DICTIONARY OF
PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY

Labials: see PHONETICS.

Laboratory (of psychology) and Apparatus: Ger. psychologisches Institut, Institut für experimentelle Psychologie, Apparate, Instrumente; Fr. laboratoire de psychologie, appareils, instruments; Ital. laboratorio, apparecchi, strumenti. A room or series of rooms fitted up for psychological experiments. By apparatus is meant all the instruments or material means of investigation, training, or demonstration.

I. Laboratory. Psychological experiments had been made in physical and physiological laboratories and in private quarters, but the first laboratory of psychology was established by Professor Wundt in Leipzig in 1879. The second laboratory, now discontinued, was that of the Johns Hopkins University (Professor Hall, 1883), and the third -- the first in which undergraduate work in the laboratory was undertaken -- was that of the University of Pennsylvania (Professor Cattell, 1888). Laboratories have now been established in the leading Universities of Germany; at the Sorbonne, Paris, and elsewhere in France; in some thirty American colleges and universities. In England beginnings have been made, but the only laboratory planned and adequately equipped for experimental psychology in the British Empire is still that of the University of Toronto (Professor Baldwin, 1890). Laboratories for the investigation of pathological mental conditions have been established in various institutions, e.g. at the Salpêtrière, Paris (Professor Janet), at Heidelberg, Germany (Professor Kräpelin), at Reggio Emilia, Italy (Professor Tamburini), and at the Physiological Institute, Turin (Professor Mosso). Cf. PSYCHOLOGY (various topics).

A laboratory of psychology should have the same general position and arrangement as laboratories for the other sciences. A series of small rooms is, however, preferable to one or more large rooms; a dark room is needed for work on vision, and a quiet room for work on hearing, attention, &c. A workshop for wood and metals is very desirable. There should be light from the north and south, and it is important to have throughout good light and quietness. Electric light and power (including a current of low potential) are needed, as also water and gas. It is also desirable that such a laboratory should comprise facilities for physiological as well as simply experimental work, and this is often accomplished by arranging for local proximity to special laboratories in physiology, neurology, and histology, and for some degree of co-operation with them. (J.M^cK.C.- J.M.B.)

II. Apparatus, General. The quantitative measurements of psychology rest on the same general principles as the investigation of physics and physiology, and the apparatus employed are to a large extent the same. Since any direct measurement of sensations, thoughts, feelings, or emotions appears to be out of the question, the investigator aims to obtain an expression of their value in terms of their most immediate causes or effects. The individual experiencing the sensations, &c., can indicate their inequality, alteration, and the like, but the numerical value of such differences or alterations must be supplied from material phenomena open to external measure. Thus the measurements of mental phenomena depend on measurements of either the stimuli (i.e. physical processes) of the mental state or the (physiological) motor effects which follow the stimuli or the mental state. The stimulus may be measured with respect to its duration, intensity, or spatial extent, and with reference to the least sensation or the least difference in sensation under each aspect.

The least sensation is measured by the least stimulus that will produce a sensation: called threshold of sensation; the least difference of sensation by the least change in stimulus that will produce a different sensation: called threshold of difference. Where measurements of the quality of sensation are possible, as in sight and hearing, they are of the same character. See THRESHOLD. The motor effect is generally measured with reference to variation in the amount, force, and direction of movement. By comparison or other treatment of these data, inferences are drawn regarding the central processes and the accompanying mental changes.

Records are obtained in two ways. In the first or visual method, an index moves along a scale and stops at a number representing the measurement obtained. This principle is involved in the apparatus whose names end in -meter or -scope. The index is usually constructed so as to stop at the point desired, while the mechanism either continues to work, as in the chronoscope, or returns to its starting-point, as in the dynamometer. A number of records may thus be obtained in rapid succession. An electric current is often used to start the mechanism or stop the index.

In the second or graphic method, a quill point moves to and fro across a cylinder covered with blackened paper, at the same time that the cylinder rotates; a record or curve is thus obtained in two dimensions, one which represents time. This principle is involved in the apparatus whose names end in -graph. The quill may be attached directly to the special apparatus, as in the ergograph, or the record may be transmitted by air-pressure or an electric current. For air-pressure transmission the Marey tambour is used. This consists of two drums of wood or metal (called tambours), connected by an inelastic rubber tube, each drum having an elastic rubber head. The movement to be recorded takes the form of an inward pressure on the elastic head of the first or exploring tambour; this compresses the air in the tube and in the second or receiving tambour, and the elastic head of the latter is raised. A quill, extending over the receiving tambour, rises and falls with the movement of the head. This principle is used in the sphygmograph and similar apparatus. The electric mode of transmission is illustrated in the Deprez signal. Here the quill is fastened to the armature of an electro-magnet. When the circuit is made, the quill is drawn to the magnet; when the circuit is broken, it is released and drawn away by a spring. A record of the points of time at which the circuit is made and broken is thus obtained on the paper. This principle is used in the chronograph.

The devices for holding and running the recording cylinders are numerous. The kymograph consists of a clockwork to turn the cylinder, and several adjustments for altering the rate of rotation, the angle of its axis, and its position along the axis. The polygraph is used for obtaining several records simultaneously. Near the cylinder is an upright rod, to which several receiving tambours may be clamped; their quills recording at different heights on the cylinder, but at corresponding points of its circumference; these records generally include a time indication, so as to fix the duration of the phenomena, should the cylinder fail to rotate uniformly. The records are obtained on glazed paper that has received a uniform coating of lamp or candle black; they are made permanent by bathing the paper in some fixing solution.

Necessary accessories are electric batteries and circuits, keys, sounders, current testers, resistance boxes, standards and clamps, and a compact switch-board, by which the entire electric supply to the different rooms is regulated and utilized in various combinations.

III. Apparatus for special investigations. In the more complex tests, special apparatus are necessary, which must be devised by the investigator for the particular problem. The following descriptions embrace apparatus in general use. They are suitable for demonstration purposes; and with certain adaptations, according to the problem in hand, they may be used for special investigations as well.

A. Motor Recording Apparatus. General. Apparatus for measuring the extent of movement are described elsewhere (space relations, muscular sense); its duration and rate are measured by a simple application of the kymograph; its force may be determined by the pressure exerted against a spring (Cattell). There are various apparatus for measuring one or more of these data. Delabarre's apparatus for finding the components of movement along vertical and horizontal axes consists of a vertical and a horizontal string, each attached to the finger and passing over a pulley; at the other end they are attached to recording quills, which are pulled one way by the finger, the other by an elastic band. The dynamometer is used to determine the maximum force of a muscle, or to compare movements of the same estimated force. It is an oval of flexible steel, which can be compressed at the sides or pulled apart at the ends; the amount of force exerted in either case is indicated on scales by a pointer, which remains at the highest point reached. The hand dynamometer is grasped in the hand and squeezed; a larger form is used for the arm and other muscles. In the dynamograph the force exerted is recorded on a revolving cylinder by means of tambours. This shows the rate and variation, as well as the amount of force exerted. Mosso's ergograph measures the work done by a single set of muscles, and its rate of fatigue and exhaustion. The forearm is placed on a cushioned board and held immovable by two sets of clamps; the second and fourth fingers are held fast in tubes, and the middle finger is attached to a string bearing a heavy weight; in raising and lowering the weight this finger moves alone without bringing any other muscles into play. The recording part of the ergograph consists of a carriage, to which the string from the finger is attached; it moves on two rods; from this carriage another rod extends, with a quill which marks on a revolving cylinder. There is also the 'spring' ergograph (Cattell, Binet). The myograph measures the form and rate of simple muscular contraction. It consists of a bridge placed over the muscle in question and bound fast. A rod extends down and rests on the muscle. As the muscle contracts, the rod is pressed up, and this acts on a tambour, which records the movement.

The form of movement of various organs in speech is measured and recorded by apparatus which are applied to the proper organs in the same way as the myograph, and which work on the same principle. The labiograph, laryngograph, and palatometer measure the movements of the lips, larynx, and palate respectively. By means of the polygraph (described above) these records may be obtained simultaneously. (H.C.W.)

Physiological Processes. The rate and form of certain physiological processes furnish a measure of the condition and changes of consciousness. A record of such processes under normal conditions may be compared with other records, taken during hard thinking or strong emotion, or after intellectual effort, fatigue, &c. The rate and intensity of the heart-beat is measured by the cardiograph; the sphygmograph measures the rate and form of the pulse; the pneumograph measures the movements of the thorax in breathing. These are similar in principle to the myograph. In one form of pneumograph a flexible rubber bottle is bound to the chest; it is compressed by the expansion of the chest in breathing, and the pressure recorded by a tambour. The plethysmograph is used to measure changes in the volume of the arm, &c., due to changes in the blood-supply. It consists of a vessel into which the arm is inserted; the opening about the arm is tightly closed, after the vessel has been filled with, e.g., water. Any increase in volume of the arm forces the water out into a second jar and causes a weight to fall, and vice versa; these changes are registered on a scale.

B. Sensation and Perception. We have the following groups: (1) Demonstration apparatus; physical and physiological instruments and models. Here belong models of eye, ear, brain, &c; models of the horopter, the field of vision, &c.; large wooden copies of metal instruments, made to show the working of the latter; models illustrating the stream of consciousness, the course of feeling, &c.; apparatus for purely physiological tests, for astigmatism, for the change of the lens in accommodation (phacoscope), for demonstration of the form of vowel waves by means of manometric flames, for recording muscular strength, work, and contraction (dynamometer, ergograph, and myograph), for the registration of pulse, respiration, volume (sphygmograph, pneumograph, plethysmograph), for exploring the eye (ophthalmoscope). Many of these pieces should be included also under group (4); they may be turned to direct psychological account. (2) Apparatus for class experiments. These are instruments of the type of group (4), enlarged and simplified, to permit of the obtaining of results from a small class of students (on the average, from ten to twelve persons), or from very large numbers (two or three hundred). (3) Apparatus for drill experiments. These are cheap and simple forms of the pieces of group (4), intended for use with junior classes in the laboratory. Sanford (ref. below) figures and describes a large number of such instruments. (4) Research apparatus. Under the limits of the present heading, the psychological instruments proper fall into three larger and two smaller groups -- optical, acoustical, and haptical pieces (the word HAPTICS, q.v., being taken in its widest sense), and apparatus for the investigation of taste and smell. (E.B.T.)

