Year: 1878

.@ How Fast Can You Think


"Quick as thought" and "Quick as


lightning are commonly used as synon-


ymous expressions. But their difference


is really great. An electric impulse


traverses wire as wave Of motion q


nervous impulse proceeds by develop
ment Of chemical change in the nerve.


It runs along the nerve somewhat as
combustion follows train Of gnnpowder,
and not much if any more rapidly:


Indeed Helmholtz has clearly determined
the rate of nervous propagation to be
less than hundred feet second, or
about mile q minute. To use q rude
illustration, if railway could feel, the
sense report of train starting in New
York would reach Albany but little in
advance of the fastest trains that have
been run upon the Hudson River
Road. Even along courses as short as
the nerves of the human body an APP
preciable time is required foy the pass
age Of nervous impulses.


With a simple apparatus, .Hirsch
found that touch upon the face could
be recognized and responded to by q
predetermined signal operated by the
hand, in one seventh Of second. With
a sound test, acting, Of course, upon the
ear, in the answering signal was made
in one sixth of q second when the eye
was addressed, the response came IN one
fifth of q second. Since the distances
travelled by the nervous impulses were
very nearly the same In all these expert
ments, it is evident that the greater part
of the difference Of time noted raust be
charged to the greater or smaller rapid
ity Of the act of recognition !; the entire
process in each case being the trans
mission of sensation (touch, hearing
or sight) to the brain, it's recognition,
the willing of the signal agreed upon,
the transmission Of the order to the
muscles of the hand, and the movement
of those muscles, Thus it would appear
that less time is required for recognizing
touch than sound, less time to: hear
than to see. But what part Of the fifth,
sixth or seventh of second, as the case
might be, was consumed in the act OF
recognition I?


Donders was successful in answering
this question by the use of several forms
of apparatus, involving entirely different
methods, yet yielding the same results.
He found, for instance, with the "noe.
matachograph that the double act Of
recognizing sound and willing the re-
sponse required seventy-fve thousandths
Of a second. OF this time, forty thou
sandths of o second were required for
simple recognition, thus leaving thirty
five thousandths for volition. With the
" "noematachometer" he found that the
same time, forty thousandths (or one
twenty.fifth) of second, was required
to Judge which was first of two irritants
acting on the same sense. A slightly
longer time was required to Judge the
priority of signals acting on different
senses, as a sound and light. It also
took longer to recognize letter by see
ing it's form than by hearing it's sound.


This in man Of middle age. Young
people thought quicker, but the differ
ence was not great. In all the expert
ments the time required for a simple
thought was never less than fortieth OF
a second. In other words the mind can
perform not more than twenty.four hun
dred simple acts minute, fifteen hum
dred minute being the rate for persons
of middle age. -. - e, ,


From these figures it will be seen how
absurd are many of the popular notions
in regard to the feetness OF thought,
how exaggerated are the terrors OF re-
morseful memory that moralists have
invented for the moment Of dying. And
we may reasonably " discount "also the
stories told by men saved from drown
ing, cut Down before death by hanging,
or rescued from sudden and deadlyperl
from other causes. No doubt q man may
think of a great multitude OF expert
ences, good or bad, in few minutes;
but that the thoughts and emotions OF q
long life. may surge through the mind
during the seconds of asphy1iation are
impossible.


Admit that the speed Of mental action
is abnormally rapid at such times, say
twenty-five hundred simple cognihons
minnie, or 150, 900 an hour. It q man
we're an hour in drowning, instead OF q
few minutes, end all the time be given
to a mental review of his life, he would,
if forty years old, have. time to give ten
thoughts of the simplest character to
each day that he had lived. In ether
words, memory would have time to re-
view the experiences of at most the hum
dredth part of one second out Of each
days waking thousands. - Scientific