THE CHAIR OF MENTAL SCIENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7443, 23 December 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CHAIR OF MENTAL SCIENCE.

10 THE EUITOJi. Sin, -In view of the approaching appointment of a successor to Professor Mucgrcgor in the chair of mental science kindly grant' mo space for a few lines on the subject.

Taking it for granted that (lie Synod and Board of Jl:iu:igeim:iit intend for once to depart from tin: abriiiril custom of ignoring the claims of weli-knov/u local men for those of someone in the Old Country, who may or may nnt be found suitable after appointment, I should like with your permission to criticise the claims of tlic local men who are said to be candidates for the chair. They are Professor Salmond, Dr JU'Gregor (of Oamaru), and Dr Copland (of Dunedin).

Professor Salmond is undoubtedly in his right place as a professor of theology. He has uomi good work in the past, and has great influence for good over the students whom he teaches. Now, apart altogether from the absurdity of translating him from one chair to another, and thus leaving a vacant chair to be filled up, will it not seem strange, if the Synod, which is supposed to do all it can for the moral j wcllbeiug of the students under its care, should* by its action remove them from the influence of a'professor under whom they have to study for three years for the questionable benefits they will receive from him in the chair of mental science, where they will be for only one year under his instruction. I think, Sir, that Professor Salmond is just where he ought to be, and that it would he a mistake to appoint him to the chair of mental science.

With regard to Dr M'Oregor, of O.unaru. Ho also has been a Professor of Theology in Edinburgh; but as4 his time must have been altogether tnken up in that particular branch, I cannot see that he could have had time and opportunity either of keeping up or acquiring a sufficient knowledge of mental science io enable him to be a pro^ssor of that subject. To both these gentlemen also there is one fatal object ion. They are not sufficiently versed in physiology, ami I hold that as physiology and psychology are interdependent, they are therefore ineligible

With regard io Or Copland, the ease, is quite different. He is both a doctor of medicine and a doctor of philosophy. Hi: was a most successful student of mental science under Sir William Hamilton, of Edinburgh. Ha also studied the subject at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg. He has made mental science a life study, is a close and accurate reasoner, possesses a ready pen, and is in every way fitted for the chair.

The one objection which has been raised against th« appointment of a local man is, that now discoveries have lieon made in mental science, and that a man appointed at. Home wmtid be better acquainted with the subject. Now, Sir, the days when X.;w Zealand was ai\ nltimn thule are past, and if now discoveries in mental science have been made (which I very much doubt) the next mail would bring them to y«\v Zealand, and we here would have the benefit of them nearly as soon as those at- Home. 1, in common with many well-wishers to the cause of higher education, would like to see the claims of Dr Copland acknowledged, and the appointment given to him.—l am, Ice,

Preckptoh,

December 17.