it stood at right angles with the line of sight, about eight feet.
This ribbon of light is seen to consist of six lines, approximately
parallel, of unequal brightness, a pair being at each edge and a pair
near the center. The space between these pairs is crossed by many
nearly horizontal lines and a few oblique ones, while that between
the right-hand pair is crossed by oblique lines only. The horizontal
lines at the right of the center become curved downward, which, with
the increased brightness of the whole toward that side, suggests to
us that the ribbon of light did not lie in a plane, but was concave
toward a point at the observer's left. That the ribbon did not stand
at right angles with the line of sight, but was nearer the observer
at the right-hand edge, is also shown by the inequality of the lower
termination of the six vertical lines referred to above. The ones at
the left either rest upon or are hidden behind a rise of ground, whose
crest can be traced for a little distance each side of the flash, while
those at the right come lower, falling between the observer and the
ground at that point. Probably, when measured upon this diagonal and
curved line, the width of the flash was fifteen or twenty feet.
Mention has already been made of the fact that the accompanying thunder
was comparatively light, and not at all like that ordinarily heard when
lightning occurs within so short a distance. Possibly this, as well as
the absence of marks at the point where it reached the earth, might
have been because the discharge was of very low tension.
* * * * *
[A very similar lightning flash was described and pictured in the
issue of the Electrical World and Engineer for October 28, 1899, by
A. E. Kennelly, who suggested the following explanation: A lightning
flash passed through the air on the left-hand side of the ribbon of
lightning (the wind was blowing from right to left) and broke a hole
in the air along that line. This discharge may have been oscillatory,
and may have lasted in all any time up to about 1/100 of a second. The
discharge then ceased for lack of electricity, but a fresh charge from
the cloud being gathered immediately afterward, or in about 1/30 of
a second from the first rupture, a new discharge passed through the
same hole in the air, which had not had time to seal up. There might
thus be fourteen successive flashes (this was the number of distinct
flashes making up the ribbon in the photograph), each averaging about
1/25 of a second apart, through the same hole, owing to the imperfect
conducting qualities of the clouds overhead, meanwhile the hole having
been carried from left to right in the picture, across the line of
sight (by the wind), and thus producing the appearance of a broad
ribbonlike flash. Professor Trowbridge, of Cambridge, has suggested the
possibility that many of these apparently curious electrical phenomena
may be of purely optical or physiological origin--that is, may arise
through the abnormal behavior of the eye or the camera lens toward
intense lines of light, such as lightning flashes.--ED.]
CROSS-EDUCATION.
BY E. W. SCRIPTURE,
DIRECTOR OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORY, YALE UNIVERSITY.
Some years ago I made the following simple experiment: I arranged a
rubber bulb, like that used for releasing a photographer's shutter, to
connect with a bottle, from which rose a long, vertical glass tube.
The bottle contained mercury, and the long tube reached nearly to the
bottom. Every part was air-tight, so that when anybody squeezed the
bulb the mercury was forced up the vertical tube. It was what is known
as a mercury-dynamometer.
During experiments with this dynamometer, what was more natural than to
think of trying what would happen if one hand were practiced daily in
squeezing the bulb? So one of our graduate students, Miss E. M. Brown,
was set to work in the following manner: On the first day she squeezed
the bulb as hard as possible with the left hand, while an assistant
noted the height of the mercury; this was repeated ten times, and the
results were averaged. Immediately thereafter she took ten records with
the right hand. Then, on the following days, with some intermissions,
she practiced the right hand by squeezing ten times on each occasion.
On the last day she again tested the left hand, which had not been
practiced in the meantime. The records ran as follows:
----------+---------------------------------------------------------------
| DAY.
+------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------
|First |Second|Third |Fourth|Fifth |Sixth |Seventh|Eighth|Ninth
----------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------
|Inches|Inches|Inches|Inches|Inches|Inches|Inches |Inches|Inches
Right hand| 28.8 | 33.7 | 35.6 | 36.6 | 40.9 | 44.7 | 47.0 | 48.8 | 48.6
Left hand | 29.6 | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | 42.3
----------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------
Thus the left hand had gained about fifty per cent in strength through
practice of the right hand. This peculiar phenomenon of transference of
the effects of practice from one side to the other I have ventured to
call "cross-education."
The phenomenon was curious enough to suggest other experiments. Another
student, Miss T. L. Smith, was set to trying to insert the point of a
needle at the end of a rod into a small hole in a drill-gauge without
touching the sides. The first experiment consisted of twenty trials
with the left hand, with a success of fifty per cent. Immediately
thereafter twenty trials were made with the right hand, with a success
of sixty per cent. On the following day and on each succeeding day two
hundred experiments were made with the right hand, with successes of
61, 64, 65, 75, 74, 75, 82, 79, 78, and 88 per cent. On the last day
the left hand, which had not been practiced in the meantime, was again
tried, with a success of seventy-six per cent.
