book is written for "those beginning the study of psychology in Normal Schools and Colleges, teachers who read for themselves, parents who desire to understand their children." It will be interesting and profitable reading for all these people, but that it can serve as an introduction to general psychology is not probable, because it is not systematic, does not cover the whole field of general psychology, is practically silent on the elementary processes, has too much space given to inconsistent hypotheses, and shows practically no knowledge of recent experimentation in general psychology. One of the most frequent references is to James whose psychology was elaborated 32 years ago. There are 55 references, about half are psychological, practically none to original sources in the periodical literature of psychology.

The book begins with a discussion of the nervous system. The plates are good and the descriptions clear. But why should there be such a chapter in a psychology? Until we can know what nervous processes underlie conscious processes, and can formulate the laws governing these neural processes, nerve physiology can be of no service to psychology. It is the business of psychology to discover and formulate the laws and principles involved in the relations of stimuli to responses. For practical purposes these relationships are all we need to know. A college student having difficulty with his lesson will get no help from figure 18. A father looking for guidance in training his wayward son will get no assistance from figure 11.

In Chapter II Goddard discusses reflexes, instincts, perceptions and ideas. The discussion is in terms of neuron patterns. The reflexes and instincts depend upon inherited patterns. The author seems to accept the idea that consciousness is due to resistance in the synapse. May it be," he says, "that two nerve fibers in contact or in close juxtaposition make manifest the energy otherwise imperceptible?" (p. 27). "The consciousness resulting from two or even twenty neurons is too faint to be consciousness, but when thousands are involved, it rises above the threshold" (p. 28). "Consciousness, especially in the higher thought processes is in some unknown way the result of some interference with the free flow of neurokyme" (p. 28). Neural interference gives rise to consciousness, the greater the interference, the greater the consciousness. When we come to Goddard's discussion of attention, we find that height of attention depends upon ease of flow of the neurokyme (p. 77). These two theories are inconsistent. In explaining the conflict of stimuli in attention, we find (p. 79) the following:

There is a ready formed, instinctive pattern to which the stimulus of a loud noise instantly leads, arousing strong activity with its accompanying consciousness. But what becomes of the consciousness existent when the loud noise interrupted us? The answer is, it is eclipsed by the greater consciousness aroused by the stimulus." Thus, astronomy is brought to the aid of psychology! It has been a tradition in psychology now for some time to say that consciousness is due to interference in the flow of neural energy, when the least reflection or experimentation shows that the richest consciousness is in connection with inherited neural activity, in which case the flow must be easy and uninterrupted. In a violent emotion, so strongly do the processes involved hold the center or focus of consciousness, that other stimuli for the time can not be effective in arousing focal consciousness.

In chapters 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10, Goddard treats of memory, im

agination, association, attention, and other higher processes. In his treatment of memory, in the main he follows Titchener. His explanation of the feeling of familiarity (p. 71) can hardly be satisfactory to the critical reader. We find the useless distinction between association by contiguity and similarity. On page 95, Goddard identifies them, but on pages 99 and 101 we find them to be different again. The author does not seem to see that identity of experience is the basis of all association.

On page 121, we find all important mental processes reduced to unity. "There is no possibility of differentiating (imagination, memory, association, attention) because they are all one and the same thing only different phases of the same mental process (p. 121). One might as well say that because a ball is both red and round, redness and roundness are one and the same thing, both being characteristics of the same ball.

In chapters nine and ten, thought and reasoning are discussed. "Thought appears when neurokyme in a simple neuron pattern is interrupted under conditions where there are associated neuron patterns into which that neuron energy may flow and lead to action" (p. 164). It is difficult to see in what sense thought" is used. If consciousness is meant, the quoted statement can hardly be true. In the summary, p. 173, we read, "perception, judgment and reasoning are all phases of the thought process." Can it be that perception is due to interference? And can it be that "sensation is the consciousness of a stimulus"? (p. 165).

