TOO 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLII 



results? If so we might be compelled to conclude that some 

 factor x, not perceivable objectively — a psychic factor, perhaps — 

 is playing a part. And this of course would mean the bank- 

 ruptcy of the experimental method; it would mean that things 

 happen which are not determined, so far as experiment can 

 show; that when differing results appear in two cases, we can- 

 not look with confidence for any antecedent differences in the 

 conditions to explain them; that l>y supplying the same con- 

 ditions in two cases we can not be sure of getting the same re- 

 sults; it would mean that nature plays fast and loose with us 

 so far as objective experimentation is concerned. To the ex- 

 perimentalist the question whether states of consciousness may at 

 times come in and alter his results, without the accompaniment 

 of changed objective conditions to which the changed results 

 can be attributed, is evidently an intensely practical one, and 

 so long as this possibility is held open, it is idle to tell the ex- 

 perimenter that he should not concern himself about psychic 

 processes. 



But if, as is commonly held, states of consciousness are always 

 accompanied by objective physiological conditions, and these 

 objective conditions differ when the conscious states differ, then 

 of course we should always he aide io find satisfactory objective 

 determining factors for all differing results; a complete ex- 

 perimental explanation of what happens could be given, without 

 taking into consideration unknown states of consciousness; the 

 objective experimental method would be reliable. There seems 

 to be no convincing evidence as yet that it is not reliable and 

 sufficient unto itself; it will be best to hold to it till such evi- 

 dence appears. And yet, as we have seen, to hold to it as reliable 

 and sufficient does not imply in the least that states of conscious- 

 ness do not likewise exist. 1 Comparative psychology and a purely 

 objective science of animal behavior, complete in itself, may 

 exist side by side without the least conflict. 



H. S. Jennings. 



in a widened experimental sense, even though a purely objective explanation, 

 without gaps, c:ui he ^i\en t'«»r behavior. 



(No. 502 was issued October 29, 1908.) 



