THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 121 



crystals modified by a colloid medium. They have been 

 described by Rainey, Harting, and Ord, on different 

 occasions, many years ago. They are not devoid of 

 interest, but cannot be considered as having any new 

 bearing on the origin of living matter. 



Psychology. I have given a special heading to this 

 subject because its emergence as a definite line of experi- 

 mental research seems to me one of the most important 

 features in the progress of science in the past quarter of a 

 century. Thirty-five years ago we were all delighted by 

 Fechner's psycho-physical law, and at Leipzig I, with 

 others of my day, studied it experimentally in the physio- 

 logical laboratory of that great teacher, Carl Ludwig. 

 The physiological methods of measurement (which are 

 the physical ones) have been more and more widely, and 

 with guiding intelligence and ingenuity, applied since 

 those days to the study of the activities of the complex 

 organs of the nervous system which are concerned with 

 ' mind ' or psychic phenomena. Whilst some enthusiasts 

 have been eagerly collecting ghost stories and records of 

 human illusion and fancy, the serious experimental in- 

 vestigation of the human mind, and its forerunner the 

 animal mind, has been quietly but steadily proceeding in 

 truly scientific channels. The science is still in an early 

 phase that of the collection of accurate observations 

 and measurements awaiting the development of great 

 guiding hypotheses and theories. But much has been 

 done, and it is a matter of gratification to Oxford men 

 that through the liberality of the distinguished electrician, 

 Mr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., a lectureship of Experimental 

 Psychology has been founded in the University of Oxford, 

 where the older studies of Mental and Moral Philosophy, 

 Logic and Metaphysics have so strong a hold, and have 

 so well prepared the ground for the new experimental 



