700 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion, the nearest approach to the psy- 

 chological domain is found in biology 

 and anthropology. We suspect that no 

 student of mind would he content to 

 allow his chosen science to be treated 

 as an appendage to either of these sec- 

 tions, and yet it appears that he must 

 find its place in one of them, if at all. 



It can hardly be that this omission 

 occurs because there are so few who 

 are engaged in psychological study. 

 The editor of " Mind " asserts that, of 

 the contributions submitted for publi- 

 cation in that journal, the American 

 articles indicate in our country a very 

 deep and widely diffused interest in that 

 subject, and have specially attracted his 

 attention both for their quantity and for 

 their excellence. American psychologi- 

 cal students have recently demonstrated 

 the existence of the temperature-sense 

 as an independent sensibility. Every 

 college has its department of mental 

 science, and there are many well-known 

 workers in this field. Even if such 

 were not the case, still it may reason- 

 ably be supposed that one of the objects 

 of the Association is to encourage labor 

 in neglected branches of science by call- 

 ing attention to them. 



The probabilities are, that the old 

 prejudice against "metaphysics" has 

 survived and causes a reluctance to 

 concede any scientific value to psychol- 

 ogy. If this be so, it is certain that 

 the feeling in question ought to be 

 abated by a more just estimate. Time 

 was, of course, when psychology meant 

 speculation ; but that time has passed 

 away. Psychology to-day has just as 

 definite a scientific character as has bi- 

 ology. Its study is pursued by strictly 

 scientific methods, and by scientific tests 

 its results are measured. True, indeed, 

 this can not be said of all study that 

 calls itself psychological. But then we 

 have plenty of people terming them- 

 selves biologists whose methods and 

 purposes are absolutely empirical. Yet 

 there is a science of biology, and in as 

 high a degree there is also a science of 



psychology, notwithstanding that there 

 are sometimes empirics concerned in 

 both. The latter has its distinct prov- 

 ince, its subdivisions into various im- 

 portant departments with specialists in 

 each; and the substantial additions it is 

 constantly making to human knowledge 

 are abundant enough and of sufficient 

 consequence to entitle it, upon the most 

 modest claims, to an honorable position 

 in the circle of the sciences. 



We think the American Associa- 

 tion at its coming meeting would act 

 wisely in creating a Psychological Sec- 

 tion. Even if there be danger that psy- 

 chology will sometimes run mad from 

 the poison of metaphysical virus, it is 

 well to reflect npon the truth in John 

 Stuart Mill's remark to the effect that 

 without philosophy we can never be 

 really sure that we know anything. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Elements of Economics. By H. D. 



Macleod. Vol II, Part I. New York : D. 



Appleton & Co. 1886. Pp. 3*76. Price, 



81.75. 



This is a work that departs widely from 

 current economic doctrine. It is an attempt 

 to reconstitute the science solely upon the 

 basis of the law of supply and demand; 

 and, while this may not at first sight seem 

 a very novel proceeding, the results arrived 

 at certainly differ greatly from those com- 

 monly taught. The main thesis to the sup- 

 port of which the author brings much inge- 

 nuity of argument is that debt or credit is 

 wealth not in the sense of being a repre- 

 sentative of existing wealth, but a distinct 

 addition thereto, and he holds that the too 

 narrow conception of wealth heretofore held 

 by economists has incapacitated them for 

 dealing with the complicated phenomena of 

 modern credit in any satisfactory way. The 

 conclusion that debt or credit is wealth is a 

 direct consequence of his definition of wealth, 

 which he maintains is anything which is ex- 

 changeable whose value can be measured 

 in money. 



All property consists of rights, whether 

 to material things, one's own labor, or to 

 a participation in the future profits of any 



