The Irish standard., 1898-01-15

sonous secretions while they work. The
same is true of working brain cells as
OF working muscle cells. The more az
tive the brain the greater the amount of
poison which gets into the brain, tho
greater the amount of poison which gets
into the blood. communicating the nerves
and cells of other parts. This is
supposed to be why over work of the
brain makes us nervous and bodily i'll.
Nervousness is said to- be a character
tellectuaity in these busy days. When
fatlgued, the mind is found to send out
lessened force from it's nerve ccntcrs
to the muscles. One side of the brin
appears to boone fatigued sooner than
the other. This causes the head to
hang on one side, The arms when OK
tended horizontally are not of the sane
level, when an effort is made to place
them so.
Tests have been also made for tho
purpose Of locating the marks of facial
expression, which arc changed by men
tai pain and those which arc changed
by bodily pain. Mental pain Is usually
Indicated by the muscles of the fore
head, bodily pain by depression of the
angles OF the mouth
A series OF tests made by one OF The
specialists Of the board of education In
dictated that mental concentration I'M
rovcrishcs the blood. An elastic tube
placed around the chest registered Zach
expansion and each contraction on Il
cylinder of record paper. Subjects
were attached to the instrument while
thinking of nothing in particular and
aftcrward whilo concentrating their
minds upon somo problem or reading.
In almost every case concentration cuus-
ed the breathing to grow slower. Tho
bleed for the time being thus received
less oxygen and was therefore impovcr-
ished. Possibly this is reason why
students are apt to be thin bloodcl.
Another instrument: is used to meas
urc the actual raplAity with which the
brain can telegraph command to tho
muscles. The tired brain will, of course,
send more sluggish message than a
rested one. A cylinder holding record
paper rcvolvcs by cl0ckwori. and each
hundrcltll of an inch in tho revolution
hand. for example, is placed in contact
with Il little bellows. which, when
squeezed causes II point to make a vcr-
teal mark on the registering paper. The
subject is given a shock of electricity,
which Immediately sets the cylinder to
moving, and is told to press the boil
lows the instant ne fclls 1t. The mark
on tho paper indicates how far the cylin-
der rcvovcs after the shock Is given and
until the muscles OF the hand have &c
crived the signal to press the bellows.
Another instrument Is sort of cy-
clometcr, to be applied to tho brain. In
tests the rapidity with which a person
can think. A clockwOrl registering cv-
Under is attached to an automatic de-
common word, rs bird" for instance
The subject, rs soon as some Thought
is suggested to him by the word on
presses the thought, as by saying "llics,"
1or instance. Just as he says it the me-
chaniSm is stopped by the OPERATOR who
nftcrward measures how far the cyln-
der has gone and reaches tho distance
to time, as to hundrcdths Of seconds.
But how is tho nervous child to he
distinguished from the lazy one? In
VcStigatlOn result, in showing tla;.
many persons are really "horn tired"
as Il result OF nervous disease in their
parents, produced by mental Ovcrwurk.
Such children are apt to he the quickest
in perception and the most intellectual
generally. Yet they have no mental
endurance. Old fogy mlnts ana unclcs
call them lazy and their teachers say
they lack application. They are really
inValids, sometimes on the road to In
sanity Tho characteristics of the ncr-
volls type. as distinct from the lazy
type, are as follows, according to
specialist:
The typical nervous child is too tall
for his breadth. He sleeps badly, talks
and grinds his teeth in sleep, has head
aches, is irritable. though quick in mind
and atroctiOnatc Though his body and
limbs are cmnciatcd his head may be OF
excellent form, hts features good and
his complexion healthy. His face often
looks round in contrast with the re-
mhindcr of his physical make I'm. His
hands are shaky, especially the left.
He usually holds his head over toward
the right. lis spine has II "sway-bark"
appearance. His eyes move great
deal, unnecessarily, usually from side to
side, rather than up and down. He can
not hold his tongue still when he pro-
trHicS it. His fingers witch inv0lun-
tarily He is restless. The canine teeth
are usually ground at the points from
nervous gritting. On The other hand the
cut and out lazy boy is apt to be fat
and sleepy, without the nervous symp-
toms mentioned
Specialists who have conducted these