The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-11-20
DECLARES POETRY
AFFECTS THE HEART
Remarkable Tests Are Being
Made by Scientists AT Califor-
MIA University.
RECORD READERS PULSES.
Experimental Thinks That a Beat
Means q Stress and Each
Line the Time Between
Breathing.
REPUBLIC sPECTAI.

IsEf Ibi.lt sFEAlAh
Berkeley, Cal. Nov. IA remarkable
series of experiments TO determine the re-
lation OF poetry to human organism is be-
ing conducted in the psychology depart
nert OF the University OF California by
Professor James Main Dixon AMI Doctor
". 6. Wrinch. These experiments. begun
some time ago. are in a field heretofore
uaexplored by psychologists. They are OF
n delicate nature. and the University OF
Berkeley is one Of the few Institutions fl
the United States which possess apparatus
sensitive enough TO record the results of
the work.
Professor Dixon has already discovered
an emotional curve in poems like Long
fellows The Bridge" Experiments are
now being conducted 10 discover a law of
relation between stress in poetry and the
beat Of the human heart and OF the re-
lation between the lines of poetry and the
respiration. \ large number OF tests have
been made. and some provisional. couc;u-
sion5 have been reached. but before the
law is determined Professor Dixon thinks
it Will be necessary TO record the singing
OF the Doxology or some other song b. a
whole congregation.
In obtaining records 10 be used In drav-
ing his general conclusion Professor Dixon
and Doctor Wriuch use an exceedingly
complicated machine that records the
pulse beat Of she person reciting the poet
~. the stress. the number OF lines. the
resp!rations and the time taken. All these
results can be preserved.
Professor Dixon who IS q noted En6Iish
scholar and Is here doing research work,
VII present a thesis on his work for a
taken by scholars IN the outcome OF hfs
researches. and he lectured the other even
lng before the Pathological Club. giving
the experiments. Professor Dixon said:
The work we are doing now deals With
the expansion and contraction of lines Of
poetry, according to the subject matter.
whether it Is happy or sad. An emotional
curve has been discovered in poems Ike
Browning's 'Abt NoS-er.'
Perhaps the most remarkable manffes-
tation OF the Law discovered was found in
Tennyson's May Queen II was shown
that the three divisions into which the
poem Is divided vary in q decided manner.
the first giving a mosd Of heightened
happiness. uses II Da- cent more syiabIei
than the second. which is in 2 mood OF de-
preston. The third division Is in q mood
o. resignation or sorrow and uses three
per cent less syliables than the second"
a further examination to find q norm FOR
ali poetry-that is, why some lines should
have eight syilables and others fifteen.
and why tho lines with fifteen shoulG
S-So% 40 NAo ~ IA q Nt@l-d-E2S
been undertaken.
1t is Professor Dixon's purpose to deter
mine what a line of poetry is psychology
cally. Experiments with the pulse and
throat seem TO show that 4 tetrameter
verse OF the Doxology gives this norm for
every pulse means a stress and every line
means the time between respiration.
An experiment with the Rock @.
Ages" comes out regularly sixteen pulse
beats and sixteen stresses; four respira-
ticns and four liLes.
Before he IS finished Professor Dixon in
tends to record the singing OF a whole con-
gregstion on a photographic record and
ses If the Law holds for great audiences
as well as for individuals.
BY these experiments Professor Dixon
intends to draw sharply the line between
poetry and pT3ze. At present II is almost
impossible to tell the difference between
poetry and prose. II poetry is a direct ap-
peal to organism it has a direct connection