Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-10-09

dollars in experiments to discover and
apply the properties of matter. Prof.
Gates has a laboratory devoted to cS-
perimentlng upon and discovering the
properties Of the mind. He has. l am
told, an endowment which gives him
about $1,000 a month to be used In such
experiments. with this money he has
purchased the finest instruments
known to man.
He has invented others and he is
carrying on some of the queercst eN-
periments ever attempted by Il scien-
tihc investigator.
MAKING A DOGS BRAIN.
! was much interested in the story
of how he first came to the conclusion
that our brains could be added to and
built up. When he was boy he re-
allied that the mind was the most i'm
portant thing in the universe. At the
age of fourteen he says, he began TO
experiment upon himself. For two
wears he kept record Of all that he
saw felt or did. He had a book in
which he recorded four times each day
Just what the climatic and other con-
ditions about him We're. In another
column he put down his physical con-
dition, stating Just how he felt, mca-
surfing just how much he ate. and, in
short. all that he did that would affect
his physical state. In the third col
umn he recorded his mental cundi-
thong At the end OF two years he
went over the record and generall2ed
It. He found that under certain con-
ditions his brain was more active
than under others, that he could write
better at such times and that his in
Nentive faculties were more active.
After this he worked only under such
conditions, and found that he could
produce twelve times as good results
lauN
his work was getting better and bet
ter, and later on began Systematic
study OF brain development. one Of
his first experiments was as to the
building the brain of "A dog. Said he:
81 wanted to sec what effect mental
activity has upon the brain and it
struck me that If / could take GER
tain number Of puppies and keep them
from their birth in absolute darkness,
and at the same time take another set
which should be trained In seeing and
have plenty Of light, that upon com
pairing the brains OF the two, l could
tell whether the use OF the seeing
power had changed them. This | did
| took seven shepherd puppies and
kept them in IA room until they We're
nine months old. The room was COM
pletely dark. | had triple doors, so
that the mother could go in and out
without allowing the light to enter
the room. When the front door was
open, and the mother was let in, the
doors were closed behind and she was
allowed to remain there some min
utes. Then the second door was
opened and she was kept there a few
minutes, and then allowed to go into
the room where her children We're. I
kept the puppies there for nine months
without light and then killed them by
the use Of chOroform. | took out
their brains, eyes and spinal chords,
and put them aside for microscopic
and chemical examination. At the
same time | had another group OF
puppies. which l allowed to lead the
life of the ordinary dog, giving them
no special attention. l ChlOrotormod
them when they We're nine months old,
and preserved their brains for eNam-
| nation. In addition to these two I
had IA third group of the same kind
| of puppies which | put through a
course of training in seeing. ! had
| one of the rooms Of my laboratory
covered with squares Of metal, each
| square being insulated from the other.
To some of the squares | attached an
| electric battery and arranged them so
| that the moment "A dog touched one
of them he would receive n shock.
THESE squares had one color. The
| other squares which were not affected
| by the electricity, had another color.
| l soon taught the dogs to discriminate
| between the squares by the colors,
and in this way actually taught them
| to know colors. For Instance, / had
| one pan or pen, the bottom of which
-, was covered with tin painted white.
| Around this | ran a black border OF
| metal, which was connected with the
| battery. After a few days you could
not get the dogs to touch that border
| or anything black, hut you might lay
| white strip across the black and
1 they would walk over II. / also laugh;
them colors by feeding them, placing
the meat under pans of a certain coll
| or. scattered about among pans OF
other colors. All of the pans were
rubbed with meat first to prevent the
| dogs from picking out those with the
| meat under them by the sense OF smell,
| The dogs would so to the right col
ored pans every time. After while
1 changed the meats to different col
urcd pans on different mornings. The
| dogs soon learned to recognize the
! change. and there was one OF the dogs
| who would turn over all the pans UNI
| iii he came to the first one having
meat in II, and after that he would
turn over only pans of that color The
dogs, in fact. learned to surpass many
| of our artists in their discrimination
OF colors. They could distinguish
| seven shades of red and about eight
| of green. Well, at the end Of nine
months l killed this set of dogs, and
then compared the brains of the three
sets. l found that the dogs who had
| been kept in darkness had no brain
| coils in the seeing areas of thclr
brains. The dogs who had been "a
lowed to run about, had wcll-deNel-
! oped brain cells. just as you Will ma
In the ordinary dog Of that age But
| also found that my trained puppies
| had n much greater number Of sueh
! cells, and that their cells were more
| highly deYcloped, | found, IN short
that by educating the dogs | had adj
ded to their brains, | tried the same
| thing on other dogs as 20 hearing ana
also as to the training Of the muscles
by making the dogs produce ceruin
leg motions. and found that this pro-
duced similar results on the brain.
praCticed similar experiments ON mon
keys and rabbits as to Culors, ana
made a large number Of experiments
upon guinea pigs, running throuGll
several generations. to see the cHrt'
Of horedlty upon brain deNelopul,h.
The result is that I have no H"unI ~
that man can not only u'Ftl"p Wy
brains he has, but that he can "''u"l,
~ add to them and build up ne"
brains along the lines as ne ue7"e9
BUILDING THE BRAIN OF \
CHILD.
Have you evidence that any s". -!
work would really AFFECT inc D'"'' ~
n human belng?' ... ,,,,,,,
"Yes, / have tested It in many wa VIZ
| | have n baby. for instance, VINO WI