Section J % 
MENTAL SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 
1. — REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON THE BEST MEANS OF EN- 
COURAGING PSYCHOPHYSICAL AND PSYCHOMETEICAL 
INVESTIGATION IN AUSTRALASIA. 
Members of Committee : 
Professor H. Laurie Mr. J. T. Collins 
Mr. J. A. Hartley Mr. T. Brodribb 
Mr. H. P. Gill Mr. E. F. J. Loye (Secretary). 
The committee has been engaged in obtaining from England and 
America information which may be of service as leading to definite 
recommendations. The information received is not so complete as 
might be desired ; and, as the secretary is now visiting Europe, and 
has kindly undertaken to make further inquiries, the committee asks 
that it be reappointed, with power to add to its number. 
Meantime it reports as follows : — 
Psychophysics . — The most valuable information on this subject 
has been received from Professor Titchener, of the Cornell University, 
New York. After enumerating the various subjects which may be 
included in experimental psychology, Professor Titchener mentions 
the following requisites: — (1) An endowed chair, to be held by a 
professor who has had special training in experimental psychology ; 
(2) a library; (3) an endowed laboratory, having a minimum of six 
rooms, and with an assistant or assistants. Professor Titchener, whose 
letter is submitted with this report, generously offers all the assistance 
in his power. The committee thinks it important that the character 
of the work now being done in America in experimental psychology 
should be widely known ; but, while arrangements such as those 
described are worthy of the Cornell University, where in the school of 
philosophy alone there are eight professors and lecturers, the 
committee feels that it would be useless to propose so great an 
extension in the present financial position of the Australasian 
universities. For the present the committee recommends that the 
professors of mental science in our universities be asked to place 
themselves in communication with the professors of physics and of 
physiology, and to report what initial steps in experimental psychology 
are in their opinion possible. A beginning may be made by interesting 
students in the more elementary work. 
Psychometry . — Owing to the debased meaning which has been 
attached to this word by some writers, it may be worth while to men- 
tion that it is here used in the legitimate sense of the measurement of 
mental powers and capacities. It ha3 been the special aim of the 
committee to devise a scheme of statistical inquiries, of theoretical and 
practical value, in connection with the State school systems of the 