(a) Optical. The instruments employed in the study of psychological optics fall into the following groups: --

(1) Apparatus for indirect vision. Near the periphery of the retina the power of space discrimination falls off considerably, and the colour-sense is entirely lost. These phenomena are investigated by means of the perimeter; this consists, essentially, of a fixation point for the eye, and a circular arm with scale rotating about the line of direct vision. To determine the peripheral limits of any colour, a small piece of coloured paper is placed at the end of the scale and gradually approached to the centre of vision until the colour is correctly distinguished; this is repeated for as many points of the periphery as desired. To determine the peripheral variations of the space threshold the coloured piece is replaced by a white surface having two black dots a small distance apart; the piece is moved in till the spots are distinguished as two. The campimeter is similar to the perimeter; instead of a circular scale, a large flat sheet of white paper is used; the colour limits, &c., are marked directly on this. Both perimeter and campimeter are used for mapping the BLIND SPOT (q.v.). A small dot on a white background is moved about near the centre of vision; the points where it disappears and reappears indicate the edges of the blind spot. In this case the eye moves and the stimulus is constant.

A useful instrument for general purposes is Hess' indirect vision colour-mixer (Arch. f. Ophthal., xxxv). (H.C.W.)

(2) Apparatus for the testing of COLOUR-BLINDNESS (q.v.). See also that subject under VISION.

(3) Quality and wave-length; sense discrimination of spectral qualities; instruments for analysing rays of light -- the spectroscope, spectrometric apparatus, and -- for combining them -- the chromatoscope. Cf. Uhthoff, Arch. f. Ophthal., xxxiv; Brodhun, Zeitsch. f. Psychol., iii; Mentz, Philos, Stud., xiii. See SPECTRUM, and Light under VISION.

(4) Purkinje phenomena; liminal values. As (3). Also dark room or dark box, with arrangement for graduation of light intensity (e.g. an episkotister, or partial disk composed of a retaining rim and variable black sectors); colour-mixers (rotating disks), Aubert's diaphragm, and gelatine sheets. Bruecke, Sitzber. d. Wien. Akad. (1878), 3, Abth.; Hillebrand, ibid., 3. Abth. (1889); Hering, Pflüger'sArch., xlix and lx; König, Helmholtz-Festschrift (1891); König and Brodhun, Sitzber. d. Berl. Akad. (1888 and 1889; Langley, Philos. Mag. (1889).

(5) Apparatus for COLOUR MIXTURE (q.v.).

(6) Apparatus for contrast. Demonstration pieces may be prepared from coloured cards. The phenomena can be well shown on rotating disks, or by means of shadows. An elaborate arrangement for quantitative work is described by Hess and Pretori, Arch, f. Ophthal., xl. See Lehmann, Philos. Stud., iii; Ebbinghaus, Sitzber. d. Berl. Akad., xlix; Kirschmann, Philos. Stud., vi; Pretori and Sachs, Pflüger's Arch., lx. Cf. MEYER'S EXPERIMENT, SIDE-WINDOW EXPERIMENT. (E.B.T.)

[(2) to (6)]. The threshold of difference of light intensity is found by comparing different shades of grey on the colour-wheel. This apparatus has an axle, on which black, white, and coloured disks or sectors may be clamped and rotated rapidly by means of a series of geared wheels or a motor. The disks used are slit along one radius, os that they can be fitted into one another, giving sectors of different colours or shades. The adjustable colour-wheel has an axle in three parts, one within another; the disks are fitted to each, interlocking as in the simple colour-wheel; but by moving a lever the proportion of each disk visible may be altered while they are rotating. To find the threshold of difference, one black and one white disk are fitted together in a certain ratio, which is slowly altered till a difference is noted. The shade of grey is measured in terms of the proportion of black and white in the circumference. Another method used in this problem is to compare the shadows from two lights, one of which is varied in intensity or distance.

The thresholds of colour-sensation and colour-difference, and various phenomena of saturation, colour mixing, contrast, &c., are investigated by means of colour-mixers. There are several forms, including the colour-wheel just described. The reflection colour-mixer, in its simplest form, consists of a clear pane of glass, standing perpendicular to a black velvet surface. Strips of differently coloured paper are placed on the velvet at each side; the subject looks through the glass at an angle and sees the reflection of one strip over the image of the other. The intensity of the reflected colour, and hence the character of the mixture, alters with the angle of the regard. Another form is Hering's binocular colour-mixer. Glasses of different colours are placed before the two eyes, which are directed upon three white spots; the left spot is seen with the left eye alone, and in the colour of the glass before that eye; the right spot similarly with the right eye; the central spot is seen with both eyes, and gives a binocular mixture of the two colours, which may be compared with each separately. (H.C.W.)

(7) After-image apparatus. Hering and Wundt have devised demonstration pieces. An arrangement for the study of fatigue by spectral colours is described by Hess, Arch. f. Ophthal., xxxvi; an arrangement for work on positive after-images, by the same author, Pflüger's Arch., xlix. Cf. Bidwell, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1vi (1894).

(8) Apparatus for the study of geometrical-optical illusions. These consist of frames, cards, &c., so arranged that lengths, directions, &c., of the lines entering into the represented figures may be independently varied. See Sanford, op. cit., expts. 187-203. (E.B.T.)

The well-known OPTICAL ILLUSIONS (q.v.) of the size of angles, relation of horizontal to vertical lines, relation between filled and empty space, &c., may be measured by taking such variable figures and altering their form till the illusion is allowed for and apparently corrected. Baldwin's two-area illusion apparatus is an example of this. It consists of a smaller and a larger square with a slit connecting the mid points of their sides or two circles similarly joined; behind this slit moves a pointer, which the subject stops (by pressing a key) when the middle of the line appears to be reached; this judgment is affected by the relative size of the area; the amount of error -- the centre being located too far towards the larger area -- is indicated on a concealed scale, and constitutes a measure of the illusion, which varies with the ratio of the two areas to each other. See Baldwin, Psychol. Rev., ii. (1895) 244 ff. (with figure), and Story of the Mind, 135. (H.C.W.)

(9) Apparatus for the study of the visual perception of motion. Artificial waterfall, and spirally lined disk, for investigating after-images of movement. Rotating drum, with lines, dots, &c., for the perception of movement in direct and in indirect vision. Synthesis of movement: by stroboscope, anorthoscope (in the former, phases of a movement are combined by positive after-images; in the latter, distorted phases are righted by positive after-images, or a figure is distorted owing to a false estimate of the rate of movement. See ILLUSIONS OF MOTION AND MOVEMENT. Cf. Sanford, op. cit., expts. 222-31.

(10) Apparatus for the study of visual space-perceptions (distance, size, direction, &c.). VISUAL AREA (q.v.) measurement apparatus: a black screen, with movable white lines, points, &c. Stereoscope, pseudoscope: the latter an instrument which interchanges the normal perceptions of the two eyes. Telestereoscope: increases the difference between the images thrown by an object upon the two retinae. Haploscope: a stereoscope presenting to each eye a field invisible by the other. Apparatus for study of perception of depth by means of movements of accommodation and convergence: in principle, a box, in which threads or sharp edges can be moved in, towards, or out from the observer, without appreciable alteration of the retinal images. See Sanford, op. cit., expts. 170-86, 204-21; also the catalogues of Jung (Heidelberg) and Rothe (Leipzig). (E.B.T.)

[(9), (10)] Visual perception of motion. A series of instantaneous pictures appearing in rapid succession will give the effect of continuous motion. The stroboscope is based on this principle; it consists of a round box with slits at intervals in the side; opposite each slit is a picture; when the box is rotated horizontally, the pictures appear in rapid succession, giving the appearance of continuous motion. The rate of change necessary to accomplish this is measured by the apparatus described under 'least duration' (below, C. 2), or by a stroboscope whose speed is variable and measurable. Other forms of apparatus having the same principle as the stroboscope are the zoetrope or zoötrope, vitascope, mutoscope, and kinetoscope.

The space threshold is measured by means of a series of alternate black and white strips of the same width. The distance of the strips from the eye, or their width, is varied, till they are barely distinguishable. The threshold of difference is determined by numerous methods. Münsterberg's apparatus for the measurement of visual area consists of a long black surface, across which extend three movable white strips. Two of the strips are placed a certain distance apart, and the subject endeavours to place the third so as to make an equal distance. A concealed scale indicates the actual distances. Other forms of apparatus are similar in principle. In some the strip or point moves automatically, and is merely stopped by the subject at the point desired. To measure discrimination of depth a different instrument is necessary. Cattell's apparatus consists of a box with eye-holes at one end and threads within, stretched vertically across. These threads can be placed at various distances from the eye, the distance being measured on a scale. The subject judges their absolute or relative distance with one eye or with both together. See Münsterberg, 'Augenmass,' in Beitr. z. exper. Psychol, H. 2. (H.C.W.)

(b) Acoustical. The following are some of the more important instruments required for work upon psychological acoustics. (1) Limits of stimulation: Politzer's acoumeter, for distance threshold (see ACOUMETRY); Galton's whiste or small forks, for upper tone limit; large fork, or wire forks, or lamella, for lower tone limit; Mayer's pierced disk and fork with resonator, for limits of tone and noise; pendulum carrying small fork, with Y-piece and tubing, for inertia. (2) Production of pure tones (for fusion experiments, &c.) and noises: forks on resonance boxes, some electrically driven, others sounded by bows or rubber hammers; steel cylinders, or vibrating steel rods; bottles with gutta-percha blow-pieces; Quincke's tubes; 'singing' tubes; air-hydrogen bubble apparatus; series of small corked phials, for 'pops' (3) Production and analysis of tones: piano; harmonium; harmonical (pure scale, with 24 overtones of the tone of 66, and 16 of the tone of 132 vibrations per sec.: see Helmholtz, Sensations of Tone); sonometer (strings stretched over a long, thin-topped resonance box); organ pipes, closed and open (preferably with manometric flame attachments); resonators; bellows tables and compressed air supply. (4) Sense discrimination: reed-boxes, giving intervals smaller than the musical semitone; Stern's continuous-change apparatus (bottle to blow over, while slowly filled with or emptied of water or mercury, at a rate determined by a 'variator'); Gilbert's tone-tester (adjustable pitch-pipe, with scale); set of mistuned forks; sound-pendulum, phonometer, for giving sounds of varying degrees of intensity. Here may be placed the toothed wheel (Savart's) and the siren. (E.B.T.)

[(1) to (4)] The threshold of difference in sound intensity is determined by dropping an ivory ball from varying heights upon a wooden stand; the ball is held by a clamp and released automatically; the length of fall is determined by a scale on the rod to which the clamp is fixed. Instead of ivory, a steel ball is sometimes used; it is held by the armature of an electro-magnet, and drops when the circuit is broken. In the audiometer a sound of constant intensity is used; the intensity is varied by altering the size of certain apertures through which it passes. The sound-pendulum consists of a swinging metal rod, tipped with a hard rubber ball, which strikes against an ebony block at the lowest point of its arc. A clamp holds the ball at any desired point of the arc and releases it. The intensity of the sound is calculated from the length of arc, which is measured by a scale on the arm bearing the clamp.

