ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PSYCHOLOGY 207 



ment of a laborator}-, where direct experiments may be planned to 

 clear up the many problems which are still obscure, would be of 

 untold utilit3', not only to the sciences of psychology and brain 

 physiology, but also to medical practice. 



Fo2irth. A fourth department of research, that of Mental Pathol- 

 ogy, is devoted to the investigation of abnormal conditions of con- 

 sciousness. Its establishment would involve for its adequate equip- 

 ment so large an appropriation and such extensive resources that it 

 is probably not within our reach at the present time. Your Com- 

 mittee recommends, however, that the bureaus described above for 

 social and physiological psychology should take upon themselves cer- 

 tain more restricted researches in this field. The investigation of 

 the abnormal and defective of certain sorts maj^ very profitably be 

 associated with the gathering of general social statistics. The ob- 

 sen^ation of defective children, for example, in asylums for the deaf, 

 dumb, and blind, and the carr3dng out of certain tests and measure- 

 ments upon well determined types of mental diseases in hospitals and 

 asylums would be a work which might well be undertaken, and with 

 profit, by that bureau. Material for such study exists in institutions 

 at Washington, and there can be no doubt that the cooperation of 

 these institutions could be counted upon, as can also that of the 

 schools and, as is said above, of the Government Bureau of Educa- 

 tion, for the furtherance of these researches. 



These intimations ma}' suffice in the present report as a descrip- 

 tion of the sort of work which should be undertaken in these several 

 fields. The inspection of this brief list, however, cannot fail to 

 impress the reader with the need of coordination and of cooperative 

 work by all of these departvients under some general direction. The 

 object of it all is to advance and apply the science of the mind, 

 and that science is most adequately advanced when the results from 

 these different departments are assimilated, digested, and applied 

 in practical life. There should result, therefore, as the work pro- 

 gresses, if it be well done, an appreciable advance of what we call 

 general or systematic psychology. The work of the Institution 

 should show itself in future generations in the theories of the men- 

 tal life as a whole, in the teachings of instructors, and in the text 

 books used in universities and elsewhere. The important function 

 of the central establishment is, therefore, to be kept in mind in all 

 the work of the departments, and these latter should not be so dis- 

 tinct or locally separate from one another that workers in one of 

 them may not, under suitable conditions, call upon another or be 



