New-York tribune., 1907-09-23
HOW MEN THINK.

The mere absence of his name from the New
York city directory and the medical directory
does not alternate the well earned fame of DR..
Joseph Simms. When the doctor tod the savan9
of Hartford that he was q scientist. brain spe-
cialist and psychologist from New York City he
spoke hguratlvely. When the wise men or
Hartford heard the doctors theory about the
brain they must have been willing to concede
that the great man could not literally call him
self citizen Of any one place, however pro-
gressive: for his genius was obviously so great
that the whole world, and the world alone. could
claim him as its own. The genius sums up in
startlingly vivid form the profoundest convic-
tions of his generation. Hence Dr.. Slmms
drives his car ia the .0G0,horsepower, 21-cylin-
der class, along with Homer, Dante, Milton,
Shakespeare and Darwin. The doctor gets this
rating because he has summed up in a few po-
etc words great truth about human thought
which many have deeply felt but none has
been able TO state clearly. While conversng
with some commonplace physicians who duly
accented the tradition OF their fathers about
the functions Of the human brain DR.. SilnmS
uttered his immortal words which rent the veil
of scientific superstition with one hard yank,
laying bare a quivering truth which nobody had
ever decently clothed in words You don't
need your brains for thinking at ALL the doctor
asserted. we really think with the whole
spiritual body. and the brains are only good
'for secretng heat and energy
There you are! Like every other great truth
which only genius could express, this one, too,
makes you say "Of course, everybody knows
that Only abnormal persons think with their
brains. Ordinary people think with their bodies,
usually with some particular part of the latter.
There are ladies and gentlemen whose lucubra-
tions are generated entirely IN their feet; the
.r,nf.. IL. ,trn+D hnSr los
and their reasoning. Sometimes such persons
are simply "daffy" on dancing, and again they
are just plain kic1ers, with opinions that are
nothing more than mental footwork. Other people
think with their stomachs; but this observation
has been made so often that we viii not dilate
upon it. Less frequently find citizens think
ing with their tongues; these organs are set run
nng and whatever they say becomes straight
way the intensest conviction of their owners.
Latin races are said TO think with their hands
and faces. while down in Cherry Hill and over
in "Hell's Kitchen philosophiZing is done chiefly
with fists At present there is a great Increase
in the number Of people who think with their
ears: these unhappy morrais have TO thougnts,
feelings or ambitions those given them by
hearsay Let anybody start wild story about
kdnanpers corrupt politics or the predatory
rich if he wishes TO discover some choice speci-
mems of the ear-thinking variety OF the genus
homo Closely allied 10 this sub-species is the
eye-ihinker. who has thought save those his
optic nerve picked up in book or periodical.
This is Il particularly hardy variety Of thinker.
iiourishng equally well in the richly cultivated
soil of libraries and colleges and in the arid
regions of ignorance.
DE-. Sinms's discovery. that the brain secretes
only heat and energy also rings Of tie obvious
and familiar But who has ever found the
age TO say that all the hot air. yaporzing and
gas which pollutes the intellectual atmosphere
everywhere was really produced by the brain:
So hedged about by tradition have we all been
that have coddled ourselves with the fiction
that radicals liars and wild theorists must be