Quality or pitch differences. The lowest audible pitch (see HEARING) is determined by means of large tuning-forks; a fork is fitted with an adjustable weight, by which its rate may be varied from 16 to 24 vibrations per second; the rates for various positions of the weight are indicated on the fork. Appunn's reed, or lamella, is a blade surmounted by a flat bulb, and held below by a clamp; the length of the blade, and consequently its rate of vibration, is varied by adjusting the clamp. The highest audible pitch is determined by the Galton whistle. This is a very short pipe, whose length may be diminished to zero by a screw piston. The sound is made by squeezing a bulb attached to the pipe, the pitch being determined by the length of pipe, as indicated by a fine scale. Another means of determining the highest audible pitch is a set of steel cylinders, which, when struck with a steel hammer, give very high notes, the highest in the series being inaudible. To determine the threshold of pitch difference, tuning-forks of nearly the same pitch are compared, or a standard fork is compared with an adjustable one. The Savart wheel consists of a disk with a large number of teeth at uniform distances on the circumference; when placed on an axis and rotated against a tongue, it produces a tone which varies in pitch with the rate of speed. Beats and difference-tones are investigated by means of the siren. Or a piston whistle is sounded at the same time as a constant one; starting with the two at the same pitch, the pitch of the former is gradually altered, giving beats and finally difference-tones. Pitch intervals and overtones are investigated with the sonometer. This is a long sounding-board, over which two wires are stretched; on the board are marked off various fractions of the length, and the interval noted by which the pitch is altered when the wire is held or dampened at these points. (H.C.W.)

(5) Apparatus for the study of auditory localization: wire circles, revolving chair, snapper-sounders, telegraph receivers, &c. (E.B.T.)

[(5)] Our auditory space-perception consists chiefly of estimates of direction. It may be investigated by means of a graduated horizontal circle in the plane of the ears, with other arcs in various planes. A sound is made with a telegraphic snapper at different points on these circles, and the subject's estimate compared with its actual direction. (H.C.W.)

(6) Auditory time-sense apparatus: kymograph-drum, with revolving hand for instantaneous make and break of contacts, electrical sound-hammer, &c. See Time-sense Apparatus (below, C. 4).

(7) Apparatus for study of rhythm and auditory span of consciousness: metronome; interrupter-clock, with chronograph, keys, hammer, &c.

Special arrangements, involving the use of interference tubes, silent boxes, dampers, Marey tambours, &c., are apt to be required in an acoustical investigation. Besides the pieces mentioned above, there are a large number of instruments on the market which have been devised or employed for some particular end. See catalogues of Appunn (Hanau) and König (Paris).

(c) Haptical. The principal pieces used in haptical investigation ('haptics' being taken in the widest sense, as noted above) are the following: --

(1) Cutaneous sensation. Kinesimeter (regulated moving point, for exploration of the cutaneous surface). Pressure-point apparatus (cork or pith or hair points, for discovering the pressure spots). Temperature-spot apparatus (metal tubes, pointed, for hot and cold water). Pain-spot apparatus (pointed hairs are most useful for pain exploration). Thermometers, Roux regulators, plaster casts, &c., are employed in this exploratory work.

For intensity. Series of minimally different weights; or pressure balance (an arrangement whereby weights can be laid upon the resting skin, either discretely or continuously). Temperature apparatus, as before. Algometer (or algesimeter), as described below.

(2) Deeper-lying sense organs. Induction coil, for faradization of muscle; ether spray, &c., for producing cutaneous and subcutaneous anaesthesia.

[(1), (2)] Sense of pressure. The threshold of difference is measured with a set of test-weights. Jastrow's test-weights are cylinders of the same size and appearance, whose weight may be regulated by pouring in or taking out shot. One cylinder, called the standard, is placed on the subject's hand; it is then replaced by another, and he compares the two. The standard is next compared with another in the same way, and so on, till we find the one least different from the standard which the subject observes to be different. Verdin's (also Griesbach's) aesthesiometer, described just below, under Space Apparatus (3), has a scale showing the amount of pressure exerted when it is applied to the skin.

Kennedy's pressure balance consists of a lever, one end of which presses on the fingertip. On the other end rests another lever. When the latter is lifted, the pressure on the finger is increased; when it is applied, the pressure is diminished -- in either case without fluctuations in pressure due to jar or momentum. The weights on both levers may be regulated to give any desired pair of pressures.

Heat and cold sensations. The threshold of difference in these two senses is determined by the thermaesthesiometer. One form of this apparatus consists of two tubes filled with water, whose temperature is measured by a thermometer and regulated by spigots. One tube is maintained at constant temperature, while the other is heated or cooled till a difference between the two is observed. Münsterberg's aesthesiometer (described below, 3) is also adapted for this investigation.

Pain sense. The thresholds of pain and difference for pain, and greatest endurable pain, are measured by the algometer or algesimeter (Beaunis, Cattell). It consists of a piston-rod, which works against a heavy spring. At the end of the rod is a button-like tip which may be covered with flannel. This is pressed against the skin with increasing force, till it becomes painful; the amount of pressure is indicated on a scale.

Muscular sensations. The threshold of difference is measured with the test-weights as in the sense of pressure; in investigating the muscle sense, however, the weights are grasped and lifted by the subject, instead of resting on the palm of his hand. (H.C.W.)

(3) Perception of space. Aesthesiometric compasses: elbow-board (for minimal elbow-joint movement perceptions); movement apparatus (rectilineal, Münsterberg; circular, Stoerring); electrodes, to suit different parts of the skin (for fusion of pressures, and resultant localization); tilt and rotation table, with apparatus for showing a glowing platinum wire at different places in the dark field; interrupted-extent apparatus (for giving continuous and uninterrupted touch-stimulations to the resting and moving skin).

[(3)] In addition to the thresholds of space and space-difference, the space relation gives rise to a threshold of direction, which is obtained by comparing two lines or pairs of points differing slightly in direction.

Space relations of touch and pressure. The several threshold values are determined by means of points brought in contact with the skin; for these investigations the aesthesiometer is used. Verdin's aesthesiometer consists of a long horizontal beam, on each half of which slides a vertical rod tipped with a rounded ivory point; the distance apart of the two points is indicated by a scale on the beam. The lower part of each rod holds a piston, which works against a spring; when the points are pressed on the skin the spring is forced up, the amount of pressure being indicated on another scale. Jastrow's aesthesiometer is a simplified form without the spring; the instrument is held by a handle which slides on a vertical rod; when the points touch the skin the handle is free to move downward, thus avoiding any additional pressure by the operator. Münsterberg's aesthesiometer is a flexible rod, terminating at one end in a handle, at the other in a sheath, into which various contact-pieces may be inserted. Among the contact-pieces used are points arranged in various figures, continuous squares and circles, and surfaces of various sizes, for investigating the thresholds of sensation and difference; a set of small pans is used for investigating the temperature senses. For reaction-time experiments a circuit is made, when the skin is touched, by the bending of the flexible rod.

Space relations of heat and cold. Besides the application of Münsterberg's aesthesiometer just noted, the space relations of the temperature senses are investigated by moving a warm or cold point along the skin. A brass cylinder tapering at one end to a fine point is used. Two cylinders are necessary, one being kept in hot or cold water while the other is in use, with frequent changes on account of the rapid loss or gain of temperature from the skin. This apparatus is used for mapping out the position of the heat and cold spots. the thermaesthesiometer is also used for this investigation. Crawford's transparent transfer frames are serviceable for comparing different records for the same area (cf. Psychol. Rev., v. 1898, 63).

Space relations of muscular sense. The usual apparatus for measuring the appreciation of small differences of movement consists of a carriage which travels freely on a track. One finger is inserted into a loop attached to the carriage, and the latter is moved a certain distance; the carriage is then brought back, and the subject endeavours to make another movement of the same length. The distance travelled each time is indicated by a pointer on a scale.

The sense of passive rotary movement is investigated with the rotation table. This is a long board on which the subject lies, and which rotates freely in the horizontal plane. A fixed scale, over which a pointer moves, indicates the amount of rotation, and the beats of a metronome, or electric contacts at various points on the scale, record its rate. The apparatus measures the least perceptible movement, and demonstrates the fading away of these sensations under continuous motion. (H.C.W.)

The sense of bodily position and movement. For investigating the subjective estimate of bodily position the tilt-board is used. This is a long, flat board (like the rotation table) placed across a saw-horse, so as to swing in a vertical plane. The subject is strapped to the board with bandaged eyes; it is then swung into any position, and he makes a judgment as to the angle. The actual angle is shown by a scale and a plumb-line or pointer.

(4) Sense illusions. Weights, of same weight and different size; weights, of same size and different weight. (E.B.T.)

[(4)] The illusion of weight as affected by size is measured by comparing a series of objects, of different weight and size but uniform material, with a standard weight of different material. The subject determines which one of the series is apparently equal to the standard. (H.C.W.)

(5) Involuntary movement. Sommer's analyser (records the excursions of tremor movements in three dimensions); automatograph ('planchette').

[(5)] Jastrow's automatograph consists of a horizontal pane of glass resting on three perfectly spherical balls, which rest on another pane -- this last firmly set and carefully levelled before the experiment. The hand rests lightly on the upper pane, which moves without friction with the movements of the hand. A rod extending out from this pane bears a hard rubber pencil, which moves over a flat sheet of blackened paper. When the eyes are closed the hand makes slight involuntary movements, differing according to the nature of the mental processes, and these movements are recorded on the blackened paper. This is a scientific application of the popular planchette. (H.C.W.)]

(6) Many other pieces for haptical work are on the market, used for special purposes at the various laboratories. The forms of aesthesiometric appliances, e.g., are very numerous; and there are several devices for investigating the perception of weight (keyboard pressure, weight bags, weight funnels, &c.).

Besides the apparatus mentioned, the following materials are needed: corks, blackboard and chalk, string with attached weight, rods of varying size and weight, metal disks, sticking-plaster, tuning-fork (for tickling, &c.), millimetre scales, &c.

(d) Taste. The apparatus needed for the study of taste perception and sensation consists of a concave (enlarging) mirror, a series of fine camel's-hair brushes, and a supply of solutions; see Sanford, op. cit., 370. Various anaesthetizing agents will also be found useful.

(e) Smell. The chief instrument is the olfactometer, the theory of which is that intensity of smell varies directly as extent of odoriferous surface exposed. Zwaardemaker has a cheap clinical olfactometer, which does well for psychological drill-work; and a large, double olfactometer, which (though its use requires extreme caution) answers every purpose for research work (Sanford, op. cit., 371; Zwaardemaker, Physiol. d. Geruchs, 1895).

