The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-05-03
PERSONAL AND PECULIAR.

The Navy Department will, of its own ac-
cord, make the Samoan king handsome
present. in recognition of his services to the
American men -of-war on the terrible 10th of
March. Congress will also be asked to make
an appropriation for presents to the Samoan
natives who so generously risked their lives.
Secretary Tracy's decision not to hold a
court of inquiry on either the captain of the
Nipsic is recommended, not only on the ground
OF justice, but of sound economy. Usually a
court OF inquiry is held if a ship so much as
touches bottom, but when it is plain case of
the warfare of the elements the formality is
dispensed with.
1t Is said that the wife of Fifth-avenue
clergyman in New York has purchased ten
pairs of riding boots in three years, at twenty
five dollars pair, and that she never wears
the same pair twice in the same day This
leads neighbor to remark that christianity
has made great strides since its establish
ment eighteen hundred and odd years ago
A correspondent describes the attention
with which General John B. Gordon, the ia
nous ex-Confederate, witnessed the naval
display in New York: Near BY stands a
stern-looking and scarred-faeed man. The
great scene is moving him. His face flushes
as the heavy detonations- of the war ships
and the cheering and music greets his ear,
and the unequaled spectacle pleases his eye
Superb Superb he says And moment
more he mutters, "Oh, this is glorious 20
just then the sun bursts forth, the heavy
diapason of the cannonade increases, SEEM
ingly, in force, and under the Irresistible
grandeur of the occasion he suddenly turns
TO his friends and exclaims, 81 thank God |
am an American citizen"
One of the interesting pecularities of the
numerous ruins in northwestern chihuahua
in Mexico that indicates once dense popu-
lation living off the soil is in the way that
most Of themimet their fate In some of the
earthquakes. When ruined house is dug
into, all the skeletons of its occupants are
| found in what might be termed the COM
bined kitchen and dining-room-for these
| two rooms were in one-and always near a
| fireplace. The p0stures of these skeletons
are as various as 1t is possible for the human
| stretched out sometimes with their locked
hands over their heads, on their sides. and
| again with their children in their arms, no
| two being alike, at least in the same house, or
series of houses where they were united into
| pueblo.
The ''pigs in the clover" puzzleIhad a curl
GUS scientific origin. A student of physio-
logical psychology named Martenfeldt, while
making researches in some determinations OF
the sensitiveness of the taetile sense under
the direction of Helmholtz, the great German
| investigator. found:that the ability to balance
| marble on perfectly smooth piece of plate
1 glass depended upon the delcacy of what is
known as the reaction of time that is, de-
ponds upon the quickness of the nerve cur
rent in receiving the impression that the
marble will roll sending the impression to
the controlling organs in the cerebellum that
contract or relax the muscles of the arm, and
the degree OF responsiveness in ethe nervous
end organs of the fingers which hold the
piece of glass; Martenfeldt found that If he
placed the marble in the centre of the plate
and marked four or five spots on the edges
of the plate, and then asked the subject with
which he experimental to tip the plate so
| that the marble would run across particular
| spot, considerable time elapsed before the
| subject could determine no " to tip the plate
to make the marble roll as required. When
Martenfeldt complicated the apparatus and
| placed rings of pasteboard about the centre
| of the plate, with holes for the marble to run
through. the average result of his expert
ments gave remarkable psychological law
| This was that reaction time" depended up.
| on the size of the circles of pasteb0ard which
| made an impression upon the field of vision
| Of the retina, and was in direct proportion to
| the diameter of the circles expressed In mil
| limetres. Martenfeldts experiments devel-
| oped the fact that effects of practice and at
| tention diminished the psycho-physical reac-
| tion-time and fatigue increases it. The APP
| paratus used by Martehfeldt got on the mar.
| ket as puzzle In a curious way. Martenfeldt
| sent one of his plates to an American friend,
| DR.. Hermann Meyer of Philadelphia, and at
| the doctors house a quick-witted business
| man, of Waverly, N. Y, saw it, recognized
| how taking puzzle 1t would make il simpli-
| fed, took out patent in February, and put il
| on the market Immediately, with great sue
| cess.