PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
PREFACE IT is now generally recogni-/ed that all students of the mind should have some knowl< dge of the structure and functions of the nervous system. Unfortunately it is not usual, and in many cases it is not possible, tor students of psychology to make that thorough study of the nervous system which is desirable, and even those of them who are fortunate in this respect find some difficulty in bringing their physiological and anatomical knowledge into relation with that which they acquire by the study of works on psychology.
The writer of this little book has therefore sketched in broad outlines the structure and principles of action of the nervous system and, assuming on the part of his readers some acquaintance with the general principles of psychology, has endeavoured to show how each of these two bodies of doctrine, the physiological and the psychological, supplements the other, deepening our insight into the processes that result in the actions of men and animals and how the conjunction of the two kinds of research brings before us a number of problems of the deepest interest that remain hidden so long as we confine our attention to one or other of these sciences. These are the problems of the infant science of psycho-physics, the science that investigates the relation of body and soul.
The book should therefore not be read alone, but should be studied concurrently with such standard works as Prof. James. Principles of Psychology and Prof. Stout's Manual of Psychology, and the reader who has made no special study of the nervous system should at least have at hand some such description arvd figures of the gross anatomy of the nervous system as are to be found in any one of the many excellent text-books of human physiology or anatomy. The scheme of the nervous system and its functions that the writer has sketched is based upon a careful study of the best authorities ; but it is only fair to warn the reader that great differences of opinion upon many fundamental principles still obtain among these authorities. It seemed better to adopt, and apply consistently, a workable scheme of the elementary nervous functions than to confuse the reader by frequent references to these differences of opinion.
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