The olfactometer will probably fulfill all laboratory requirements (for minimal odours, discrimination of smell, complementarism of smell, &c.). It is, however, useful to have a series of solutions (standard synthetic products) and a stock of solvents (glycerine, odourless paraffin, &c.) on hand for occasional use. Such a supply is, indeed, required for the double olfactometer. (E.B.T.)

[(d) and (e)] The means used are solutions of sugar, quinine, tartaric acid, salt, &c. The substance is diluted in water until it can no longer be distinguished, or solutions of different strength are compared. Zwaardemaker's olfactometer consists of a pair of horizontal tubes, turned upward at one end for insertion in the nostrils. Over the other end are fitted in turn various tubes with odoriferous substances. A board conceals the other end from the subject's view, and prevents the odours from reaching the nostrils except through the tube. The strength of the odour varies with the distance that the odour-tubes project out beyond the inhaling tubes, and this furnishes a measure for the thresholds of sensation and difference. (H.C.W.)

Other olfactometric devices are those of Passy, Année Psychol., ii; Mesnard, C. R. Acad. d. Sci., June 19, 1893, and Rev. de Botanique (1894), 97; Ch. Henry, Rev. Philos., xxxi. 447, and C. R. Acad. d. Sci., Feb. 9, 1891; Buccola (for reaction-time experiments), Riv. di Filos. Scient., 1882. (L.M.- E.M.)

C. Apparatus for investigating the Time-relations of Mental Processes: (1) REACTION TIME (q.v.). Reaction time is measured by means of the chronoscope or chronograph.

The Hipp chronoscope, the form in general use by psychologists, is a clock whose hands are connected with the mechanism by making an electric circuit, and disconnected by breaking it or vice versa. There are two dials, each divided into one hundred parts: the hand on the upper dial makes a circuit in one-tenth of a second, the lower in ten seconds; by reading the two together, the time is indicated in thousandths of a second (called s, sigma; 1,000 s = 1 sec.). In practice the clockwork is first started; then the stimulus is given, which also makes the circuit, thereby starting the hands at the same instant; when the proposed mental act is completed, the subject presses a reaction key, which stops the hands; the reaction time is the entire time during which the hands of the clock have moved.

A simpler form of chronoscope is the d'Arsonval chronometer. This has but one dial, marking hundredths of a second; it is portable and almost noiseless, and is intended for pathological use; once wound the clockwork continues to go till run down. The arrangement for starting and stopping the hand is essentially the same as in the Hipp. The pendulum chronoscope is a pendulum which swings along a scale, graduated to mark the time occupied in swinging. The pendulum is held at the upper end of the arc by an electro-magnet, and released when the stimulus is given; when the subject reacts, another electro-magnet draws a pointer to the scale and holds it, while the pendulum continues its course. The position of the pointer indicates the reaction time. The chronoscope is usually 'controlled' or verified from time to time by a control hammer or electric tuning-fork.

The chronograph used in psychological experiment is some form of revolving cylinder, such as the kymograph or polygraph, described above (II, general). The time is measured by a tuning-fork, metronome, or seconds pendulum, and recorded by means of tambours or an electric circuit. The electric tuning-fork gives the most accurate results. An electro-magnet near one prong of the fork draws that prong; this breaks the circuit, and the prong, released, flies back, makes the circuit again, and so on. The fork is thus kept in vibration, and as the circuit is made and broken with each vibration, it is recorded on the cylinder by the Deprez signal. When the circuit is finally broken by the reaction movement, the record ceases, though the fork continues for a time to vibrate. A continuous time record may be obtained by a quill attached to a prong of the fork and touching the cylinder. In other forms, the record is made by another tuning-fork vibrating in 'sympathy.'

The reaction-time apparatus includes also the stimulus releaser and the reaction key. For visual stimuli, such as light, colours, letters, and words, a screen with an aperture is attached to a pendulum; as the latter swings, the stimulus, behind it, is exposed for a time to view; the instant this exposure begins, the chronoscope or chronograph circuit is made. The two apparatus are combined in the pendulum chronoscope. Instead of a pendulum, a heavy falling screen with an aperture may be used to expose the stimulus. For sensations of sound a bell or hammer is struck, and this contact completes the circuit, which starts the time apparatus. For sensations of touch a blunt point is pressed against the skin, and this movement completes the circuit.

The most common form of reaction key is for the hand; it is similar to a telegraphic key; the circuit is broken (or made) by pressing a knob at the end of a lever. For reacting with the vocal organs a lever is fastened to the jaw or pressed against the teeth; when the mouth is opened to speak a circuit is broken. In another (Libbey-Baldwin) form the mouth is placed at the large end of a funnel; a puff of air is sent through the funnel, moving a swinging metal tongue at the other end and breaking the circuit. For reaction with choice a complex key is used, with a lever for each finger; if one stimulus appears, the thumb lever is pressed; if another stimulus, the forefinger lever, and so on, as agreed on beforehand. Or two simple keys may be used and the reaction made with right or left hand respectively.

(2) Least Duration. The least duration of stimulus consistent with a given kind of perception is measured as follows: a disk with alternate sectors of black and white is rotated on a colour-wheel (described above, B. a, (4)); when the speed is increased beyond a certain rate the flickering ceases, and we see a uniform grey; from the rate of speed and width of the sectors the duration of the separate stimuli is calculated. Or, using a screen with aperture, attached to a pendulum, and taking a printed word as stimulus, the speed of the pendulum is increased or the width of the aperture diminished till the word is no longer distinguishable; the least time of exposure at which the word can be read is thus determined. Arrangements with auditory limiting stimuli have also been used.

(3) Time Relations of Different Senses. The relation between simultaneous perceptions of visual and auditory stimuli is measured by the complication pendulum. This consists of a disk with a scale, over which swings a pointer attached to a pendulum. Concealed behind the disk is a bell, which can be adjusted so as to sound as the pointer passes any given point on the scale. The subject notes the point at which the bell seems to sound; the direction and amount of error depends upon certain conditions of attention, &c.

(4) Appreciation of Time. To measure the least noticeable difference between two periods of 'empty' time, the time-sense apparatus is used. It consists of a disk with circular scale. Three levers, which project from the disk, may be placed at any points on the scale. Another disk, with a single pointer, rotates over this, and the pointer strikes the three levers in turn, making an electric circuit, and causing a bell or hammer to sound each time. The position of the first two levers being fixed, the third is varied till the time between the second and third taps is just noticeably different from the time between the first and second. The time-sense apparatus of Schumann is described in Zeitsch. f. Psychol., iv. I ff.

D. Apparatus for investigating the Intellectual Functions: (1) Attention. If the attention be maintained at a maximum, this maximum will rise and fall at intervals. The rate of fluctuation is measured for vision by means of the Masson disk. This is a white surface, along one radius of which is a black line of uniform thickness but broken into segments; when the disk is rotated, the inner segments of the line, being broader in proportion to the whole circumference than the outer segments, will give a darker grey. The breadth of the line is such that four or five rings are always distinguishable with close attention; the ring next beyond alternately appears and disappears; the alternating intervals are measured by the chronograph. For hearing, the ticking of a watch at the furthest audible distance is used, or the faint sound of sand dropping continuously on a metallic surface; the 'buzzer' of an induction coil, electric forks, singing tubes, &c., have also been used. For experiments on distraction no special apparatus is required; but the sort of distraction must be carefully chosen and certain conditions fulfilled.

(2) Memory. Ebbinghaus has measured the falling off in accuracy of memory trains and their latent force by means of nonsense syllables. Having memorized a series of these of given length after a certain number of repetitions, he observed the number of errors made in repeating the series after the lapse of one day, two days, &c. The number of repetitions required to relearn the series furnished a measure of the latent force of memory. Memory of intensity and intensity-difference has been measured in several of the senses for short intervals. The apparatus is the same as that used for the threshold of intensity-difference. Memory of visual size has been measured by means of a series of squares, circles, or lines of nearly the same dimensions. One of these, the standard, is shown and removed; after an interval, another, or others. The falling off in accuracy is shown by the increase of the threshold value as the time is lengthened.

(3) Imaging. Scripture's apparatus for measuring the intensity of images consists of a telescope tube, through which the subject observes a screen of white paper. The latter is illuminated, faintly in front and by a variable flame behind. The subject is asked to imagine threads like the cross hairs of a telescope on the white surface, and to describe their changes as the illumination is increased. On the back of the paper, unknown to him, is a real line, which he finally sees and compares with his imagined lines. When they are equal in intensity the intensity of the real line furnishes a measure of the intensity of his visual imagination.

E. Apparatus for Anthropometrical Measurements. Measurements of height, weight, diameter of chest, &c., are made by direct means. The capacity of the lungs is measured by means of a spirometer. One form of spirometer consists of an inverted jar resting in water and counterbalanced by weights. When air is blown, through a tube into this jar the latter is lifted, the amount of air sent in being indicated on a scale. The subject takes a full breath and breathes out through the tube. The dimensions of the head are measured by means of the craniometer. One form of this apparatus is the hatter's conformateur, which is set on the head and indicates the outline of the largest horizontal area of the head. The pupillometer is used to measure the diameter of the pupil of the eye. The ophthalmometer determines the curvature of the cornea. The dynamometer, colour-blindness tester, perimeter, Galton's whistle, reaction-time, and other apparatus described above are also employed in anthropometrical tests. (H.C.W.)

Literature: Laboratories, historical: BALDWIN, Psychology Past and Present, Psychol. Rev. (1894), i. 4, and Princeton Contrib. to Psychol., i. I; DELABARRE, Année Psychol. (1894), i; BINET, Psychol. Expér. (1894, inexact); VILLA, Psicol. Contemp. (1899). Descriptions of single laboratories are: BALDWIN, Lab. Univ. of Toronto, Science, O.S. (1892); FLOURNOY, Notice sur le Lab. Psychol. de Genève (1896); TITCHENER, as below (Cornell laboratory). In general: TITCHENER, Mind, N.S., vii. 311 (with bibliography), and Amer. J. of Psychol., xi. 251; BUCCOLA, Legge del tempo; MANTOVANI, Psicol. Fisiol.; KROHN, Amer. J. of Psychol. (1892), iv (German labs.), and Rep. of U.S. Comm'r. of Educ. (1892) (labs. in U.S.); BECHTEREW, Cong. de Zool. de 1892 (1893), iii (lab. at Kasan); HENRI, Rev. Philos. (1893), xxxv. 12 (German labs.); SANFORD, Amer. J. of Psychol. (1893), v (suggestions of equipment); Psychology in American Colleges and Universities (by various authors), Amer. J. of Psychol. (1890), iii (2); DE VARIGNY, rev. Scient. (1894), 4th S., i. (lab. at Univ. of Wisc.); STRATTON, Science (1896), N.S., iv. (Leipzig lab.); TOKARSKY, Zapiski Psichol. Lab. (1896) i (Moscow lab.); BÉRILLON, Notice sur l'Institut Psychophysiologique de Paris (1897); CASSLANT, Le Lab. de Physiol. des Sensations de la Sorbonne (1897); VASCHIDE, Rev. d. Rev. (1898), xxiv (Paris lab.); JASTROW, Official Catalogue of the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), Pt. XII (psychological exhibit). (J.M^cK.C.- H.C.W.)

