THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY 



JUNE, 1908 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARDS "PHYSIOLOGICAL 



PSYCHOLOGY. I 



By Professor R. M. WEN LEY 



UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 



LIKE many words of broad sweep and intensive significance, the 

 term " soul " has descended to us laden with centuries of 

 righteousness — and iniquity. Even yet some folk roll it as a sweet 

 morsel under the tongue; while others, seeing it is neither hot nor cold, 

 would spew it from their mouths forthwith. Consequently, whereas 

 the very title " psychology " means a study of the soul, to-day one 

 seldom hears the too suggestive name inside a psychological laboratory, 

 for there we have no inclination to the double entendre. And the 

 impression has gone abroad that this altered attitude dates from very 

 recent times. Accordingly, it is necessary to point out, first, that 

 traces of a psychology rooted in physiology, that is, of psychology as a 

 natural science, did not begin yesterday, indeed, they may be said to 

 antedate physiology itself. Thus, while it may be needless to consider 

 Pythagoras's alleged discovery, that the tones in an octave are results 

 of relations between physiological movements capable of numerical 

 measurement, or Aristotle's extraordinary prevision, of the study of 

 -yjrvxv as a matter for the physiologist, 1 we can not omit reference to 

 post-Renascence thought. 



As happens so often, especially when a recent movement attains its 

 lieyday, the " heroes before Agamemnon " are apt to be robbed of all 

 •credit. Flushed by the success of experimental methods, some have 

 tended to forget that the forerunners did but what they could. To 

 accuse them of interrogating themselves " without information, experi- 

 ence, apparatus, or means of procedure," 2 to blame them for their 

 inexactness and mysticism, or for their subservience to preconceived 

 beliefs, to individual fancies and predilections, is to evince lack of 



1 De Anima, L, i., 403% 25. 



2 " German Psychology of To-day," Th. Ribot, p. 5 (Eng. trans.). 



VOL. LXXII. — 31. 



