The Washington times., 1928-12-29
ANTHR(|P Old
MADE Us
ABLE: TO
LAUGH
By JAMES 1. KILGALLEN

NEW YORK, Dec. 20 G.N.S.).--
Humanity,s debt to the ape the
sense of humor OF Vassar girl
students, the antics of twin stars
millions Of miles away and the part
science can play in peace and war
these were few Of the wide va
riety of subjects discussed today be-
fore 5000 learned men and women
attending a score of inter-sectional
meetings of the American Associa-
ton f.. the Advancement Of Science.
Prof. William *. Gregory, Of
Columbia University and American
Museum OF Natural History. talked
entertainingly about mans debt to.
his 'tinarticulate forbears the
apes. gorilIas and chimpanzees. He
said man derives his hands and
feet from apes. ''our nearest anthro-
poid pregenitors. Hands and feet
were primarily used by the apes
for climbing, he asserted.
We Can Smile
Man. he pointed out. has an
erect posture-a condition traceable
to the climbing animals, whose
bodies were of a vertical rather
than a horizontal posture in con-
trast to the position assumed by
deer. dogs, horses and other
animals of a lower order Then.
too, we are indebted to our anthro-
poid progenitors for being able to
live in variable temperatures and
''for our mobile face" Apes. like
us. can smile. it seems, while
other animals wear "an 1nflexlDle
mask" A mouse or rat, Tor
instance. cannot smile or laugh.
Scientists. at another OF the
score or more meetings, listened
with rapt attention to discussion
of t.The Sense OF Hunor of 100
,Vassar Students" Miss Polyzenie
neutrality-suspicious., of Columbia Uni
versity, who made a study, said
that the vassar girls sense Of
hunor is most highly developed in
situations which involve their own
superiority. They get the least
number of laughs out of nonsense
and incongruous ideas, she revealed.
Not q Giggle
Miss Kambouropoulous reported
to the American Psychological So
ciety section of the convention that
the Vassar girls kept record for
a period of one week of the number
of times they laughed at series
of over 1000 situations embodying
various types of humor.
In situations which embodied the
idea of personal superiority of the
student laughs were obtained in 65
per cent of the situations. Laughs
were obtained in So per cent of the
cases embodying the idea of the IN
feriority or predicament OF another
person. Incongruous situations drew
a laugh rating of Is per cent.
Proposing placing another person
in an incongruous position drew an
IL per cent record. Just plain non
sense and incongruous situations got
only 5 per cent laughs. That the
Vassar girl is not a giggler was lndl-
Gated by the fact that laughs with
out reason" registered only trltle
over per cent.
Girls of the "introvert type" kept
the longest record of laughs; those
of ''extrovert type" the shortest
The lower the degree of intelligence
the greater number of times the girls
laughed without humorous cause.
Two stars Like One
Prof. Raymond S. Dugan, OF
Princeton University, told astrono-
mers at another meeting of his OBJ
servation over a period of % years
of Artpersei, one of the faint stars
in the constellation of Perseus.
1.-THE brightness of this star" said
Prof. Dugan, varies in such a way
as to make it quite certain that
there are two stars, far enough away
to be seen as a single star, revolving
about their common center OF graV-
ity, like the earth and the moon.
"One star is eight times as bright
as the other. When the dark star
eclipses the bright one, the light
grows very faint; when the bright
star gets in front of the dark one
there is only a slight loss in bright
ness.
In 1907 the two stars were ap-
parently travelling round their orbits
in 20 hours % minutes and 1908
seconds. During the next ten years
they gradually speeded up until by
1917 they were going round in 20
hours % minutes and 1923 seconds,
and they had held this speed to the
present time"
Naval Suggestion
The suggestion that scientists in
various fields be organized In A
Naval Research Reserve" as a pre-
paredness measure was made in a
paper prepared by Capt. c. S. Nc
Dowell, of the United States Navy
and read today by Comdr. Miles G.
Libbey. In it Captain Mcdowell
said:
"Desire for world peace is in the
minds and hearts of all intelligent
people, but there are certain Amer
lean ideals which we must guard.
An adequate, efficient Navy 10 our
best guarantee of peace and our
first line of defense in case the peo-
DIe decree war,