A Source Book in the History of Psychology

Nor are we by any means free of the Willisian type of speculation in the present twentieth century. For it is still human (and will long remain so) to desire and accept explanations based on relatively simple systematized concepts, such as the 'sub-conscious' or 'stress' which elude all attempts to catch them in the net of experimental confirmation or refutation. The production of facsimile editions of classical medical works is now becoming a welcome feature of the History of Medicine. Such classics, as has been emphasized in this review, often make difficult reading. They require time and leisure for their appreciation, facilities which have in the past been largely necessarily denied to the ordinary reader. This particular facsimile production of Willis's Cerebri Anatome must be unique in the fineness of its materials and its workmanship. The editor, Dr. Feindel, and the printer, the Meriden Gravure Company of Connecticut, are to be heartily congratulated on the success of their handiwork. Such a fine production of this great work, well used, should do much to arouse the interest of students of science and medicine in the history of their subjects. Its greatest danger lies in its seductive beauty, which may result in its abduction into the secret closets of collectors' pieces. Psychologists-unlike psychiatrists-have always delighted in their heritage and been proud to trace their descent from the great philosophers, scientists and physiolo-gists of the past. As early as 1912 Rand of Harvard published his readings from the classical psychologists starting with Anaxagoras and ending with Wundt. This was followed in 1948 by Dennis's selections from Aristotle to Hull; and in 1961 by Shipley, who started with Herbart and ended with McDougall. In their series of source books in the history of the sciences devoted to classical papers that have shaped their structure, Harvard have now issued this further series of extracts from psychological texts under the editorship of the associate professor of psychology and the distinguished emeritus professor at Harvard. They have limited their 116 excerpts to the history of experimental or quantitative psychology-specifically omitting clinical and social psychology-and have arranged them into fifteen chronologies according to topic, such as sensory specification, psychophysics, vision, reflexes, association and learning. Each topic has its general introduction and brief notes at the head of extracts. Sixty-two extracts appeared originally in English; of the rest twenty-seven are here translated for the first time. Those familiar with …