300 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 505. 



ence. The data are taken from the cata- 

 logues of 150 colleges and detailed informa- 

 tion furnished by the directors of 34 prom- 

 inent laboratories. 



Ten years ago, Binet stated in the open- 

 ing chapter of his 'Psychologie Experi- 

 mentale' that there were 14 laboratories in 

 Europe and 16 in America. To-day there 

 are at least 54 universities in the United 

 States and Canada having psychological 

 laboratories. The equipments of 25 of the 

 largest average in value over $4,000, while 

 in 1893 it was estimated* that the total 

 psychological equipment in the United 

 States was worth approximately $30,000. 

 This material prosperity, small as it is, 

 becomes noteworthy when it is considered 

 that 1904 marks only the twenty-first anni- 

 versary of the establishment of the first 

 American laboratory.f Experimental psy- 

 chology in this country is just becoming of 

 age. 



A more important advance than this ac- 

 quisition of apparatus is the change in the 

 character of instruction in the institutions 

 of higher learning. Some introduction to 

 descriptive psychology, under the title of 

 mental philosophy, was part of the estab- 

 lished order even in the early American 

 colleges. At first it fell often within the 

 province of the president to teach psychol- 

 ogy and philosophy. Among the institu- 

 tions which to-day have 15 or more in their 

 faculties, the presidents of only nine pre- 

 serve their colonial function of occupying 

 the chair of philosophy. Moreover, there 

 are only five among the 150 institutions:]: 

 studied in this paper, in which no instruc- 



* ' Report of the United States Commissioner of 

 Education,' 11., 1139. 



t Founded at Johns Hopkins by 6. Stanley Hall. 



t The colleges were selected on the basis of the 

 size of tlieir faculties, as shown by the Report of 

 the U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1901. 

 All institutions of college rank, having 15 or more 

 in their faculties were taken ; 95 of them had 

 faculties of 20 or more members. 



tion in psychology is given. These five are 

 Catholic schools. 



Psychology is now organized as an en- 

 tirely separate department in four univer- 

 sities, and there are professors or assistant 

 professors having the title in psychology 

 in about 30 others. The administrative 

 arrangements in these latter are such as to 

 associate psychology in the same depart- 

 ment with either philosophy or education. 

 In the middle west, especially, we find a 

 movement to connect psychology and peda- 

 gogy. This is true of Colorado Univer- 

 sity, Cornell College, Upper Iowa Univer- 

 sity, South Dakota University, Illinois 

 University, Ohio State University and the 

 New York University School of Pedagogy. 

 In all the other colleges psychology pre- 

 serves its old affiliation with philosophy. 

 On account of its intimate relation, as a 

 pure science, to the philosophical disci- 

 plineSj the close connection of these two 

 departments may be expected to long con- 

 tinue. Many of the professors in both 

 subjects regard it to their mutual advan- 

 tage to preserve this condition. If we 

 ought not to expect the growing strength 

 of psychology to be manifested in the es- 

 tablishment of independent departments, 

 we may yet find it shown in the size of the 

 instructional force. There are to-day 45 

 colleges employing more than one person 

 to give courses in psychology. The largest 

 faculty in psychology is found at Colum- 

 bia, where eight men give their entire time 

 to the subject and four others give part 

 time. Seven universities employ five or 

 more for instruction in psychology. 



The department organization, as above 

 outlined, shows less progress than the rapid 

 differentiation of the subject matter taught. 

 Subdivisions have increased in number and 

 strength, until recently a specialist in the 

 application of psychology to teaching was 

 made ' professor of educational psychology. ' 



