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SCIENCE 



[N. S. VoL.XXXn. No. 811 



fuses, the secretion is more liquid. Any other 

 excitant, acting on any sense whatever (or 

 any combination of excitants), may provoke 

 a " conditional " reflex secretion of either kind, 

 provided it has previously acted on the animal 

 conjointly with another excitant which has 

 produced an unconditional reflex. The con- 

 ditional reflexes are very instable and variable. 

 But the exact conditions of their origin, their 

 force and their disappearance can be stated 

 in physiological terms. The so-called psy- 

 chical excitants are identical with these con- 

 ditional reflexes. 



6. Dr. Ley: Medicine and Pedagogy (8 pp.). 

 — A statement of recent progress in various 

 countries in the application of experimental 

 methods to the solution of pedagogical prob- 

 lems. No details as to experimental methods 

 are given. 



7. J. Maxwell: Psychology and Metaphysics 

 (14 pp.). — An account of experiments in ap- 

 parent telepathy, with discussion of some of 

 their laws of occurrence. Attempts no proof, 

 but rather calls attention to the need of 

 further investigation. 



8. J. -J. Van Biervliet: Touch and the Mus- 

 cular Sense (8 pp.). — Tactile sensibility in- 

 creases in delicacy not only with natural, but 

 also with acquired motility; as, for instance, 

 that due to piano-playing. It is greater also 

 during actual movement; on the forehead, 

 for instance, if simultaneous contact gives a 

 result of Y, and successive contact 4, move- 

 ment of the head will reduce it to 2. 



9. 0. Decroly and J. Degand: Experiments 

 on Visual Verbal Memory and the Memory 

 of Images in Normal and Abnormal Children 

 (11 pp.).- — Concrete images are remembered 

 more often and with less error than geomet- 

 rical forms and single letters; and short 

 phrases, provided they are interesting and 

 concrete, are as easy, if not more easy, to re- 

 tain in memory as are single words, and much 

 easier than syllables or- letters. It is more ra- 

 tional to begin the teaching of reading by the 

 complete representation of an idea than by its 

 elements. 



10. B. Bourdon: Cutaneous or Articular 

 Sensibility? (10 pp.). — Reviews the argu- 



ments for and against the view that percep- 

 tion of the movement and position of the 

 bodily members is due to articular sensations, 

 and asserts that the following experiments 

 prove it due to cutaneous sensations : (1) A 

 stretching of the skin 0.2 mm. on the back of 

 the fingers can be detected with almost entire 

 sureness; and the most delicately detectable 

 movements of the finger stretch the skin ap- 

 proximately the same amount; (2) ansesthesia 

 of the skin prevents the perception of the most 

 delicate movements. 



11. H. Pieron : History of the Belief in 

 the N-rays (2Y pp.). — A thorough review of 

 the subject, with a bibliography of 176 titles. 

 " The N-rays (announced by Blondlot of 

 Nancy in 1903) have no existence as an ob- 

 jective phenomenon. This marvelous experi- 

 ence in suggestion has given results of the 

 greatest importance. The N-rays have shown 

 us how, in a great mind, ill served by an ex- 

 cessively nervous temperament, an idea sug- 

 gested by reflection or previous discoveries has 

 been able, in a field where the subconscious 

 has an immense influence, namely, that of the 

 observation of feeble phosphorescent phenom- 

 ena in the dark, to excite the perception of 

 variations in brightness systematized by a 

 priori conceptions; they have shown us how 

 coincidences and chances that may be traced 

 in detail developed in the same mind a belief 

 in the existence of all sorts of expected proper- 

 ties, and how contagion spread to other minds 

 in which, according to their own preposses- 

 sions, new orientations developed new systems 

 under the influence of a priori ideas; how, 

 when suggestion did not work, the notion of 

 authority caused others to admit what they 

 could not see; they have shown us also the 

 limits and modalities of the action of sug- 

 gestion, the limits of the principle of author- 

 ity which was hardly effective beyond the 

 national frontiers, as well as the factors which 

 opposed these first influences, among which 

 must be recognized national rivalry and per- 

 sonal jealousy; they have revealed the mental 

 character of many French physicists, and 

 shown the necessity among specialists of a 

 psychological and logical education which 



