Reviews Handbook of Psychological Research on the Rat.

An Introduction to Animal Psychology. By N. L. MUNN. New Y o r k : Houghton Mifflin Co. 1950. Pp. xxvi + 598; 180 illustrations; 15 tables. 7.50 dollars. Those who employ the rat in psychological

and allied research will be familiar with the author's An Introduction to Animal Psychology, published in 1933. That work had, in his own words, "outlived its usefulness as a text and as a review of the literature." The combination of the two aspects in the one volume seemed no longer feasible and, "faced with the alternatives of writing a text or of writing a complete survey," Munn chose the latter.

There are few who will be disappointed with the present work, and none who can deny its extreme usefulness. Leonard Carmichael, the editor of the series in which it appears, describes it as a model of scholarship. That is high praise indeed, but does not appear to be an over-statement. The vast amount of subject matter available has been covered in a lucid and methodical fashion, and it is pleasant to be able to verify that British references have been checked in detail. The author's obvious en- thusiasm for his subject is reflected in his style as well as in his documentation, and we can but admire the qualities that have enabled him after an interval of l~early 20 years to review his subject again in such a refreshing manner.

The work is divided into ten sections, viz. : (1) introduction; (2) unlearned behaviour; (3) general activity; (4) motives, emotions and hoarding; (5) sensory processes; (6) the role of sensory processes in maze behaviour; (7) the learning process; (8) some aspects and con- ditions of learning; (9) systematic psychology; and (10) abnormal and social behaviour. The extensive list of contents, the use of sub-titles and the method of presentation render it a simple matter to look up any particular point.

Every work must have its flaws, and this is no exception, but to discuss minor points or errors would be trivial. The author and those who have helped him to make this significant con- tribution to psychological literature are to be congratulated. As Leonard Carmichael states,

. . . the preparation and publication of this book is likely to be recognised in the years ahead as an event of great importance in the history of the exact study of psychology in the science of behaviour."

of Books. The Study of Imtinct. By N. TINBERGEN.

Oxford University Press. 1951. Pp. xii -k 228. 25s. The biologist of to-day would probably claim

without fear of contradicti on that great progress has been made in our knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of animals and that this know- ledge .has been most successfully applied; for example in the fields of agriculture and human medicine. Study of the internal struc- ture of animals and of how the components parts function, is much more advanced than is the study of the whole animal and what it does. Ethology or the study of animal behaviour is a comparatively new subject. Readers of Prof. Tinbergen's book however will be im- pressed by the wealth of material which is now available to the study of ethology and by the amount of critical experimentation which has been carried out in order to analyse .causal sequences and determine laws, and by the obvious potential importance of the subject in fields of applied biology.

In the preface the author states that his presentation has a dual aim. First to call attention of Anglo-American workers to re- search done on the European Continent and published in German, much of which has not penetrated into English and American Science, and secondly to attempt an organisation of ethological problems into a coherent whole.

The first aim is closely related to the second. Perhaps owing to the isolation caused by War and to the fact that the subject matter is of more academic than applied interest, there has been a tendency for ethological problems to be studied along different lines in different countries or within the same country in different scientific departments; for example neuro-physiology in England, the conditioned reflex in the U.S.S.R., neuro-muscular co-ordination in England and the U.S.A., the study of learning by maze technique in the U.S.A., Human psychology and psychiatry are also studied in rather highly specialised departments in many countries. The organisation of ethology into a coherent whole must necessarily take cognizance of all branches of the subject, in whatever country or department they may be developing. Prof. Tinbergen's special contribution to this synthesis is to bring to notice the Continental work on the study of inate behaviour, to which he himself has contributed so much. Although

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