The province of psychology : the inaugural address at the first meeting, April 14, 1875, of the Psychological Society of Great Britain / by the President, Mr. Serjeant Cox.

  • Cox, Edward W. (Edward William), 1809-1879.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The province of psychology : the inaugural address at the first meeting, April 14, 1875, of the Psychological Society of Great Britain / by 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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    much neglected, seeing that they otter the most valuable means for the exploration of Mental Phy- siology. The Phenomena of Delirium and Insanity are fraught with lessons that should form an important chapter in the records of Psychology; for here we see the operations of the Mind and its organ when under the influence of positive disease. Still more instructive are the Phenomena of Somnambulism, Natural and Artificial. Natural Somnambulism has never been a disputed fact. It is universally recognised as an abnormal condition of the mind common at all times and in all countries. The most strange exhibitions are everywhere recorded of it. There can he no doubt that during its paroxysms phenomena have occured whose reality the most sceptical of Scientists has not dared to question; many, indeed, have been recorded by the physicians attending upon the patients. Nevertheless, when the same phenomena were exhibited by somnambules in whom the con- dition had been artificially produced, the charge of imposture was freely cast upon the patients by Scientists who dared not dispute the pheno- mena when the condition occured naturally. True it is that there is now an admission that the facts3 so furiously denied twenty years ago, are sub- stantially true. Dr. Carpenter accepts them and endeavours to explain them. It is amusing to note that he uses them to discredit other phenomena