month, and now also words which had previously been used to express
a variety of associated or generic meanings, were discarded for more
specific ones. In the twenty-eighth month prepositions were first used,
and questions were first asked. In the twenty-ninth month the chief
advance was in naming self with a pronoun, as in "give me bread;" but
the word "I" was not yet spoken. When asked: "Wer ist mir?" the child
would say its own name. Although the child had long been able to say its
numerals, it was only in this month that it attained to an understanding
of their use in counting. In the thirty-second month the word "I" was
acquired, but still the child seemed to prefer speaking of itself in the
third person.

The long disquisition on the acquirement of speech is supplemented by
a chapter conveying the observations of other writers upon the same
subject. This is followed by an interesting chapter on the development
of self-consciousness, and the work concludes with a summary of results.
There are also lengthy appendices on the acquirements of correct vision
after surgical operations by those who have been born blind, and on the
mental condition of uneducated deaf mutes; but we have no space left to
go into these subjects. Enough, we trust, has been said to show
that Professor Preyer's laborious undertaking is the most important
contribution which has yet appeared to the department of psychology with
which it is concerned. GEORGE J. ROMANES.

* * * * *




THE RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN.