Evening star., 1941-04-03
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas R.'Henru.

OF ldentlIylng people as WIN ndnO-
writing or fingerprints-has just been
reported to the National Research
Council here.
1t is based on the fact that no two
persons breath exactly alike. Rates
and inhalation and exhalation and
amounts and depths of air drawn into
the lungs differ markedly and are con-
trolled by such a complex system of
habits and mind body adjustments that
it is impossible to change them at will.
The report is by Drs. Franz Alexander
and Leon J. Saul of the Chicago Institute
for Psychoanalysis,
Inspiration and respiration are deter
mined with basal metabolism ap-
paratus such as is found in the ofices
of many physicians and automatically
recorded in a spirogram. This is just
wavy line. Specifically it is very
much alike for most persons. But when
these spirograms are analyzed, the two
doctors report, notable and unmistakable
differences are found. The sub-conscious
habits are recorded. Everybody seems
to breath at a slightly different rate.
There are varying intervals of hold
ing the breath and various rates of
transition from breathing out to breath
ing in air.
The general pattern of a spirogram
remains constant, at least over period
of months and probably through most
of a persons lifetime. One may con-
sciouSly alter details of it, Just as
person may deliberately alter his sigma
ture. But as the hand writing expert
expert can detect the falsifications of
breathing. A spirogram looks some
thing like a scrawled signature.
The chest build of a person, they
found, has nothing to do with the
breathing pattern, as has been claimed
by some Psychologists. 1t is regulated by
a tiny center in the brain stem which
impulses from the top of the brain, the
center of conscious life, and from the
various emotion centers. Persons build
up a pattern of breathing just as they
build up an emotional pattern.
1t was to seek a correlation between
the spirograms and the underlying
emotional status of the patient, sup
rncad1U vita in of
insanities, that the study was instituted.
The psychiatrists have not yet come to
any conclusion, however on its value in
diagnosing mental states. The relation
ship TO emotion, they say, long has been
recognized. The posture Of a persons
chest is popularity considered an index
of his mental state. This is also illus
trated by painting in fear and rage, sighs
of relief or dispair, and the breathing
changes in weeping and laughing.
The cracked red clay pipe and the
enormous buckskin tobacco pouch of the
Sioux warrior and prophet. Sitting Bull,
have just been added to the collections
of the Smithsonian Institution.
They we're obtained from the Indian
leader by the late Maj. Gen. James w.
Macarthur, then a lieutenant in the
7th United States Infantry, and were
presented to the institution by his widow.
The only other authentic relic of Sitting
Bull in the national collection is his
| sawed-of fiintlock of London manufac-
ture which was taken from him by a
United States Army officer at the time
of his surrender.
In addition there are about two-doZen
pairs of moccasins allegedly worn at
some time by the Sioux leader. None of
them can be authenticated and they are
kept only as good examples of Sioux
handicraft. Sitting Bulls moccasins are
scattered widely over the United States
and Europe. They are among the most
common historical relics offered for sale.
The man who was ostensibly in COM
mand of the Sioux at the Battle of the
Little Bighorn after passing through a
period of general execration as the worst
of all bad Indians" has during the past
| two or three decades become symbolic
figure of the red mans struggle against
conquest and absorption by the white
race. This is especially true in Europe
where biographies of Bull have had a
| large sale. Among Indians themselves
his reputation has grown continuously
until he now has something of the
legendary status of William Tell.
The pipe smoked by the warrior has
a bowl made of catlinite, the red clay
of the upper Missouri region commonly
used by Indians for this purpose. 1t is
slightly cracked. 1t has q long, rec
tangular wooden stem.
Bulls buckskin pouch measures II
inches in length. He apparently always
kept well fortified with tobacco, the
smoking of which had religious signif-
icance because Sitting Bull was primarily
shaman or religious leader. 1t was de-
corated with panel of white and colored
glass beads in the characteristic Siouan
crossed hourglass pattern and with buck
skin fringes wrapped with split and dyed
porcupine quills S inches long.