The claims of psychology to a place in the circle of the sciences / sessional address of the President, Mr. Serjeant Cox.

  • Edward William Cox
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The claims of psychology to a place in the circle of the sciences / sessional address of the President, Mr. Serjeant Cox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    cules are the ultimate particles perceptible to our very limited senses, but certainly not the ultimate atoms, wbich doubtless compose an infinite number of other forms of being that are only not perceptible to us because they are of non- molecular construction. It will be enough to refer to some classes of these phenomena to show on what a vast foundation of fact Psychology may be securely based, and to prove that it is not the shadowy pseudo-science that it is called. Behold, first, that most abundant class of the phenomena—the mystery of Dream—which only does not amaze us because it is so familiar, but which, if it occurred but rarely, and with a few persons only, would excite either wonder or contempt. There is not a person in this room who, if Dream were as rare as clairvoyance, would not be denounced as a lunatic or prosecuted as a rogue and a vagabond for asserting that, when he was asleep, he beheld the most marvellous visions, conversed with the dead—walked upon water—visited remote places. All of us do this nightly, and we are only not deemed to be the victims of “a diluted insanitybecause none can accuse another without condemning himself. But, viewed with scientific eye, what a marvel is dream ! What new light would not the investigation of these phenomena cast upon the structure of mind and the being of Soul! The phenomena of Delirium and Insanity are no less fraught with instruction for the Psychologist. It is not in the normal condition of the mechanism, when the whole is working smoothly, that the structure of a machine can be discovered. It is when the wheels are disordered, its parts thrown out of geai’, that we learn the structure and the uses and functions of every part of it. So with the mechanism of Man. The Physiologist and the Physician can best leai-n the functions of the various parts of the body from observation of their diseased action. Even insanity reveals to us the various mental faculties, by exhi- [251]