Apparatus: see especially the reports (with discussions) of the Committee on Tests of the Amer. Psychol. Assoc., Psychol. Rev., 1895 ff., and the topic TESTS (psychophysical); SANFORD, Course in Exper. Psychol.; WUNDT, Physiol. Psychol. (4th ed.); MÜNSTERBERG, Psychol. Lab. of Harvard Univ. (1893); H. C. WARREN, art. 'Recording Apparatus' (psychological), in Johnson's Univl. Cyc. (new ed.), Appendix (which has been quoted, by permission, in this article); SCRIPTURE, The New Psychol.; TITCHENER, Outline of Psychol.; Exper. Psychol., i. I. 2 (1901); Mind (as cited above), and Amer. J. of Psychol., Jan., 1900; Année Psychol., esp. i. 460, 530, 531, ii. 776, iii. 652 ff., iv. 245, 253, 303; many papers in the Philos. Stud., Psychol. Rev., Zeitsch. f. Psychol., Amer. J. of Psychol., Arch. f. Ophthal., Pflüger's Arch., Riv. Sperim. di Freniat., describe special instruments. Pathological appliances and their use are described by MORSELLI, Semej. malat. ment. (1895-8). See also the catalogues of the various instrument dealers: Verdin, König, Appunn, Rothe, Zimmermann, Petzold, Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, Queen, Biddle, Meyrowitz, Chicago Lab. Supply Co., Columbia, Yale, and Clark Universities' Psychological Instrument Makers. (E.B.T.- H.C.W.- J.M.B.)

Labour [Lat. labor]: Ger. Arbeit; Fr. travail; Ital. lavoro. Effort directed towards a more or less remote economic end.

The conscious separation of the end from the means is essential to the idea of labour.

The first labour of importance under the limits of this definition arose from the system of slavery. For this labour the motive was fear. With the progress of emancipation reward takes the place of compulsion as a stimulus.

It is a mooted question whether all labour involves pain. The presumption generally is that it does; for if there is a future happiness to be attained, men will generally continue to work for it until stopped by a present discomfort, which counterbalances the anticipation of future good as a present motive. But there would appear to be exceptions to this rule, i.e. counterbalancing motives not properly classed as pains. (A.T.H.)

La Bruyère, Jean de. (1639-96.) Born at Dourdan, he was educated in Paris for the law and admitted to the bar in 1665. In 1684, through the influence of Bossuet, he became tutor to the duc de Bourbon in the house of Condé, to which he remained attached until his death. Admitted to the Academy in 1693.

Lactantius, Firmianus. Also called Lucius Caecilius, or Caelius. One of the Church fathers, born near the middle of the 3rd century A.D., either in Italy or in Africa. Studied rhetoric under Arnobius, and became distinguished for his eloquence and learning. About 301 he was made professor of Latin eloquence in Nicomedia, became a Christian, and wrote in defence of the new religion. Called to Treves by the Emperor Constantine as tutor of his son Crispus, he is supposed to have died there about 330. See PATRISTIC PHILOSOPHY (4).

Laissez-faire [Fr.]: also used in German; Ital. lasciar fare, lasciar passare. 'Let things take their own course.'

A maxim of practical economics, based on the observation that the dangers from too much government interference are greater than those from too little government interference. Sometimes, but erroneously, made the basis of a theory of commercial ethics.

This phrase was apparently first used by the Marquis d'Argenson in an anonymous letter to the Journal Économique in 1751. It is less correctly attributed to de Gournay.

Literature: ONCKEN, Die Maxime laizzez-faire (1886). (A.T.H.)

Lalling [Lat. lallare, Gr. lalein, to speak]: Ger. Lallen, Stammeln (stammering); Fr. balbutiement; Ital. balbuzie, balbettamento. A defect in precision of articulation such as characterizes of speech of childhood.

It becomes a disorder if it fails to disappear in due time with education, as is frequently the case with backward and defective children. Specific lalling may appear as a difficulty in pronouncing accurately single sounds or groups of sounds, and may thus characterize individuals, classes, or races. Cf. DYSLALIA. See also ANARTHRIA, and SPEECH AND ITS DEFECTS. (J.J.)

Lalo- [Gr. lalein, to speak]: Ger. Lalo-; Fr. lalo-; Ital. lalo-. The term lalo- (used in combination) indicates the articulatory factor of speech, as distinguished from the intellectual factor on the one hand, and the association factor on the other.

In general, disturbances in speech utterance would thus be lalopathies; in the formation of thoughts preliminary to speech, logopathies; and in the associative bonds between thought and speech, aphasias or dysphasias (see LOGO-, and SPEECH AND ITS DEFECTS). Stuttering and stammering are common forms of lalopathy. Likewise laloplegia has been used to indicate a paralysis affecting speech utterance. (J.J.)

Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de. (1744-1829.) A well-known French naturalist. He was the eleventh child, and intended for the Jesuits. Deserting them for the army, he was very soon named to a lieutenancy. An accident disqualified him for service, and he went to Paris to study medicine. In 1781-2 Buffon obtained for him an appointment as botanist to the king, and he travelled extensively in Europe. In 1788 he received a botanical appointment in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, and in 1793 was offered a chair in zoology. Stricken soon afterwards with blindness, he did not cease to labour, and between 1815 and 1822 published his greatest zoological work. The devotion of his family, and particularly of his eldest daughter, redeemed these later years for science. See LAMARCKISM, and HEREDITY.

Lamarckism or Lamarckianism: Ger. Lamarck'ische Lehre; Fr. Lamarckisme; Ital. Lamarckismo. (1) The doctrine that use and disuse, broadly considered, are the main determinants of adaptations of structure in animal species. (2) The view that specific modifications or 'acquired characters' of individuals are inherited by their offspring is also called Lamarckism, Lamarckian Inheritance, or Neo-Lamarckism. Cf. ORTHOGENESIS.

(1) This doctrine was summarized by Lamarck in his 'Third' and 'Fourth Laws,' which are: (a) The development of organs and their power of action are constantly determined by the use of these organs; (b) All that has been acquired, begun, or changed in the structure of individuals during the course of their life is preserved in reproduction and transmitted to the new individuals which spring from those which have experienced the changes.' More generally he elsewhere says, 'The gains or losses of organic development, due to use or disuse, are transmitted to offspring.'

(2) It is now generally admitted that use and disuse, together with the direct effects of environing forces, may determine modifications of structure in the course of individual life; but many zoologists contend that such modifications are not inherited, and are therefore inoperative in the evolution of species. The latter therefore reject the essentially Lamarckian doctrine of the transmission of the effects of use and disuse. On the other hand, Lamarckian inheritance is often emphasized in opposition to natural selection. Hyatt and Cope in America, Eimer in Germany, Cunningham and Henslow in England, Canestrini and Cattaneo in Italy, support the views of Lamarck. The trend of opinion in the last decade has been distinctly against the Lamarckian view. Cf. HEREDITY. (C.LL.M.- J.M.B.)

The Lamarckian or Orthogenesis theory of evolution may be illustrated by the diagram given below; it is sufficiently described by its lettering. It may be compared with the analogous diagrams given under NATURAL SELECTION and ORTHOPLASY.

Lambert, Johann Heinrich. (1728-77.) Born in Elsass. He travelled as tutor to two young Swiss noblemen. In 1764 he went to Berlin and was made member of the Academy of Sciences by Frederick II. He wrote in mathematics, natural science, and metaphysics.

La Mettrie, Julien Offray de. (1709-51.) Born at St. Malo, Brittany. Physician in the army of the duke of Gramont, he was discharged because one of his publications was materialistic and atheistic. He was also compelled to leave France in 1746, and repaired to Holland, but was expelled again. Frederick II invited him to Berlin, and he accepted, living in close intimacy with the emperor until his death.

Lancaster and Lancastrian System: see BELL AND LANCASTER (Monitorial System).

Land, Land Value [AS, land, lond]: Ger. Land, Land- (or Boden-) Werth; Fr. terre, valeur de la terre; Ital. terra, valore della terra. The original and indestructible powers of the soil; the price which is paid for the right to use those powers.

The separation of land from capital has been found impossible in practice and difficult in theory. The value of a piece of real estate is attributed to land rather than to capital (1) so far as it is due to location rather than to improvements (original powers), (2) so far as it can be used recurrently rather than used up (indestructible powers).

We can determine the original value of capital directly, and then estimate the return at the market rate of interest. Deducting this interest from the total net income of the property, the remainder is economic rent; from which we deduce the land value by applying a rate of capitalization, which is the inverse of the rate of interest.

Literature: GEORGE, Progress and Poverty; WALKER, Land and its Rent; LORIA, Analisi della proprietà capitalista (1889). (A.T.H.)

Land Tenure: see TENURE.

Lange, Friedrich Albert. (1828-75.) Educated at Zürich and Bonn. Teacher in the gymnasium at Köln, Privat-docent at Bonn and then at Zürich, professor of philosophy at Marburg, where he died. His History of Materialism is his greatest work.

Language [Lat. lingua, tongue]: Ger. Sprache; Fr. langage; Ital. linguaggio. Language is the communication of thought through speech-sounds. The expression of thought through signs, as in the system of communication employed among deaf-mutes, is based in general upon the written form of vocal speech; and the systems of communication by gesture, common among roving, uncivilized tribes, and serving to supplement or replace language, are not included under the head of language proper, inasmuch as they involve few of the problems of speech-psychology and speech-history. Cf. SPEECH FUNCTION, and SPEECH AND ITS DEFECTS.

Language cannot be defined as merely the expression of thought, for its character and history are determined quite as much by the consideration of intelligibility as by that of expression. The impulse to expression is individual, but the function of speech is social. The form which individual expression shall take is determined in the main by what the hearer can understand. As the hearer on different occasions listens to different speakers, and in turn addresses different hearers, the necessities of general intelligibility and common currency make speech a community possession, and hence a social, and not an individual, product. As tradition fixes its validity practically beyond the conscious power of the individual to make or change, it is historically determined, and ranks as a socio-historical institution.

The normal individual is born with the faculty of speech, but not with its endowment. If he is deaf, he will be in consequence dumb. Born of a certain race or tribe or nation, he inherits nothing of the speech-characteristics or the speech-materials of either. An English child born and brought up in the exclusive environment of the Chinese language will speak that language without a trace of his English parentage in tone or idiom. What we call the Scotch accent and the Irish brogue are not due to any peculiarity in the form or texture of the speech-organs in the individual speaker, but to the influences which governed his early imitative reception of language. He speaks as he heard. Language is therefore, in its distinctive character, purely socio-historical, and not racial or physical. The individual receives his language as he does in general the manners and customs of the society about him, not as he does the colour of his hair or the tint of his skin.

