46 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 2. 



movements and other changes in the body, 

 being largely due to altered blood supply 

 and the Uke. 



Professor Strong's paper treated especi- 

 ally the classification of pains, reviewing 

 the evidence in favor of special nerves for 

 pain and the distinction between pain and 

 distress (the German Schmertz and Un- 

 litst). Mr. Mead emphasized the impor- 

 tance of vaso-motor changes for pleasure 

 and pain, attributing pleasure to increased 

 blood supply and assimilation. Dr. Miller 

 argued that desire is the essence of pleas- 

 ure, and Mr. Marshall discussed the rela- 

 tions of pain, pleasure and emotion. It is 

 interesting to note how even descriptive and 

 analytic psj^chology is influenced by a 

 psycho-physical point of view. Professor 

 James a^tly concluded the discussion by 

 saying that such papers make us feel that 

 we are in ' the place where psychology is 

 being made.' 



At the opening of the fifth and concluding- 

 session Professor Newbold read a paper 

 entitled Notes on the Experimental Production 

 of Illusions and Hallucinations. He reported 

 that m twenty-two cases out of eighty-six 

 tried, he had produced illusions by causing 

 the patient to gaze into a transparent or 

 reflecting medium, such as water, objects of 

 glass and mu-rors. The phantasm usually 

 appeared within five minutes, was preceded 

 by cloudiness, colors or illumination of the 

 medium, and varied from a dim outline to 

 a brilliantly colored picture. These were 

 often di-awn from the patient's recent visual 

 experience, but were often unrecognized and 

 sometimes fantastic. Successive images 

 were usually related, if at all, by similarity, 

 but often no relation was discoverable. 

 The image was often destroyed by move- 

 ments of the medium and by distracting 

 sensory impressions and motor effort. The 

 speaker was not inclined to regard the 

 phantasms of the glass as demonstrating the 

 existence of subconscious visual automa- 



tisms, but rather as illusions of the reco- 

 gnized types. But he was not prepared to 

 deny that visual automatism might in some 

 cases exist and be traced in such pluintasms. 



Mr. Gritting, of Columbia College, de- 

 scribed Experiments on Dermal Pain. The 

 pressure just causing pain (in kg) was for 

 boj's 4.8, for college students 5.1, for law 

 students 7.8, for women 3.6. Experiments 

 were also described giving the relations of 

 area and duration and of velocity and mass 

 for the pain threshold. These latter ex- 

 periments are of special interest as determin- 

 ing the correlation of quantities followed 

 by a given mental result. 



The third paper of the session and last of 

 the meeting was on Recent Advances in the 

 Chemistry and Physiology of the Retina, by Mrs. 

 Franklin, of Baltimore, who gave an ac- 

 count of the recent experiments by Professor 

 Konig on the absorption spectrum of the 

 visual purple of the retina, and of her own 

 experiments which demonstrated that the 

 fovea is color-blind for blue. The recent 

 experiments on vision, largely carried out 

 in the laboratories of Berlin, are of great 

 importance, and make all the older theories 

 of color-vision inadequate. The theory 

 proposed by Mrs. Franklin is undoubtedly 

 more satisfactorj'- than any other, but even 

 her theory meets difficulties in these new 

 facts. 



At the business meeting of the Associa- 

 tion Professor Cattell (Columbia) was el- 

 ected President, and Professor Sanford 

 (Clark), Secretary. Several new members 

 were elected and a new constitution M'as 

 adopted. Under this constitution a coun- 

 cil of six members is prescribed, and Pro- 

 fessoi's Ladd (Yale), Cattell (Columbia), 

 James (Harvard), Bald\\'in (Princeton), 

 Dewey (Chicago), and Fullerton (Pennsyl- 

 vania) were elected. Probably the most 

 important business before the meeting was 

 the invitation of the American Society of 

 Naturalists offering affiliation. It was de- 



