Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-05-25
How Fast Can You Think,

"Quick as thought and quick as light
nlng are commonly used as Synonymous ex-
preSSlOnS. But their difference Is really great.
An electric impulse traverSeS a wire as a wave
OF motion: nervous impulse proceeds by a
development OF chemical change i'm the nerve
IL runs along the nerve somewhat as combus-
ton follows train of gUnpowder, and no.
much II any more rapidly. Indeed Hemholtz
has clearly determined the rate of nervous
propagation to be less than hundred feet a
second, or about mile a minute. To use a
rude Illustration, if a railway could feel, the
sense report OF train starting in New York
would reach Albany but little in advance of
Hudson River road. Even along courses as
short as the nerves of the human body an ap-
preclaDle time is required for the passage of
nervous impulses.
With simple apparatus, Hirsch found that
touch upon the face could be recognized
and responded to by a predetermined signal
0nd; With sound test acting, of course up-
on the ear, the answering signal was made In
0ne-Sl&th OF a second; when the eye was ad-
dressed, the response came in one-tifth ola sec
onu Since The distance ira Veied by the ner-
VOus impulses were nearly the same i'm all
these experiments. ii is evident that the greater
part OF these difference of time noted must
| be charged to the greater or smaller rapidity
CT the act of recognition: the entire process in
each case bel ny tie transmission of a sensation
Noucn, nearing. or SlSh) to the brain, its re.
coghitlon, the willing OF the signal agreed up
on, the transmission of the order to the mus
Giles Oh the hand, and the movement of those
muscles: Thus it would appear that less time
Is required for recognizing a touch than a
SOUND less time to hear than to see. But what
part OF the fifth, sixth or seventh of a second,
as the case might be, was consumed in the act
OF recognition?
DOnderS was successful i'm answering thiS
question by the use of several forms of ap-
paratuS, involving entirely different methods
YET yielding the same results. He found, for
m, stance, win the "noematachograph that
the double act of recognizing sound and will
ing the response required Seventy-five thou
SandthS OF a second. OF this time forty thou
sandlhs OF second were required for simple
recognition thus leaving thirty-five thous
andths for volitiOn. With the 4" noematachO-
meter he found that the same time, forty
thousandthS Tor one twenty-tifth) of a second,
lrritantS acting on the same sense A slightly
longer time was required to Judge the priority
OF signals acting on different senses. as a
sound and a light. 1t also took longer to re-
cognize a letter by seeing its form than by
hearing its sound.
=, This in man of middle age. Young people
tnought quicker; but the. difference was not
CURED for simple thought was never less
than fortieth of a second. In other words
the mind can perform not more than twenty
four hundred simple acts minute, fifteen
nundTed minute being the rate for persons
OF middle age.
From these figures it will seen how absurd
are many popular notions in regard to the
tieetness of thought, how exa ggerated are the
terrors OF remorSeful memory that moraliSts
have invented for the method of dying And
we may reasonably discount also the stories
told by men saved from browning, cut down
before death by hanging, or reese Jed from sud
den and deadly peril from other causes. no
doubt man may think of great multitude
OF experience, good or bad, in a few minutes :
put that the thoughts and emotions of a long
lie may surge through the mind during the
seconds of aSphyxiatiOn are manifestly i'm
possible.
Admit that the speed of mental action is
abnormally rapid at such times, say twenty
I'VE hundred simple cognitionS minute, or
lJoWO an hour. If man We're an hour i'm
drowning, instead of a few nina es and all,
the time be given to mental review of life, he
would, il forty years old, have time to give ten
thoughts OF the Simplest character To each day
!hat ne lived. In other words mem Dry would
have time to review the experiences of at mO st
the hundredth part of one second out of each
days waking thOusands.-[ Scientific Amsri-
can.