496 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY 



comparative psychology both he and his 

 immediate successors — the anecdotalists — 

 confined their attention largely to the 

 problem of psychogenesis and made no seri- 

 ous attempt to develop the science along 

 systematic lines. The behavior material 

 which various groups of biological 

 workers gathered from time to time in 

 connection with anatomical, physiolog- 

 ical or naturalistic studies was ignored, 

 for the most part, by contemporary 

 psychologists or distorted by anthropo- 

 morphic interpretation. Not until about 

 1890, when we come to the work of 

 Lubbock, Verworn, Loeb and C. Lloyd 

 Morgan, do we find the movement giving 

 definite promise of developing into a 

 systematic biological science. In fact 

 these four men may be considered the 

 outstanding leaders in the reform that 

 ushered in the new epoch. 



The new movement began as a revolt 

 against both the viewpoint and the 

 method of the earlier post-Darwinian 

 period. The humanizing tendency, when 

 given free rein, had gone to such absurd 

 lengths as to make a reaction inevitable in 

 the interests of a common sense sanity. 

 The anecdotal method, as the handmaid of 

 extreme anthropomorphism, could hardly 

 hope to survive after the general accept- 

 ance of the doctrine of mental evolution, 

 although for a time it had seriously 

 threatened the normal development of 

 observational and experimental methods. 

 The new movement, as we shall see, was 

 characterized by (1) the use of greater 

 precision in observation with a growing 

 emphasis upon carefully controlled experi- 

 ments of the laboratory type and (z) a 

 more critical use of anthropomorphic 

 analogy, which led in time to a rejection of 

 it altogether in favor of a strictly objective 

 or behavioristic position. 



On the basis of initial important contri- 

 bution, Lubbock, the English naturalist, 



antedates the other members of the group 1 

 by almost a decade, his experimental 

 studies on insect behavior appearing in 

 collected form in i88z. In a sense he and 

 Morgan represent the direct line of 

 conservative leadership in comparative 

 psychology following Darwin, Romanes 

 and others of the anecdotal period. Both 

 Lubbock and Morgan were stoutly, 

 opposed to the use of anecdote and^ 

 extremely cautious in appealing to anthro- 

 pomorphic analogy. Lubbock's impor- 

 tance in this historical connection rests 

 primarily, as we shall see, upon his 

 priority in the application of experimental 

 technique to behavior problems. Hisi 

 work was practically complete when- 

 Morgan began to come into prominence,: 

 although his direct influence on laboratory 

 methods (zn) extended well into the 

 present century. 



In attempting to evaluate the contribu-. 

 tion of each of the four outstanding 

 leaders to the new movement the work of 

 Verworn and Loeb on the lower organisms 

 may be conveniently treated together.: 

 Both of these eminent physiologists, even: 

 in their earlier work, which chiefly con-: 

 cerns us here, devoted themselves tc 

 observational and experimental methods 

 of a relatively high order, and both 

 attempted to give a strictly objective 

 account of the activities investigated. 

 Although Verworn antedates Loeb some- 

 what, the influence of the lacter was more 

 widely felt because of the important 

 controversy aroused by his radical tropism 

 theory. 



The pioneer experimental studies of 

 Lubbock on insects mark him as the 

 founder of the modern laboratory method 

 of approach. This work, which had 

 occupied him for many years, was brought 

 together in his earlier volume (166) in 

 i88z. He seems to have originated the 

 maze method, making first use of the now 



