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PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERATURE.
Experimental Psychology: A Manual of Laboratory Practice.
By EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER. Volume I., Qualitative:
Part I., Student's Manual, pp. xviii -j- 214, $1.60 net; Part II.,
Instructor's Manual, pp. xxxiii -f- 456, $2.50 net. New York,
The Macmillan Company. 1901.
" T h i s course aims at two things: first, and more especially, to
teach the student to psychologize, and secondly to acquaint him with the
most reliable methods and most securely established results of experi-
mental psychology." (Part II., p. xi\.) " I have selected a number
of the 'classical' experiments of Experimental Psychology, and have
tried to present them in such a way that the performance shall have a
real disciplinary value for the undergraduate student. Within this
general purpose my aim has been twofold. I have sought to show,
in the first place, that psychology is above the laboratory; that we
employ our instruments of precision not for theii own sake, but solely
because they help us to a refined and more accurate introspection.
And secondly, * * * I have treated the selected experiments not as
separate exercises, but as points of departure for systematic discus-
sion." (Part II., p. vii.)
The author announces that the present volume, in two parts, is to
be followed by a companion volume, also in two parts, on the quanti-
tative side. Thus the work is divided into qualitative and quantitative,
and one student's and one instructor's manual is to be devoted to each.
The chapters run parallel in the two parts of Volume I. Part I. con-
tains specific directions for thirty-seven groups of experiments, and
Part II. contains discussions of each of these, giving theories, refer-
ences, results, explanations of technicalities, related experiments, and
in general the setting of each experiment. The following subjects
are treated: visual, auditory, cutaneous, gustatory, olfactory and or-
ganic sensations; the affective qualities; attention and action ; visual,
auditory and tactual perception, and ideational types and association
of ideas. Part I. also contains introductoiy directions to the student,
and Part II. contains suggestions to the instructor, a selected list of
books, and a directory of laboratory-supply houses and instrument
makers.
4°3
404 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.

These manuals embody the results of a decade's experiment upon

the methods of teaching experimental psychology. Their pages show
that the long time of preparation has been spent in painstaking and
profitable work by the author. His effort receives double significance
in view of the opportunity: the subject matter has ripened into pre-
sentable form through the efficient efforts of many laboratory workers;
the preliminary survey has been made by other manuals and texts,
although this will rightly receive the credit of being a pioneer work;
and the author is favored with a most excellent laboratory equipment
and a desirable class of students to work with. Writing a laboratory
manual is not like writing a syllogism. The exercises may seem ideal
on paper and yet suffer from the weakness of being fit only for the
ideal student. The patience and exhaustiveness with which the author
has dealt with the small hitches is highly commendable. He has
given us the exercises in the form in which they have been successful
in his laboratory. It remains to be seen whether the manuals will
serve their purpose as well in the hands of other instructors and in
other laboratories. An adequate review can be given only after a
thorough trial of the whole plan.
The three most striking features of these manuals are the distinc-
tion between qualitative and quantitative experiments, the division
into student's and instructor's manuals, and the pedagogical adjust-
ment of the exercises.
" T h e experiments in this volume are termed 'qualitative' and
emphasis is laid throughout upon ' qualitative' as distinct from quanti-
tative work. • • • The student's attention is directed not to the ' How
much ?' or the ' How well ?' but to the ' How ?' of mental structure."
(Part II., pp. xx, xxi.) Experimental psychology is aided introspec-
tion. In the beginning of the modern movement it was found neces-
sary to make the aids the primary object of study and to develop power
to govern the conditions of the experiment. The experimental method
was then revealed to the few who should become investigators. The
reform period has passed and the value of the quantitative method is
recognized and understood. Now the facts of psychology are taught
to classes by the experimental method. By dividing his work accord-
ing to the analogy of chemistry and making the first course qualitative
Professor Titchener has raised the current emphasis on the qualitative
method to a climax. But he does not insist upon a rigid line of de-
marcation, for such does not exist, and he constantly upholds the
dignity of careful and exact methods. In fact, he employs quantita-
tive methods freely and effectively. The author's method and point
of view give a richness and refreshing attractiveness to the subject.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 405

