Evening star., 1932-09-04
SOLDIERS BRAIN
W|LLED TO SCIENCE
Army Miracle Man Makes
Bequest to CornelI-IIIus.
trates His Gifts.

~ otVO ITO 0IIkos
Pvt william w. Lord, an auditor q
Post Exchange Company Headquarters
1900 C street northwest, has arranged
to give his brain to science. He ha.
made a will bequeathing that mos
vital portion of his anatomy to the Bur
g. Wilder Brain Collection, Cornell
University, Ithaca, N. Y.
Lord Is 81 years Of age and Is in ex.
cellent health, so the university may
have to wait long time for its share oi
his estate.
A native Of watertown, N. Y, Lore
had an average education at the hand:
of his parents, both of whom had beer
school teachers, at high school and al
business college. He joined the Army
three years and six months ago ant
attended the Service Finance School
Such training obviously might have
made him q competent auditor. but
1t could not have made him the wizard
tices a dozen different mental processes
simultaneously, as he did yesterday for
the entertainment Of group Of visitors
to his office.
Interprets Maze Of Words.
Using a long, narrow blackboard. set
up in the post tennis court, Lord wrote
out with chalk maze" as he calls it
Of "a letters in seemingly meaningless
sequence. While he wrote he recited
Lincoln's Gettysburg address, and each
letter was inscribed upside down. Fin
ishing the maze In little more than a
minute, he explained that reading from
both ends toward the middle the name
of the President of the United States
could be detected. Reading from the
middle to both ends the name of the
Secretary Of War appeared, while every
fourth letter backward gave the name
of the Vice President, and alternating
in the middle produced the name OF
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
The witnesses checked the line for ac-
curacy and gave a verdict Of approval
Lord then demonstrated how he can
spell one phrase and at the same mo-
ment write another upside down and
backward. He spelled washington
Blow to Roosevelt"
seven digits. The number 7,346,215 wa:
ouSSCotCds ksCCitAAi6 1ulAS6 LII, 1OiN
promptly wrote out an apparently
meaningless dissection of the sum, and
the witnesses, adding these six seq
ments, found that they totaled 7,346, ais
Lord also showed his talent for null
tiple mental activity by spelling Min
neapolis" and writing Cincinnati" by
spelling Nicaragua" and writing
Venezuela" and by spelling "prohibi-
ton" and writing home brew" In each
case he varied the trick little. He
made mazes of numerous different
kinds, then explained the method SC
that the witnesses might check him
He spells backward, writing upside
down, as easily as most people spell and
write normally. He mixes letters in a
mysterious confusion, and then. an
nouncing the key, proves their accurate
relation. That he does not rely. solely
upon memory was made manifest by his
practice Of leaving the selection OF
numbers, words and phrases to his
visitors. He organizes and correlates his
material as he goes along, and he works
like lightning.
Learned System in China.
Lord explained that an adventure in
the Middle Kingdom of China gave him
power to control his subconscious mind
A companion and himself saved the life
of mandarin. attacked by thugs. The
mandarin, in return. initiated him into
the secrets Of the ancient Buddhist sys-
tenn Of governing the mind. That was
10 years ago. and Lcrd. he says, has
been perfecting his skill by practice
ever since.
Lords recreation is juggling and
reading. In the former art he can keep
six balls and four Indian clubs moving
But he says that he began to lose in
terest In this amusement when he found
that he had mastered the trick of it.
Lord denies that he is especially gift
ed. THE ability to do these things Is
not unusual in any sense of the word, y
he says. You will operate typewriter
touching the space bar at the proper
ing q book, you do not stop to think
before turning a page-you turn it au-
tomatically. EngrosSed with an idea,
you make your way through a crowd,
subconsciously avoiding collision. These
are common examples Of the way in
which your mind continues to work to
your advantage while you are concen-
trating upon something else. In the
same way, with proper instruction and
practice, any person can accomplish
the more advanced Effects
Paying tribute to the Army as "the
greatest college in the world" Lord
explained that he had enlisted for
patriotic and cultural reasons. Youth
must be served, according to the old
adage." he believes, but so must our
country. Were the power mine, would
require that one year In the Army be
necessary to graduation from the higher
schools. The educational advantages of
the great democracy of the uniform are
legion In number. I am glad to be
Just a soldier"
Negotiations for the disposition of
Lords brain were completed by DR..
James w. Papez of the College Of Anat-
omy at Cornell. DR.. Frederick r. Cal
kins Of Watertown, N. Y. witnessed
the will.
In his own opinion, Lords brain Is
just an ordinary thinking machine like
that of every other human being. He
does not believe that 1t is either struc-
turally or materially different from all
the other brains in the world. But he
philosophically agrees that he will never
know for certain.
N0l IlNTEEQ EIPEMEN