882 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 88« 



ity of reflex action have sometimes been over- 

 stated " (p. 173). They hold that the activity 

 of the nervous system in its highest forms is 

 "preeminently automatic. It is, therefore, 

 highly probable that the reflex and the auto- 

 matic forms of its functioning are most fre- 

 quently, if not uniformly, combined in ever- 

 varying proportions" (p. 149). 



Taking up the end organs, a resume of 

 anatomical investigations indicates that the 

 several cutaneous organs are by no means so 

 definitely identified as psychologists often 

 imagine. The human eye is wittily described 

 in true advertising style as '"a wonderfully 

 compact little instrument, capable of being 

 focused on any distance from five inches up- 

 ward, provided with the only original iris 

 diaphragm, and having the special feature of 

 a self-renewing plate, which automatically 

 alters its sensitivity to suit the illumination, 

 and also gives colored photographs. The 

 camera can not, however, be guaranteed, as 

 some specimens are defective, and even the 

 best are liable to be injured by hard usage; 

 none will be replaced, though some of the de- 

 fects can be partially corrected'" (p. 196). 



Two chapters are devoted to localization of 

 functions in the cerebrum. At the present 

 time, "the 'motor area' is definitely located; 

 the ' visual area ' is likewise ; and the location 

 of the areas for hearing and smell is only a 

 little less definite" (p. 234). "It is probable 

 that our ordinary movements of the eyes in 

 looking at an object, i. e., in directing the 

 center of clear vision upon it, are reactions 

 through the visual area, and not through the 

 motor area" (p. 249). "Excitation of the 

 temporal lobe, in animals, gives rise to move- 

 ments of the ears. . . . These are, in appear- 

 ance, ' listening ' movements, and their occur- 

 rence indicates that the primary motor adjust- 

 ment to sound occurs through the auditory 

 area rather than' through the motor area " (p. 

 250). The limitation of the speech functions 

 to the Broca area does not seem justified (p. 

 259). Unusual emphasis is laid on differences 

 in anatomical structure within the cortex: 

 ■" The fact that a uniform structure exists 



over any considerable area of the cortex, giv- 

 ing place at its borders to areas of other 

 structure, would seem plainly to indicate that 

 within each area the elements have something 

 in common in the manner of their function- 

 ing" (p. 273). The authors believe that we 

 need, " on the physiological side, a more de- 

 tailed knowledge of the structure of the cor- 

 tex as a whole, and in its diiierent parts ; and, 

 on the psychological side, a thorough analysis 

 of such vague and gross so-called functions as 

 ' speech,' or ' skilled movement,' or ' perception 

 of objects,' or ' orientation in space,' into their 

 elementary functional factors" (p. 264). 



The concluding chapter of Part I. dis- 

 cusses the mechanism of the nervous system. 

 Preference is given, as in Pillsbury's work, to 

 the synapse or cell-boundary theory, which 

 seems, " when worked out in detail, to be more 

 capable of giving an expression in physico- 

 chemical terms to most of the known peculi- 

 arities of central function than any othecr 

 theory which has been put forward" (p. 290). 



The quantitative results of psychophysics, 

 in Part II., are compressed into a single chap- 

 ter. The authors are inclined to minimize 

 the importance of Fechner's law. " It is not 

 so much ... a law of absolute quantity of 

 sensations as dependent on stimuli, but 

 rather a law of our apprehension in conscious- 

 ness of the relation of our own feelings " (pp. 

 375-6). "Granted that it is no longer con- 

 sidered as giving a measure of sensation; it 

 may be retained as indicating the position of 

 a sensation in the scale of intensities. . . . 

 It seems better, then, to drop Fechner's log- 

 arithmic law, and abide by the more empirical 

 expression of Weber" (p. 378). 



Two chapters are devoted to sense percep- 

 tion, in which a middle ground is chosen be- 

 tween nativism and empiricism. Visual space 

 perception is examined thoroughly, with con- 

 siderable stress upon eye movements, though 

 the motor theory is not accepted in its en- 

 tirety. The survey is confined to space per- 

 ception; but this limitation does not appeal' 

 in the definition : " Perception is the result of 

 an extremely complex activity of the psychical 



