342 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 975 



by various philosophers, though hitherto by 

 relatively few scientific men. 



It is evident on closer consideration that 

 the existence and peculiarities of organisms 

 must become completely unintelligible except 

 on the assumption of a rigid and unvarying 

 uniformity in the essential character of the 

 processes taking place in living matter. The 

 existence of material systems of such extreme 

 complexity, which nevertheless maintain a 

 stable existence and act in a manner which is 

 uniform and within limits predictable — so that 

 each human individual has a definite personal 

 character — is in fact the most convincing 

 proof that could be asked of the uniformity 

 and invariability, as regards both their nature 

 and their interconnections, of the innumerable 

 substances, conditions and processes underly- 

 ing the vital manifestations. Not only is the 

 assumption of an extra-physical entelechy un- 

 necessary, but it renders more difficult instead 

 of easier the task of biological analysis, since 

 it introduces a factor whose operation is ex 

 hypothesi inconstant and unpredictable, and 

 hence incompatible with the stability that 

 vital conditions require. The assertion of 

 Bergson that the living organism is character- 

 ized by a maximum of indeterminism'' makes 

 the organic mechanism completely unintelli- 

 gible, and to a physiologist seems almost the 

 precise inverse of the truth. It is evident that 

 in any physiological process any even momen- 

 tary variation or deviation from a constant 

 physico-chemical mode of action — say any in- 

 constancy in the law of mass-action — ^would 

 derange the whole interdependent system of 

 processes, and render continued life impos- 

 sible. The organism constitutes in fact the 

 most impressive illustration that nature offers 

 of the unfailing constancy of natural proc- 

 esses. The course of embryonic development 

 is as essentially constant a process as the 

 revolution of the moon about the earth, besides 

 being far more complex; and this stability of 

 the organic processes is fully as necessary to 

 the continued existence of the species as is 

 that of the inorganic processes. The usual 

 forms of vitalism are hence inherently unin- 



'"' Creative Evolution," Chapter 2. 



telligible and self -contradictory. It is certain 

 that the advance of physical science, and espe- 

 cially of biological science, offers no escape 

 from the deterministic dilemma. Experience 

 shows everywhere not only interconnection be- 

 tween phenomena, but an invariability in the 

 modes of interconnection. Constant repeti- 

 tion always exhibits itself as the order of na- 

 ture, when the elementary constituents and 

 processes are observed. The question inevi- 

 tably arises: how then is it possible to recon- 

 cile teleology and the existence of will and 

 purpose in nature with the existence of a 

 physico-chemical determinism which appears 

 the more rigid the further scientific analysi^s 

 proceeds? Such problems are usually left on 

 one side by scientific men, and this is not the 

 place for their fuller discussion. Obviously, 

 however, they require biological knowledge for 

 their solution — if, indeed, they are ever to be 

 solved; and one chief merit of the book under 

 review is that it directs the attention of biol- 

 ogists once more to the importance and 

 urgency of these questions. 



Ealph S. Lillie 



The Interpretation of Dreams. By Sigmund 

 Feeud. Authorized translation of third 

 edition by A. A. Brill. New York, The 

 Maemillan Co. 1913. Pp. xii -f 510. Price 

 $4. 



The " Interpretation of Dreams " is one 

 chapter in Freud's theory of the neuroses, and 

 was arrived at by the same methods which 

 proved so useful in the study of the latter. 

 This study revealed principles of even wider 

 application than the sphere from which they 

 were derived, and led to the author's illumi- 

 nating psychopathology of every-day life. 

 Similarly the dreams of normal people have 

 become much more intelligible in the light of 

 the analysis of psycho-neurotic symptoms and 

 of the dreams of psycho-neurotic patients. 

 Those who are familiar at first hand with the 

 mechanisms of the neuroses and who are at 

 home in the literature of the subject will find 

 the " Interpretation of Dreams " an extremely 

 stimulating monographic treatment of one 

 aspect of a very large subject. To those who 



