522 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



It can hardly be said that this course of study has 

 done more than make a start, and even those who are 

 inclined to consider it a very one-sided attempt are 

 bound to admit that it has a promising future. Thus 

 Prof. Wm. James, whose ' Principles of Psychology ' treat 

 of the subject from many and very different points of 

 view, refers to these experiments in a characteristic 

 passage as follows : " Within a few years, what one 

 may call a microscopic psychology has arisen in Germany, 

 carried on by experimental methods, asking of course 

 every moment for introspective data, but eliminating 

 their uncertainty by operating on a large scale and taking 

 statistical means. . . . Their success has brought into 

 the field an array of experimental psychologists, bent on 

 studying the elements of mental life, dissecting them 

 out from the gross results in which they are embedded, 

 and, as far as possible, reducing them to quantitative 

 scales. . . . The mind must submit to a regular siege, in 

 which minute advantages, gained night and day by the 



of opposition. The late editor of 

 ' Mind,' Prof. Croora Robertson, 

 reported pretty fully upon Miinster- 

 berg's work in the 15th volume 

 of the first series of ' Mind,' and 

 drew especial attention to the 

 confirmation which certain views 

 contained in the writings of the 

 British Associationist school have 

 received through Dr Miinsterberg's 

 expositions. Prof. E. B. Titchener 

 criticised Dr Miiusterberg's ex- 

 periments and theories somewhat 

 severely in the 16th volume of the 

 first series of ' Mind,' p. 521 sqq. 

 As the subject is still under dis- 

 cussion, and as in more recent writ- 

 ings of Dr Miinsterberg, who is now 

 professor at Harvard University, 

 his studies have shown quite a 



different side from that exhibited 

 by the above-named earlier writ- 

 ings, it is impossible in this history 

 to do more than refer to them 

 as marking a distinct phase in 

 modern psycho - physical thought. 

 It does not appear that Prof. 

 Wundt agrees with much of the 

 outcome of the important move- 

 ment he originated ; see his article 

 in ' Philosophische Studien,' vol. vi. 

 p. 382, and a very valuable paper by 

 Prof. J. Ward ('Mind,' 2nd series, 

 vol. ii. p. 54 sqq.), entitled "Modern 

 Psychology : a Reflexion. " As these 

 discussions refer more to the philo- 

 sophical value than to the purely 

 scientific aspect of psycho-physics, 

 they would lead us beyond the 

 regions of purely scientific thought. 



