THE SPEED OF THOUGHT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2743, 7 January 1882, Page 2

THE SPEED OF THOUGHT.

It is one of the missions of science to destroy a great many pet superstitions, and it appears that the picturesque one which represents drowning people as passing in review in a moment or two of time all the events of their past life must go the way of mdny others. This belief involves the assumption that thought is instantaneous, or very nearly so. But this is proved to be not at all tho case. Thought has a maximum of speed, and if ideas could be presented at a greater rate than this the mind would be simply unable to receive them. We may illustrate what we mean by supposing 'a person standing on a railway platform watching a train slowly passing. If the movement of the train is sufficiently alow he will be able to see distinctly the faces of tho passengers, but if the speed be accellerated beyond a given point the faces become quite indistinct, and look mere blurs. Now it is found that what We call the wave of thought moves at an appreciable rate of speed. Helmholtz found that it re quired about a minute to traverse a mile of nerve ; that is to say, that its speed is equal to that of a very fast railway train. The mere act of recognition of a sound or touch requires time, which ia stated at forty thousantha of a qecond. Experiments have been made with great care and accuracy, and their combined result went .to show that the time required for a simple thought is never less than tho 40th of a second. This would give 2,400 simple mental acts in a minute as the utmost speed at which the mind is capable of working. And it follows that, if drowning persons find all tho events, and thoughts, and acts of their whole life pass before their minds in a second or two, they must have lived remarkably uneventful and barren existences.