The psychology of learning is disposed of in a 14-page chapter on habit which shows no knowledge of the recent experimentation in this important field.

In his treatment of emotion, Goddard takes a position essentially the same as that of James. A situation sets into action various glands and other internal organs, by means of the sympathetic system. This activity sends to the cortex a complex stimulation which occasions sensations which are the essential part of feeling and emotion. We are not told whether feeling is another kind of sensation, whether it is a conscious element correlate with sensation, or whether it is an attribute of sensation.

One of the most interesting discussions of Part II concerns mental levels and their determination. In this field the author is at home and speaks from his large experience. The reader here finds helpful treatment of moral training, the relation of intelligence to control of the emotions, the moral imbecile, and various pedagogical applications of the facts discussed.

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

W. H. PYLE

DOWNEY, J. E. Graphology and the Psychology of Handwriting. Baltimore: Warwick & York, 1919. Pp. 142.

Dr. Downey has here summarized in compact form the present state of theory and experiment in the field of graphology and the psychology of handwriting. The material is presented in two sections. The first deals with three topics: (1) the basal concepts of graphology; (2) graphological methods, and (3) the graphological elements. The second section discusses some of the author's own experimental work on (1) the analysis of the factors entering into disguised handwriting, (2) the influence of mental and physical condition on handwriting, (3) the comparison of handwriting with other forms of motor expression, and (4) the comparison of graphological with character traits. Several of these studies are here presented for the first time. In the last named study the author discovered several very significant relationships, especially between small writing and interest in detail (r = + .61).

The main purpose of the book, as expressed by the author, "is one of orientation, preliminary to an attempt to use graphic activity in tests of temperamental or character traits." On the whole it serves its purpose well, though the person familiar with the tests since developed by the author will find some difficulty in paralleling the test series with the material presented in this book. As a resumé of progress in the psychology of handwriting this volume stands alone. M. FREYD

OSSIP-LOURIÉ. La Graphomanie. Paris: Alcan, 1920. Pp. 232.

This treatise on the disease of writing too much opens with a short review of the origins of written language and the underlying psychology of language. Under pathological conditions written expression degenerates. The object of the author is not to study such derangement but to observe literary graphomania as it occurs outside asylums. He does not, however, succeed in drawing a clearcut picture of the malady. Mania for a literary career may be a common attribute of many sorts of egocentric vain individuals. Nor does the author draw a line between second and third-rate writing and the morbid variety. Possibly he thinks no line should be drawn. The creative writer who writes in order to say something instead of writing in order to write is not concerned with reputation. The graphomaniac suffers from the delusion of grandeur and wishes to draw attention to himself. He has a remarkable verbal memory and goes from the word to the idea; his pen moves faster than his attention, hence stereotypy and echo-phrases are a feature of his work.

Although literary graphomania is the chief form, there are other varieties of the disease, such as the mania for carving one's name on public monuments or on natural wonders (glaciers are cited!), and the mania for writing letters of the everyday and the anonymous sort. There are also simulators whose mythical productions never see the light of print. All in all, a frightful epidemic has invaded the world. Few individuals are immune, the majority have written or are writing a book or a pamphlet. Letters by the milliard, books by the thousands, pamphlets innumerable! And in train of the graphomaniac trails his sad satellite, the reading-maniac, vainly striving to keep abreast of the flood.

In discussing the causes of graphomania, the author blames, in part, a system of education which encourages writing without thought, by utilizing copy and dictation. The man who really thinks never writes rapidly; but rapid composition is enforced in school routine. Graphomania flourishes because of the failure of true criticism and the commercialization of literature. And then there

is the woman-movement, and all women writers with only a few exceptions are graphomaniacs!

As a curative measure the author suggests educational reform. Graphomaniacs, once afflicted, rarely recover, but isolation, solitude, and silence are recommended as therapeutic measures worth trying. JUNE E. DOWNEY

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING