3 o6 PSYCHOLOGY 



hierarchy of sciences. Those of spencer had been 

 occupied with tracing supposed analogies between biol- 

 ogical organisms and society, which was assumed to be 

 an organism also. Gabriel TARDE (1843-1904), however, 

 who was professor of Modern Philosophy at the College 

 de France from 1900 until his death, was the genius who 

 directed the current of thought away from these purely 

 academic ways, and drew attention to the analysis and 

 description of the nature and combinations of certain 

 distinct social phenomena. First were his studies of 

 imitation as a social fact, which appeared in the "Revue 

 philosophique" between 1882 and 1884, and eventually 

 were brought together in a volume, "Les Lois de Pimita- 

 tion," in 1890; this work went into its second edition in 

 1895. It marks an epoch in the history of psychology, 

 for it opened the eyes of students to the possibility of 

 successful application of psychological method to the 

 study of the behavior of groups. "La Philosophic 

 penale" appeared in 1891; and later, among the products 

 of Tarde's work in the College de France, came his 

 "fitudes penales et sociales" and "Psychologic 6cono- 

 mique." 



In the field of general psychology, French investigators 

 stand out less prominently, but here also progress has 

 been made, and the work of Th. RIBOT (1839-1903) is a 

 distinguished record. He became professor of Experi- 

 mental Psychology in the College de France in 1885. 

 In 1888 he set forth a "motor theory" of attention, which 

 was later more fully developed by the American James 

 Mark BALDWIN in "Mental Development in the Child 

 and the Race: Methods and Processes," (1906), and by 

 Ribot himself in "La Psychologic des Sentiments," 

 (1897), in which the author transformed the feelings 

 into phenomena of the central nervous system accom- 

 panying bodily processes. Among other works by 



