222 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 248 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 

 Psychologie im Umrissen auf Grmidlage der Erfahrung. Von 



Dr. Harald Hoffding. Tr. from the Danish by F. Ben- 



DIXEN. Leipzig. 

 Essai de Psychologie Generale. Par Charles Richet. Paris, 



Bibliotheque de Philosophie Contemporaine. 



Few philosophical reformations have a more instructive history 

 than that which introduced experimental methods and scientific 

 conceptions into the study of mental phenomena. The cleft be- 

 tween the student of matter and the student of mind had^no ex- 

 istence in the harmonious mental culture of Greek philosophers. 

 The nature that is the common storehouse of the pJiysic\%\.y the 

 -pkysioXogvA, and the//5_y.wcian, was also the mine from which the 

 philosopher drew his lore. The great modern revival that sepa- 

 rates the sciences, and forces a medical congress to separate into 

 nineteen sections to insure that he who reads will be understood, 

 has left the philosopher in the high altitudes of the mountain-top, 

 while the busy scientists throng down into the mine. Not until our 

 day has the philosopher taken much interest in the carloads of rich 

 ore dug out by the miners, and come to seriously consider the 

 announcement that this patient digging had discovered many rich 

 veins of thought suggesting those unifying generalizations for which 

 he was searching in the clouds. The good effects of this change 

 of method and re-arranging of interest are easily discerned. The 

 ' know thyself ' has been interpreted as including the whole man, 

 body and mind, past and present, as modiiied by all kinds of 

 natural and artificial agencies. But the most distinctly new con- 

 tribution that this revival of nature-philosophy has brought about 

 is the origination of a scientific psychology, borrowing its methods 

 as well as many of its facts and conceptions from other sciences, — 

 and so re- uniting what should belong together, — while maintaining 

 its distinct character by the use to which it puts this material, and 

 the point of view from which it regards it. 



The two volumes before us are both typical results of the new 

 psychology. The one comes from the professor of philosophy in the 

 University of Copenhagen ; the other, from a professional physiolo- 

 gist of Paris.' Their purpose is to set forth in plain language the 

 conclusions which experimental research and observation have al- 

 lowed us to draw regarding the nature and function of psychical 

 phenomena, and to delineate the general conceptions to which 

 these facts give warrant. As text-books, both will be eminently 

 useful, and an English version of either would be a welcome con- 

 tribution to our literature. The point at which the works divide 

 is that the one is written especially for those in whose minds the 

 philosophical interest is uppermost, while the other appeals more 

 directly to the physiologist. 



Professor Hoffding, while seeing in objective research the central 

 method of psychology, fully recognizes in self-consciousness a most 

 important supplementary means of study. Not only that we can 

 only make our own what we assimilate to our past selves, — the 

 deposit of a host of conscious acts, — but also that the higher men- 

 tal processes are amenable to no other mode of study. On the other 

 hand, he recognizes in consciousness a somewhat subordinate con- 

 comitant of certain psychical acts, and regards with equal interest 

 such acts as have not this accessory ; moreover, he holds that the 

 latter can alone determine what is the ' naturally ' correct mode of 

 viewing the former. The author thus sees growing around the 

 central ' natural ' view of man several psychologies, — a physio- 

 logical psychology, a psychophysics, a comparative psychology, a 

 sociological psychology. He does not attempt a strict definition of 

 his science, and is more anxious that it should receive the benefit 

 of a number of lights reflected from several quarters than that it 

 should stand out as a distinct, self-made, smoothly finished speci- 

 men. 



' The experimental basis ' on which this psychology rests, in- 

 cludes quite as much such every-day facts as are made interesting 

 by the tact of a humane observer, as rows of formidable tables 

 fresh from the laboratory. The criticism passed upon Wundt's 

 ' Physiological Psychology,' that it is simply a physiology with a 

 psychology attached, would not be applicable here. Professor Hoff- 

 ding makes the physiology distinctly subordinate to the psychology, 



1 M. Richet is also editor of tlie Revue Scientifique. 



while constantly utilizing the facts that physiologists have dis- 

 covered. For the non-technical student this is perhaps the better 

 plan : it retains for psychology that general broadening interest 

 which its pursuit as a technical specialty may for a time weaken. 

