Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-29
PLANET Discovery
CALLED ACCIDENT.
Brown of Yale Says Truth of
LoWeIl'S Prediction Was
Coincidence.
Continued From First Page.)

tect the orbital motion Of the earth in
relation to the supposedly fixed ether,
has been repeated many times and al
ways with negative result. 1t Is known
that the earth moves around the sun
at a speed Of 80 kilometers a second.
This cannot be shown with the inter.
ferometer, measuring the speed Of light
through the ether in the direction Of
the motion Of the earth and at right
angles to it. 1t was upon the original
negative result that the theory OF rela-
tivity was based.
The one exception, he said, was that
Of Prof. Dayton @. Miller Of Cleveland
who has found difference OF time
which would account for motion at the
rate Of 10 kilometers q second. Miller.
| he said, has not claimed that this Is
the sun, but to the constant velocity
Of 200 kilometers q second with which
sun and earth together are moving
| through space. In some unexplained
way, he said, the 200 kilometers Is as
suned to produce only the effect OF 10
kilometers.
But, he declared, nobody else has been
able to obtain even this slight positive
effect. The most delicate possible APP
paratus at the Mount Wilson observa-
tory has shown no effect. other than
can be accounted for by obServational
error, in 10000 observations. Just as
| delicate apparatus constructed on an
other principle at the California Insb-
| tute of Technology also has given only
| NEGATIVE results. This mechanism Is so
delicate that an ether drift Of even 10
kilometers second would give an effect
10 times greater than the least observ-
able value.
Accepting Miller's results in good
faith, he indicated that they must be
due to some factor of error which can
not now be deteced since just as care
full experiments many times repeated
disagree with them.
Explains Attack on validity.
The second attack on the theory of
RELATIVELY, DR.. st. John said, concerned
the validity of the observations OF the
bending light from star when 1t comes
within the gravitational field of the sun.
This never had been observed before
Einstein predicted it as inevitable If the
RELATIVELY theory was true. At the next
eclipse It was found to take place. But,
DR.. st. John said, some questioned
whether astronomers actually saw the
starlight bend as it passed the sun and
held that the apparent bending might
take place as the light entered the at
mosphere of tho earth. II this were
true, it would have an effect on the
diameter of the moons image as 1t COW
ered the face of the sun during q total
eclipse. Observations have shown that
nothing of the kind takes place.
Another postulate of the theory OF
RELATIVELY Is the shifting OF infra-red
lines in the spectrum of the sun. This
takes place, but not in quite the amount
calculated by relatively. 1t has been
held that the shifting is due only 10
conditions In the unstable outer layers
of the sun. But the same erect mas
been better observed, DR.. st. John said,
in the spectrum Of the strange compan-
ion star Of Sirius, which is IS per cent
as heavy as the sun, but only 8 per cent
as large, which makes 1t about $4,000
times heavier than the same mass OF
water. Here the shift would not be az
fected by the conditions In the stars
atmosphere. This accumulation OF ex-
perimental evidence, he said, seems to
qualify relatively, weird as are its con-
illusions, as one OF the ordinary Work
ing tools OF astronomy:
Now science is seeking the "appa-
ratus of the personality Is a whole"
DR.. Herrick Speaks.
IT'S the mysterious something" re-
sponsible for individuals acting as they
do. The quest was outlined to the
academy by DR.. G. Judson Herrick Of
the University Of Chicago. He insisted
that the behaviorist psychologists ex-
PLANTATION Of human and animal actions
as accidentally combined aggregations
of rehexes Is not tenable in the light Of
recent experimental evidence:
Take, for example, the knee jerk,
DR.. Herrick said. Il is independent
Of the win OF the individual Every
doctor taps the knees Of patients to
find out whether they are crazy. The
tap on the tendon sets UP q nerve
current. 1t moves alone one nerve
fiber to the spinal column, where 1t
forms q junction with another nerve,
which carries it back to the knee
Jerk"
This IL q reflex action, one Of the
simplest Of all, because only two nerves
are traversed between stimulus and re-
suit. But the behaviorist extremists
hold that all behavior works in the
same way-except that thousands OF
nerves may be involved in single
conscious action, compared with two
for the knee jerk. Once a stimulus
has passed over q network of nerve
fbers the direction 1t takes being acci-
dental, the same stimulus tends to fol:
low the same pathway again, ana
habits, conditioned responses and com.
plex instincts" are built up. There
Is no room left for q directing force.
Left with Specific Jobs.
But, Or. Herrick said, there is in
creasing evidence that local reflexes are
not the elements out OF which more
complicated behavior Is built up, but
are themselves products OF o general
pattern which exists, but not as 10
Called function, In the cortex Of the
brain. The personality Of the individual,
or characteristic way Of reacting to
stimuli, he said, exists as a constantly
changing whole and not a sum total OF
independent parts.
The organism -as-a-whole" creates
the refiexes and then leaves them with
their specific jobs. Sometimes 1t pro-
duces specific nerve centerS for them,
like the sight and hearing centerS IN
the brain or the breathing center at the
top Of the spinal cord upon which life
depends. But the organism as whole
seems to have no specific center for tt
self, but is diffused through the u1idif-
ferentiated nerve tissue.
This" said DR.. Herrick, "is the par
emit tissue from which the mechanisms
of all higher nervous functions are diff
learning, memory and intelligence. This
apparatus Of the personality as whole
has location in space, but the pattern
Of this localization is radically different
| from that Of specific reflexes and the
pattern Of performance is different"
Dr. Herrick believes that eventually
the workings Of the apparatus Of the
personality as O whole can be explained
on q mechanistic basis, rather than as
the result Of spiritual manipulation
from outside, but It will be far more
complicated than the personality mech
anisn Of the behaviorists. Certain po-
tentialities, he said, must exist In the
nervous tissue In the beginning. These
are acted upon by the stimulation Of
| environment.