Machine for Measuring Thought.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4411, 22 February 1883, Page 3

Machine for Measuring Thought.

M. Parville, in. the Journal dcs Debats, has lately called'attention to a system of thought measurement, by which it is proposed to fest the brain power of can didates for public appointments. _ The new machine can also be used forestimatinjj the degree of emotion caused by a Gudd6n shock to the nervous system. The apparatus by which the rapidity of the thinking process may be measured in each individual is the invention of Dr

Mobbo, of Turin, and it was presented to the French Academy of Sciences by the late Claude Bernaud. Not only does Dr Mosso's apparatus reflect faithfully the ■mount of energy consumed by a man in the act of thinking; it also takes ndte. of the degree of Tigour with ' which' he dreams. The observer can see by the results which it registers, whether the . thought dealt with is simple or complex; but it is above all -'useful as showing whether a man thinks with difficulty or wiih euse; and it is -suggested; by a proper use of the mechanical thought measurer it will be. easy to 7^sipnd out. .the decree of quickness with -which he can think, and the amount of menial disturbance caused to him by thinking. Ibe arm of the thinker abcut to be measured is put into a sort of ."muff," which is describfd as a cylinder of glass" filled with water, and closed at each of its orifices with a collar of ir.dia- , rubber, wbicu admits the arms of the patiertt^ and afterwards shuts upon it so 'that -not a drop of water can escape. 'When the arm "is thus immersed in the .water the hand is placed in communication.with an indicator that notes down the ; degree of agitation caused to the patient '„ by the rußh of blood to the bead which :,must accompany even the simplest mental operation, such for instance bb the deter minalion of the result obtained by adding

two to (wo. The deep thinki :■, occupieJ ■ with sevioas problems, would uot, as lojg »b his train of hought moved on serenely, „ gi»e any violent signs of the thought <'measurer records. Neither would the feeble thinker. The one who would give the indicator most employment would be the restless, feverish thinker, oven though he thought in vpin. Dr Mosso's insirument might be used with good effect for deterr.v!hing the actual duration of dreams as compared with the time which the dreamers of them .fancy they have lasted. If, at new is generally asserted, a dream, however long it may seem, occupies but oiie moment—tbe moment of making— the thought indicator woald make the fact known by, one single sign or rapid succession of;signs.—Ottr Paris Letter.

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