It's nice to know that at least some of these queries are
answerable (unlike the horse's teeth story, which still eludes
us).
I had asked about the source of the conjecture that if the
auditory and visual nerves were crossed, we would "see thunder
and hear lightning", attributed by Michael Merzenich in _Nature_
to William James in _Principles_ (1890). Merzenich appears to
have fingered the right person but the wrong work (and shame on
him for not checking and for not responding to my query).
I posted the query on a history of neuroscience list (with no
responses), but Chris Green reposted it to Cheiron, which
produced responses from Laurence Smith and Roger Thomas. Both say
it's in _Psychology: the Briefer Course_(1893). Here's what Dr.
Thomas had to say:
"In my 1893 edition of _Psychology_ (not to be confused with _The
Principles of Psychology_), William James wrote:
"If, for instance, we could splice the outer extremity of our
optic nerves to our ears and that of our auditory nerves to our
eyes, we should see the lightning and hear the thunder, see the
symphony and hear the conductor's movements. Such hypotheses as
these form a good training for neophytes in the idealistic
philosophy!" (p. 12).
Although this appears in a section in which "specific energies"
(James placed the phrase in shudder quotes) forms part of the
title, Johannes Muller is not mentioned nor does his name appear
in the index."
Note added in proof: In reading over what Dr. Thomas quoted, it
seems either that we have a good example of the way in which set
can influence even the copying of a passage, or that what James
really said is quite different from what we thought he said.
I checked (I'm nothing if not persistent). Our library doesn't
have the 1893 edition, but in the 1904 edition, it says "hear the
lightning and see the thunder". So we can blame it on set, not on
William.
-Stephen
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
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