Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-05-26
WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 80 lS9
uNUsED MENTAL POWER.

DIR George M. Kellogg, who VIII be
pleasantly remembered as a former
resid ent OF Las Vegas, and who CLAIMS
70 have discovered that most people
are only half as brighta as nature allows
them to be, has his theory explained 10
a recent issue of the Globe Democrat
by John Elfreth Watkins, DR., OF
which the following is an extract:
Explaining his theory to yoor corre-
spondent, Dr.. kellogg said that the BRAIN
is q double organ, like the eyes. ears
hands, etc. In other words, we really
have two brains, just as a locomotive has
two cylinders. 1t is known thatthe great
er number of nerves leading from each
half of the brain to the half OF the body
which they govern, cross before connect
ing with the body. To understand this
properly, suppose the brain to be two cells
Of a battery and the nerves OF the body to
be two distinct systems of electric wires.
About nine-tenths Of the wires emanatlng
from the left cell connect with the right
side of the body and about the same pro-
portion coming from the right cell govern
che wires on the left side OF the body.
About a tenth of the nerves coming from
each side of the brain, however, connect
directly with the corresponding side OF the
body.
The body ia built of paired limbs, paired
muscles, paired nerves, and paired organs.
These parts oa one side are like their du-
plicates on the other in structure, function
aud 10 form, the only exception being That
they are reveIsals of each other. All man.
mails are mad up of such paired parts. In
man alone, DR.. Kellogg says. is there a dlr-
ference in the strength, dexterity and USE
fitness of the opposite muscles, nerves or
organs. This mi -~sidedness in man he be-
lieves to be neither n atural nor necessary.
1t is simply the result Of habit. Thus, al
most all men have come to use the right
side of their bodies in preference TO the
left. The left side Of the brain has thus
been made predominant, since, as before
said, the left brain controls the right half
of the body. In the DOCTORS beiieI IL Is
possible and probable that the left hemi-
sphere of the average mans brain con-
trolls the whole OF his body. the muscles
and organs of the left side OF the body be-
ing governed by the small number OF
direct nerves going straight down from
the left brain. The brain not only controls
the movements of the body, but when the
BODY makes a motion it leaves a record or
a change of development in the brain. If
the nerves running to one half of the brain
are not used in childhood they soon be-
come useless and do not volunteer to act.
In other words, the average man might be
compared to a disabled locomotive run
nine. lone side - that is to say, governed
by only one cylinder. But, unlike the one
cylinder, the one side Of the brain which
does the greater part of the work becomes
more and more developed and more and
more anxious to do all of the work. After
the habit is formed it probably does all of
the work. Ia the Doctors opinion it there
fore follows that were both sides of the
body trained exactly alike the two brains
would act together just as do the two eyes.
We can switch off either eye and use the
ether when we want to. What a blessing
it would be if we could use one brain OF a
time, when the other happens to get tired !
In DIR. Kellog's opinion, we ought to be
able to do this. -