400 



NATURE 



{August 21, 1879 



inquiry into the nature of its principle of individuation. Such 

 an inquire becomes " pychology" in the widest and in the 

 original signification of that term -it is the psychology of 

 Aristotle. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer has already made a great step towards 

 reverting to this original use of the term, for he has made his 

 "psychology" conterminous with the animal kingdom, having 

 made it a history of the psychoses of animals. But the activities 

 of plants must not be ignored. A science which should include 

 the impressionability and reactions of a Rhiropod and exclude 

 the far more striking impressionability and reactions of Venus's 

 flytrap, and of other insectivorous plants, the recognised number 

 of which is greatly on the increase, must be a very partial and 

 incomplete science. If psychology is to be extended (as I think 

 Mr. Spencer is most rational in extending it) to the whole animal 

 kingdom, it must be made to include the vegetable kingdom also. 

 Psychology, thus understood, will be conterminous with the 

 whole of biology, and will embrace one aspect of organic 

 dynamics, while physiology will embrace the other. 



Physiology will be devoted (as it is now) to the study of the 

 activities of tissues, of organs, 'and of functions, fer se, such, 

 e.g., as the function of nutrition as exhibited in all organism 

 from the lowest plants to man, the functions of respiration, re- 

 production, irritability, sensation, locomotion, &c., similarly con- 

 sidered, as manifested in the whole series of organic forms in 

 which such powers may show themselves. 



Psychology will be devoted (according to its original concep- 

 tion) to the study of the activities of each living creature consi- 

 dered as one whole — to the form, modes, and conditions of 

 nutrition and reproduction as they may coexist in any one plant ; 

 to these, as they may coexist with sensibility and motility in any 

 kind of animal, and finally to the coexistence of all these with 

 i-ationality as in man, and to the interactions and conditions of 

 action of all these as existing in him, and here the science which 

 corresponds to the most narrow and restricted sense of the word, 

 psychology, i.e., the subjective psychology of introspection, will 

 find its place. 



Psychology in the widest sense of the term, in its oldest and in 

 what I believe will be its ultimate meaning, must necessarily be, 

 as to its details, a science of the future. For just as physiology 

 requires as a necessary, antecedent condition, a knowledge of 

 anatomy — since we must know that organs exist before we in- 

 vestigate what they do — so psychology requires as a necessary, 

 antecedent condition, an already advanced physiology. It re- 

 quires it because we must be acquainted with the various func- 

 tions before we can study their synthesis and interactions. 



When, however, this study has advanced, one most important 

 result of that advance will be a knowledge, more or less com- 

 plete, of the innate powers of organisms, and tlierefore of their 

 laws of variation. By the acquisition of such knowledge we 

 shall be placed in a position whence we may advance, with some 

 prospects of success, to investigate the problem of the " origin 

 of species " — the biological problem of our century. 



This reflection leads me back once more to my starting-point, 

 the merits of the great French naturalist of the last century, 

 whose views as to variation and as to animal psychosis, have 

 enabled me to bring before you the questions on wlaich I have 

 presumed to enter. Buffon's claims on our esteem have, I think, 

 been too much forgotten, and I rejoice in this opportunity of 

 paying my debt of gratitude to him by recalling them to recol- 

 lection. As to the questions which his words have suggested to 

 me and upon which I have thus most imperfectly touched, the 

 considerations I have ventured to offer may or may not commend 

 themselves to your approval ; but, at least, they are the result of 

 not a few years of study and reflection, and I am persuaded they 

 have consequences directly or indirectly affecting the whole field 

 of biological inquiry, which belief has alone induced me to 

 make so large a call upon your patience and your indulgent 

 kindness. 



