626 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 45. 



sity, to be professor of mathematics at Pur- 

 due University. 



The free lecture courses on literary, scien- 

 tific and technical subjects established by 

 the trustees of the Lowell Institute, under 

 the supervision of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology, Boston, began on ISTo- 

 vember 4th. Twenty courses are offered, 

 each consisting of twelve lectures. 



At the annual meeting of the Chicago 

 Alumni of Mt. Holyoke College, on October 

 24th, Dr. D. K. Pearson offered to give 

 $150,000 to the College, provided the 

 alumni would raise an additional $50,000. 



The Rev. H. E. Cushman has been ap- 

 pointed assistant professor in philosophy in 

 Tufts College. 



Eev. De. R. J. Pearce has resigned from 

 the chair of mathematics at Durham Uni- 

 versity to take effect next Christmas. 



Peof. Konig, of Gottingen, has been of- 

 fered the chair of surgery at Bei^lin, vacated 

 through the death of Professor Bardeleben. 



Th'E Natunvissenschaftliehe Rundschau states 

 that Dr. Ernst Lecher has been appointed 

 to a chair of physics in the University 

 of Prague ; Dr. W. Miiller has been of- 

 fered a professorship and the position of 

 director of the Zoological Institute of the 

 University of Greifswald; Dr. Beck, a 

 geologist of Leipzig, has been appointed 

 professor of geology in the Bergacademie 

 of Freiberg i. S.; Dr. Giinther Beck von 

 Mannagetto, professor of botany at Vienna; 

 Dr. Rothpletz has been promoted to an as- 

 sistant firofessorship at Munich; and J. C. 

 L. Wortman to a professorship in the ex- 

 periment station for chemical agriculture 

 in Geisenheim. Dr. Karl Claus, professor 

 of zoology in Vienna, has been retired. 



COBBESPONDENCE 



experimental psychology in AMERICA. 



To THE Editor op Science : The American 

 Journal of Psychology began a uew series last 



week with au ' editorial ' iutroductiou, iu which, 

 some most extraordinary statements appear. 

 As an official of Harvard University I cannot 

 let one of these pass without public contradic- 

 tion. The editorial says (on the top of page 

 4) that the " department of experimental 

 psychology and laboratory" at Harvard was 

 ' 'founded under the influence' ' of some unspeci- 

 fied person mentioned in a list of President 

 Hall's pupils. I, myself, ' founded ' the in- 

 struction in experimental psychology at Har- 

 vard in 1874-5, or 1876, I forget which. For a 

 long series of years the laboratory was in two 

 rooms of the Scientific School building, which at 

 last became choked with apparatus, so that a 

 change was necessary. I then, in 1890, resolved 

 on an altogether new departure, raised several 

 thousand dollars, fitted up Dane Hall, and intro- 

 duced laboratory exercises as a regular part of 

 the undergraduate psychology-course. Dr. 

 Herbert Nichols, then at Clark, was appointed, 

 in 1891, assistant in this part of the work; and 

 when Professor Miinsterberg was made director 

 of the laboratory, in 1892, and I went for a year 

 to Europe, Dr. Nichols gave my undergraduate 

 course. I owe him my heartiest thanks for his 

 services and ' influence ' iu the graduate as well 

 as in the undergraduate department at Harvard, 

 but I imagine him to have been as much sur- 

 prised as myself at the statement in the edito- 

 rial from which I quote — a statement the more 

 remarkable in that the chief editor of the Ameri- 

 can Journal studied experimental psychology 

 himself at Harvard from 1877 to 1879. 



William James. 

 Psychological Laboratory, 



Harvard University, Octoljer 19, 1895. 



Editor of Science — (SVr.- In his truly re- 

 markable Preface to the projected uew series, 

 the editor of the American Journal of Psychol- 

 ogy puts forth the claim that the Yale psycho- 

 logical laboratory, lilvethe other more prominent 

 Eastern laboratories, was founded ' under the 

 influence ' of his pupils and of Clark Univer- 

 sity. Inasmuch as Yale University has an in- 

 stitutional interest in the truthfulness of this 

 surprising claim, and inasmuch as I have reason 

 to suppose that my influence and not President 



