Febkuaey 26, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



347 



Nowhere else in the country are men as free to 

 delve into the unsolved, mysteries and work out 

 the practical application of discoveries as here. 

 If, as President Jordan asserts,* and as, I think, 

 no one will deny, ' ' The National University 

 should not be an institution of general educa- 

 tion, with its rules and regulations, college 

 classes, good-fellowship, and football team ; it 

 should be the place for the training of investi- 

 gators and men of action, ' ' can a more favorable 

 plan be formulated, for at once realizing the 

 popular idea of a truly National University 

 and meeting the need for a reorganization and 

 centralization of the National Scientific Depart- 

 ments, than to reorganize the latter as the 

 former, charged with the twofold duty of 

 prosecuting all needful investigation and of 

 training all competent students desirous of de- 

 voting their lives to a like purpose? To this 

 scientific foundation, history, literature and 

 the arts would be readily added, without waste- 

 ful duplication. 



"William Trelease. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Die Spiele der Thiere. By Kakl Geoos, Profes- 

 sor of Philosophy in the University of Gies- 

 sen. Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1896. Pp. xvi 

 -)-359. 



In this volume Professor Groos makes a con- 

 tribution to three distinct but cognate depart- 

 ments of enquiry: philosophical biology, animal 

 psychology, and the genetic study of art. Those 

 who have followed the beginnings of enquiry 

 into the nature and functions of play in the 

 animal world and in children will see at once 

 how much light is to be expected from a thor- 

 ough-going examination of all the facts and ob- 

 servations recorded in the literature of animal 

 life. This sort of examination Professor Groos 

 makes with great care and thoroughness, and 

 the result is a book which, in my opinion, 

 is destined to have wide influence in all these 

 departments of enquiry. 



I cannot take space for a detailed report of 

 Professor Groos' positions. It may be well, 

 therefore, before speaking of certain conclu- 

 sions which are to me of especial interest, to 

 give a resume of the contents of the book by 

 *l. c. 603. 



chapters. Chapter I. is an examination of Mr. 

 Spencer's 'surplus energy ' theory of Play; the 

 result of which is, it seems, to put this theory 

 permanently out of court. The author's main 

 contention is that play, so far from being ' by- 

 play,' if I may so speak, is a matter of serious 

 business to the creature. Play is a veritable 

 instinct, true to the canons of instinctive action. 

 This view is expanded in Chapter II., where we 

 find a fine treatment in detail of such interest- 

 ing topics as imitation in its relation to play, 

 the inheritance of acquired characters apropos 

 of the rise of instincts, the place arid function 

 of intelligence in the origin of these primary 

 animal activities. This chapter, dealing with 

 the biological theory of play, is correlated with 

 Chapter V. , later on in the book, in which the 

 ' Psychology of Animal Play ' is treated. To- 

 gether they furnish the philosophical and theo- 

 retical basis of the book, as the chapters in be- 

 tween furnish the detailed data of fact. I shall 

 return to the biological matter below. Chapters 

 III. and IV. go into the actual ' Plays of Ani- 

 mals ' with a wealth of detail, richness of liter- 

 ary information and soundness of critical in- 

 terpretation, which are most heartily to be com- 

 mended. Indeed, the fact that the first book 

 on this subject is, at the same time, one of such 

 unusual value, both as science and as theory, 

 should be a matter of congratulation to workers 

 in biology and in psychology. The collected 

 cases, the classification of animal plays, as well 

 as the setting of interpretation in which Pro- 

 fessor Groos has placed them — all are likely to 

 remain, I think, as a piece of pioneer work of 

 excellent quality in a new but most important 

 field of enquiry. 



As to the plays which animals indulge in, 

 Professor Groos classifies them as follows: ' Ex- 

 perimenting,' 'Plays of Movement,' 'Play- 

 Hunting' ('with real living booty,' 'with play 

 living booty,' 'with inanimate play booty'), 

 ' Play-fighting ' (' teasing, scuffling among young 

 animals,' ' play-fighting among adult animals'), 

 so-called 'Building Art,' 'Nursing' plays. Imi- 

 tation ' plays, ' Curiosity, ' ' Pairing ' plays, 

 ' Courting by Means of Play of Movements,' 

 ' Courting by the Exhibition of Colors and 

 Forms,' 'Courting by Noises and Tones,' 'Co- 

 quetry on the part of the Female. ' 



