ORIGIN OF EMOTIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1017, 31 October 1912, Page 4

ORIGIN OF EMOTIONS.

The British Association at its recent meeting in Dundee, daringly faced the problem: Is life just an arrangement of chemicals? Then it went one step further, and debated the question : Is there a soul, .and, if so, is that, too, merely a chemical affair ? This amazing debate took place iu the physiological section, but from the remarks of the president, Mr Leonard Hill, one gathered that it must not be taken too seriously. In fact, he told the meeting that physiologists in their research are constantly trying to keep to their subject, and not to touch on the first cause, but their minds were constantly running back to it, and now and then they had to meet and “let off steam.’’ This was one of those occasions. Throughout the reading of the paper, the lecture room was packed with people of all ages. One “listener” slept through all the portentous papers, and only awoke for the more lively discussions.

A professor’s niece, of seme eighteen summers, rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed, applauded vigorously—the little hypocrite—a proposition which even many ot the professors could not grasp, but which iu simple language was more or less a contention that love, hate, and piety are just chemical processes. Dr Haldane opened the ball. “Consciousness,” he said, “seems nothing but the consequence of physical or chemical changes in the body. Cut off the oxygen supply, and in a few seconds all consciousness has disappeared. It is possible that a man’s behaviour may be entirely altered owing to chemical means, and that he may be reduced to the level of a beast. “If there be a soul, all its manifestations are dependent on physical conditions.”

Professor Gotch rose iu gentle protest. Discussion of this kind, he said, was quite premature when our knowledge still stood at the level represented by the old saying, “What is the body ? Never mind, What is the mind? No matter.”

“Until we have got a real system, in psychology without the interference of physiology,” he said, “and a real system iu physiology without the interference of psychology, we are not capable of approaching such a discussion.” But Professor Geddes —Shavian both iu look and speech—jumped up to say that such a discussion was both timely and necessary.

“We are escaping,’’ be said, “}rom tbe oldest separation ol corpse and ghost which left nothing between the dissecting table and tbe spook'.’’ Professor Starling, straying into these realms of philosophy, soundly rated the meeting for trying to talk about things they knew nothing about. How, he asked, can you discuss the relation of mind and matter —that was the text of the debate —when you have not decided whether either of them exists or whether they are two things or one ? Then Mr Leonard Hill rose, with his little apology for the moments of scientific hysteiii.

“The public will think,’’ he said, “when we get things down to matter, ‘Oh, yes, matter. Well, we all know about that. That’s just matter.’ “Just as they say, ’A glass of water ! Oh, yes, a very common object. We know all about that.’ “Well, to my mind, a glass of water —even one drop—is just as interesting and mysterious as even a living protoplasm. Indeed, a good thesis might be made of the theory that a drop of water is alive. However advanced and simplified our views of things may become, they will not lessen one whit the poetry and mystery of life.’’

There are scientific tit-bits to be picked up during the day. Here are some of them : Professor F. Keeble said that it you made certain white flowers, notably the pure white primula and the while sweet-william, intoxicated with alcohol, they would flush scarlet, just as a human being unused to drink might do. Many interesting facts about whales were repotted by one of the Association’s indefatigable committees, of which Dr A. E. Shipley was chairman. Here are some of them : Whales have moustaches and the submarine equivalent of chin whiskers ; indeed, they apparently use them for finding their food. Whales hardly ever have twins.

They cannot know how to wink, because their eyelids are not very mobile. Professor Raoul Anthony, describing the brain of a fossil man found in Da Quiua, declared it to be even nearer the brain of an anthropoid ape than the brain of the celebrated Gibraltar fossil man long ago hailed as the “missing link” between ape and man. Professor H. C. Armstrong said that, prussic acid was to be found in linseed, but Mr J. V. Eyre added the reassuring statement that there was not enough prussic acid in a field of linseed to hurt a man, and probably the small amount in the linseed c.ke given to cattle acted as a stimulant.

Miss Dorothy Jordan Dloyd, B.Cc., described the methods of making living creatures by chemical means, which she had been putting into operation at Plymouth. There sea urchins ate treated with butyric acid and hypertonic sea water, and from the eggs young urchins have actually been born, though they died in a few days. Professor R. J. Anderson gave the zoological section some Interesting hints on speech in animals, without, however, deciding

whether human beings would ever learn properly to understand the language of their pets. “The bark of a dog,” he said, “is susceptible to slight modification of tone,” and be suggested that sometimes a dog’s howling might be caused by sounds which seemed to him inharmonious, just as musicians are affected by discordaul sounds.

He told of a dog which used to sneeze at the sight of a snuff-box. Canon McCulloch, iu a fascinating address on fairy legends, told ot the sea fairies and mermaidens of the Shetlands and Orkneys. “Outwardly,” he said, “they are seals iu form, but ou coming to laud they doff their sealskins and appear as beautiful maidens, who may be captured by mortals if the latter possess themselves of their skins.”