NOTES 



Amongst other lectures announced for the coming Baden- 

 Baden meeting of the German Association of Naturalists, to 

 ivhich we have not referred in our note last week, we may 

 mention that at the opening of the first general meeting on 

 September 18, Prof. Kussmaul, of Strasburg, will deliver a 

 memorial address in memory of the late Dr. Benedict StiUing, of 

 Cassel, the first secretary of last year's meeting. The second 



and third general meetings will take place on September 20 and 

 24 respectively, and will be partly occupied with the following 

 lectures :— Prof. Ecker, of Freiburg, "Onl.orenz Oken,'in con- 

 nection with the Centenary of his Birth ; " Prof. Goltz, of Stras- 

 burg, " On the Heart ; " Prof. Jaeger, of Stuttgart, "On Affec- 

 tions of the Mind." The .sectional meetings will take place on 

 September 19, 22, and 23. For these up to the present no less 

 than seventy-six papers have been announced, comprising all 

 domains of natural science and medicine. The following may 

 be of more general interest : — " On the Colour Sense among the 

 Ancients and among Modern Uncivilised Tribes," by Prof. Hart- 

 mann, of Berlin; " On the Injurious Effects of the Refuse of 

 Factories, specially of Bleaching Works, with regard to Fish,'' 

 by Dr. Weichelt, of Rufach ; " On the Physiology of the 

 Brain," by Prof. Goltz, of Strasburg ; " On'Sea Climates and Sea 

 Voyages, from a Physiological and Pathological Point of Vie, \-," 

 by Dr. Faber, of Stuttgart; " On Crimes and Insanity," by Dr. 

 Kornfeld, of Wohlau ; " Experimental Lecture on the Brain," 

 by Prof. Riidinger, of Munich; "On the Present State of 

 Animal Vaccination and the Corresponding Institutions in 

 Germany, Holland, and Belgium," by Dr. Fiirst, of Leipzig. 



The Sanitary Congress and Exhibition of the Sanitary Insti- 

 tute of Great Britain will this year be held at Croydon. Dr. 

 Richardson, F.R.S., has accepted the office of President of the 

 Congress, and a large and influential committee, of which Mr. 

 John CoiTy is the chairman, has been formed. The Sanitary 

 Congress is divided into three sections, viz. : — Section i. — 

 Sanitary Science and Preventive Medicine ; president, Alfred 

 Carpenter, M.l)., London, J. P. Section 2. — Engineering and 

 Sanitary Construction ; president, Capt. Douglas Galton, R.E., 

 C.B., F.R.S. Section 3. — Meteorology and Geology; presi- 

 dent, G. J. Symons, F.R.S. Arrangements have also been 

 made for one or more lectures, one of \ihich will be delivered by 

 Prof. Corfield. 



The Fourth Annual General Meeting of the Mineralogical 

 Society of Great Britain and Ireland, to receive the Report of 

 the Council, and elect Officers for the ensuing year, and for 

 general business, will be held at the Freemasons' Hall, Surrey 

 Street, Sheffield, on Friday, August 22, at 3 P.M. The follow- 

 ing papers will be read : — " On the Production of Different 

 Secondary Forms of Crystalline Minerals," by H. C. Sorby, 

 F.R.S.; "New Scottish Minerals," by Prof. M. F. Heddle; 

 "On some Cornish Serpentinous Rocks," by J. H. Collins, 

 F.G.S. 



The Fifth Annual Conference of the Cryptogamic Society of 

 Scotland will be held at Forres, on September 17 and following 

 days. The programme of arrangements has been garnished M'ith 

 several not inappropriate quotations from Shakespeare, whose 

 " Macbeth " is naturally suggested by Forres. 



Dr. John M'Kendrick, Professor of the Institutes of Medi- 

 cine in Glasgow University, has been appointed Lecturer in 

 Natural Science and Theology for Session 1879-80, under the 

 Banchory Bequest, at Aberdeen Free Church College, in succes- 

 sion to Dr. Lauder Brunton. 



We regret to record the death of Sir Thomas Moncreifife of 

 Moncreiffe, Bart., President of the Perthshire Society of Natural 

 Science, and late President of the Cryptogamic Society of Scot- 

 land. Sir Thomas ^was air enthusiastic entomologist and did 

 much to foster and promote the study of natural history in Perth- 

 shire. Amongst the schemes which he had at heart was the 

 establishment of an efficient local museum and other aids to the 

 promotion of the study of science in Perth. He was a frequent 

 contributor to the pages of the SeoUisk Naturalist, among his 

 latest contributions being a catalogue of the lepidoptera observed 

 within one square mile at Moncreiffe, which included no less 

 than upwards of 600 species, and is valuable for the notes on 



