July 15, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



85 



to create a medical monopoly — a doctor's trust. 

 They insist that the Owen bill is due to the 

 American Medical Association. As a matter 

 of fact the bill emanates from the senator 

 from Oklahoma himself, and the movement 

 for a national Department of Health has been 

 organized, not by the American Medical Asso- 

 ciation, but by the Committee of One Hun- 

 dred of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. This organization, 

 as is well known, consists not of physicians, 

 but of the united scientists of the country, 

 and only a very small proportion of physi- 

 cians are in the membership. The Committee 

 of One Hundred contains the names of many 

 of the representative thinhing citizens of this 

 country. They come from all over the coun- 

 try. - It is absolutely absurd to talk about 

 such men as organizing a medical trust. 

 Practitioners of all the different cults in medi- 

 cine are agreed that a national Department of 

 Health would be a good thing, and can not 

 possibly interfere with present state laws as to 

 medical practise. This organization of oppo- 

 sition should of itself be a strong argument 

 for the Owen bill. We have the Organization 

 of Ill-Health for commercial reasons. Let us 

 recognize and appreciate at their true value 

 exactly the elements that are engaged in it. — 

 The Independent. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 L'Annee Psychologique. Troizieme Annee, 



190Y; Quatorzieme Annee, 1908. Publiee 



par Alfred Binet. Paris, Masson et Cie. 



These two volumes of M. Binet's Annee, 

 containing about 500 pages each, are as usual 

 full of contributions of interest and value. 

 Brief notice only can be given here of their 

 rich contents. 



The principal papers in the volume for 1907 

 are as follows: 



1. H. Poineare: The Relativity of Space 

 (17 pp.). — We have no knowledge of an abso- 

 lute space. Should space and all its contents 

 he increased a millionfold in each dimension 

 or undergo any other deformation according 

 to any laws of any degree of complication 

 whatever, we should know nothing of it pro- 



vided the deformation applied consistently to 

 everything, including the light rays and our 

 own selves. The three-dimensional space of 

 our perception is derived from the manner in 

 which we perceive and systematize the move- 

 ments of defence and adaptation that we 

 make. Yet our three-dimensional manner of 

 arranging these has been an eificient adapta- 

 tion to the world and its properties; and so, 

 though we can conceive of the existence of 

 beings who, differently constituted, would 

 systematize their space in a four-dimensional 

 or other manner, we can not be certain that 

 they could continue to live in our world and 

 protect themselves against its manifold dan- 

 gers. 



2. Foucault: The Progress of Psychophys- 

 ics (33 pp.). — A critical review of recent 

 work, especially that of Miiller, Lipps, Titch- 

 ener and Aliotta. 



3. P. Souriau : The Perception of Mental 

 Facts (16 pp.). — In observing the facial and 

 other expressions of another person, in hear- 

 ing his words, our awareness is not of these 

 as physical facts, but is of his feelings and 

 ideas. We just as truly perceive these latter 

 as we perceive physical phenomena, and in the 

 same manner. The same thing is true within 

 ourselves. One mental content is perceived 

 always by another, as external to itself, in the 

 same manner as in perceiving external facts. 

 There is no difference in nature, or even in 

 point of view, between introspection and ex- 

 ternal perception. 



4. F. Plateau : Insects and the Color of 

 Flowers (13 pp.). — Careful experiments prove 

 that odor, not color, is the characteristic that 

 attracts insects to flowers. 



5. G. Zeliony: The So-called Psychical 

 Secretion of Saliva (12 pp.). — Experiments 

 conducted by M. Pawlow and his pupils add 

 confirmation to the view that " all physio- 

 logical phenomena may be completely studied 

 as if psychical phenomena had no existence." 

 Direct excitation of the mouth cavity of a 

 dog produces an " unconditional " reflex se- 

 cretion of the saliva. In case the exciting 

 substance is something the dog eats, the se- 

 cretion is thick; if it be one that the dog re- 



