SOCIETY— PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 482 SOCOTRA SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RE- SEARCH, a society founded in England in 1882 under the presidency of Prof. H. Sedgwick, of Cambridge University, for the purpose of "making an organized at- temot to investigate that large group of debatable phenomena designated by such terms as mesmeric, psychical, and spiri- tualistic." Six committees were ap- pointed to examine (1) the nature and extent of any influence which may be exerted by one mind on another other- wise than through the recognized sensory channels; (2) hypnotism and mesmer- ism; (3) obscure relations between liv- ing organisms and electric and magnetic forces; (4) haunted house and ghosts; (5) spiritualism; (6) for the collection of existing evidence in connection with these subjects, and especially in connec- tion with apparitions at the moment of death, or otherwise. A special commit- tee was also appointed in 1885 to investi- gate the remarkable occurrences which the Theosophical Society claimed to have witnessed. All these committees, however, were subsequently dissolved, and experi- mental investigation and the collection of evidence left in the hands of indi- vidual members, the results of their in- quiries to be embodied in papers and read before the society, and also, if they de- sire, to be published by them. The so- ciety has published reports containing papers on thought reading, on mesmer- ism, on apparitions and haunted houses, and on many other similar subjects. It has a membership of more than 900, with a branch in the United States with more than 500 members and associates; pub- lishes monthly "Proceedings"; and has already gathered quite a large library of works in various languages, all bear- ing on topics of a more or less mysterious character. Articles on various subjects have also been contributed by members of the society to various magazines. All that the "investigations" have done has been to bring together a mass of so-called evidence in the form of testimony from persons who claim to have seen or ex- perienced something abnormal or out of the common way. See Psychical Re- search. SOCIOLOGY, the science of the evolu- tion and constitution of human society. It has for its subject the origin, organiza- tion, and development of human society and culture, especially on the side of so- cial and political institutions. Sociology embraces all social phenomena under their statical and dynamical aspects. It is the study of the conditions of existence and permanence of the social state; social dynamics studies the laws which govern the evolution of society. The field of Anthropology (q. v.) is usually re- stricted to the discussion of the earlier stages of social development and survivals from that stage into the present. It is claimed for Comte that he created the science of sociology, but according to Mill he only rendered such a science pos- sible. Lewes points out that Macchiavelli, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, and Benthan had a full conviction that social phe- nomena conformed to invariable laws, but that it was reserved for Comte to bring them under his "law of the three stages," and to show that all societies pass through a theological, a metaphysical, and a posi- tive stage. In Great Britain the name of sociology has been given to the study of all that relates to the social improvement of the community. A society called "The Na- tional Association for the Promotion of Social Science" was organized at a meet- ing held under Lord Brougham's aus- pices in July, 1857, to consider the best means of uniting together all those inter- ested in social improvement; and till 1884 held annual congresses in large towns throughout the United Kingdom. The American Social Science Association is similar to the British; it dates from 1866. See Social Science. SOCOTRA, an island in the Indian Ocean, 150 miles E. by N. from Cape Guardafui, and 220 from the S. coast of Arabia; 70 miles long by 20 broad; area, 1,380 square miles. The interior em- braces numerous barren plateaus (1,500 to 2,000 feet), with several well-wooded mountains rising to 4,500 feet; there are fertile valleys between the ranges and belts of rich soil along the coast. The climate is moist and warm, but healthy. Aloes and dragon's blood are the chief commercial products. The inhabitants, about 10,000 in all, live on dates and the produce of their sheep, goats and cows. They belong to two distinct types — one with a comparatively light-colored skin and straight hair, the other darker with curly hair. But all alike speak the same peculiar language, which has certain af- finities with the South Arabian dialect of Mahra. The people show traces of inter- mixture with Negro, Arab, and Indian tribes; and in ancient times the inhabi- tants of Socotra were believed to have been acquainted with Greek civilization and later to have been Nestorian Chris- tians. From the 16th century at least they owed some sort of allegiance to the Sultan of Keshin on the Arabian coast After being occupied by Great Britain in 1835-1839, the island was taken under British protection in 1876 and formally annexed in 1886. Population about ten thousand.
