The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-10-14
MEASURING MIND.
"A Wonderful Appliance by Which the
Amount Of Mental Action Nav he

a Wonderful Appliance by which the
Amount Of Mental Action Nav he
Indicated.
Prof. G. F. Barker delivered an adj
dress before the American Association
for the Advancement of Science. in
Boston, on Wednesday, as its retiring
president. His subject was the prob
lem of life In the course of his re-
marks he said:
IAN important fact concerning nerv-
Gus action is that it's amount NAV be
measured by the quantity ofblood con-
sumed in its performance. DR.. Mosso,
of Turin has devised an apparatus call
ed the plethysmograph-drawings of
which were exhibited at the London
apparatus exhibition of 1S76-designed
for measuring the volume Of an organ.
The forearm for example, being the Or
gan to be experimental on, is placed in
a cylinder of water and tightly inclosed.
A rubber tube connects the interior of
the cylinder with the recording apparat-
us. With the electric circuit by which
the stimulus was applied to produce
contraction were two keys, one Of
which was a dummy. It was noticed
that, after using the active key several
times, producing varying current
strengths, the curve sank as before
on pressing down the inactive key.
Since no real effect was produced, the
result was produced solely by the mag
| nation, blood passing from the body
to the brain in the act TO test further
the effect of mental action, DR.. Pagliani
whose arm was in the apparatus, was
requested to multiply 2G7 by s mental
ly, and to make Il sign when he had
finished. The recorded curve showed
very distinctly how much more blood
| the brain took to perform the opera
ton. Hence the Electromagnetic is
capable of measuring the relative
amount of mental power required by
different persons to work out the same
mental problem. Indeed, Mr.. Gaskel
suggests the use Of this instrument in
the examination room, to find out in
addition to the amount of knowledge a
man possesses, how much effort to pro-
duce any particular result of BRAIN
work. DR.. Mosso relates that while
the apparatus was set up in his room
in Turin, a CLASSICAL man came in to see
him. He looked very contemptuo11s]y
upon it and asked of what use it could
be, saying that it couldn't do anybody
any good. DR.. Mosso replied, ''Well
now, I can tell you whether you can
read Greek as easily as you can Latin
AS the classicist would not believe it,
his own arm was put into the apparatus
and he was given a Latin book to read.
A very slight sinking of the curve was
the result. The Latin book was taken
away and a Greek book given him.
This produced Immediately much
deeper curve. He had asserted before
that it was quite as easy for him to
read Greek as Latin, and that there was
no difficulty in doing either. DR..
Mosso, however was able to show him
that he was laboring under a delusion.
Again, this apparatus is 50 sensitive as
to be useful for asscertaining how much
a person is dreaming. When DR..
Paggliani went to sleep in the ap paratus
the resulting curve was very marked
indeed. He said afterward that he
had been in sound sleep and remem-
bered nothing Of what passed in the
room-that he had been absolutely I'M
conscious; and yet every little move
ment in the room such as the slamming
OF door, and the barking of a dog, and
even the knocking down of bit of
glass, were all marked on the curve.
Sometimes he moved his lips and gave
other evidences that he was dreaming;
they were all recorded on the curve,
the. amount of blood required for
dreaming diminishing that in the ex-
tremities. The emotions too left a
record. When only a student came
into the room, little or no effect appear
ed in the curve. But when Prof. Lud-
wig himself came in, the arteries in the
arm of the person in the apparatus
contracted quite as strongly as upon a
very decideded electrical stimulation"
Milwaukee Market.
MILWAUKEE, Oct. 7-Flour-Quiet and steady
Wheat-Opened steady, &c higher; closed firm.
No. !, hard, LOS: No. l, 81 No. 2, 945s; 945s
for seller October; 9516 for seller November; 952S
for seller December. No. 3, 81; No. i, 791z;re-
jected, nominal. Con-Quiet; No., 80 a. Oats
Weaker; No. 2, 29M. Rye-Fimer; No. ] S215.
Barley-Lower; No. 2, &c.
Chicago Market.
CHICAGO, Oct. 7.-Flour-In fair demand
market firm. Winters 4.50@0.75. Western
Spring s-Fair to choice 4.O0@5.75. Minnesota's
4.oo@6.25. Wheat-Ative, firm, higher and ir-
regular. No. 2 Red Winter, 95@954; No. 2
Chicago spring, 93H@94 for seller cash; 9411s
tor seller October IS bid for seller November. 90