512 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



32. 



Physio- 

 logical 

 psychology. 



taking in the ground covered by Lotze's medical 

 psychology as well as by Helmholtz's physiology of 

 hearing and seeing; added a large number of measure- 

 ments of his own, some of them quite original, such as 

 those referring to the time-sense, many of them in con- 

 firmation and extension of Fechner's collection of facts ; 

 invented new methods and new apparatus ; brought the 

 whole subject into connection with general physiology, as 

 also with the more exclusively introspective psychology 

 of the older, notably the English and Scottish, schools ; 

 and pointed to the necessary completion which these in- 

 vestigations demand from the several neighbouring fields 

 of research. Through his labours " physiological psycho- 

 logy " as an independent science has for the first time 

 become possible. The influence of his great work on 

 this subject, as also of his teaching and demonstra- 

 tions, has been very stimulating. With its place in the 

 history of philosophical thought I shall have to deal in a 

 later portion of this history. At present I will merely 

 refer to the leading ideas and contributions it contains to 

 our scientific reasoning on the psycho-physical problem. 



Wundt approached psychological research from the 

 side of physiology ; 1 his earlier writings referred to the 



taken up in England in single in- 

 stances e.g., by G. H. Lewes and 

 Dr H. Maudsley, the former in 

 favour of Positivism, the latter on 

 the foundation of his ' Physiology 

 and Pathology of Mind' (1st ed., 

 1867). 



1 The researches of Wundt and 

 the earlier work of Fechner re- 

 mained practically unknown in 

 this country up to the time of 

 the appearance of the periodical 

 ' Mind,' edited by Prof. Groom 



Robertson, in 1876, under the 

 generous patronage of Prof. Bain. 

 Even Lotze and Herbart were 

 hardly known in this country. 

 A similar disregard of English 

 psychology existed in Germany. 

 The foremost writers on the his- 

 tory of modern philosophy, such as 

 Erdmann and Ueberweg, wrote as 

 if modern philosophic including 

 psychological thought existed 

 only in Germany. Even the 

 singularly impartial and unbiassed 



