REGISTERING EMOTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2391, 11 February 1922, Page 4

REGISTERING EMOTION.

AMAZING NEW INSTRUMENT, CANNOT BE IMPOSED UPON.

Emotions can be measured and registered at Maudsley Hospital, London. With the assistance of Miss Olga Nethersole and Miss Lillah McCarthy, the wellknown actresses, striking experiments were conducted recently on this “emotionometer.”

In a darkened laboratory in the basement of the hospital, Miss Nethersole’s beautiful voice was uttering a sad passage from Carmen Sylva’s “Necklace of Tears.” Immediately in front of her was a square of light flung upon a screen from a highly sensitive instrument. The actress had her first and second fingers dipped into two tubes of water to connect up with the “emotionometer.” As she recited the poetry it was obvious that she felt the poignancy of the piece, and every reaction of her emotions were shown by that moving point of light. Towards the climax the light recorder moved fight off the screen and oscillated over a very wide area, showing how real was the emotion which the elocutionist felt herself.

After Miss Olga Nethersole had recorded her emotions, an experiment was made by Miss*Lillah McCarthy. In the darkness her fine rich voice was heard uttering John of Gaunt’s Death Speech:—

Methinks I am a prophet inspired. As those glorious words inspired by love of England filled the laboratory, the small square of light trembled and danced along the other end of the screen.

Her sister Marion McCarthy, also tested the cmotionomoter.

Sir Fredrick Moll, who had been experimenting for some lime with this instrument fold a Daily Chronicle reporter that it will not recoid any faked emotion that is ante**. the person really feels pain, giief, sudden joy, or horror, the light remains still. The reporter proved this himself by experiments with the instrument. There was no action when he pretended to feel pain, but the moment he was startled in the darkness by the sudden noise of a police rattle, the light patch travelled to the other end of the screen.

A subsequent experiment upon an Army officer had its amusing side. The doctor asked him to think of the “girl he liked best,” but there was no response. It was obvious that the subject was on his guard, but a sudden' shaft from Miss Nethersole, who askett : “Ts she dark or fair? made an immediate response on the emotionometer. The doctor was asked what, value such an instrument would be m divorce cases. He replied that experiments in that direction had not been made, but it had been used to test a man suspected of a grave criminal charge.

The suspected criminal was connected up with the emotionometer and certain associations, and names connected with the crime, were put to him. Reactions occurred registering his thoughts, but the evidence in this case was not considered sufficient to warrant a conviction at a subsequent trial.