The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-08-25
READER, ARE YOU CRAZY !?
TRY THESE TESTS AND SEE IF
YOUR NERVES ARE OFF.
Woman Couldn't Touch Nose With
Finger Tip After Closing Eyes,
and Was Sent to Asylum.

and Was Sent to Asylum.
Are you sure that you are perfect
ly sane? Are you sure you possess
the proper mental poise and that
nately? 1t seems a foolish question
to ask, doesn't it? But thosands of
people in New York took occasion to
prove their sanity the other day by
simple test used by medical men.
They tried it in their homes, their
Offices, in the streets, on railroad
trains, in elevated and surface cars.
A daily paper told of a New York
city magistrate who had applied the
simple test to a woman, asking her
to close her eyes and strike the point
of her nose with the tip OF her in
dex finger She failed to accomplish
the trick, and was committed to the
psychopathic ward in Bellevue Hos
pital for examination by physicians
into her mental condition.
After reading the account every
body tried it. 1t is a peculiar phase
of the curious test that every one
who hears of it is constrained to
try it.
But if you accomplish the nose and
finger test and are cocksure of your
physical and mental fitness here are
few other stunts" simple tests
used by medical men, for you to try:
Close your eyes and make a quick
grab for the lobe of your left ear
with your right nand. Can you
seize tor did you clutch your hair,
pinch your cheek, or miss entirely!
Better cut out the smokes and the
drinks and tune up.
Stand with your heels and great
toes tight together and then close
your eyes. Can you stand up a min
ute-or do you feel dizzy or are you
forced to open your eyes to keep
from falling? That's bad-you'd
better take a good stiff walk every
morning.
Stand with your feet together and
then raise one foot. Can you stand
that way for half a minute with
your eyes closed? Ii you can't you
aren't in fit condition, and your
nerves are frayed out. Take a vaca-
ton and Cune up.
Close your eyes, extend your arms
from the sides, and try to bring the
tips of your index fingers together in
front of you. Sounds easy, doesn't
it? Well, try it quickly half a dozen
times and see how many times you
miss. You'll not be so confident of
yourself, perhaps.
Now try little vocal exercise
Just sentence, Round and round
the rugged rock the ragged rascal
ran" Look at it and then repeat
it quickly-run right through it as
if it were a favorite bit of verse.
Or try tAis one: How much wood
could a woOdchuck chuck if a wood
chuck could chuck wood" Or that
old familiar one, Peter Piper picked
a peck of picked peppers; a peck of
picked peppers Peter Piper licked"
Then you might try to say three
times: six long, slim, slick, slender
saplings."
If you succeed in that try The
rat ran over the roof with a piece
of red raw liver"
Can you do them without stumb-
ling and suffering? If you can't the
muscles of your tongue are not re-
spending to your brain impulses as
they should. Talk to your wife more
at breakfast time. TIN be good for
both of you
These simple tests are used by
medical men to test the muscular
coordination, said DR.. o. c. Will
hite, superintendent of the Dunning
institution for the insane They are
not necessarily used to determine
subjects sanity, though sometimes
they are indications of mental
trouble. The tests sometimes show
symptoms of general paralysis of the
brain, Familiarity known as brain
storm. But chiefly they are used to
show the condition of the nervous
system. In an insane person muscu-
lar coordination usually is poor, and
they cannot go through the tests,
simple as they seem"