June i, 1888.] 



SCIENCE 



257 



study are needed ; and when we ascend to the highest product of 

 €volution, the cortex of the human cerebrum, we are presented with 

 the most interesting as well as with the most baffling aspect of the 

 problem. A combination of methods, applied with patience and 

 ingenuity, has divested the problem of some of its mystery. By 

 co-ordinating the symptoms during life with the lesions revealed in 

 the post-mortem examination ; by exposing the brains of the lower 

 animals to definite injuries, and carefully recording the results ; by 

 removing certain sense-organs or other parts in developing animals, 

 -and observing the defects of organization in the adult ; by utilizing 

 the exceptions that nature presents, — we have acquired a knowl- 

 •edge of the laws of the nervous system that would have seemed 

 Utopian to our fathers, and that has already enabled the surgeon to 

 predict the location of and remove a tumor in the brain. 



The study of the senses has acquired a deeper and a richer mean- 

 ing since the recognition of its place in a forming science has come 

 about. The revolutionary discoveries of Helmholtz, whose success 

 is so largely due to the union of two sciences, have induced others 

 to continue the work in a hundred directions ; and as indicative of 

 the promise that these researches hold out, may be cited the con- 

 viction of an eminent physicist, Professor Mach, that the next great 

 movement in the progress of science must come from the union of 

 psychological points of view with physical methods and results. A 

 mere mention of the many investigations that owe their origin to 

 the work of Fechner and the formulation of his psycho-physic law 

 ■must suffice to indicate the great activity in this field, and to justify 

 the title of an experimental psychology. Moreover, the measure- 

 ments of the time taken up by various psychic processes, the ex- 

 perimental study of memory, of attention, 'of the associationjDf ideas, 

 •of the bilateral functions, of rhythm and the time-sense, of space 

 and time perceptions, and so on, have led to the development of a 

 mass of ingenious apparatus, and have made the psychological lab- 

 oratory an indispensable requisite for its satisfactory instruction. 



Morbid psychology is a rubric of paramount importance to the 

 full and clear comprehension of the phenomena of mind. The 

 genesis of illusions and hallucinations, the perversion of the natural 

 ■channels of the emotions, the disintegration of the elements of 

 personality, the dissolution of the logical powers, — all these prob- 

 lems transform the apparently wild and chaotic picture of the mad- 

 house into a sad but interesting record of the process of character 

 and of mind building. This interest is heightened by remembering 

 that here lies the key to the understanding of the psychic epidemics 

 that in the past have upset the rationality of mankind, and trans- 

 formed the incoherent babbling of some demented soul into the 

 mysterious utterances of a revealed spirit. It is furthermore heigh- 

 tened by the notice that the phenomena conveniently grouped as 

 ' psychic research ' are attracting, and always will attract. Hypno- 

 tism, after an adventurous and uncertain existence in the hands of 

 •charlatans, has been admitted into science ; and although the 

 literature of the topic, at least in France, is increasing out of all 

 proportion to our insight into the nature of the phenomena, yet 

 enough has been established to recognize in this semi-morbid con- 

 •dition the key to the solution of many otherwise barely accessible 

 problems. With regard to those borderland phenomena, — ' telep- 

 athy,' 'clairvoyance,' and the like, — they illustrate the subtle- 

 ness of the process by which false systems 'gain success, and 

 demonstrate the advisability of having men who can speak on such 

 topics with the authority of trained experts. 



What its votaries have deservedly dignified into the science of 

 ' anthropological psychology ' offers a most attractive field for re- 

 search. The customs and thought-habits of primitive peoples not 

 only record the first stages in the progress that leads to cul- 

 ture, but prevent the formulation of notions that seem true enough 

 when tested by our own civilization, but reveal the provinciality of 

 their origin when applied to more rudimentary conditions of life. 

 Instead of risiimd-m'g the many rubrics that here contribute to the 

 ■completeness of a scientific psychology, one may refer to the works 

 of Mr. E. B. Tylor as exemplifying at once the attractiveness of 

 the subject, and the value of the results, under a learned and skil- 

 ful treatment. 



