258 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No 215 



psychology, which describes and explains the 

 modifications of the human intelligence caused 

 by disease ; and, finally, a general psychology, 

 which, without taking up all the details of its 

 subject-matter with their analyses and compari- 

 sons, strives to bring lo a focus the facts of which 

 the details are numberless. In a word, general 

 psychology attempts to form a synthesis, profit- 

 ing by the analyses made by human and compara- 

 tive psychology. 



For general psychology, as for general physiol- 

 ogy, but one method is possible, — the experi- 

 mental. And as to this, a short explanation is 

 essential, in order that a confusion too fre- 

 quently made may be avoided. As a matter of 

 fact, an opinion, very easy of refutation, is fre- 

 quently attributed to the defenders of experi- 

 mental psychology. They are said to admit noth- 

 ing but experience, and to deny the validity of 

 introspection or the internal sense. But, on the 

 contrary, no physiologist has ever thought of set- 

 ting aside the subjective observation of the ele- 

 ments of knowledge. How can we study the 

 effects of memory or of imagination, unless we 

 observe ourselves? Who is the physiologist or 

 naturalist that upholds this opinion? and why 

 combat it, when no one defends it? Internal 

 observation gives us a psychology based on expe- 

 rience which is quite as legitimate and quite as 

 fruitful as the most thoroughly experimental 

 physiology can be imagined to be. The facts 

 gained from the study of the eg'oare quite as valu- 

 able, provided they have been observed carefully 

 and methodically, as the physiological phenomena 

 recorded in the laboratories by the most per- 

 fect methods that our modern technique has 

 devised. 



But, however important this internal observa- 

 tion may be when it addresses itself to conscious- 

 ness, it can be applied to but a single object, the 

 knowledge of the ego. Beyond this it is danger- 

 ous and sterile. In is not internal observation 

 which tells us how the stars move, and what the 

 properties of matter may be. It knows and stud- 

 ies the ego. It observes itself, it judges itself, but 

 it is forbidden to leave this domain of the ego, — 

 a domain so vast that numberless discoveries are 

 yet to be made in it, and yet so narrow that the 

 egfo's unsatisfied curiosity urges it eagerly beyond 

 it. But here science alone, with its rigorous meth- 

 ods, its accurate apparatus, and its exact measure- 

 ments, can make a progress which is slow but sure. 

 In a word, introspection can only hope to know 

 the facts of consciousness. The general proper- 

 ties of organic matter, whether it be inert or en- 

 dowed with thought, remain for it unknown. 

 They fall within the province of physics, chem- 



istry, and physiology. Introspection can only 

 judge phenomena. 



But this is common to all the sciences. Never- 

 theless it applies particularly to psychology, which 

 proceeds by introspection carried on with great 

 care. For psychology cannot experiment : it can 

 only observe. And it is well known that sciences 

 founded upon observation are not so rich as are . 

 sciences of experiment, in conclusions of various 

 and far-reaching import. Under all circumstances 

 we are forbidden to ratiocinate, that is to say, 

 to construct systems of metaphysics and of tran- 

 scendental physics. That which psychology can 

 do, and which it alone can do, is to observe the 

 phenomena of consciousness. Beyond that, it is 

 but an illusion. 



Thus general psychology, aided now by intro- 

 spection, now by the study of organic beings, now 

 by experiment, extends from the lowest animal 

 all the way up to man. But is this its whole 

 sphere ? For aur part, we do not hesitate to say 

 yes ; for, if there should exist in nature intelli- 

 gences or conscious powers analogous to those of 

 man, they have not yet been revealed to u-^. As- 

 suredly it would be absurd to suppose that this 

 earth alone, among all the infinity of worlds, is 

 the only portion of space where intelligent beings 

 exist. The very fact that men exist on the earth 

 renders it extremely probable that life has appeared 

 on other stars also, and that there exist there intelli- 

 gences similar to ours. The chemical composition 

 of the stars is almost the same as that of our 

 planet, and consequently the same phenomena 

 ought to be manifest there as here. But our fee- 

 ble science cannot go so far. We are limited to a 

 terrestrial psychology, which is probably the only 

 one of which man can ever know any thing. 

 Though thus restricted to the animal world and to 

 the consciousness of the ego, general psychology, 

 presenting facts in their totality and not in detail, 

 is not only a science of immense scope, but the 

 most attractive of all the departments of human 

 knowledge. Charles Richet. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Europe. 



Some more detailed news of the Eiviera earth- 

 quake of Feb. 33 has been received. The facts, so 

 far as they are of scientific interest, are summed 

 up by Father Denza of the Montcalieri observa- 

 tory. He states that the shaken area extended 

 to the east along a line leaving the plains of Lom- 

 bardy at Lomellina, and passing by the district of 

 Alessandria to the Riviera di Levante, and west- 

 ward over all the western Alps, proceeding to- 



