■24 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 183. 



all taxonomic systems. But terminology must, 

 in general, be of a sort that can be employed in 

 systematic botany as well as in the departments 

 of pure morphology or organography. 



The attempt to construct an organography of 

 plants upon adaptational or epigenetic lines 

 must always be fraught with diflSculties, some of 

 which the author has not successfully avoided, 

 but in general the work is most illuminating. 

 A particularly useful chapter is that on sym- 

 metry, in which, it should be noted, there is in- 

 cluded an independent paper by Dr. A. Weisse 

 on the mechanical principle involved in leaf 

 arrangement. The somewhat variant views of 

 Schwendener and Vochtiug are given due weight 

 and discussed with much critical acumen. The 

 part of this cha'pter dealing with the dorsiventral 

 shoot is one of the few really satisfying chapters 

 in botanical literature. Anisophylly, asym- 

 metry and plagiotropy in general are given a 

 most adequate and instructive treatment. 

 Various species of Selaginella are reviewed, and 

 the laws of leaf arrangement upon dorsiventral 

 shoots are largely explained from plants of this 

 one genus. 



Of all five chapters, however, the third seems 

 to the reviewer, upon the whole, the most origi- 

 nal and valuable. Here Dr. Goebel incorporates 

 his own results to a very considerable degree, 

 and gives the first connected and philosophic 

 account, in botanical literature, of seedlings. 

 After his fashion in his earlier work upon plant 

 develoijment, he includes in the same breath dis- 

 cussion of gametophytic and sporophytic struc- 

 tures — a feature very repugnant to the reviewer 

 — but, nevertheless, manages to leave no point 

 untouched by a wealth of allusion and exam- 

 ple, so that when the chapter is finished the 

 reader feels that he never understood seedlings 

 before. The spirit of the enquiry is altogether 

 different from the drier and essentially formal 

 tone of Sir John Lubbock's well-known book. 

 It is philosophical, suggestive and inspiring. 



Nothing particularly new or strikingly help- 

 ful is to be found in the closing chapters of the 

 first part — those on malformations and on cor- 

 relation — for the positions taken are quite ex- 

 actly those of Sachs, and differ principally from 

 Sachs, in treatment, by the examples chosen. 



In general this work is one which will be 



everywhere regarded as well maintaining the 

 transcendant reputation of its author. 



Conway MacMillan. 

 University of Minnesota. 



A Course in Experimental Psychology, Part I. : 

 Sensation and Perception. By Professor 

 Edmund C. Sanfoed. Boston, D. C. Heath 

 & Co. 1898. 



Professor Sanford has achieved a difficult 

 task. A laboratory course may be most carefully 

 planned beforehand, but upon trial it will be 

 found quite inadequate in numberless ways ; it 

 is only after repeatedly using the course with 

 successive classes, and most carefully correcting 

 and improving it each time, that there is any 

 reasonable security for the hope that the exer- 

 cises will work smoothly. This series of ele- 

 mentary experiments is the successful result of 

 many years of development in Professor San- 

 ford's laboratory course at Clark University. 



The earlier portion of the book (first published 

 in 1894) covers the dermal senses, the kinses- 

 thethic and static senses, taste, smell, hearing, 

 the eye, light and color. The later portion (just 

 issued) treats of visual perception. Some few of 

 the exercises are rather physiological than psy- 

 chological, but there is no objection to touching 

 upon related problems ; even books on physics 

 are accustomed to discuss briefly the anatomy 

 of the eye and the optical illusions. The ex- 

 periments begin with qualitative ones of a most 

 elementary character; e.g., "Touch yourself 

 in several places with the same object, and 

 analyze out, as far as you can, the particular 

 quality of the sensation by which you recognize 

 the place touched. This quality of a sensation 

 is known as its ' Local Sign.' " A few pages 

 further the experiments become somewhat 

 more elaborate ; still further they require ap- 

 paratus, and so on. In fact, they are care- 

 fully graded to increasing diflficulty, without 

 ever becoming too difiicult for an elementary 

 class. The suggestions in regard to apparatus 

 are, in general, good, although some improve- 

 ments might be made here ; e.g., it is doubtful 

 if the joint-sense apparatus or the Ellis harmon- 

 ium is worth the cost ; if the large wooden 

 pieces, such as tilt board and rotation table, are 

 worth either the cost or the space, etc. The 



