Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/576

562 PHILOSOPHICAL PEEIODICALS. the paper is perhaps in its hints on method in interpreting results of experiment ; the reproduction of an impression and its recognition, the exactness of a recollection and the subject's assurance of its exactness, the concrete memory-image and the abstract representation these are distinctions which must be constantly kept in mind, as the processes themselves depend on different conditions and are under different laws. With this paper may be taken those of Larguier de Bancels on ' Methods of Memorising,' and on ' Variations of Memory during the Day '. The former proves, so far as the experiments go, the advantage of "learning by wholes " over " learning by parts " in regard to the more persistent and accurate retention of what is learned. (Miss Steffens's study of Memory had shown the former method to be more economical both as to the time occupied in learning and as to the number of repetitions required for stamping a given poem, etc., upon the mind.) But M. de Bancels' method was carelessly conceived and only gradually perfected as the experiments continued, and the number of the latter under the best conditions is too small for any decisive conclusion to be drawn. The note on variations of memory records some experiments of the writer, in which he himself was the subject, and which tend to prove that we learn more easily and receive an impression more firmly just after a meal than at any other time of the day ; the difference is so slight that no one would be inclined to risk his digestion over it, but, such as it is, it is accounted for by the increased circulation after meals, indicated by the higher pulse- rate. Dr. Fer^ contributes three papers based on experiments with Mosso's Ergograph. The conclusions of the first, on the ' Influence of Rhythm upon Work,' are : (1) That movements in relatively slow time produce more work than movements in relatively fast, but that the effect of a change of rate is greater for the right than for the left hand ; (2) that varying the rhythm of movement during work causes at first a " pro- gressive excitation," which is, however, foUowed by a rapid depression, showing an acceleration of fatigue ; again there are differences of effect upon right- and upon left-handed work. The second paper is on the ' Alternation of Activities,' and contains some interesting results. It is known that in deep sleep the work of reflex-responses is taken over by the right hemisphere, and that in great fatigue an activity is automatically transferred from one hemisphere to the other; Fere has also shown (Comptes Rendus Biol., 1901) that when the two hands are being employed together in ergograph work, there are constant oscillations in the quantity of work done by each, but the maximum activity of the right coincides with the minimum activity of the left hand and vice versa. The experi- ments reported here give additional proof, and show that the effect heightening of the activity of one hand, accompanied by depression of that of the other is increased by one-sided sensory excitations, by previous exercise of one or other hand, by the suggestion of movement on the part of the experimenter, etc. It can be shown also, according to Dr. Fere, that actions to which the right hand is apprenticed are learned by the left without practice, i.e., one hemisphere is educated sympathetically along with the other. In a third paper, on the ' Influence of some Neural Poisons upon Work,' it is demonstrated that the effect of stimulative poisons is the same as that of narcotics (Bernard's Law) : there is first a period of heightened activity (in which the output of work is high above the normal) ; this is followed more or less rapidly by a decreased activity, much more marked than that of normal fatigue. In some ' Notes on Attention,' M. Aars suggests that the indispensable factor in all attention is the expectation of a coming presentation, to which expectation a special nervous process corresponds : this on its part explains the inhibition of