15 SEPTEMBER 1923, Page 20

These lectures are all by medical experts, and in each

case give in clear and untechnical language the essential points in the modern theories of mind, both from the purely psycho logical standpoint and from that of physiological psychology. or the study of the interactions of mind and brain. The opening chapter, by Dr. Bernard Hart, on the primitive instincts which modern analysis has shown to be the funda- mental agents in all human motive and action, is perhaps the most excellent of all. There is not a superfluous word, the logical sequence is admirable, and his illustrations of the workings of the fundamental instincts of self-preservation, sex, and the herd-instinct are well chosen to show how cases of conflict are resolved. Dr. Macnamara, on habit and adaptation, is good ; and no would-be social reformer should miss reading the logical, temperate and altogether cogent argument by which Dr. Potts demonstrates the glaring need for general reform in'the -treatment of 'crime and delinquency. All the other lectures, on the various functions and disorganizations of the mind and brain, are as good as they can be ; and we thoroughly recommend the book to anyone who desires to have a clear introduction to the problems of the mind and brain and the solutions offered by modern research.