The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-26

eventually to differentiate sounds tastes
and smells, and even to associate ideas
as sound with color. The taste sense
is cultivated by obliging the guinea pig
70 Dartake many times a day of food
naVored in great variety of ways. and
water likewise. At length IL learns to
pick and choose with much accuracy of
discrimination, and in the course of gen
erations its descendants become regular
epicures, their brains exhibiting great
c0mpleNity OF structure In those parts of
the cortex which are known to represent
the physical basis of the sense of taste
Other methods are employed for rulti-
waiting the sense of smell In this direr-
tlon a beginning is made by teaching the
gulnea-pig that when its nostrils dfstin-
guish a particular kind of scent. il had
Detter run or 1t will be whipped. Prof
Gates's experiments have proved that
lower animals distinguish many kinds of
smells with which human beings are NOT
acquainted. He has demonstrated also
that as has long been suspected. some of
them at all events can hear sounds which
are silent to the human ear. For educat-
ing the ear OF the guinea-pig. Prof. Gates
has an instrument of which an essential
part is series of electrical tuning forks
These produce all pitches Of sound up
10 ana away beyond the limit of human
ability. The guinea-pg is taught that
when the instrument sings it must run.
or II Will he whipped. Il beyond a GER
tain note the trained guinea-pig fails to
respond by running, obviously the hearing
limit OF the animal has been reached and
passed Prof: Gates has succeeded in
plSs several octaves, astually extending
their range of hearing that much
DOGS and cats, of course are naturally
more Intelligent than guinea-pigs. Prof
Gates has taught them to distinguish mu-
steal chords actually. In response to a
certain chord Fido would run down
stairs with the expectation of getting
something TO eat, while another harmo-
NOUS combination of notes would induce
Tabby TO seek food in a closet upstairs
Cats are harder to train than dogs. be-
70 =
but they seem to be equally intelligent
Monkeys are more satisfactory than any
other animals; they are more easily train
ed, and IT takes less effort and less time
to produce in them given amount of ar
uhclat brain structure For. be it under
stood, the purpose of all this work. which
requires an immense amount of labor. is
not to improve the intelligence of lower
animals, but to discover the relations be
tween mental functions and physical brain
structures. The brains of lower animals
are more or less like those of human be-
ings. Respecting the latter psychologists
already know something about the areas
OF the cortex which are responsible for
certain sorts of perceptions But this
knowledge does not amount to much and
Prof. Gates is trying to develop it,
His experiments show that when a GER
tain sort of mental activity has been en-
couraged through several generations
producing new brain structures, the i'm
proved development is transmitted to the
offspring. 1t is then practicable to sub
Ject the brain to microscopical eXamina-
ton, with view to determining with ac-
curacy the physical results accomplished
by the education of the mind during life
This is a new method of biological study
the purpose of which is to determine
what mind really is. incidentally it has
been found that dog trained from birth
in the manner described is able TO dis
tinguiSh fifteen different shades of any
color, except purple and red. As to red
and purple, it would appear that the
canine race is hopelessly color-b blind
From all the data obtained the impor-
tant inference is that what is accom-
plished with puppies and cats can be
done with human beings. Just as the
brain of the young dog is developed. so
a childs mind may be built up People
thing purely spiritual In truth, it is a
piece of physical mechanism-as much so
as a sewing machine or printing press
Like any other machine, it may be built
up. Beginning in infancy, it may be put
together bit by bit
Prof. Gates experiments have not been
restricted to the higher animals. What is
true of a man or of a guinea pig is in
a sense true of the most primitive liv-
ing organism-a single cell, vegetable or
animal man is merely an assemblage
of cells. The researches carried on at
the new College of Mind Art will have
much to do with the study of the lowest
forms of life-such as infusOria, for ex-
ample. If you Will take a little bit of
dried grass and soak it for a few hours
in water, thereupon examining the infu-
sion under a microscope, you will find
isms, which are in truth animals. They
actually exhibit will power in their move
ments; that much is unmistakable. They
are in fact, sentient beings, though of a
very low order. Creatures of this kind
are called infusoria. 1t is believed that
we, ourselves, are descended from an
ancestry not more exalted.
In the College of the Mind Art. infu-
soria will be bred in tanks and exposed to
certain conditions which will tend to a
survival of the fttest. This will be ac-
complished by exposing them to influences
unfayorable to the survival of the ma
jority. For example, heat and electricity
will be used The infusorians will be ex-
posed to a current of electricity which
will destroy the great majority Of them
so that only the strongest will survive
The few that remain will be employed to
propagate others, and the latter genera
ton will be subjected TO similar conditions
of test This will be continued through
many generations until specimens are
secured that exhibit an extraordinary re-
sistance to electricity These will be ex-
amined under the microscope in order to
determine how their structure differs from
ordinary infusoria This study of cell life
leads to a knowledge of the localization
of thinking I'm the cell itself. For every
living cell may be said TO have a mind of
its own. Even an infusorian feels, and
feeling is a mental function. These cells
are the units of which man and other an
imals are made. They possess the same
fundamental activities which are found
in human beings.