The San Francisco call., 1896-10-04

THE wonderfully exact and delicate
mechanical appliances which have jus
arrived at Berkeley for use in connection
with the study OF experimental psychology
have been photographed and sketched by
q CALL artist and are now reprod uced fol
the first time for the benefit of The CALI
readers.
The illustrations give a very fair an6
accurate representation OF the truly unique
apparatus with which Berkeley's new pro
fessor of psychology proposes to teach the
growing native son how to penetrate some
of the darkness that, viewed from 6
materiaIistic m standpoint, ever will en-
shroud the question, "What is man?"
No other American university has sc
fine and costly assortment of what may
be styled psychological tools. Nowhere
outside Of Germany, where experimental
psychology originated, in the modern ac-
ceptation of the term, has the completeness
of the collection been equaIed.
The nrst laboratory in experimental
psychology was established by William
Wundt at Leipsic in 1879. From very early
times Investigations have been MADE in
the field of psychology. Locke and Berke-
ley made observations and generaliza-
tions, but there was no attempt to cause 8
recurrence of psychical phenomena in
Europe or in the United States prior to
be time of Weber and Fechner, who
studied and wrote in Germany in the first
half of the present century. They were
experimenters as well as observers.
l George Malcolm Stratton OF Oakland
Ead the honor to be admitted as a student
in the first laboratory of Experimental
Psychology established in Europe. Nj.
Stratton was graduated with high honor
and received marked distinction in Europe
among the learned psychologists. He is
the Instructor in Experimental Psychology
at Berkeley. "Wundt," said Mr. Stratton,
as he stood amid the psychological appar-
stus which he selected in Germany for the
university, first engaged in his attempt
to experiment by getting several men anc
some apparatus together. He started in
small way, with but few pupils. From
that beginning great laboratory has been
developed. He has eighteen rooms, ex-
pensively fitted up for the purpose of ex-
periments. The records of his works fill
twelve volumes"
The work at Berkeley will follow the
lines of German origin. One OF the first
questions will be concerning the practical
value of the experiments apart from their
purely scientific importance. Observation
and experiment will be devoted to finding
out what various men do under fixed con-
ditions which can be artifcially contrived.
The futter1ng of the pulse, its accelera-
ton and retardation. its sudden acces
sions of energy, all can be mapped and
charted with absolute fidelity. Respira-
ton and It's variations, the expansion or
contraction of muscles under the influ-
ence of mental impressions-in brief,
all the physical phenomena which
mental perceptions may cause-can be
automatically recorded by machinery
through most ingenious combination of
Nsprings, electromagnetic, diais capable OF
measuring so small lapse of time as
1000 of second, electric currents, ham,
mers which fall in predetermined period
through arcs of circle, and so on. These
physical phenomena are valuable for the
purposes of psychology, as they indicate
the precise effect of mental action, based
on fixed occurrences, upon the body. Con-
versely, the time may arrive when these
phenomena may indicate the nature OF
thoughts. The field of conjecture which
this opens up is SO vast that it is seem
ingly boundless.
Psychology" said Mr.. stratton, sis an
old science, dating back to Aristotle. His
work, De Anima, was the first great work
on psychology. Psychology aims to know
the nature of mental life and under what
conditions mind exists; what are its
relations to the physical world, and what
the destiny of the personal mind or
thought is. Here is great philosophical
problem which can only be solved by
philosophical methods. Psychology seeks
to answer to these great questions.
I'm what we call experimental psychoI-
ogy the subject has the conditions made
for him. He is purposely kept in the
dark as to what is about TO happen lat
he may give an answer without any
prejudice. Then a number of subjects are
fken and put through the same condi-
items and we see what the results are. In
that way we make general rule applica-
BILE to the normal.
You will see that, with the ability to
repeat the same experiment an indefinite
number of times upon different persons,
there are greater possibilities for system