1895,] Psychology. 295 
psychology. Researches into the mental life of children, of the lower 
animals, of the congenitally blind and deaf, of criminals and the insane, 
have been eagerly prosecuted. It is not easy to estimate the value of 
this work to psychology proper. It is difficult to get accurate infor- 
mation as to the mental life of even an intelligent and educated man. 
When I question him, I can have no security that my question is un- 
derstood, nor can I know that he attaches to the words of his reply 
exactly the meaning that I do. In inquiring into forms of conscious- 
ness still more widely removed from my own, I encounter greater diffi- 
culties. Not only does the danger of misunderstanding language in- 
crease, but, in most cases, it is impossible to use language at all, and 
we are compelled to rely upon analogies based upon movements and 
expression for our knowledge as to what passes in these lower forms of 
consciousness. It is not, I think, likely that the science of psychology 
proper will be much the gainer by this work, except in the case of some 
special problems. But, on the other hand, it is likely that as our 
knowledge of human psychology increases, we shall find ourselves more 
and more able to interpret these divergent forms of consciousness. 
There is yet another line of psychological inquiry that has been 
opened within the last twenty years. Thisis the study of hypnosis 
and allied “automatic” states. It has been prosecuted, for the most 
part, in France, and, as the work has been done rather by physicians 
than by psychologists, the value of the inquiry to the pure science is, 
as yet, undetermined. Several attempts have been made, however, to 
bring these facts to bear upon the general theory of psychology. The 
most comprehensive and, in my opinion, the most important, is that 
made by Pierre Janet in his work on “ Mental Automatism” (“ L’Auto- 
matisme Psychologique ”) published in Paris about five years ago. 
Yet another “Richtung” is that commonly known as “Psychical 
Research.” Its object is the investigation of phenomena supposed to be 
“supernatural” or “supernormal.” Although not necessarily psycho- 
logical, it so happens that the great majority of such phenomena have 
been found to be explicable by simple psychological laws, and it seems, 
therefore, proper to include it in an enumeration of the chief forms of 
contemporary psychology. Moreover, many of the phenomena which 
have not, as yet, been explained by known laws, such as those of tele- 
pathy and clairvoyance, would seem to require the assumption of new 
distinctively psychological principles. 
The conception of evolution in psychology, as in all other branches 
of science, exerts a controlling influence. Itis clearly recognized that 
man’s mind, like his hody, is what it is by virtue of the environment in 