If we conclude this survey with the mention of the psychology of 

 the developing child, glimpsing as it does, in the budding capabil- 

 ities of the infant, the microcosm of the race and an epitome of the 



struggle for civilization, it is not because the lines of research 

 have been exhausted, but that, with the scope of the science thus 

 outlined, what remains to be done will probably be suggested by 

 what has been said. The psychology of the infant is not the only 

 point at which psychology and education touch ; but everywhere 

 education must refer to psychology, of which, in the highest sense, 

 it is only the practical application. 



The movement has not been without its opponents. The cry 

 has been raised that it is not a science, but a mere aggregation of 

 disjointed facts : it shines by borrowed wealth. But the force of 

 this objection is weakened, if we remember that a science maintains 

 its individuality quite as much by the point of view from which it 

 regards its subject-matter as from the nature of the subject-matter 

 itself. It is not an evidence of weakness for one science to borrow 

 from and build upon another ; but it testifies to the unity of the 

 phenomena of nature, and reduces the division of the sciences to 

 what they at bottom represent, — the classification of the direction 

 of men's interests. The chaotic condition of the facts with which 

 psychology deals is rapidly disappearing, and it may yet hope to 

 receive a unifying impulse such as Darwinism gave to zoology. It . 

 is, at all events, better to have a collection to arrange when the 

 true method of arrangement shall be discovered, than not to col- 

 lect because the ideal arrangement is not yet at our service. 



Again : there are some, who, heedless of the caution of George 

 Henry Lewes, — that the first question is not, " What does it lead 

 to?" but, " Is it true ? " — see in the objective study of mind the 

 downfall of idealism, and of all the valuable beliefs that have ^ 

 clustered about it. They stigmatize it as materialistic. This is \ 

 surely a misunderstanding. The history of the movement does 

 not bear out such an accusation. The men the spirit of whose 

 work is in line with a scientific psychology — Lotze, Helmholtz, 

 Fechner, Wundt — are all of them the very opposite of materialists. 

 The new movement does not attempt to usurp the place held by 

 other studies, except as it is an advance upon them : it does not 

 pose as the only department of philosophic learning. Its profes- 

 sors have fortunately been men of liberal sympathies, and deeply 

 imbued with the historical sense. They do not claim to have 

 created a science entirely new, unique, and undreamt of, but 

 appreciate their development from the past. Their aim is to retain 

 for the study of mental science that high place which has always 

 been accorded it, by making it progressive and abreast of modern 

 learning. 



Professor Ribot, in the opening lecture of his course at the Col- 

 lege de France (Revue Scientifique, April 14), taking a bird's-eye 

 view of psychological activity in the various countries of civilization, 

 saw everywhere signs of great promise. The literature is increas- 

 ing both in value and in quantity. The science has reached the 

 ' monograph ' stage. Journals specially devoted to its interests, 

 such as the Philosophische Stitdien, the Revue Philosophique, the 

 Rivista di Filosofia Scientifica, and our own Amet'ican Journal 

 of Psychology, are flourishing; and laboratories and professorships 

 for the dissemination of its teaching are being established at the 

 leading universities. With the advantages that the youth and 

 plasticity of our educational institutions give them, and the success- 

 ful examples of the leading universities before them ; with the 

 practical ends that the new movement embraces ; and with our 

 pushing enthusiasm to have every thing that is new and good, — it 

 seems justifiable to predict for scientific psychology a large and 

 representative following in this country. JOSEPH JASTROW. 



ABORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 



A FIELD-PARTY of the Bureau of Ethnology, in charge of Mr. 

 Victor Mindeleff, has recently returned to Washington, bringing a 

 large amount of new and valuable material. For a number of 

 years past Mr. Mindeleff's investigations have been confined to the 

 architecture of the South-west. One of the most interesting places 

 visited by him during the past season was a group of cave-dwell- 

 ings situated about eight miles north-east of Flagstaff, Arizona. 

 These ruins had previously been visited by Major Powell and Mr. 

 Stevenson. 



The remains occupy the summit of a cinder cone, and extend 

 some distance down the south side. The rooms are numerous. 