The process by which the child comes into possession of language is a process of accommodation to its environment. The first vague articulations of the infant treat the organs of speech as a new-found toy. They are handy instruments for the production of interesting noises. Gradually, through continued use and practice, the little individual gains control of the various parts of the mechanism. Soon it begins to imitate crudely the speech-sounds it hears in its environment; then it begins to note the connection these sounds have in usage with objects and qualities. Therewith it starts on its career as a language-user. The beginning of this career is marked by the acceptance of speech as a social instrument, and by a self-adjustment therein involved in a traditional social order. During the second year of the child's life the acquisition of new words as speech-signs advances rapidly, but always subject to the limitations arising from incomplete control of the mechanism of articulation, incomplete registration of the content of hearing, or incomplete co-ordination of hearing and reproduction in speaking. See SPEECH AND ITS DEFECTS. At any period in the development of the child's control of the linguistic apparatus it will be noticed that the same sound or combination of sounds is alike treated in different words. A child who says pk for 'speak' will say pn for 'spoon,' &c., or who says punny for 'funny' will say pt for 'foot.' The following words taken from the usage of a child of twenty-five months illustrate this regularity in the treatment of sounds and groups of sounds; the words are given in simple phonetic writing:

[1]

In any inquiry concerning the attitude of the individual towards his language, it is necessary to make rigid discrimination between what we may call the naïve attitude and that which is affected by reflection, i.e. by the more or less thorough review and comparison of the materials contained in the language, or by instruction based upon such review, such as is given by grammars, dictionaries, and teachers. The reflective attitude succeeds in partially isolating language from its thought-stimulus, and observing it as an objective phenomenon. The naïve attitude receives it as it comes in full and undisturbed association with its content.

The naïve attitude is characterized by a consciousness that language and content, name and thing, belong to each other absolutely; or rather by an absence of any consciousness to the contrary. The thing is unthinkable without a name. If the name be unknown, it is an unfortunate accident, for surely there is a name, and to know it gives power and control. It is indicative of Jehovah's power that he 'telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by name' (Ps. cxlvii. 4). The name is not a mere convenient tag, but is a form of the thing itself. A change of name involves a change of character, and vice versa; thus, in the case of proper names, Saul to Paul, Jacob to Israel. A thing has one native, inherent name, and that name betrays its nature. 'The swine is rightly so named,' says the old proverb; and the true attitude of the son of nature towards language is revealed in the naïve remark of the peasant: 'That the astronomers can tell how far off the stars are, and how they move, that I can understand; but how in the world can they ever get at their names?' Cf. Polle, Wie denkt das Volk über die Sprache? (1889).

So profound is the naïve sense for the natural connection of words with the things they denote, that one's own language in comparison with stranger tongues is regarded as the standard from which the others have departed. The sound of conversation in a foreign language excites compassionate mirth, for, forsooth, it is a pitiful perversion of the one standard speech. If a foreigner cannot understand you, instinct suggests louder enunciation. Deafness is the natural explanation of his failure to understand. Prejudice against dialect and brogue is one of the hardest snakes for reason to strangle. Stranger words are felt to be approximations to our own. Meaning is read into them, or they are corrected to our standard. The naïve interpretation of French frontispice (Lat. -spicere) is betrayed in the telltale orthography -- piece. Gk. glukurrixa, 'sweetroot,' becomes liquiritia by virtue of liqueo!

The linguistic sense 'abhors the vacuum of a meaningless word.' It refuses to treat names as tags. It insists that names contain a clue to the character of the thing. Hence arise the legions of folk-etymologies involving perversion of native words -- coatplaster for courtplaster, ashfelt for asphalt, and the like. But subtler and far more insidious are the cases where meanings creep into the empty shells without changing the outward shape of the shells, and betray their presence only incidentally. Thus shoplifter is very commonly associated in thought with lift, though its latter component is connected with Greek kleptein, 'to steal'; bric-a-brac conveys to many minds the notion of fragments; preface, despite Lat. praefatium, is likely to shape its use according to a false suggestion of face; duel (O. Lat. duellum = bellum) has indeed changed its value in deference to the intruding idea of duo, just as par- in parboil has shifted from the value 'very' (Lat. per-) under the misleading influence of part; hostler (cf. hostel, hôtel) has certainly suffered from association with horse; miniature, a derivative of minimum, 'red lead,' has come to involve the suggestion of smallness through influence of minimus. These few illustrations represent a widespread influence of tremendous power which is continually at work honey-combing, undermining, reshaping the whole fabric and structure of language.

Closely akin to this first characteristic of the naïve attitude towards language is a second, which is indeed scarcely more than its corollary. Words are regarded not only as the native and inherently proper names of things, but in their relations to other words maintain a form which sets forth their relation in value. Form and content are believed to consort naturally together. This naïve belief manifests itself in the incessant pressure towards endowing like content with like expression. It may be the content which yields, as in the cases we have already cited, e.g. parboil and duel, or it may be the form. It matters little from which side the impulse comes; the goal of the tendency is one -- to give like content like expression.

The phenomena of change commonly classed under the head of the action of analogy belong to the adjustment of form to content. The child who changes know, knew to know, knowed, after the analogy of love, loved, or think, thought to think, thunk, after the analogy of sing, sung, is frankly following a tendency which the maturer man resists, only because the traditional irregularity is more firmly impressed upon him by usage; but the way of the child is the way the current sweeps.

Among the phenomena of analogy are to be noted cases where (1) words diverse in form are brought into association by likeness of signification. Such words appearing together on the level of consciousness in response to an idea may become confused, and a case of 'telescoping' result; thus exactly and precisely may yield prezackly; similar are withstrain, begincement. In the field of syntax appear phenomena like Greek tiV poqen ei; 'That's the book of which I was telling you about,' &c. (2) Words diverse in form are associated by affinity of signification, i.e. by sharing some like category of idea, and through this association a change of form results intended to mark the like category of idea with a like body of form. Thus Latin *olle (cf. olim) becomes ille after the analogy of iste, ipse. February becomes Febyuary after the analogy of January. Female displaces *femel after the analogy of male.

Most notable under this head is the drift towards the adoption of like function signs, as for the expression of like moods, tenses, cases, &c. Thus on the analogy of Lat. tribui, tributus, &c., habui, habitus become habui, *habutus, as shown in the Italian avuto, Fr. eu; and debui, debitus become debui, *debutus (Fr. dû), &c. Lat. esse yields to the more familiar type of regre and becomes *essre, as shown in Fr. être.

The same general tendency which causes like cases of different nouns to take the same endings forces different cases of the same nouns to use the same stem. It is a tendency to express like by like. Thus Lat. honos, honoris, &c., become honor, honoris. Eng. cloths as plural of cloth displaces the phonetically consistent clothes, which however survives in the isolation of a special significance. Vulg. Eng. threble for treble through influence of three belongs under this head.

The creation of the new form in the interest of completer system does not of necessity involve the entire abandonment of the old. Such older forms surviving through attachment to some peculiar signification or peculiar use, or through relegation to another grammatical category, are known as 'isolated' forms, and are of the highest scientific importance as furnishing a clue to the status anterior to the levelling. Thus Fr. dû represents a Latin *debtus, but the older debitus, debita survives in dette, being rescued by its employment as a noun. Lat. pondus, -eris, is a neuter, but its earlier condition as a noun of the masc. o-declension is betrayed by the adverb pondo. Despite pennies the older plural pence survives through its peculiar use; so brethren versus brothers; cf. elder versus older.

The process of levelling and systematizing in language is continually producing a superfluity of forms. The new and the old are in perpetual struggle. Sometimes the old prevails through force of tradition; and this occurs most commonly in the case of the most used words, which show, in consequence, the greatest 'irregularity' of inflection. The 'regular' is in general modern, the irregular antique. Sometimes the new prevails, displacing the old; sometimes the new asserts its place in the system, leaving the old in the isolation of a special use. Language frequently avails itself of the superfluity of form to acquire the means of differentiating signification and use. It does not create the superfluity for the sake of the differentiation.

To return now to our inquiry concerning the naïve attitude of the individual toward his language, we may note as a third main characterization that the value and power of words and expressions is not determined by any consideration of their history or etymology, nor by any thorough or conscious review of their various uses such as dictionaries summarize in 'definitions,' but by a direct and unconsciously formulated feeling for their character derived from experience of their use in the various associations of speech. One who could not possibly define the difference between big and great might use them correctly. Words carry with them an atmosphere derived from association in use which gives them a character. Forms like doth, hath, wist, thou, have now a stately effect, not from anything inherent in this form, but because of their association with Holy Writ, the liturgy, and prayer. When first used in the translation of the Bible they were common words and carried no such effect. The judgments of taste in language and style are generally based upon this feeling concerning the character of words rather than upon any rational criteria which etymology or scientific grammar can supply.

The standards of 'correctness' in language must also be ultimately based upon this feeling, so far as they are really trustworthy. The canons of the purists have often however been found, when put to the test, to rely upon superficially conceived criteria; for instance, the pronoun 'em in go and get' em would probably be condemned as involving careless and lax pronunciation of them. This however is not the fact; em is not historically an abbreviation of them, but an independent pronoun, and the apostrophe is misleading. If it be true that good taste condemns the use of em, then the canon can be based on that observed fact, and not on the false historical statement. The feeling against em, at least in dignified speech, is probably due to a feeling that it is an abbreviation. In a similar way the word victuals has been demeaned in the eyes of linguistic taste by the notion that its pronunciation vittles is a perversion; yet vittles is the correct historical representative of Middle English vittailles, just as battles is of battailles. It is the rococo orthography victuals which has been the word's undoing. The historically correct pronunciation of arctic is artic, which was indeed the Old French and Middle English form, but the elegant spelling, remodeled after the Greek, has in recent years started up a bastard pronunciation arktik, which with its appearance of genuineness is dispossessing the true heir; so leftenant, the correct pronunciation of lieutenant, is in America shrinking before lténant. The purism which attempts to separate the word don't-you (dntšu) into don't and you is utterly false to historical phonology; you is an enclitic, and -ty- yields ch (tš), as in orchard from ortyard. The sentiment, so far as it exists, against the pronunciation dntšu, ntšur (nature), &c., appears to have been awakened by the false humour of dontchoo and natchoor. It is doubtful, however, if so falsely conceived a sentiment will make itself in this case a permanent position in taste. Etymologies, furthermore, as they can only show by what processes a word reaches a present or any given stadium of use, can never be properly employed to fetter or direct the application and use of a word of established position in a language.

