No. 510] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



is that of the attitude and work of Dr Pierre Janet, the brilliant 

 Salpetriere student of nervous functions. In a recent book, 



being given in the College de France on the expression and in- 

 fluences of the t'inotions and sentiments, Janet discards almost 

 entirely the finalistic explanations so well established l>.\ Dar- 

 win's epoch-making book. In their place he substitutes mech- 

 anistic explanations, and his reasoning has great cogency. 

 The finalistic type of explanation of vital phenomena is very 

 plausible and seizing. We snarl when we are angry because 

 we want to scare our neighbor by showing him we are about to 

 bite; or rather, as we no longer bite, we do it because our an- 

 cestors did when they wanted to warn their neighbors to keep 

 to their own tree ; and we smile because it is useful to show an 

 opposite state of feeling. 



But Janet— and others— find that smiling is the mechanically 

 produced contortion of muscular stimulus due to strong emo- 

 tional shock or mental agitation, and this mental agitation is 

 not at all necessarily one of joy or friendliness or risibility. 

 We smile often when we want to weep, when we are surprised, 

 when we are embarrassed, when we are terrified. The facial 

 muscles are roughly divisible into two unequal sets; one, above, 

 of more and stronger muscles; the other, below, of fewer and 

 weaker ones. When the stimulus comes the muscular pull of 

 the upper set is stronger and our mouth corners go up and the 

 contortion we call a smile is produced. But various emotions 

 may produce the stimulus. If the contortion, that is the smile, 

 is useful, well and good ; but it is not a result of usefulness. 



A brick is red because it contains by very virtue of being a 

 brick certain chemical components in physical state, of which 

 an attribute is redness. We ask for no further explanation 

 of the brick's color. But let a butterfly's wing be red, and 

 though the waste uric granules in its cuticular scales be of chem- 

 ical and physical nature to compel them to absorb other colors 

 and reflect red just as brick stuff does, we demand more explain- 

 ing. We must have utility in this red ; we must have a finalistic 

 explanation, and if this explanation be not readily afforded by 

 Darwinian selection or Lamarckian adaptation we have still 

 left the ever-ready and always sufficient explanation of vitalism. 

 The butterfly's wing is usefully red because the butterfly is alive. 



