TWO SCIENTIFIC CONGRESSES. 197 



dates back to 1888, wlieii the first assembled in Paris iinder the 

 presidency of Prof. Th. Ribot, of the College de France. It was 

 devoted very largely and that intentionally to two topics 

 which were then uppermost in the French psychologists' minds : 

 hypnotism and telepathy. Very few Germans were there. Of 

 English-speaking delegates. Prof. Sidgwick, of Cambridge, and 

 Prof. James, of Harvard, who were the two best men at that time 

 as they are yet interested in both these subjects, were prominent. 

 The second meeting was in London, in 1892, under the presidency 

 of Prof. Sidgwick a large and profitable meeting ; and it is sig- 

 nificant of the change that had come over the person^iel of the 

 congress, as well as of the growth of ideas in the interval between 

 the two meetings, that at this second session the name of the or- 

 ganization was changed from" Congress of Physiological Psychol- 

 ogy" to "Congress of Experimental Psychology.'' For at the 

 London meeting the range of topics was greatly broadened ; both 

 hypnotism and telepathy took a much less prominent place ; and 

 all the varied branches of psychological work came in for treat- 

 ment, especially the purely academic experimental psychology of 

 the laboratory. 



The third session of this congress, held August 6th to 9th in 

 Munich, showed the same development, and so became the great 

 unrestricted body that it should be. All departments of psycho- 

 logical investigation were adequately represented in the five sec- 

 tions into which it was found necessary to divide the more technical 

 papers ; while the general sessions, devoted to topics of more uni- 

 versal interest, were full and most instructive. Indeed, the presi- 

 dent found it necessary to repeat what the former presiding officer 

 had said in London, that the word " experimental " in the title of 

 the body did not describe laboratory work alone, but all investi- 

 gations into mental things which were conducted by competent 

 men in accordance with inductive scientific methods. This range 

 is shown by the titles of the five sections referred to : " Neurology, 

 the Senses, Psychophysics " ; " Normal " ; " Abnormal " ; " Dreams, 

 Hypnotism " ; " Comparative and Educational." Consequently, 

 at the Munich Congress the word " experimental " was dropped 

 from the official designation of the body. 



The work of the general sessions was interesting to a wider 

 circle than that of the professed psychologists, in several respects. 

 The president. Prof. Stumpf, of Berlin, discussed the relation of 

 mind and body in a way which may be profitably read by those 

 moderately versed in philosophy. His address has since appeared 

 in full in the Revue Scientifique of Paris, and will also appear in 

 full in the Proceedings of the congress. Prof. Richet, of Paris, 

 discussed " Pain " in a way which did not throw much light on the 

 subject, and his paper has also come out in the Revue Scientifique. 



