xciv Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



The Physiological Basis of Feelings. i 



Thanks to the revolutionizing movement in modern discoveries, Psy- 

 chology now ranks as an exact science. Investigations of the physiologi- 

 cal basis of consciousness on the one side and the establishment of 

 a mathematical relation of the phenomena of consciousness to the phe- 

 nomena of the external world on the other, are the two factors that have 

 done much to accomplish the result. 



Yet these two factors are not sufficient to lift all psychology out of 

 the slough of metaphysics and establish it upon the firm rock of natural 

 science. True it is that these two things we owe to psycho-physics and 

 physiological-psychology. But psycho-physics and physiological-psychol- 

 ogy are not the whole content of the sphere of psychology. They form 

 but a part of that sphere — a large part it is true, yet still only a part. 



It is the province of psychology to solve all psychological problems 

 upon an experimental basis. It is also the purpose of psychology to 

 treat the conscious states as such; to note their effects, and to trace 

 them to their elements. Here it is that psychology transcends psycho- 

 physics and physiological psychology. Although experiments may teach 

 us what strength of a stimulus will produce pleasure, what strength will 

 produce pain, and what strength will produce paralysis — yet no experi- 

 ment can ever tell us why a given excitation sometimes produces one 

 sensation and sometimes another. 



The two vital problems for psychogists are: i. What psychical ac- 

 tivities does a new born babe possess ? 2. How are the psychical func- 

 tions of the adult derived from these? 



The province of psychology is like the province of anatomy. The 

 descriptive anatomist studies the body as it is at a certain stage in its de- 

 velopment. Likewise the psychologist investigates the elements in any 

 given psychical state. But the province of anatomy is broader than tliis. 

 The anatomist must study embryology. He must show how the uniform 

 mass of protoplasm called an egg is gradually transformed into a mass of 

 cells. He must show how this undifferentiated mass of cells splits up 

 into three germ layers. He must show how these germ layers differen- 

 tiate into the various organs of the body. In short the anatomist must 

 show how the present condition of the body has been evolved from some 



1. KuoENER EuGEN. Da.s kocTperliche GefucliL Breslau, ISS". Translated and 

 abstracted by Cha.s. H. Turner, M.S., Univ. of CiiU'innati. 



