We are well pleased to be able to state that Dr. Mercier's forthcoming work is now in the hands of the printers. It has been an open secret that his work for some years past has been nearing completion, and that it has at length assumed definite shape. The germ of Dr. Mercier's thesis has been already made known to us in his earlier writings, and now he is to produce the results of his matured thought and experience. The book is primarily intended as an introduction to the study of insanity, and under the title of Psychology, Normal and Morbid, it will constitute a general survey of mental processes with special reference to their bearing upon Conduct. The processes of reasoning, usually omitted from psychological works, are dealt with in considerable detail, this part of the book being practically a New Logic. Belief, with its morbid variant, Delusion; Truth; the theory of Probability which is extended from the domain of psychology; Will and Desire, in their normal and morbid manifestations; the significance of Pleasure and Pain; and the obscure region of Self-Consciousness are all dealt with from a new point of view, which permits of new conclusions being reached. Dr. Mercier's reputation as a psychologist drew a very large audience to the Royal Institution in May, when he delivered a lecture on Memory. No doubt that is promise of a still larger circle of readers intent to learn and to debate what is soon to be set forth in the systematic style above indicated.
Psychology—Normal and Morbid