to bring within reasonable compass 

 some of the aspects of this topic that would 

 be pertinent to students with predominant 

 psychologic interests. It was natural that a 

 contribution of this kind should attract the 

 translator; and the English edition of the 

 work will be welcomed as a valuable resource 

 to professional teachers of psychology. The 

 work quite naturally does not meet the needs 

 of American students as nicely as would a 

 book written with reference to the attain- 

 ments of the advanced undergraduate and 

 the graduate student in our universities. 

 The attitude of the German lecturer and the 

 'mode of handling his data, as well as the 

 maturity of apprehension and general famil- 

 iarity which he assumes, often go beyond 

 what may properly be expected in an Ameri- 

 can class-room. As a text the volume will 

 be used foMte de mieux; but as a book of 

 reference upon the shelves of even a limited 

 psychological library the book merits a well- 

 deserved place. The selection of topics is 

 well considered and the perspective of impor- 

 tance of the data well maintained There 

 are not that clearness of description and 

 patient exposition of relation which students 

 often expect and which the American lecturer 

 takes such pains to supply. The delineation 

 of symptoms as deviations of mental pro- 

 cedure is given first prominence, though the 

 place of these in actual complexes (disease 

 pictures) is not slighted. Special psychic dis- 

 orders (notably the delusions and hallucina- 

 tions, the aphasias, the phobias and functional 

 aberrations) are likewise succinctly presented. 

 The translation is commendable. J. J. 



Attention. By W. B. Pillsbdry. Macmillan. 

 1908. (Library of Philosophy.) Pp. 346. 

 Professor Pillsbury's monograph on " At- 



tention " appeared in French as a volume of 

 the Library of Experimental Psychology. 

 The valuable character of the work was 

 commented upon in a review of the French 

 edition. The English volume is an expan- 

 sion of the former work and increases 

 notably the value of this contribution to psy- 

 chology. There is an additional chapter on 

 measurements of the attention, a very im- 

 portant topic; a similar addition treating of 

 the relation of attention to the feelings and 

 to the self, and a useful practical chapter upon 

 the educational aspects of attention. What 

 appeared as a single chapter in the earlier 

 publication on memory, will and reason, is 

 now amplified into three separate chapters. 

 With these additions, the work becomes a com- 

 plete and admirable handbook to a well- 

 rounded treatment of a topic of prime im- 

 portance to the student of psychology. 

 Naturally the topic is so central to the group 

 of problems that constitute modern psy- 

 chology that the work touches upon many of 

 the vital issues of a growing science, and 

 summarizes a body of doctrine indispensable 

 to the right understanding of what mental 

 processes are. The point of view of the 

 author remains unchanged and takes a con- 

 ciliatory stand with reference to the conflict- 

 ing views of the nature of the attentive 

 process as hitherto presented. The volume 

 may be emphatically commended. 



J. J. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 



The American Naturalist for March has an 

 article by Bashford Dean on " The Lamarck 

 Manuscript in Harvard " which comprises five 

 papers and nineteen plates. Douglas H. 

 Campbell discusses " Symbiosis in Fern Pro- 

 thallia " and Charles Deperet presents the sec- 

 ond paper on " The Evolution of the Tertiary 

 Mammals and the Importance of their Migra- 

 tions," this paper dealing with the evidence in 

 the Oligocene of France. Henry L. Bolley 

 has some " Observations regarding the Con- 

 stancy of Mutants and Questions regarding 

 the Origin of Disease Resistance in Plants " 

 and S. W. Williston discusses " What is a 

 Species," giving a new and elaborate defini- 



