21 MARCH 1925, Page 34

Mr. George Humphrey, in The Story of Man's Mind (Rout.

ledge), has written one of those bright, up-to-date, informative, excursive books in which American humanists excel. We

are now being told of the colour blindness of dogs—" No amount of training can make the dog distinguish between red and green of equal brightness . . . The world of the cat and the dog is a movie world, as regards colour " ; now the methods of appeal in advertizing ; now of " Victor, the boy who lived among the animals." Victor was a French boy who from early

babyhood had lived wild in the woods. He was captured at the age of eleven or twelve, and taken to Paris for observation. He was " a child of disgusting filthiness, rocking backwards and forwards incessantly like some of the animals in a

menagerie, biting and scratching those who opposed him, showing no sign of affection to those who helped him ; in- different to everything, and giving attention to nothing." " One day a practical joker fired a gun off near him. To the astonishment of everybody, the boy took absolutely no notice, because such noises, if he had ever heard them, had never, meant anything. But once, when he was on a walk with friends, he suddenly darted forward a considerable distance,

and returned with an acorn which he had heard drop." It was impossible to teach him much ; he was able after a few

years to speak a word or two ; he abandoned his savage tempers ; but there was never any hope of his becoming " ordinary." * * *