SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, MARCH i6, li 



The most interesting and the most valuable article in the 

 Popular Science Monthly for March is one entitled ' The Ante- 

 chamber of Consciousness,' by Mr. Francis Speir, jun. It embodies 

 the result of some carefully planned investigations in psychology for 

 the purpose of weighing anew the argument for unconscious cere- 

 bration. The mode of presentation is excellent, and shows an ac- 

 quaintance with scientific method. The facts are presented by 

 themselves without comment, and the discussion of them follows. 

 The facts, and the writer's opinion concerning the facts, are, as 

 they should be, kept quite distinct. The method adopted for the 

 accumulation of data v\as the well-known one of distributing 

 printed questions, to be answered from personal experience. The 

 question in which the inquiry centred was, ' Does there exist in man 

 the power to exert intellectual activity during unconsciousness? ' 

 The answers are grouped and summarized under four heads ; (a) 

 when the effort is simple, by reproducing past experiences in obedi- 

 ence to a mandate of the will ; (b) by comparing related facts, and 

 arriving at a settled judgment ; {c) when the effort is more complex, 

 by continuing old trains of thought begun in consciousness, and 

 proceeding logically, step by step, to a relative settled conclusion ; 

 {d) when the effort is most complex, by commencing and continu- 

 ing new trains of thought without having voluntarily undertaken or 

 continued them, and arriving at results of original creation as inven- 

 tions, literary and musical creations, etc. Of the first, Mr. Speir 

 says, " Almost every individual says concerning these experiences, 

 * They are of such frequent occurrence that when they happen I 

 pay no special attention to them.' " Of the second it is said that 

 many people, during a state of perfect unconsciousness, can accu- 

 rately measure time as well as, and often better than, they can in 

 consciousness. In doing this they may perform an intellectual pro- 

 cess similar in all respects to the conscious act of calculating a dis- 

 tance between known points. Of the third, " about eighty-five per 

 cent of those answering claim to have arrived at definite results of 

 work begun in consciousness and left unfinished, at results of a 

 finished logical nature, at results that could come only by bridging 

 the gap between the beginning and partial contmuation in con- 

 sciousness, and the perfected conclusion by predicting the existence 

 and operation of unconscious intellectual effort as the necessary 

 cause of the known result." Of the fourth, " only thirty per cent 

 claim to have suddenly discovered the results of creative effort ; 

 these creations appeared suddenly, most often while the individuals 

 were engaged in matters foreign to the discovery." All these volu- 

 minous answers could not have been collected without patient 

 effort ; and psychologists should be very grateful to the writer for 

 laying so much that is new before them. We trust that Mr. Speir 

 will find time and opportunity to push these investigations further, 

 and to complete his chain of evidence by additional data. 



BACTERIOLOGY IN OUR MEDICAL SCHOOLS. 



It was stated in this paper some weeks ago that inquiries were 

 on foot the purpose of which was to obtain information concerning 

 the attitude of our medical schools and training-schools for nurses, 

 toward the germ-theory of disease. For this purpose a circular 

 was sent to each medical school in the country and each training- 

 school for nurses, requesting information on this matter. In most 

 cases the circular was sent to the dean of such institutions, and has 

 asked replies to the questions given below. Answers to this circu- 

 lar have been received from quite a large number of schools, and 



direct personal inquiry has elicited information from others that 

 have not responded to the circular. In these ways information has 

 been obtained from the following institutions and physicians: — 



1. University of Colorado, J. H. Kimball. 



2. Medical Department of Yale College, New Haven, Conn., M. C. 

 White. 



3. Chicago Medical College, N. S. Davis. 



4. College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, III, A. Reeves 

 Jackson. 



5. Rush Medical College, Chicago, 111., J. Adams Allen. 



6. Medical College of Indiana, J. L. Thompson. 



7. Hospital College of Medicine, Louisville, Ky., W. H. Boiling. 



8. Medical Department of Tulane University, New Orleans, La., 

 S. E. Chaille. 



9. College of Physicians and .Surgeons, Baltimore, Md. 



10. Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. 



11. University of Michigan, H. Sewell. 



12. Minnesota College of Physicians and Surgeons, J. T. Moore. 



13. Minnesota Hospital College, F. A. Dunsmoor. 



14. C. H. Hunter. Minneapolis, Minn. 



15. Kansas City Medical College, Missouri, E. W. Schauffler. 



16. North-western Medical College of St. Joseph, Mo., F. A. 

 Simmons. 



17. Medical Department of Buffalo University, Buffalo, N.Y., 

 T. F. Rochester. 



18. New York Medical College for Women, C. S. Lozier. 



19. Medical College of Ohio, J. T. Whittaker. 



20. Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn., Morris Long- 

 streth. 



21. University of Pennsylvania, William Osier. 



22. Pulte Medical College, Cincinnati, O., J. D. Buck. 



23. Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, A. R. Thomas. 



24. Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. 



25. College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. 



26. Medical Department of City of New York. 



27. American Medical College, St. Louis, Mo., E. Younkin. 



28. Long Island College Hospital, C. Jewett. 



The schools in this list will hereafter be referred to by the num- 

 bers affixed against them. 



This list includes about one-fourth of the medical schools of the 

 country ; but inasmuch as it includes all of the largest schools, the 

 proportion of students thus represented is much larger. Nearly 

 one-half of the medical students of the country are in attendance 

 upon the schools represented in the above list. 



The answers received to some of the questions show in many 

 cases so much similarity, that it is not necessary to give them all 

 here in detail. The following summary will indicate the questions, 

 and the substance of the replies : — 



Question i. Is the theory that most, if not all, infectious diseases 

 are caused by the growth of microscopic organisms, accepted by 

 the members of your faculty and the physicians in your vicinity .' 



To this question the responses have been in the affirmative in al- 

 most every instance. 



Nos. 3 and 22 change the question so that it reads, " caused or 

 accompanied by," and then answer in the affirmative. This, of 

 course, changes completely the significance of the answer ; for, if 

 the causal connection between the microbe and the disease is 

 denied, there is nothing left of the germ-theory. 



No. 5 says, " No." 



No. 7 says, " Some absolutely, some cum grano sails." 



No. 12. "Opinions still divided, a majority of the more modern 

 thinkers falling in with that view." 



No. 27. " Not wholly." 



No. 28. " No, we are not wedded to this theory. It may be true, 

 but it may not." 



