The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-31
WORLD UPSIDE DOWN
CURIOUS SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS
MADE BY A PROFESSOR IN
CALIFORNIA $50
WORE MIRRORS THREE DAYS
Performance of DIR. StrattOn Would
Be RidicuIed Were 1t Not for the
Fact That He Is One of the AbIest
of the Scientific Men of the World
Martyr to Science Suffered some
Startling Sensations.

of the Scientific Men of the World
Martyr to Science Suffered Some
Startling Sensations.
Prof George M Stratton, Of the psy-
Geological department of the University
of California, Is conducting one of the
strangest experiments of modern times
The performance which he has been I'M
dergoing would be ridicuied were 1t not
for the fact he is one Of the ablest and
most learned men in the West. What
he has endured Is known only to him
self. He has been a martyr to science
Prof Stratton for three days stood with
one mirror adjusted above his head re-
fecting himself and the floor upon which
he stands and another mirror held
obliquely close upon his nose, the effect
of these combined reflections being to
make his body seem projected horizon
tally into space with his back toward the
floor to make him feel that he were walk
ing upon the wall Of the room like
fly.
This sounds like freak but DR.. Strait
ton was experimenting upon very I'M
pQrtant lines Of psychology, b.
year ago he developed proof that II
the retinal image was fixed upright in
the eye instead Of inverted, SO that the
whole outer world should seem turned
upside down to the beholder the mind
could accommodate itself to such a con-
dition and the person suffer no incon-
venience therefrom. In doing this, how
ever, he obscured one eye and fastened
lens upon the other which inverted
everything he looked upon. He persisted
in this painful experience for eight days
being blindfolded at night 10 while the
lenses were removed. At the end of the
period Of ordeal 1t was thought that his
eyesight was permanently injured but
rugged health and unusual bodily vigor
soon restored the disturbed organs and he
shortly set about other lines Of expert
mentatiOn.
THINGS HE LEARNED.
The results announced by~Dr Stratton
| as being achieved through his long test
| met with hot controversy in the scien-
tific magazines, but the discovery he
| made nevertheless Individually settled
| that one could so accommodate the brain
| to an upside down state of things that
| he could live, move and have his being,
| experiencing meanwhile no disturbance.
The latest experiments in which the
| of thought then evolved to striking, even
! startling conclusions. He now deter
! mined that a correspondence, point by
| point, is built up in our minds between
! touch and sight. ut is built up" he
| says, "associationally, and only by
! actual experience does a person learn
| that visual experience corresponds to any
| given tactual position" :;
In other words, one has to. learn rela-
tons and positions of things in space by
repeatedly seeing them in the same posi-
| lions. One born blind whose sight be-
| came suddenly restored could not, upon
looking at an object in front Of him,
seize it with certainty with his hands.
His grasp would fall to the right or to
the left.
But the professor goes further thar
this: If he concludes, by some alteration
of sight or mechanical interposition one
could be = constantly seeing his feet
sticking out at his elbows, and after hi:
| II ind became accommodated to that staff
of things some one should thrust pins
into his feet, the pain occasioned there.
| by would not seem to come from the
bottom Of his ankles, but from the joints
of his arms.
SAW HIS BODY IN AIR.
1t was with a view of proving this fact
| on the largest possible scale that the pro
AeSSol COHCeIVeu the luea OF getting his
| eyes to his whole body projected into the
air in horizontal position, so that all
| his movements and all movements Of
| parts Of his body should be most incon-
| gruous with the education and expert
| erces Of the past. BY this arrangement
| the floor would seem to be upright and
| he sticking to. 1t, with his feet momen-
| tarfly in danger of falling from it, Prof
| Stratton produced a mirror 2Ox24 inches
in size, and fixing its largest diameter
| to run forward and back, he adjusted this
upon supports fastened to his shoulders,