Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-16

| spinal column, a male chin on which
beard will not grow and excessive hair on
a female chin.
| Further tests are made for acute insanity
as distinct from mere degeneracy. The
alenist asks the prisoner to face a dark
| corner of his cell until the pupils of his
| eyes dilate. Then a shade is placed over
| the eyes until the subject has walked to the
window and faced the light Failure of the
pupils to contract at once is jotted down 8
sign of insanity, especially that of the
| epieptic class. In exhaustive states of in
| sanity the pupils remain dlated to marked
degree. But failure of the pupils TO re-
! spond to light is also common in normal
persons when exhausted by violent exer-
| else. Therefore the careful alienist makes
| this test after the prisoner has been at
| rest.
Dropping Weights on the Feet
By dropping weights otherwise produc
| ing blows upon certain tendons and care
fully noting the involuntary jerk. or ere
| nex produced another now popular test
for insanity is performed. If the jerk on
one side of the body is much greater than
| that upon the other symptom of insanity
| is jotted down. That the test may be uni
form the same weight must be used on the
| same tendon both sides and dropped
| from the same height. The knee jerk
| caused by a blow from the edge of the
| hand under the knee-cap is one of the best
known of these refiexes but others are pro-
| duced on the tendons of the feet, thighs,
| etc Continued trembling of the lips is re-
| garded as another external evidence of in
sanity.
More delicate still are the alenist's meas
urements of the prisoners organs of sense
j-of taste, smell, touch hearing, seeing.
T. 1nks to the thousands of tests of normal
| persons recorded by physiological phsy-
biologists he knows the average acuteness
of each normal sense organ. He proceeds
upon the basis of the recognized rule that
in the insane generally there is a bunting
| of sense, either on both sides or. notice
ably. on one side of the body. In mania.
however, there is sometimes abnormal
| acuteness of the senses. For testing the
acuteness Of touch the expert employs per-
haps several "esthesiometers, or feeling
| measures One of these. having little
| sliding piston-like rod at the bottom and
| glass-covered dial at the top, communicates
| a slight electric shock which the subject
| does not commence to feel until a certain
| amount of pressure is recorded by the dial,
If the criminal before feeling the current
| requires much more than the amount of
pressure required by the average man he is
| marked as blunt in this respect and the
| symptom favors insanity. A similar device
| through whose extremity is passed a cur
rent of water gradually rising in tempera-
ture measures his sensiblity to heat. while
a piston-like instrument applied to his
| temple measures the amount Of pressure
which has to be applied before he COM
mences to feel pain. Another delicate test
OF, the sense of touch is commonly made
| minute disks of pith, all of the same size.
but varying from one to twenty milligrams
in weight The deceiving differences In
heaviness are effected by the addition of
| bits of metal. Each Of the disks is sus-
pended by fine cocoon fiber attached to a
| small rod The twenty rods are stuck into
| holes in round block with pedestal. The
| alienist begins with the ughtest disk and
lets it touch the prisoners skin. while the
latters eyes are closed. If nothing Is felt
the next heavier pith ball is used, and SO
on until the least pressure is dscerned. By
the weight of the lightest disk felt the pris-
joner's sensitiveness is measured.
Acuteness of Nose Also Counts.
The sense of smell is also tested in the
course of this rigid examination. An i'm
lproved apparatus for this purpose is a stand
with two tubes projecting out and fitting
the nostrils. Each tube connects with a
| cylinder containing the same quantity Of
oil of wintergreen. The openings into the
cylinders are variable and at the beginning
of the test are so far closed that nothing
can be perceived, but as they are opened
more and more the subject at last an
nounces that he smells wintergreen and q
scale shows the degree to which the cylinder
exposed the oil. The two nostrils are thus
compared for acuteneSs.
The reader must not jump to the conclu-
sion that any One-nOr, in most cases, in
deed, any ten-of the symptoms of insanity
indicated by these tests would be conclu-
siVe. The alienist who knows his business
would simply give the prisoner a marking
under each test employed and finally COM
pute general average, some tests bearing
much greater relative weight than others
!Of course, there are many other tests whose
description space forbids, and, moreover, no
single alienist would probably employ all,
or nearly all, of those described.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.