7.50 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 4G7 



beyond the definite implication of the facts at 

 present known. Save in the case of obviously 

 morbid conditions there is never any such 

 persistent adherence to impulses operating in- 

 dependent of, or counter to, the influence of 

 the individual's past experience as that mani- 

 fested by the true physiological tropisms. A 

 genuine mental variation from type must be 

 recognized and provided for in our psychology, 

 but to do this it is neither necessary nor alto- 

 gether permissible to invoke the tropism con- 

 cept in an unmodified form. 



Another agreeably written book for teachers 

 comes from the hand of Dr. Judd.* It is 

 practically a series of essays dealing with cer- 

 tain of the contact points between psychology 

 and education. The keynote of the book is 

 the principle of development through expres- 

 sion, which the author dwells upon in an 

 illuminating way in its psychological and 

 practical aspects. The elementary school 

 problems centering abovit reading, writing and 

 arithmetic are discussed in the light of this 

 principle and a number of instructive and 

 interesting experiments and observations are 

 reported. The volume does not belong to an 

 order of books in which startling originality 

 is feasible, but it is informed throughout with 

 admirable good sense; it is suggestive on 

 specific concrete points and it is thoroughly 

 intelligible to even the casual reader, so that 

 it ought to be found a very useful addition to 

 the resources of those for whom it has been 

 prepared. 



Experimental psychology has had its apolo- 

 gists and its popularizers. Professor Stratton 

 is, however, the first to attempt on an extensive 

 scale the exhibition of its bearings tipon our 

 general philosophical and intellectual inter- 

 ests. "I" His book, which is written in a force- 

 ful and attractive style, is addressed primarily 

 to the intelligent and serious-minded person 

 who cares to keep in touch with the scientific 



* ' Genetic Psychology for Teachers,' by Charles 

 Hubbard Judd, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 

 1903, pp. xiii -f 329. 



t ' Experimental Psychology and its Bearing 

 upon Culture,' by George Malcolm Stratton, The 

 Macmillan Company, New York, 1903, pp. vii 4- 

 331. 



developments of his own day, especially the 

 broader and more distinctly cultural implica- 

 tions of those developments. Experimental 

 investigations (a number of them original) 

 have been selected for discussion, which bear 

 directly upon such problems as those of the 

 existence of unconscious ideas, the nature 

 and reality of personal identity, the character 

 of time and space, the connection of mind and 

 brain, etc. The exact procedure in typical 

 psychological experiments is vividly described 

 in connection with copious photographs and 

 drawings, so that even the veriest tyro may 

 obtain a correct impression of the technique 

 in such work. The general treatment, al- 

 though fresh, vigorous and independent in 

 its temper, is conservative and trustworthy, 

 following in the main the lines of commonly 

 accepted theories. Although there may be 

 some disappointment that the results gained 

 from experiment do not speak with a tone of 

 greater finality upon the philosophical prob- 

 lems to which they are applied, there can be 

 no question that the author succeeds admir- 

 ably in showing how they contribute their 

 quota of novel and reliable evidence in favor 

 of one or another of the possible solutions of 

 such problems. By reason of its interesting 

 collocation of material, not to mention its 

 other excellencies, the book is likely to prove 

 as valuable to psychologists as to those out- 

 side the strictly psychological pale. 



Despite the independent status of psychol- 

 ogy, it is still true that its logical bases as 

 well as its history must always keep it close 

 to philosophy. Especially is it true that now 

 and again its fundamental presuppositions 

 and assumptions must be examined and tested. 

 No problem of this general character is more 

 insistent than that of the relation between the 

 mind and the body. Experimental psychol- 

 ogists have largely come to adopt the position 

 of psychophysical parallelism as a tentative 

 working basis, frankly recognizing its limita- 

 tions and defects. In view of the utter in- 

 stability of opinion manifested by the contro- 

 versial literature of the siibject, this practical 

 attitude is not difficult to understand. Pro- 

 fessor Strong has just rendered yeoman service 

 by setting in order the various pros and cons 



