THE NERVES OF THE SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 3

THE NERVES OF THE SOLDIER

TESTING THE FIT FOR SBEVICE. It is to ensure that every man in the "United States Army has "first-class nerves" that a new military arm is being developed in its War Office organisation. It will cull out the men who are not built to withstand the nerve stresses of battle, It will throw about the picked men, when first they go to the front, such safeguards as shall minimise nervous troubles. And finally, to those who do break mentally, it wilfgive the trained care and treatment that will restoro them rapidly to health. Four Army cantonment:;' are already supplied with exports, who are putting into practice tho first of these articles, and eventually every gathering. place for enlisted and drafted men in America will have its "neurological corps." The first item on tho programme of such a body ft a wholesale combing for the men of low mentality. This is accomplished by an intelligence test, which can be given to a huudred men at a time. The rejects are turned over to the psychiatrist for expert attention. Those who ate not malingerers are either actual imbeciles or of such low intelligence that they may nnly be recommended for certain kinds of simple manual labour under close supervision. Then it is necessary to weed out (he kind of man who is brought reportedly before his company commander for disciplinary faults, or, who, during illness or at some other time, will reveal constitutional nervous weakness. These aro the men who will fall out or run irinuck on tho firing-line. It lias been a task of some jnonths to build up a theory, and then'carry it over into actual practice, mid the neuropsychopathic unit at Camp Lee, Virginia, is.the first of its kind. Here the equipment is fairly complete, and activities are in full swing; a mechanism of procedure has been developed that has run 18,000 men through the mill in two weeks, and that puts the mental examination on V squarely practical basis, and tho system followed is described by Annis Salisbury in the "Scientific American."

Picture a large room, with 75 to 100 khaki-clad soldiers soualtins; on the floor. Turkish fashion, with writing-boards and printed, blanks on their knees. Tho examiner stands in front with stop-watch' in hand.

"Attention \" he sinsjs out. "Make a mark in the largest square of this row of squares. Go!"

This is ono of tho simplest exercises which can be done by every recruit who is competent to understand and carry out directions. Similar exercises in this faculty follow, each more difficult, until the last may be something like this:— "Cross out the letter just before C, and draw a circle around the third letter before the second K. Go!"

The next test is for memory span. Tiro examiner readn aloud a set of three figures, with Hie men nt attention, pencils lifted frcm paper. Then Ibey aro given n few seconds to write down the set. The numbers increase in length, until the last one contains 12 digits. Many Ijnve given up trying _by tin's time, and only the memory wizards get the last set correctly.

The test which stumps the greatest number of recruits '■$ that of completing a numerical series. Tliu?, given the series 31, 28, 30, 27; what number should follow 27 bi preserve tho law of formation indicated by tho part of tht> series given? This law tolls us l& substract 3, and-add 2, alternately; eo the next torm is 29. Thcr6 is h little trick al)out this that puzzles the average recruit. I'ot .beforo one can apply the law of formation, one must discover what it is, and tin's requires power io sense relations in abstract.

Tho man who can do this will carry tho sumo power over into realities. He will bo aWo lo transfer tho basic principles of trench-digging from the environment in wliich he has been taught, and apply thoni to any kind of landscape that presents itself.

Other tests follow-. "The general, tests are nol: finely discriminatory, states the chief, psychological examiner at Camp Lee, "for wo are not trying to fort out 'tho aviator typo from the nrtl|lery man or tho signal corp3 officor from tho trench-digger We aro merely card-in-dexing tho mon according to their mental furnishings. This culls out in speedy fashion the men of low attainment, and it is valuable as a basis for promotions or in the assignment of men to special duties requiring more than average intelligence or mental quickness. The fact that 75 per cent, of our judgments, based on tho test ratings, coincide with those of the officers who knew the men from everyday experience, and that in a (specific instance 16 men chosen for pro motion by their regimental officers on the basis of daily achievement were thfc men who made the highest grades in the intelligence test, show how nearly we have hit tho mark in making this thing a practical procedure,"