president's ADDRESS-^SECTION J. 199 



as forming })art of the problem. It is seen, too, that even in their 

 normal working minds differ from each other more widely than 

 was at one time supposed. Galton has shown, for example, hy his 

 statistical inquiries, that imagination differs so greatly in different 

 minds that in some it is the constant and vivid accompaniment of 

 thought, while in others thought may proceed without the reflective 

 consciousness of any representative image. In the light of sucli 

 facts as these the old controversy of conceptualism and nominalism 

 wears a different complexion. Then we have the singular pheno- 

 mena of number forms, or visual images, which in some minds 

 accompany any arithmetical calculation ; Avhile in some cases, again, 

 the imagination is auditive rather than visual, as in the case of the 

 wonderful mental calculator Inaudi, who is said to hear his figures 

 as thougli they were whispered in his ear. When we extend our 

 survey to various races and climes, other differences emerge. 

 These are of })ractical as well as theoretical importance, for the 

 philanthropist or doctrinaire who sits at home at ease may be so 

 bent on the kinship of human nature as to neglect most important 

 difi'erences ; he may be ready, perhaps, to extend trial by jury 

 to Malta, or Parliamentary representation to India, disregarding 

 differences of mental powers or habits. Folk-psychology, as it 

 has been called, may ransack all the ages for its materials, turning 

 to its use all that history or ethnology may contribute. The 

 manifestations of mind in the development of the race, no less 

 than in the development of the individual, thus fall -within the 

 scope of psychology. 



In recent years, also, intellectual activity has been largely 

 expended in the study of abnormal facts of mind. In the various 

 forms of insanity and hallucination, in hypnotism, in cases of 

 amnesia and multiplex personality, in the alleged facts of telepathy 

 and other phenomena usually classed as spiritualistic, there has 

 been an immense amount of special work. Hypnotism has already 

 to a large extent passed from the hands of the showman and the 

 charlatan into those of the man of science. Here, as elsewhere, 

 the first desideratum has been to make sure of the facts; the nexi, 

 to interpret them. The tendency of recent investigation is to 

 range many of the most important facts of hypnotism in line with 

 the more normal phenomena of suggestion, but it must be 

 admitted that many of the phenomena cannot be brought under 

 this foimula, and await interpretation. The therapeutic value of 

 hypnotism still gives rise to controversy, but it may at least be 

 said that the facts are now open to scientific investigation. The 

 Society for Psychical Research has chosen for its special task the 

 exploration of "• various sorts of debatable phenomena which ar-? 

 prima facie inexplicable on any generally recognised hj'pothesis." 

 These, including the alleged phenomena of thought-transference, 

 clairvoyance, and spiritual manifestations have, till recently, been 

 the happy hunting-ground of the impostor and his dupes. There 



