The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-29
From the Chicago Tribune


Remember Words.
From the Chicago Tribune.
If Pope was correct IN his statement
that 1.-THE proper study OF mankind IS
man. the Columbian exposition, through
its department of ethnology is doing an
eminently correct work in the gallery at
the north end of the anthropological
building, and one which, when the re-
suits are figured out, will go a long way
toward proving the Emersoniau assertion
that man is physically as well as meta
physically thing of shreds and patches,
borrowed unequally from good and bad
ancestors, and misfit from the start"
This branch of the department Of
ethnOlogy occupies the entire north end
of the gallery of the building. The work
referred to is prosecuted in the psycholo-
gical laboratory under the direction OF
Prof. Joseph Jastrow OF the university OF
Wisconsin
The psychological apparatuses is very
complete, and has been contributed by
the best known and equipped universe
ties in the world, among those in this
country being Johns Hopkins, Cornell,
Brown, Yale, Harvard, Clark, Columbia
and Pennsylvania. Among the foreign
universities from which Prof Jastr0w
has received either apparatus or photo
graphs showing the arrangement and
furnishing of laboratories are those at
Bonn, Toxic, Rome and Prague.
The science has very intimate and prac-
teal relations 10 education, medicine and
the general guidance Of thought and &C
ton. In the working laboratory at the
fair such tests and experiments as are
most in line with modern anthropometry
have received special attention. The
tests made by Prof Jastrowand his assist
ants cover wide range of mental and
physical conditions.
'Our purpose" explained the professor
to a reporter, lis to get a series of nor
mails Of sense capacities, etc, by which
we can determine mans position as
compared with that of his human fellows.
BY this means we can show the order OF
development, and on a basis of this aver
age determine questions Of growth and
divergence from the normal"
The number of people who apply at the
laboratory and offer themselves as sub
jects for test, depositing therefor nomi-
nal fee, because the department of ethnol-
ogy does not care to conduct the expert
ment at too great loss, proves that
very considerable percentage Of man
kind is anxious to know something about
itself.
The blank which the applicant for a
test is required to fill out provides in its
first group for data of a personal charac-
ter, all of which has a direct bearing on
the value of the final deductions.
The basic information thus required in
cludes the applicants age in years and
months, his birth place and also that Of
his father and mother; his general health,
past and present Ahis occupation. as well
as that of his father, the educational in
stitution which the applicant is now at
tending, or at which he completed his
studies, and whether he is his mothers
first, second, third, fourth or subsequent
child. These questions are all supposed
to have a bearing on the subject at issue.
The various tests are divided into five
different groups, and when man has
gone through all of them there Is very
little he does not know about himself as
to his judgment in the matter of lengths,
weights and surfaces, accuracy and
equality of movement, accuracy of aim,
sight, memory, sensitiveness to pain, and,
in fact, his Quickness of perception in a
dozen different ways.
The first test is by the application of a
kinesimeter, an instrument for determin-
ing the sense of movement upon the skin.
With this the smallest perceptible differ
ence of movement may be determined
Another instrument measures the time
necessary for impressions to announce
themselves. while the compass esuhesi-
ometer determines the distance at which
the two points on the kinesmeter feel as
one.
The pressure is made on the inner sur
face of the index finger, because the
sense of touch is more highly developed
at this point than elsewhere on the
body The normal distance at which diff
ferences are noticed is one-twelfth of an
inch
On the back of the neck, for instance,
the points must be two inches apart be-
fore it can be told whether one or two
points are applied.
The next is a pressure test to determine
sensibility to pain, the lower limit being
the one desired. Here the fore6nger is
placed in the tube to keep it immovable
and pressure applied by means Of a spring.
In men the normal is Sc Kilograms, or
about fourteen pounds, and in women 5.2
kilograms, or eleven pounds.
The subject is next tested by being re-
quired to arrange five small boxes in reg
uIar order according TO their weight.
These boxes are in two series--coarse and
fine, ratio Of the first being lis and the
latter 100 The percentage of persons
making no errors in the lifting contest is
IS. The touch is further tested by pass
sing the finger over small coils of wire of
varying size.
Another test determines the quality of
movements, On a strip of white paper
10 inches long the subject is asked to
make five dots equidistant. In this equal
ity of movement test the average deyia-
ton is 1914 per cent.
Accuracy of aim is tested by attempt
ing to strike a designated spot with a
lead pencil, the point of which is OBJ
scured by disk two inches in diameter
In this test the normal average of correct
ness is As.
One of the optical tests in the repro
duction Of lengths. The Subject" is
shown separately three blocks on which
there are lines of different lengths After
looking at each block he undertakes to
reproduce the line on a paper before him
In the reproduction Of the short line
the normal average is 25.6, two-thirds Of
those tested falling between 225 and
295. The normal average for the middle
length is 49.7, and for the long line 1872
The lines are afterwards reproduced
from memory, the normal average on this
test being on the short line 272, on the
middle line 50.4, and on the long line 1911
Accuracy Of movement under the guild
ance OF the eye is also included in this
test. A sheet of white paper about IA
inches square is provided. The center Of
the paper is indicated and exactly oppo-
site the middle point on the edges of the
sheet are four small crosses. The effort
in this test is % draw a straight line from
the center Of the sheet 20 the designated
point on the circumference.
Rapidly Of movement and right and
left handelness are determined by "a ma
chine attached 10 the wall The appa-
ratus d. simply "a plate Of ebony inches