The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-28
TWO SCIENTISTS
REFUTE PEACE
TREND THEORY
Boston Convention Hears
Paper Dealing With
902 Wars.
By United Press

~ CHited Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Dec. d.
Theories that war tends to disap-
pear with the progress of civiliza-
ton we're refuted today in a paper
read before the ninety-third meet
ing Of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
The paper. prepared by Professor
Pitirim A. Sorokin and Lieutenant
General N. N. Golovin of the Har-
ward department Of sociology, traced
war movements in the histories Of
Greece, Rome and eight European
countries from 500 B. c. to 1925
A D.
A study of 902 wars mot battles
was made, and each was considered
from five points:
The duration of the war, the size
of the fighting forces, the number
Of casualties, the number of coun-
tries involved. and the proportion
of combatants to the total popula-
ton Of the belligerents. From these
five "variables" a total index num-
Der was computed for each war.
Height in 10th Century
The momentous study disclosed
that up to the seventeenth century
war was comparatively insight
icant," but increased from then on
enormously and did not diminish
during the eighteenth century.
In the nineteenth century it de-
creased considerably, though it still
was more than 100 times as great
as in medieval centuries, but in the
first quarter of the twentieth cen
tury, chiefly because of the World
war. it flared to an unprecedented
height, exceeding the sum total Of
all wars during preceding centuries
in the eight European countries
studied.
This refutes the theories that
war tends to disappear with the
progress of civilization" Professor
Sorokin and General Golovin con-
Guided. 1T means also that all the
commendable hopes that war will
disappear in the near future are
based on nothing more than wishes
and a belief in miracles. Most Of
these hopes Sprang up in the nine
tenth century which, as the figures
show, was more peaceful than the
seventeenth or the eighteenth CEN
fury, though much less peaceful
than the period from the twelfth
century to the sixteenth"
Coffee Checks Alcohol
A timely disclosure was offered by
two Cornell university professors, A.
L. Winsor and E. 1. Strongin, who
presented the results of experiments
which showed that if one would
drink and remain able to walk a
chalk line, a considerable amount of
coffee should be consumed with the
highballs. Subjects were given small
amounts of alcohol and water, fol-
loEed Immediately by generous doses
of coffee.
1t appeared that the "unsteadiness
and disturbance of motor co-ordi-
nation, caused by consumption of
alcohol alone was decreased con-
siderably by the coffee.
The effect was achieved noticeably
only when the alcohol and coffee
we're consumed within few
minutes of each other. If the cof-
fee was delayed to any great extent
its SOLDERING effectiveness decreased,
an apparent refutation of the wide
ly prevalent theory that quantities
of black coffee, taken after extended
drinking, send man home sober.
Ear Never Weary
The normal. healthy ear is the
body's most alert sentinel, and
never grows weary, according to
the report of E. M. Josephson. New
York physician, who advahced a
new theory of the mechanism of
hearing in which the inner ear is
believed to convert the mechanical
energy of sound into electrical en-
ergy, in a manner similar to the
action of the telephone receiver.
The electric current thus gener-
ated,' he said, stimulates the nerve
ends of the organ corti in the in
ner ear. each of which is con-
ceived to serve as a filter select
ing out individual audio-frequencies
Of the tone and transmit it to the
brain. This theory accounts for the
finding in the ear of feeble-electri-
cal audio- frequency currents"