president's address SECl'ION J. 201 



section of mental science. If it be treated at all in the pro- 

 ceedings of the Association, it will be here. 



Under the general title of phj-siological psychology it is usual 

 also to include psychophysics, which has been principally occupied 

 with the relations between sensations and their extra-organic 

 stimuli. In fact, it has t.een found convenient to group together 

 all those subjects to which the method of external experiment 

 may be applied, including the time occupied in nervous processes 

 and tlie correlated mental facts, and experiments on memory and 

 association as well as the localisation of the cerebral conditions of 

 m.ind and the laws of physical stimuli. The importance now 

 attached to these subjects is indicated by last year's meeting of 

 the International Congress of Experimental Psychology, attended 

 by over 300 persons, and divided into two sections, the first 

 occupied with neurology and psychophysics, and the second with 

 hypnotism and kindred questions. I he experimental nature of 

 these studies should have a special attraction for a scientific 

 association ; and 1 would appeal, not only to this section, but also 

 to the Association generally, to encourage the systematic prosecu- 

 tion of such studies in Australasia. Neither psychology nor 

 jjhilosophy can afford to neglect researches which are now carried 

 on in the ])sychological laboratories of Germany and America, and 

 the time may come when such appliances may be deemed as 

 essential a part of a modern university as the physical, the 

 chemical, or the physioloi^ical laboratory. The first psychological 

 laboratory was established at Leijjsic by Wundt, in 1879, and the 

 example has since been followed by other centres in Germany and 

 in the United States. England has lagged behind, but a beginning 

 at least has been made in Cambridge. The present is a bad time 

 to propose any extension of imiversity teaching or expenditure, 

 but it is to be lioped that the endowment of research will be 

 carried on by the liberality of individuals, if not by our heavily 

 l)urdened Governments ; and we may claim for such a purpose the 

 goodwill of all who desire to see the facts of mental science 

 atfiliated with those of physics and physiology. 



Yet another recent development of mental science remains to be 

 mentioned. Psychology may fairly include the whole of the 

 phenomena of intelligence dis|)layed throughout the animal 

 kingdom. As there is a study of comparative anatomy in which 

 the structures of different organisms are compared, and a study of 

 comparative physiology in which organic functions are compared, 

 so there is a legitimate study of comparative or animal psychology 

 in which the sensibilities and intelligence of the lower animals are 

 compared among themselves and with those of man. The inquiry 

 lias its peculiar difficulties : for if the intelligence of our fellow- 

 men is known to us only by inference, it is by a more remote 

 analogy that, we pass from the actions of the lower animals to the 

 measure of their intelligence. Still, we must not underrate its 