Finally, it may be said of the naïve attitude towards language that it is not the attitude of the critic, but that of good faith. It presumes that the speaker's language will fit and express his thought. It does not expect errors, or seek for them, and the reason of this is that language is not commonly differentiated from its content or rendered an object of attention in itself. The pun is man's first tottering venture out upon the way of differentiation.

The folk-mind accepts the speaker's language as he means it, so far as it can divine what that meaning is. Hence it is that language is full of expressions which the logical sense of the critic discerns to be illogical, but which the natural man accepts in unhesitating good faith. It is the logician who discerns that 'two negatives equal an affirmative'; the folk-mind knows better, and usually recognizes in the double negative only a twofold negation. The grammar which undertakes to be applied logic is false to language and an abuse of nature. Standards of 'correctness' which are based upon logical determinations are artificial and pervasive. It is unavoidable, in fact it is desirable, that systematic effort should be made in the interest of establishing a common and well authenticated medium of intercourse between the dialectally diverse communities of a nation; but such an effort must consult the linguistic consciousness, the current usage, and the historical conditions, rather than the categories of logic.

Language is primarily and originally a matter of sounds and not of writing. The idea of committing language to record is an afterthought. The first primitive writing was a record of things rather than of language. Writing based on pictures of the things denoted by words is called ideographic. The transition to language-writing begins when the value of an ideogram is extended to include homonyms; thus, as if the ideogram of mail (armour) were used to denote also mail (post) and male. The next step in the development of phonetic writing is taken when the symbol associates itself with a body of sounds which may be used merely as a syllable; thus, to continue our fictitious illustration, as if our symbol were used for the first three sounds of malevolent, or even for ma. The final step is taken when by the use of vowel signs (cf. the Hebrew vowel points) the various syllables of like consonant are differentiated; e.g. ma, me, mi, mo, mu; so as to provide at least an approximate denotation of separate sounds.

Though in general it may be said that writing assumes to be no more than a record of spoken language, and that reading should properly be, as indeed in the earlier phases of literary civilization it always was, a viva voce reproduction of the language suggested by the written symbols, yet with the wide extension of the habit of reading and the consequent development of the paradoxical usage of 'reading to one's self,' the written form comes to have a validity of its own, and may in its turn exercise an influence upon the spoken language, if not dictate to it; thus words, especially unusual words and foreign names, are pronounced 'as they are spelled'; cf. the American pronunciation of almonds which re-establishes the l, of traits (Eng. trz), of Berwick (Eng. Berrik).

Orthography as a conventionalized form of writing has the advantage of rising above the irregularities of dialect and the historical changes of sounds, and binding together the forces and expressions of a civilization in defiance of time on the one hand and of space as expressed in provincial boundaries and dialect, on the other. A language which is to be the unifying force of a nation must be garbed in an orthography. Phonetic spelling, great as its advantages in restoring the spoken form to its primacy, and lessening the difficulty of learning to read, would, for instance in the case of English, make the language of Shakespeare and the English Bible an antique, almost a foreign, speech, and scatter the present unitary English of literature into a score of diverse idioms. English orthography, as to a greater or less extent all orthographies, involves a mass of quaint errors, pedantries, and vain embellishments, which it may well be the task of prudent reform to eliminate; e.g. foreign and sovereign seem to have their g from reign, cf. Middle English foreine, soverain; island has its s from insula; delight (M.E. delit) its gh from analogy with right, light, &c.; science its c from Lat. scientia, and scent (Lat. sentio) has followed it; scissors (M.E. sisoures) has been misguided by Lat. scindere; could (older coude) by would and should, &c. Still the fundamental idea of an orthography is correct. The literary language as the bond of a civilization and the voice of a nation must be regarded first as a written language, though it must not, if it is to remain vital, relax its connection with speech.

In passing from generation to generation a language undergoes gradual change in the stock of its words, in the meanings which they bear, in the sounds which compose them. The investigation of the processes by which this change takes place is the task of the historical grammar. While descriptive grammar arranges the facts of language according to the form and relation which they present in actual use, historical grammar deals with them as standing in a line of historical development. Among the phenomena of language it is the sounds which have submitted to the most systematic treatment and discovered in their changes the clearest acceptance of laws. The department of historical grammar dealing with the history of sound-changes is called historical phonology.

The most interesting problem of phonology concerns the nature of the so-called phonetic laws. It has been noted that a sound-change occurring in a given word at a given period in a given speech-community is prone to manifest itself in all the other words of the language which contain the same sound under like environment; thus, for illustration, the primitive Indo-European oi, which appears in Gothic as ai, changes in High German to ei, in Old English to , which becomes in Mod. Eng. , thus: --

hm

hm

stn

stn

gt

gt

hm

stn

gt

hm

hm

stn

stn

Tzd

n

Tyzde'

ny

y

dy

ty

hm

stn

hm

hm

stn

stn

gt

gt

For a full appreciation of the extent to which the sound-laws produce uniformity we must eliminate certain elements of confusion and aberration; thus: --

(1) We must not be misled by spelling; we say, e.g., musnt, but in deference to must write mustn't; we say cubbud, but write cupboard; we write the older knife (French canif) and knee (Ger. (knie) and knew (Ger. kennen), but drop the k; we write one and the same sound s with sh in shall, s in sugar, ce in ocean, ch in chaise, sci in conscious, ti in motion. In periods of unsettled orthography different spellings often mean the same thing, as Eng. ax, axe; sunne, sun; cuppe, cup; beauty, beute, bewtie, beautie beawtye, &c.; sometimes different spellings of the same word are utilized to mark its distinct uses, as base (low) and bass (in music); Ger. stadt, statt.

(2) Words borrowed from another language evade the action of laws which had operated before their introduction: thus Fr. mobile is a late-comer from Latin, while meuble has borne the burden and heat of the day; so débit beside dette, régale beside royal; the English ar, er in sergeant, Derby, 'varsity, clerk, &c., involve mixture of dialect. Names like Bill (William), Dolly (Dorothy), Bess (Elizabeth) are borrowed from the 'dialect' of the nursery.

(3) In like manner it may happen that after a sound-law has completed its action, a sound which would have been subject to its action comes into existence through some other law; thus in Attic-Ionic  becomes , as timh for tima, but pasa keeps its , being for pntša.

(4) One law may be crossed by another: thus Indo-European t becomes Teutonic th, as Lat. tres, Eng. three; but kt becomes ht, as Lat. octo, Eng. eight.

(5) Different positions of words in the sentence, especially with reference to the sentence-accent, may expose them to different laws of change; thus, Eng. an, and one are both resultants of Old Eng. n, but the former as proclitic submitted to shortening.

(6) The action of analogy, which has been already discussed, is a potent means of obscuring the results of the phonetic laws. Thus, s is dropped in cherry for cherrys (Fr. cerise), but not through the action of a phonetic law; it is the result of the analogy, as trees, tree; cherrys (conceived as plural), cherry; effigies, effigy; pease (Fr. pois), pea; chinese, chinee; chaise, shay, &c.

In the last analysis, sound-changes must be found to originate in individual inaccuracies of pronunciation. Only when these become frequent enough, or for any reason potent enough, to influence the community does a phonetic tendency develop capable of formulating a 'law.' One individual has of course more influence in establishing a tendency than another, so one class than another. What should determine the inception of a tendency, or what should make a certain individual accuracy or aberration in reproduction so acceptable as to give it currency, must in most cases evade observation. Attempts to connect these tendencies with influence of climate, &c., have usually proved failures so soon as any considerable range of facts is taken into account. The point of view most hopeful of result is that which finds in race-mixture and bilingualism the initial impulse towards change. A language forced outside its frontiers by conquest or intercourse always suffers thereby, for the people which adopts a stranger tongue, whether as a substitute or as a colleague of its own, will surely speak the language with phonetic as well as syntactical colourings of its own. Syntactical solecisms, like Swiss es macht warm (il fait chaud) or Alsatian French il a frappé (geschlagen) dix heures, are common in the blingual communities near the great speech frontiers. It is furthermore notably the case that in such communities the common man speaks both the current languages in one and the same general phonetic mould, so that the distinct acoustical character of each is seriously impaired. It has furthermore been noted that dialectal differentiations in languages may often be explained as marking the persistent influence of displaced languages; thus the dialects of Italian may be connected with the influence of the pre-Latin languages of Italy (cf. Ascoli, 'Ueber die ethnologischen Gründe der Umgestaltung der Sprachen,' Verh. d. Berl. Orient. Congr., II). The second mutation of consonants which gave to the High German group its distinctive character had its origin on the extreme southern frontier of German speech, and sweeping northward, gradually lost its vigour as it departed from its source. The law by which became au in like manner began its action at the extreme east in Austria, and swept westward by the Main valley to die out at the Rhine. In these, as in many other cases, phonetic change may be identified as a corruption spreading from some part of the language domain where the ordinary conditions of transmission are rudely disturbed. Similar disturbances have been noted in cities whose population has rapidly grown and developed a violent mixture of dialects.

From the foregoing discussion it is apparent that the term law as used of phonetic uniformity represents a different conception from that attaching to the term in natural sciences. Phonetic law deals with observed uniformities, and presents no basis upon which to predict or expect; i.e. it is law in the sense of the socio-historical laws.

The study of historical changes in the meaning of words constitutes a branch of historical grammar called sematology. These changes are found to be due to an interplay between the general and the special meanings of words. The general meaning of a word covers the range of ideas it is capable of evoking in the mind of hearers. The special meaning is that which is in the mind of the speaker when speaking. Special significations of the word 'tongue' are involved in each of the following: 'Hold your tongue;' 'Every man in his own tongue'; 'Boiled tongue;' 'Hitch the horses to the tongue.'

Change of signification implies change in the general signification; this takes place by way of the special significations. A special may itself become the general by displacing all the other specials. Thus smith becomes a proper noun Smith by limitation to one special application. Furthermore, new special significations may gain general currency and add to the scope of the term; or old special significations may become obsolete, and the scope of the term be narrowed.

The study of the sounds of language as produced by the speech-organs is called PHONETICS (q.v.), or the physiology of speech. It is a natural science, and an auxiliary rather than a branch of the science of language, which is an historical science.

