(Published by Authority of the Medico-Psychological Association EDITED BY H. RAYNER, M.D. CONOLLY NORMAN, F.R.C.P.I. A. R. URQUHART, M.D. EDWIN GOODALL, M.D. "Nos vero intellectum longius a rebus non abstrahimus quam ut rerum imagines et FRANCIS BACON, Proleg. Instaurat. Mag. VOL. XLI. LONDON: J. AND A. CHURCHILL, NEW BURLINGTON STREET MDCCCXCV. J6 √.41 BIOLOGY EDUC. by authority "IN adopting our title of the Journal of Mental Science in our pages of the Medico-Psychological Association, we profess that we mental science of a particular kind, namely, such mental science as appertains to medical men who are engaged in the treatment of the insane. But it has been objected that the term mental science is inapplicable, and that the terms, mental physiology, or mental pathology, or psychology, or psychiatry (a term much affected by our German brethren), would have been more correct and appropriate; and that, moreover, we do not deal in mental science, which is properly the sphere of the aspiring metaphysical intellect. If mental science is strictly synonymous with metaphysics, these objections are certainly valid, for although we do not eschew metaphysical discussion, the aim of this Journal is certainly bent upon more attainable objects than the pursuit of those recondite inquiries which have occupied the most ambitious intellects from the time of Plato to the present, with so much labour and so little result. But while we admit that metaphysics may be called one department of mental science, we maintain that mental physiology and mental pathology are also mental science under a different aspect. While metaphysics may be called speculative mental science, mental physiology and pathology, with their vast range of inquiry into insanity, education, crime, and all things which tend to preserve mental health, or to produce mental disease, are not less questions of mental science in its practical, that is, in its sociological point of view. If it were not unjust to high mathematics to compare it in any way with abstruse metaphysics, it would illustrate our meaning to say that our practical mental science would fairly bear the same relation to the mental science of the metaphysicians as applied mathematics bears to the pure science. In both instances the aim of the pure science is the attainment of abstract truth; its utility, however, frequently going no further than to serve as a gymnasium for the intellect. In both instances the mixed science aims at, and, to a certain extent, attains immediate practical results of the greatest utility to the welfare of mankind; we therefore maintain that our Journal is not inaptly called the Journal of Mental Science, although the science may only attempt to deal with sociological and medical inquiries, relating either to the preservation of the health of the mind or to the amelioration or cure of its diseases; and although not soaring to the height of abstruse metaphysics, we only aim at such metaphysical knowledge as may be available to our purposes, as the mecha. nician uses the formularies of mathematics. This is our view of the kind of mental science which physicians engaged in the grave responsibility of caring for the mental health of their fellow men, may, in all modesty, pretend to culti vate; and while we cannot doubt that all additions to our certain knowledge in the speculative department of the science will be great gain, the necessities of duty and of danger must ever compel us to pursue that knowledge which is to be obtained in the practical departments of science, with the earnestness of real workmen. The captain of a ship would be none the worse for being well acquainted with the higher branches o astronomical science, but it is the practical part of that science as it is applicable to navigation which he is compelled to study."- Sir J. C. Bucknill, M.D., F.R.S. LIST OF PRESIDENTS OF THE MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 1854. A. J. Sutherland, M.D., St. Luke's Hospital, London. 1855. J. Thurnam, M.D., Wilts County Asylum. 1856. J. Hitchman, M.D., Derby County Asylum. 1857. Forbes Winslow, M.D., Sussex House, Hammersmith. 1860. J. C. Bucknill, M.D., Devon County Asylum. 1866. W. A. F. Browne, M.D., Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland. 1869. T. Laycock, M.D., Edinburgh. 1870. Robert Boyd, M.D., County Asylum, Wells. 1871. Henry Maudsley, M.D., The Lawn, Hanwell. 1872. Sir James Coxe, M.D., Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland. 1876. W. H. Parsey, M.D., Warwick County Asylum. 1878. J. Crichton-Browne, M.D., Lord Chancellor's Visitor. 1879. J. A. Lush, M.D., Fisherton House, Salisbury. 1880. G. W. Mould, M.R.C.S., Royal Asylum, Cheadle. 1881. D. Hack Tuke, M.D., London. 1882. W. T. Gairdner, M.D., Glasgow. 1883. W. Orange, M.D., State Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Broadmoor. 1885. J. A. Eames, M.D., District Asylum, Cork. THE MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. THE COUNCIL, 1895-96. PRESIDENT.-DAVID NICOLSON, M.D. EDITORS OF JOURNAL AUDITORS HENRY RAYNER, M.D. A. R. URQUHART, M.D. E. W. WHITE, M B. T. OUTTERSON WOOD, M.D. DIVISIONAL SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND.-A. R. TURNBULL, M.B. DIVISIONAL SECRETARY FOR IRELAND.-OSCAR T. WOODS, M.D. DIVISIONAL SECRETARY FOR SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION.-P. W. MACDONALD, M.D. GENERAL SECRETARY.-FLETCHER BEACH, M.B. |