 The plan of the work is somewhat different from those of our text- 

 books of psychology, and is an improvement upon them. After 

 defining his point of view, he considers the relations between body 

 and mind as well from the physiological as the philosophical 

 point of view, and passes to the study of the conscious and the un- 

 conscious, treating the phenomena of instinct, unconscious cere- 

 bration, etc. Here, as elsewhere, his acceptance of the evolution- 

 ary theory, and his use of the analogy between the growth of the 

 individual and that of the race, give life to his pages. He next ac- 

 cepts the trifold division of the intellect, the feelings, and the will, 

 though -accenting the fact that each depends upon the other, and the 

 development of all three follow the same path. His chapters upon 

 the mutual relations of intellect, emotions, and will, are full of sound 

 educational material. He devotes an unusual space to the emo- 

 tions, while rather slighting the will. To single out any points for 

 special treatment would hardly be serviceable ; the important as- 

 pect of the volume is its modern appreciation of the intimate con- 

 nection between fact and theory. Dr. Hoffding has made a dis- 

 tinct advance in the problem of adopting new psychological results 

 into the body of accepted truth, which serves to educate the next 

 generation. 



The main purpose of M. Richet's work is to give a useful sum- 

 mary of those general propositions regarding the functions of the 

 nervous system that have a direct psychological bearing. In this 

 he has succeeded very well, and his success makes us realize the 

 progress made in recent years. It is a book of this nature that im- 

 presses one with the rapidity with which mental science is taking 

 on that long-desired scientific aspect. It is no longer meaningless 

 to speak of psychological laws. 



What M. Richet means by ' general psychology ' can be best 

 gathered from the titles of his chapters. These treat of irritability, 

 the nervous system, reflex action, instinct, consciousness, sensation, 

 memory, ideation, will. Under each heading the treatment is gen- 

 eral, stating in brief the conclusions accepted by modern psy- 

 chology. Within two hundred pages one has here a convenient 

 handbook of the main principles on which an elementary course in 

 psychology should be based. 



There is one point in the volume which M. Richet has singled 

 out for separate treatment elsewhere, and which should be noticed 

 here. Between an ordinary reflex action and a conscious act, the 

 author introduces a ' psychic reflex,' and by this he means all those 

 involuntary acts which have become so by interposition of con- 

 scious, inferential elements. The dog that trembles when his 

 master shakes a stick at him ; the man who feels nausea while 

 reading of a disaster ; the vertigo experienced when looking down 

 from a height ; many kinds of laughter, as of tears, fear, pain, and 

 pleasure, — are likewise psychic reflexes. These actions all take 

 place involuntarily, but they would not happen if a psychic element 

 did not intervene. Disgust would not occur if the tale were writ- 

 ten in an unknown tongue. A psychic reflex is a response to a 

 peripheral irritation insignificant in itself, but so transformed by 

 an act of the mind as to put in operation the reflex centres of the 

 spinal cord. This distinction is a convenient one, and the term will 

 doubtless be adopted. 



Ancie7tt Nahuatl Poetry. By Daniel G. Brinton. Philadel- 

 phia, The Author. 8°. 



The recent volume of the author's valuable Library of Aboriginal 

 American Literature, the seventh of this series, contains a num- 

 ber of ancient Mexican poems with translation, notes, a brief 

 vocabulary, and an introduction. The poems are from a manu- 

 script volume in the library of the University of Mexico, entitled 

 ' Cantares de los Mexicanos y otros opusculos,' and printed from a 

 copy made by Abb^ Brasseur deBourbourg. It is unfortunate that 

 the author has not been able to have the texts collated with the 

 original, but his efforts in this direction were unsuccessful : there- 

 fore it is probable that some corrections will have to be made in 

 the texts. But scientists will nevertheless be thankful to Dr. 

 Brinton for the publication of the interesting collection of poems 



