THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY. 341 



the whole domain of mental pathology. Here is a vast field for 

 study for which we are better equipped to-day than ever. There 

 is certainly in it the material for a science, and consequently the 

 basis for a system of instruction. Yet suspicions and scruples, 

 explainable but exaggerated, have been raised against these new 

 studies. It will be well to point them out and estimate them in 

 order to fix, as far as possible, the princii3les of the question. 



It is remarked, first, that physiological psychology is not yet a 

 made and established science. It is, they allege, only a confused 

 mass of doubtful facts and arbitrary opinions ; only a collection of 

 hypotheses that have no authority at all in science, and therefore 

 no right to be taught. I admit that there is much in physiological 

 psychology that is conjectural and arbitrary, and that there is too 

 much haste to rush to conclusions and doctrine ; but the assertion 

 that there are no certain facts in it, nor a certain number of posi- 

 tive laws, or at least of legitimate researches, appears to me to be 

 refuted by the preceding summary. There is, therefore, a science 

 in a nascent state, a science in the course of formation. The ques- 

 tion now is, whether such a science ought to be taught. Instead 

 of seeing an objection in the transitory condition of the science, 

 I see in it only an additional reason for teaching it. The nascent 

 science is the one that needs to be taught. There was great reason 

 for creating in the Faculty of Sciences the chair of Microbiology, 

 although that science was only born yesterday, and changes from 

 day to day to such an extent that the professor may often find 

 himself between one day and another in the presence of unex- 

 pected facts that will constrain him to modify his previous asser- 

 tions. But there was all the greater need of such a chair ; for 

 where could any one desiring to occupy himself with this science, 

 and to work for its further progress, prepare himself for it ? So 

 with psycho-physiology. Suppose a young philosopher or physi- 

 ologist, attracted by studies of this character, and wishing to de- 

 vote himself to them ; where could he learn the elements of this 

 science ? They are scattered in thousands of volumes of philoso- 

 phy and medicine, where they are mingled with everything else. 

 Only to examine these books is an infinite task. Add that they 

 are not always easy to get, that no one has them all in his library, 

 and that most of them are written in foreign languages ; and, fur- 

 ther, that frequently the most important facts are not in special 

 books, but in the memoirs of academies, in the collections of scien- 

 tific societies, and in scattered pamphlets ; and all this without 

 connection, unity, or method. How can any one acquaint himself 

 with it without a guide, without a leading thread ? The object of 

 thq new chair is to furnish such a guide. Teaching is, therefore, 

 the precise thing necessary to bring the science out of the nascent 

 state. 



