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 JAMES SULLY, An Essay on Laughtrr. 391 The volume is a considerable production of some 450 pages, divided into twelve chapters. The first is of an introductory char- acter. The next three deal with " the smile and the laugh," " the occasions and causes of laughter," and varieties of the laughable. Chapter v., which from the psychological standpoint is the most important in the book, is in part devoted to an examination of " the theories of the ludicrous ". The three chapters which follow dis- cuss " the origin and development of laughter " and " the laughter of the savage ". The next two deal with " laughter in social evo- lution and humour". Chapter xi. treats of "the laughable in art or comedy," whilst the closing chapter of the book is appropriately assigned to the discussion of " the ultimate value and limitations of laughter ". The work as a whole does not, I think, embody the advocacy of any very new theory or of any strikingly original view. Dr. Sully's method here as elsewhere is largely critical and eclectic, and the chief excellence of the work is due, as it seems to me, to the special appropriateness of that method in dealing with this subject and to the special competency of Dr. Sully in applying it here. His extremely wide and varied reading, his power of accurate psychological observation and his well-tempered aesthetic judgment find here ample scope, whilst each chapter of the work affords abundant evidence of the combination of all these qualifications in the author. There is little room nowadays for a new theory of laughter and M. Dugas in his Psychologic du Eire, which appeared early last year, starts frankly with the statement : " Nous n'aiions plus qu'un moyen d'etre original, c'etait de renoncer a I'etre ". At the same time Prof. Sully is, I believe, justified in describing his work as "the first attempt to treat on a considerable scale the whole subject of Laughter under its various aspects, and in its various connexions with our serious activities and interests " (p. 7). For, although M. Dugas's book, to which Prof. Sully refers in some footnotes, appeared whilst the volume of the latter was going through the press, and runs on very much the same lines in the matter which they treat in common, nevertheless, the larger part of the English work deals with questions which are but briefly or not at all discussed in the clear and compact little volume of the French writer. In his opening chapter Prof. Sully skilfully introduces his readers into the heart of the subject by the examination of a concrete case of laughter taken from Lipps. What is it that amuses in the sight of a man wearing a child's hat and vice versa * Having decided against both Lipps and Schopenhauer on this point, he investigates the physiology of the smile and the laugh in chapter ii. As to the hygienic qualities of this function, whilst agreeing that in general its effects are beneficial, Prof. Sully's approbation of laughter as a "muscular exercise" seems to be more qualified than that of Herbert Spencer. Excessive prolongation will be weakening rather than strengthening, and may result in flabby collapse. He appears