Sessional address of the President (Mr. Serjeant Cox), November 4th, 1875.

  • Edward William Cox
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sessional address of the President (Mr. Serjeant Cox), November 4th, 1875. 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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    of late in so many forms. Psychology and its kindred sub- jects have been more and more made themes for discussion in the newspapers, indicating that they find many interested readers. Still more frequently is it made the topic of con- versation in society. Books treating of it continue to come in fast increasing numbers from the press and find large circles of readers. In brief, there is every indication that the subject is becoming popular. As is the invariable practice when any topic of any kind, and especially any science, has reached the stage of popularity, Psychology has been eagerly seized upon by the herd of charlatans, cheats, and mountebanks who feed upon the brains of others and trade upon the weaknesses of credulity or fanaticism. The phenomena of Mind and Soul, invested as they are with a certain novelty and encompassed with something of mystery and strangeness, have been turned to purposes of profit by impudent impostors and misrepresented and magnified by unreflecting enthusiasts. In such a state of public opinion it was thought by the Promoters that a Society would be welcomed that should devote itself to the investigation of Psychology, with no other purpose than to ascertain, so far as may be, the very truth of it, without respect for any prejudice and with no fear of any consequences from dis- covery of the truth. We were, of course, not unprepared for hostility from two opposite quarters, from the Materialists, who are so firm in their own faith that they will not admit the possibility of any existence not material, and there- fore deny to Psychology the dignity of a Science, and from zealots, who, admitting the existence of Soul, assert that it is the province of themselves alone to deal with it; that it must be received only as a faith and that to search after it as a fact is to abjure the faith. But neither of these adversaries has in practice proved so powerful as we had feared. The former have not ventured upon any open act of hostility, although whisperings and objections have not been wanting in private. The latter have shown