The earliest records of language carry us back perhaps about 10,000 years, but this gives us no clue to the antiquity of language. Neither have we any further clue to the origin of language than such as we gain from a consideration of the processes which language is continually employing under our eyes for the creation of new material. Neologisms like clubbable show that a condition of intelligibility for new words is the establishment of an appreciable connection between thing and name. This may be effected through the intermediation of an already accepted name, or through sound, which onomatopoetically suggests the act or object which might produce it. The mass of imitative words in any language is always great. Such elements evade etymology and establish direct connection with act or object; cf. fizz, hiss, whizz, clang, clink, pop, jingle, whack, thump, smack, ding-dong, coo, purr, mew, moo, buzz, quack, &c. Interjections are undeveloped sentences expressing feelings which seem to stand in causal connection with the sound; thus, phew! whew! ssh! (cf. hush!) aau! aautch! In all these existing phenomena of existing speech we discern the way to a connection between name and thing which might have served in the beginnings of speech to advance expression into intelligibility. Cf. Wedgewood, Origin of Language; Paul, Principien d. Sprachgeschichte, chap. ix; Whitney, Life and Growth of Language, chap. xiv; Lefèvre, Race and Language, Pt. I. chap. ii; Taylor, Anthropology (1881).

The existing languages of the world submit to definite grouping only on the basis of historical connection, and even here the number of groups is so great and their relative extent and importance so various that no general statement is possible concerning them. Between such well-distinguished groups as the Aryan (Indo-European) and Semitic, the Aryan and Ugrian (Finnish-Hungarian), earlier connection has been surmised, but on such uncertain basis that no sure advance has been made toward demonstration of any common ancestry for the various tongues of men. Investigations and discussions make it apparent that the distribution of languages forms no guide to the history and distribution of races. The Indo-European languages which emerge upon history, stretching across the map from India by way of Iran, Armenia, Russia, and Central Europe to the Atlantic coasts, were formerly believed to represent the speech of a fair-haired, blue-eyed, long-skulled, strout-willed race called the Aryans, whose original home we are now inclined to place by the Baltic, either in Scandinavia or Lithuania; but, in the light of present knowledge, we are uncertain whether the Aryans may not have been the recipients rather than the apostles of the Indo-European (cf. Taylor, Origin of the Aryans, 1890; Penka, Herkunft d. Arier, 1886; Sweet, The Hist. of Language, chap. vi, 1900).

The classification of languages according to structure or style is rough and approximate at the best, and has little or no reference to the historical connections. Isolating languages express thought by successions of independent words, whose grammatical relations are betrayed by the context and the relative position, aided occasionally by particles. Chinese affords the best illustration of such a language. Agglutinative languages are characterized by words whose grammatical relations are betrayed by prefixes, suffixes, or infixes, these elements being so loosely combined with the word that their separate value is clearly felt. Turkish is a good illustration of this type. Inflectional languages indicate grammatical relations, preferably through elements which are so intimately combined with the word-body as to have no distinct meaning identified with them in the consciousness of the speaker. The Indo-European and Semitic languages are inflectional. The incorporating languages tend to treat the sentence as a single word by forcing the verb to cover and include the whole proposition. The American languages are commonly of this type, the Old Mexican Nahuatl furnishing a good illustration. The devices which prevail in each of these types may be, and often are, utilized by other languages. The classification is based upon the preference of a language for a given device, not upon the exclusive use thereof. Thus in English an expression like You find John a six-foot stick is thoroughly 'isolating' in character -- as much as any Chinese sentence. Formations like un-fail-ing-ly and talk-a-tive-ness are agglutinative. Latin venumdedit is incorporating. The isolating type represents the highest economy of material, and is the creation of an order of society whose stable conditions rest upon fully recognized conventions. The agglutinative type is the most 'regular,' leaving least to convention, and plainly expressing each modification of idea by a distinct body of sound definitely committed to such office. It is the type of language best suited to the use of tribes scattered over wide areas who are obliged, however, to maintain communication with each other (cf. the Swahili of Central Africa and the Mongol languages of Central Asia). The inflectional type seems to represent a progress of the agglutinative type towards the conventionalism of the isolating; it is agglutination smitten with crystallization.

Literature: H. PAUL, Principien d. Sprachgesch. (3rd ed., 1898); G. VON DER GABELENTZ, Die Sprachwiss. (1891); A. H. SAYCE, Princ. of Compar. Philol. (4th ed., 1893); F. MÜLLER, Einl. in die Sprachwiss. (1876-88); H. STEINTHAL and F. MISTELI, Characteristik d. haupts. Typen des Sprachbaues (1893); H. SWEET, The Hist. of Language (1900); W. D. WHITNEY, Life and Growth of Language (1875); STRONG-LOGEMAN-WHEELER, Introd. to the Study of the Hist. of Language (1891); I. TAYLOR, The Origin of the Aryans (1889); B. DELBRÜCK, Introd. to the Study of Language (2nd ed., 1885). See also LANGUAGE FUNCTION, and cf. SPEECH AND ITS DEFECTS. (B.I.W.)

Language Function: Ger. psychische Funktion der Sprache; Fr. fonction du langage; Ital. funzione del linguaggio. The essential function of language is control over the flow of ideas by means of the control we possess over the signs which express ideas.

This control is exercised by the individual over the flow of his own ideas and also over the flow of ideas in another mind. From a genetic point of view the two kinds of control are inseparably connected, and cannot be understood apart from each other.

The control which we possess over the signs both of the language of imitative gesture and of that of conventional speech and its equivalents is primarily motor. Hence the control over the ideas with which these signs are associated is also primarily motor. Indeed, we might almost venture to define language, in the widest sense, a 'motor control of the course of ideas in our own minds and in the minds of others.'

This is peculiarly clear in the case of the imitative gesture. The imitative gesture is a consequence, on the one hand, of the inherent tendency of ideas to act themselves out, and on the other of that mutual interdependence of men in society, which makes thinking and willing co-operative processes. The motor tendencies involved in ideas, in so far as they cannot take form in practical adjustment to a present environment, are reduced to mere movements of expression. The idea of eating will not enable a man to eat, unless food be within his reach. But he can at least open his mouth and raise his hand to it, or he can place his hand on his stomach. Similarly, the idea of his own warlike prowess will not enable him to fight, unless an enemy be at hand. But there is nothing to prevent him from brandishing his weapon and going through the pantomime of fighting. Such action, of the kind called SELF-IMITATION (q.v.) or CIRCULAR (q.v.) reaction, expresses his ideas, but, at the same time, it is a means of sustaining and developing them in consciousness. It gives him a motor control over his own ideational processes, which may be regarded as a rudimentary beginning of language. But it would at the most remain only a rudimentary beginning apart from social intercourse. If a hungry man A is in presence of another man B, who may be expected to supply his want, the idea of the food will be the idea of food as coming from B, and the imitative gesture will be made with reference to B. In other words, it will be used by A as a means of determining the flow of ideas in the mind of B, and so of obtaining food for himself.

The next point to be noted is that any isolated bit of pantomimic expression is usually vague and ambiguous, owing to its generality. Thus, carrying the hand to the mouth might mean 'I am hungry,' but it might also mean 'Are you hungry?' It might signify thirst as well as hunger. Again, it might express the idea not of needing food, but of having already eaten. There is nothing to connect it specially with any one of these experiences to the exclusion of others. This deficiency may be supplied by the particular circumstances under which the sign is used. But in very many cases, more will be needed for social understanding. It will be necessary to combine different expressive signs in a context, so that each defines and determines the meaning of the others. In this way language is an instrument of conceptual analysis and synthesis. The isolated sign represents only some partial aspect of concrete perceptual experience, and fixes attention on this. By the combination of signs the ideal wholes are constructed out of these indeterminate and fragmentary ideas. In this way it is possible to communicate to another ideal combinations corresponding to complex experiences which have never been theirs. We can, for instance, convey to a person by description the idea of a scene such as he never himself saw. Our description analyses the total experience into its conceptual constituents, each of which has its counterpart in the mind of the person we are talking to. At the same time, the order and connection of the signs determines a progressive combination of these conceptual constituents answering to their combination in the original experience. This of course presupposes cooperation on his part; he must endeavour to shape the course of his thought in accordance with the prompting cues supplied by our discourse.

All this may be accomplished in a certain measure by imitative gestures and other natural signs. But conventional signs are far more convenient and manageable, and they are vastly more powerful as instruments of conceptual analysis and synthesis. The primary and essential procedure of the language of natural signs is to represent things and processes by imitating the broad features of their sensible appearance or of the sensible appearance of something naturally connected with them. But the concepts which are capable of being represented in this manner are of a comparatively low grade of generality or abstractness. 'To make,' says Tylor, 'is too abstract an idea for the deaf-mute; to show that the tailor makes the coat, or that the carpenter makes the table, he would represent the tailor sewing the coat and the carpenter sawing and planing the table.' It is difficult or impossible to represent by natural signs what is common to all kinds of making in abstraction from what is specific in this or that kind of making. But if we use a conventional sign, such as the word 'to make,' the difficulty disappears.

It should be remarked, however, that the child has the advantage that society is in possession of spoken and written language, and that his imitative learning is therefore not the process of slow personal experience and slower adoption of means of expression. This advantage profoundly modifies, in many ways, the child's method both of acquiring and of utilizing the language function. Connected topics (q.v.) are LANGUAGE, and SPEECH AND ITS DEFECTS.

Literature: the controversy between NOMINALISM and REALISM (see these terms) first brought into prominence the essential part played by language in human trains of thought. Among the classical English psychologists HOBBES, LOCKE, and J.S. MILL have made the most important contributions to the subject. See HOBBES, Human Nature, chap. iv (Molesworth's ed. of Works, iv); LOCKE, Essay, Bk. III; MILL, Logic, Bk. IV. chaps. iv, v. Among modern works may be mentioned STEINTHAL, Psychol. u. Sprachwiss.; VICTOR EGGER, La Parole Intérieure; TAINE, On Intelligence, Pt. I. Bk. I. chap. iii; MARTY, Ueber Sprachreflex, Nativismus und absichtliche Sprachbildung, in Vtljsch. f. wiss. Philos. (1889-92); G. H. LEWES, Problems of Life and Mind (3rd series), prob. iv; WARD, art. Psychology, Encyc. Brit. (9th ed.), 75-7. The more psychological aspects are treated by STOUT, Manual of Psychol., Bk. IV. chap. v; BALDWIN, Ment. Devel. in the Child and the Race, chaps. xiv, § 1, and xv, § 3, and Social and Eth. Interpret., chap. iv, § 1; MONCALM, Origine de la Parole et de la Pensée (1899). (G.F.S.- J.M.B.)

Languor [Lat. languere, to be faint, languish]: Ger. Schlaffheit; Fr. langueur; Ital. languore. A listless unwillingness to exert oneself; a form of depression or lack of tone (atonia), with sensations of fatigue, feebleness, or faintness.

It is a frequent symptom in depleted conditions of body and mind, in convalescence, &c. It also represents a temperamental characteristic; and as a temporary symptom is perfectly normal and usual. Atmospheric and temperature conditions frequently induce the state of languor, as in what is called 'spring fever.' (J.J.)

[1]  is here, and in following, a symbol for open o in not; for close o in note; œ for open e, as in back;  for close e, as in pain;  for the "obscure" vowel.