1896.] Psychology. 157 



account of the functioning of the higher nervous centres without hav- 

 ing recourse to sensations, ideas, volitions — in a word, without entering 

 the field that properly belongs to psychology. While it may be not 

 only right, but aUo necessary, t'<.r the physiologist to do this, we must 

 DOt close our eyes to the fact that the mere fact of its necessity proves 

 the imperfect condition of physiology, and tends to obscure the line 

 dividing physiology from psychology. Prof. Fullerton claimed that 

 the methods employed by the two sciences are distinct, and that it is 

 important to the advancement of knowledge to recognize this distine- 



Dr. Livingston Farrand, of Columbia, submitted a scheme of physi- 

 cal and mental tests which will be used with the students of Colombia 

 to determine, as far as can be done by direct experiment, their capaci- 

 ties in both respects at various stages of their college life. After some 

 discussion, a motion was passed that the President be requested to 

 appoint a committee of five to report upon the advisability of the uni- 

 versities represented taking concerted action in the adoption of some 



Dr. Arthur Mac Donald, of Washington, D. C, read a paper on 

 "Some Psycho-Neural Data." He reported experiments somewhat 

 similar to those of Dr. Farrand, made upon certain groups in the com- 

 munity, and apparently showing that between definite classes definite 

 physical and mental differences are experimentally discoverable. 



Prof. Lightnev Witmer, of the University of Pennsylvania, intro- 

 duced one of his graduate students, Mr. Oliver Cora man, who reported 

 the results of "An Experimental Investigations of the Processes of 

 Ideation." Mr. Cornman's method was that of giving a large number 

 of individuals, usually children, a definite suggestion and requiring 

 them to write for a definite period of time— usually 15 minutes— all the 

 thoughts directly or indirectly suggested by it; he had found that in 

 most of his subjects tne idea trains were, for a short time, largely con- 

 trolled by the concomitant suggestions of the time and place, and con- 

 sequently the earlier terms of each series showed a marked similarity. 

 This soon disappeared, and the further development of the idea trains 

 seemed dependent upon the character and previous experience of the 

 individual. We have, therefore, in this, a convenient method of" tap- 

 pin-,"' as it were, the ideational content of the individual. Mr. Corn- 

 man pointed out further, that, to get results at all comparable with one 

 another in the case of different bodies of subjects, the original suggestions 

 must be given in identically the same words without explanations or 

 further suggestions on the part of the experimenter, and, to secure this 

 end, ,h«.uld always be written. 



