306 
ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Professor Woodworth read an appreciation of the work of Professor 
Hermann Ebbinghaus, late professor of philosophy in the University of 
Halle. 
In the absence of Professor Judd, his paper was read by Dr. Bingham. 
Professor Judd held that the importance of motor discharge to mental 
phenomena could not be properly gauged by the introspection of adults. 
Attention is apt to be engrossed by the sensory presentation, and the impor¬ 
tance of the motor discharge is overlooked. In everything, however, which 
concerns the organization of experience, the reaction of the individual to his 
environment is the determining factor. The organization of the sensory 
material into such forms as the space and time orders depends on the de¬ 
mands of limited internal organization and unlimited external sensory 
material. This view is in line with that of Sherrington that the development 
of motor processes is the keynote of all nervous organization; and also with 
that of Dewey that the child’s development is not a sensory by a motor and 
reactive growth; and with that of Wund regarding the importance of lan¬ 
guage — which is a form of reaction — in all mental life. 
This paper was discussed by several, among whom Professor T. L. 
Bolton urged that Professor Judd had not gone far enough in his emphasis 
on the motor side of experience. Instead of assuming at the start the exist¬ 
ence of sensations and of the whole sensory field and using the motor ele¬ 
ments simply for organization and elaboration of this material, it is possible 
to begin by showing that all sensory processes have a motor side, which 
gives meaning to the sensory. A sensation is what it is because of motor 
reactions, and a percept is constituted bv the bodily attitude which the 
stimulus provokes. The sensory is not more primary nor more rich than 
the motor, but the two are closely correlated, being, in fact, but different 
modes of conceiving the experience. 
The Section then adjourned. 
R. S. Woodworth, 
Secretary. 
BUSINESS MEETING. 
May 3, 1909. 
The Academy met at 8:15 p. m. at the American Museum of Natural 
History, Vice-President Stevenson presiding in the absence of President Cox. 
The minutes of the meeting of April 5 were read and approved. 