The plan of furnishing separate manuals for student and instruc-

tor is good. The directions to the student are not encumbered by full
discussion of the problem, but the student is permitted to form his
own unbiased conclusion, acting upon clear and isolated directions.
The instructor's manual is not a 'key' to be locked in the teacher's
desk. It is adapted to the use of the student, and here lies its chief
value. It is a compendium which the student may study section for
section, provided he performs each experiment first. It is a legitimate
aid to the teacher and is exceedingly helpful and stimulating. Those
who are afraid of acquiring faith in experimental psychology had better
not open this book, because on every page of it there stares one in
the face the reasonable and enticing challenge, " Try this experiment
yourself." He who seeks in this compendium an answer to the ques-
tion, " I s there anything in experimental psychology?" will never ask
the question again.
The cast of the student's manual is calculated to make the student
independent of the instructor. The form of the directions is spirited
and economical, containing only what is essential for the performing
of the experiment. The author has sacrificed uniformity in the
length of the exercises for comprehensiveness of view. The instruc-
tor must select the points to be tried in a given laboratory period and
after trying these the student will profit by reading the rest. It is the
author's plan that the present course should be preceded by an intro-
ductory course of lectures. But, even with this preparation, the stu-
dent may make a failure of the course if he is required to perform
the experiments seriatim without any aid from the instructor. The
reviewer has found the plan of conducting every alternate exercise as
a seminar devoted to the interpretation of the experiments performed
in the immediately preceding period very satisfactory. One experi-
ment performed and discussed in its various relations is more profit-
able than two experiments performed without the systematic interpre-
tation, the time spent being equal in the two cases. These manuals
are well adapted for use in such a plan.
The author has here adopted the term ' observer' instead of the term
1
subject.' It is unfortunate that so many of the laboratory men in
this country have so long persisted in using the term ' subject' which
is borrowed from the clinic and the hypnotic stance. The term observer
gives respectability to the laboratory student, and that term alone is
consistent with the view that the method of experimental psychology
is introspection. Where introspection is not employed some other
term may be used.
406 KANT.

The points that are open to criticism in this work are trivial in
comparison with its points of excellence. There are cases of delight-
ful clearness at the expense of fact, as in the adoption of the Hering
theory of color-vision, in the adherence to the Helmholtz theory of
the function of the parts of the organ of Corti, and in the extent to
which he assumes the specialization of function of the end organs in
the skin. There is. an unnecessary confusion in the use of the terms
' Volume,' • Part,' and ' Experiment.' Thus, there are two volumes
in the series, and each volume contains two parts and each of the
parts contains two parts, and theie are thirty-seven experiments and
each of these experiments is divided into several experiments. Sev-
eral of the exeicises could be improved, but an adequate discussion
of that matter would require a special treatise. It is desirable that
some one should publish a detailed criticism of the exercises after
they have been thoroughly tried. Wherever they are used they must
be adapted to the laboratory equipment.
This is an American work. Europe has taught Americans to be-
come investigators in psychology : America is showing Europeans
how to teach psychology. The work is well illustrated. Its tenor
with reference to philosophy and the sciences to which psychology is
related is scholarly and generous. The absence of loose metaphysics
and biological speculation is gratifying. The author states theories
and freely gives his own view as a starting point. The economy in
the use of apparatus in the set exercises is remarkable. The present
installment of Professor Titchener's work is the clearest mark of the
achievements of modern psychology extant.
C. E. SEASHORE.
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA.

Les Grands Philosophes: Kant. Par THEODORE RUYSSEX, Agregi

de Philosophic, Professeur au Lycde Gay-Lussac (Limoges).
Paris, Ft-lix Alcan, 1900. Svo, pp. xi -f 391. Price, 5 francs.
Inspection of publishers' lists might well afford us much evidence
for calling our time the ' Age of Series.' In English we have had
Blackwood's 'Philosophical Classics,' edited by Professor Knight;
' German Philosophical Classics for English Readers and Students,'
edited by my predecessor, the late Prof. G. S. Morris, and now we
have in progress the series, entitled ' The World's Epoch-Makers,'
undertaken by the great Edinburgh firm, T. & T. Clark, and handled
in this country by the Scribners; a series initiated by one of the best
works in the language on ' Luther,' by Professor Lindsay, of Glasgow.