August 21, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



237 



sphere. They show that interest in funda- 

 mental pi'ocesses continued steadily, while 

 time has been found for the more rare and 

 exceptional activities of mind. Jlore than 

 half of them are experimental in character, 

 in the severest sense of that term. The 

 specialized tendencies of our psychological 

 thinking appear, unquestionably, in such a 

 sketch of the woi'k which has been made 

 the common property of the science. 



The foregoing account of our psycho- 

 logical activities is admittedly limited. 

 The best statement of the ten years that 

 could be made would comprise a digest of 

 tJie revised content in method, results and 

 criticism which the succeeding years have 

 brought forth. Such annual revision has 

 doubtless taken place more or less through- 

 out the entire field cultivated by us; for, 

 as one of our iconoclastic members once 

 said, no discoveiy in psychology is ever 

 more than four months old. A second- 

 best means to bring out the decennial 

 features would be the exhibition of the 

 annual changes by condensed and pointed 

 statements descriptive of them. The fully 

 capable surveyor might, perhaps, discover 

 that there have not been ten ascending or 

 cresting psychological interests. Instead 

 of vmdertaking either of such accounts, 

 some of the events and emphatic features 

 of the decennium may receive descriptive 

 presentation as follows : 



The year of the beginning of our asso- 

 ciation, 1892, was a year of unusual in- 

 terest, both at home and abroad. It 

 marked what might well be called the 'psj'- 

 chologieal revival,' which deepened and 

 perpetuated itself in institutional and 

 extra-institutional organization. A dozen 

 pages of 'Letters and Notes' in the April 

 issue of the American Journal of Psy- 

 chology ought to be transcribed in order 

 to show the intensification of effort on all 

 sides in the interest of psychological think- 



ing, teaching and investigation. In Au- 

 gust the second international Congress of 

 Experimental Psychology (called 'experi- 

 mental' the first time) was held in London, 

 and Harvard University emphatically in- 

 ternationalized psychology among us by 

 bringing Professor Miinsterberg over the 

 waters as the director of its psychological 

 laboratory. 



The year 1893 proved even more inter- 

 esting historically. The first attempt in 

 historj' to show internationally psychology 

 in working order was made with the exhibit 

 of experimental psychologv', arranged by 

 Professor Jastrow under the generous 

 wings of anthropologj', at the AYorld's 

 Columbian Exposition at Chicago. Here 

 psychology was prepared in visual terms, 

 being nothing less than a laboratory in 

 operation, both as an exhibit and as a 

 place for making 'tests.' Special mention 

 should also be made of the significant con- 

 gresses of rational psychology and of ex- 

 perimental psychology in education held 

 during the exposition as part of the Inter- 

 national Congress of Education under the 

 charge of the National Educational Asso- 

 ciation of the United States. With but 

 two exceptions in the experimental section, 

 all the matei-ial presented before the two 

 congresses came fi'om our American stu- 

 dents of the subject. The enthusiasm and 

 attendance were rather unique. The same 

 year witnessed a growing change of inter- 

 est from the analysis of the mental states 

 of the individual adult mind to the quest 

 for the psychological roots of consciousness 

 as these may be found in the psychical 

 phenomena of the child and the lower 

 animals. 



For the cresting of a widespread popular 

 interest in our science and its practical 

 applications, the year 1894 will probablj- 

 always stand out as remarkable. It was 

 the great year of the formation of state 



