The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-06-16

How Quick is Thought!

In order to express an idea Of exceed
ing rapiditv we say "as qnick as
thought." 1t seems evident, however
since thought can not be spontaneous.
but must arise from some cause, the lat
ter preceding the former, that there must
he some apprecIable duration of time
! elapsing between the two, which might
he called ''the period of succession" 1t
in 1895, at the Greenwich Observatory
an irate astronomer summarily dismiss
ed an assistant because he always made
| an apparent blunder in noting the pas
sage of star. which showed an errow OF
| FIVE To eight -tenths of a second. A
quarter Of century afterwards the as
lar kind, made by two illustrious assis-
tantS who were working with him,
Argelander and Stnrve, and instead of
soundly rating them for their appai ent
hlunders, commenced studying the sub
ject, and was first TO present what il
called the problem of 1.-The personal
equation" The personal equation is,
then, certain fixed human error, that
difference between the time when some
thing actually does take place. and when
the appreciation Of it reaches our brain
NJ Wolf, of the Paris Observatory, has
devoted a great deal of time to the
study of this cnrious snhjpct, and has
invented some Ingenious mechanism for
the determination of it. A luminous
point-an artificial star az it were-is
passed before the fit Id of glass, and its
exact time being g'calculated bv means of
most accurate chronometer, between
he actual time-it does appear and that
noted hv.an observer, NAV be called one
of the limits of the visual personal eqna-
ton. This equation. of course. cannot
he constant. It may vary as to the time
| of impression, and may differ with in
dividu duals. Between Bessel and Arge-
lander. when the two wonId note the
time of flash of lightning, there would
be difference of %, ,1O0ths of a second.
The errors of both these observers be
tween actual visual occurrences and the
precise time when the passage of star
was noted, were as much as a quarter of
second. Summing up these errors,
the period when we are conscious of re
ceiving an impression shows MS to he as
much ont of the way as from the fifth to
the tenth of a second. Again, the ef-
feet of the impression or its distinguish
ing character acts on us differently An
other term is employed for this person
al equation, which is called physiological |
time. Now, this time varies with the
various sense, and whether the effects
are single or double. The physiological
time for single sound is 15S-10O0 of a
second. OF course it is evident that,
when there is the expectancy of any
known effect-such az of light, sound or
touch-the mind being prepared for
some impression, the physiological time
is very much lessened. One very cnr-
ions portion of this study wonld he that
of discovering whether modification in
the human brain. brought on by medi-
cines or disease, did not cause differences
in this physiological time Do the in
sane have quicker or slower physiologi-
cal time? When De Quincy asserted
that to live 1000 years in single night
was quite possible. by simply increasing
the dose Of opium, he inadvertently
touched on the problem of physiological
time