The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-05-02
HOW FAST CAN YOU THINK 4?

"Quick as thought" and "quick as
lightning" are commonly used as sy-
nOnymOus expressions. But their
difference is really grert. An cleo.
trio impulse traverses a wire IA a
wave of motion; a nervous impulse
proceeds by development of chemi-
cal channe in the nerve. It runs
along the nerve somewhrt as combus.
ton followsa train Of gunpowder, and
not much if any more rapidly. In
deed UelmholtZ has clearly determin-
ed. the rate Of nervous propagation to
be less than 4 hundred feet a second,
or about a mile a minute. To use
rude illustration, if railway could
feel, the sense report Of train start
ing in New York would reach Albany
but little in advance Of the fastest
trainss that have been run upon the
Hudson River Road. Even along
courses as short as the nerves of the
human body an appreciabla time is
required for the passage Of nervous
impulses.
With a simple apparatus. Hirsch
found that touch upon the face
could be recognized and responded to
.by predetermined signal operated
bp the hand, in one seventh of sec.
ond. With a sound test, acting, of
course, upon the ear, the answering
signal was made in one sixth of a Sec
ond; when the eye was addressed, the
response came in one fifth of sec.
ond. Since the distances travelled by
the nervous impulses were very near
~ the same in all these experiments,
it is evident that the greater part of
the difference of time noted must be
charged to the grealer or smaller rap
idity Of the act of recognition; the en-
tire process in each case being the
transmission Of sensation (tOuch,
hearing or sight) to the brain, its rec
ignition, the willing Of the signal
agreed upon, the transmission Of the
order to the muscles of the hand, and
the movement of those muscles
Thus it would appear that less time is
required for recognizing touch than
a sound, less time to hear than to see.
But what part OF the fifth, sixth, or
seventh of q second, as the case might
be, was consumed in the act of recog-
milton!
Donders was successful in answer.
ing this question by the use of several
forms of apparatus, involving entirely
different methods, yet yielding the
same results. He found, for instance,
with the acknowledgement" that
the double act Of recognizing sound
and willing the response required
seventy-five thousandths Of second.
OF this time, forty tbousandths Of a
second were required for simple rec
ignition. thus leaving thirty-fve
thousandths for volition. With the
''noematachometer' he found that
the same time, forty thOusandths Tor
one twenty-fifth) of a second, was re-
quired 10 Judge which was first Of
two irritants acting on the same
sense. A slightly longer time was re-
quired to Judge the priority of signals
acting on different senses, AS sound
and u light. It also took longer to
recognize letter by seeing its form
than by hearing its sound.
This is 4 man of middle age.
Young people thought quicker. but
the difference was not great. In all
the experiments the time required
for simple thought was never less
than . fortieth Of q second. In other
words the mind can perform not more
than twenty -four hundred simple acts
= minute, fifteen hundred : minute
being the rata Tor persons Of middle
age.
From thess figures Il Vim - ssen