468 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 5.34. 



All considered, however, this book is the 

 best uianual on its special subject in the Eng- 

 lish language, possibly in any language. It 

 is certain to take its place upon the reference 

 shelves of every American food laboratory. 



Wji. Frear. 



State College, Pa. 



Psychology. By James Rowland Angell. 

 New York, Henry Holt and Co. 1904. Pp. 

 vii + 402. 



No one, perhaps, is better fitted to unite in 

 a text-book the standard ' general ' psychology 

 which James' ' Principles ' represents and the 

 results of recent experimental studies, than the 

 author of this book. The addition of com- 

 ments from the so-called ' functional ' point 

 of view will also be welcomed by the majority 

 of qualified teachers of psychology. We feel 

 the gi'atitude and satisfaction which are due 

 to a thoroughly capable thinker who gives us 

 a solid, careful and, so far as is desirable in 

 a text for students, original book. 



There is no need to note in detail the many 

 excellent features in content and form or the 

 few cases of questionable facts and methods 

 of presentation. Every reader of this journal 

 who is interested in the teaching of psychol- 

 ogy should read the book itself. I choose, 

 therefore, to comment on more general issues 

 which it suggests. 



Is it wise to divorce the experimental 

 method from the facts of general psychology? 

 Professor Angell's book, like other recent 

 books for beginners, gives no sign that the 

 student is to make any observations systemat- 

 ically or under the conditions of an experi- 

 ment. It encourages the student to rely on 

 reflection alone — or still worse, on mere mem- 

 orizing. 



.Again, is it wise to follow Royce and Stout 

 in choosing the style of the man expressing 

 his own processes of reflection and argument 

 rather than the crisp and objective, if some- 

 what bald, style of the text-book in physical 

 science? The words we, us and our occur in 

 this book apparently over three thousand 

 times. A bald fact like ' If sense organs are 

 stimulated, ohjects, rather than mere qualities, 

 are felt,' appears as, "When our attention is 



called to the fact, we readily notice, as was 

 intimated earlier in the chapter, that if our 

 sense organs are stimulated, we are commonly 

 made conscious of ohjects, rather than of mere 

 qualities, such as we have been describing in 

 this chapter" (p. 118). 



Does the so-called ' functional ' point of 

 view possess any messages of actual fact for 

 the student other than these : (1) That mental 

 life involves not only the existence of thoughts 

 and feelings, but also their connections among 

 themselves and with physical events, and (2) 

 that mental states and their connections have 

 been subject to natural selection? The re- 

 viewer is probably wrong, but he finds many 

 of the comments of Professor Angell and 

 others strangely like pure teleology or mere 

 verbalisms. At times they seem even to at- 

 tempt to explain the origin of variations (at 

 best a ticklish business) by some inner neces- 

 sity that a need should create its own satisfac- 

 tion. Are such statements as the following 

 empirical science and, even if they are, will 

 they develop a scientific attitude in students? 

 " Straightway appears consciousness with its 

 accompanying cortical activities, taking note 

 of the nature of the stimulus and of the 

 various kinds of muscular response which it 

 called forth" (p. 51). "Consciousness ap- 

 pears in response to the needs of an organism 

 * * * consciousness brings order out of this 

 threatened chaos " (p. 52). " The organism 

 contains within itself certain ends to be at- 

 tained in course of development by adjustive 

 activities. In part these ends exist imbedded 

 in the physiological mechanisms, where thej' 

 come to light as reflex, automatic and in- 

 stinctive acts, sometimes accompanied by con- 

 sciousness; and in part they exist as con- 

 scious purposes, in which case they appear as 

 recognized intentions " (pp. 75-76). " Left 

 to itself, any mental condition would convert 

 itself at once into some kind of muscular 

 movement" (p. 310). "We have already 

 noted its [emotion's] appearance under condi- 

 tions of stress and tension requiring new con- 

 scious coordinations in order to permit prog- 

 ress, and we have connected this fact with the 

 service of emotion as a general monitor re- 



