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]
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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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    about the term “Psychology by reason of the many misuses of it. That there is a growing interest in the great questions embraced by this Society is proved by the excellent audiences that have steadily gathered in this room—larger, let me say, than those usually present at the meetings of any scientific Society in London, “ the Greographical ” only excepted. Another proof of the spread of the taste for Psychological research and desire for knowledge of its prin- ciples is found in the recent establishment of no less than three Quarterly Eeviews devoted to different branches of it. “ Mind ” is almost wholly metaphysical, giving compara- tively little attention to facts; and, therefore, I regret to observe, it does little for the extension of our knowledge of Mind. “ Brain ” is a more practical periodical. It pro- fesses, as its name implies, to deal with the material mechanism of Mind, and to the extent of its limited scheme it will do good service to Psychological Science. But here also there is an unfortunate lack of records of the facts and phenomena attendant upon the various abnormal conditions of the brain and nerve system, wanting which as a basis, real progress in Psychological Science must needs be slow, for its theories, however ingenious, unless based upon facts, can be little other than conjecture and speculation. The Psychological Bevieiv, the latest in the field, promises to be the most useful. But here again the range of topics is somewhat too limited, and the most important of the material required in such a work—a collection of reports of facts and phenomena, without note or comment—such as are given by the Medical Journals of medical cases—is still wanting. But the experiment is yet young and improvemeuts may be anticipated with age, experience and success. In conclusion, I can only repeat what I have so often urged from this chair. All physical science must be based upon facts. Facts can be proved only by evidence. The [259]