304 



SCIENCE. 



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



Indiana, Iowa, Leland Stanford, Jr., Mich- 

 igan, Pennsylvania and Toronto. Yale 

 should be grouped with these on account 

 of its plan to retain a very large room for 

 undergraduate experimental work, instead 

 of dividing it up as is done elsewhere. On 

 an average, eight rooms are occupied by 

 psychology in the group of universities 

 considered. The further scientific progress 

 of psychology is assured by a general plan 

 to provide as many separate rooms as pos- 

 sible to be used for research work. Six 

 out of the eight rooms are usually avail- 

 able for special investigations. On account 

 of the necessary isolation of the experi- 

 menter in psychology, this provision is of 

 vital importance to the science. 



The demand made upon the laboratories 

 for research equipment is reflected also in 

 the establishment of complete workshops 

 in connection with the department. The 

 psychological workshop has reached its 

 most prominent development at Tale and 

 Columbia. At New Haven the equipment 

 of the shop is valued at $2,000. A teacher 

 of manual training spends half his time 

 during the school year and all of his time 

 during the summer working for the de- 

 partment. A student also frequently as- 

 sists in the shop. At Columbia a skilled 

 instrument builder and a boy assistant are 

 employed the year around ; the value of the 

 shop equipment is approximately $1,000. 

 Cornell is soon to add a new workshop to 

 its splendid laboratory equipment. It has 

 for some time employed a mechanician half 

 the day. Several , of the laboratory di- 

 rectors prefer to have large pieces of ap- 

 paratus built outside the department, and, 

 therefore, maintain only a small shop for 

 repairs. Of the 34 universities, all but 

 seven have made provision for at least a 

 work-bench and tools in the department. 



To jiidge the worth of a laboratory, on 

 the basis of floor space and dollars in- 



vested is certainly unwise; yet size and 

 capital are not unimportant considerations, 

 even when comparing institutions of learn- 

 ing. An interesting classification of a dif- 

 ferent nature is suggested by the ' Statistics 

 on American Psychologists,' recently pub- 

 lished.* The ranking indicates something 

 of the past performance of the older labo- 

 ratories. The article considers 200 psy- 

 chologists and tabulates the institutions 

 that have contributed to their academic 

 training (undergraduate and graduate). 

 The seven highest rank as follows: Colum- 

 bia, 42; Harvard, 42; Cornell, 27; Tale, 

 23 ; Princeton, 20 ; Pennsylvania, 17 ; Johns 

 Hopkins, 13 ; 66 other institutions have also 

 taken part in stimulating some of these 

 prominent psychologists. It is recognized, 

 of course, that this ranking overestimates 

 the time that the laboratory has been in 

 service. In proportion to the number of 

 students working in certain younger labo- 

 ratories, it may be said that the contribu- 

 tions to the science which they are making 

 is often fully equal to the splendid achieve- 

 ments of those longer established. 



In one respect the American laboratories 

 differ distinctly from the German. The 

 latter are often impressed by the personal 

 interest of their directors, which shows 

 itself in some special line of investigation. 

 The laboratory of Stumpf at Berlin, with 

 its complete technical equipment for audi- 

 tory work, is a striking example. It may 

 be said, however, that certain tendencies 

 do seem to characterize a few of the older 

 laboratories in this country; although in 

 no case do they interfere with a broad 

 teaching of all phases of psychology. In 

 this science, as in all others, the American 

 university first of all teaches, and teaches 

 well. Nevertheless, the trends of thought 

 which prevail among graduate students at 

 present suggest that those who are funda- 



*J. McK. Cattell, Amer. J. of Psychol, XIV., 

 324. 