These last experiments remind us of certain familiar phenomena. It has
frequently been noticed that persons taught to write with the right
hand become able to write backward, but not forward, with the left
hand. This is the so-called "mirror writing," which appears correct if
seen in a mirror. The first published observation of this fact exists
in a letter from H. F. Weber to Fechner, the founder of experimental
psychology. Fechner, moreover, noticed that with the left hand he could
make the figure 9 backward better than in the regular way.
Curiously enough, the principle of cross-education has been put to
practical use. A letter (with permission to publish) has been received
from Oscar Raif, Professor of Music in the Berlin Hochschule:
"In the spring of 1898 I made an experiment with twenty of my pupils. I
began by taking the average speed of each hand with the metronome. The
average of the right hand was [quarter note symbol] = 116 (= four times
116 in the minute) [464 beats], and for the left hand 112 [448 beats].
I gave them exercises for the right hand only (finger exercises,
scales, and broken accords) to develop rapidity. After one week the
average of the right hand was 120 [480]; after two weeks, 126 [504];
three weeks, 132 [528], etc. After two months the right hand yielded
176 [604]. Then I had them try the left hand, which averaged 152 [608],
whereas in November the average was only 112 [448]. In two months'
time, absolutely without practice, the left hand had risen from 112
[448] to 152 [608]. A few of my pupils had some difficulty in playing
the scales in parallel motion, but were able to play them in contrary
motion.
"The tenor of my work is that in piano playing the chief requirement
is _not_ that each single finger should move rapidly, but that each
movement should come at exactly the right time, and we do not work only
to get limber fingers, but, more than that, to get perfect control over
each finger. The source of what in German is called _Fingerfertigkeit_
is the center of our nervous system--the brain."
These facts, however, require further investigation, for it is evident
that we must begin with the fact of cross-education and proceed to
more complicated cases. Indeed, cross-education has shown itself to
be one step of a ladder up which we must climb even if there were
no other motive except that of curiosity as to what we could find
at the top. If practice of one hand educates the other hand, will
it not also educate the foot? Again, if practice of one hand in
squeezing a dynamometer develops the strength of the other members of
the body, will it not also develop their dexterity or their advance?
Again, if the development of voluntary power--let us say, frankly,
"will power"--in one direction brings about a development in other
directions, why should we limit the transference to muscular activity?
Why can we not expect, that the development should be extended to the
higher forms of will power that go to make up character? The outlook
begins to be stirring on account of its vastness. If the last principle
be admitted, there seems no argument against the claim that some forms
of manual training, such as lathe work and forge work, are just the
things to develop moral character. By the same reasoning we would be
obliged to admit the often-made argument that training in Latin, Greek,
and mathematics furnishes a means of general mental development. If we
admit the principle, we find ourselves at once involved in important
educational controversies. However we may think in respect to these
questions, it is plain that it is worth while to climb a ladder which
has such an outlook at the top. Let us begin.
In the first place, the fact of cross-education is established. Let
us ask in what this education consists. On this point some curious
observations have been made by Prof. W. W. Davis,[11] now of Iowa
College. The subject of the experiment began by raising a five-pound
dumb-bell by flexing the arm at the elbow; this called into play
chiefly the biceps muscle for lifting and the forearm muscles for
grasping. This was done as many times as possible with the right arm,
and then, after a rest, with the left arm. The subject then entered
upon a practice extending from two to four weeks; this consisted in
lifting the weight with the right arm only. At the end both arms were
tested as at the start.
The results were strange enough. The unpracticed left arm gained in
power as we expected, but it also gained in size. Careful measurements
were made by Dr. J. W. Seaver, of the Yale Gymnasium, on the girths of
both upper arm and forearm. Let us compare the gains in girth with the
gains in power:
----------+------------------------------+------------------------------
| GAINS IN GIRTH. | GAINS IN POWER.
SUBJECT. +------+--------------+--------------+---------------
| Right biceps. | Left biceps. | Right arm. | Left arm.
----------+---------------+--------------+--------------+---------------
G | 5 mm. | -5 mm. | 820 flexions.| 200 flexions.
J | 2 " | 0 " | 400 " | 225 "
K | 4 " | 2 " | 724 " | 514 "
H | 13 " | 6 " | 950 " | 30 "
B | 6 " | 11 " | 900 " | 75 "
I | 8 " | 3 " | 750 " | 75 "
----------+---------------+--------------+--------------+---------------
All subjects had gained power in the unpracticed left arm, three
of them largely and three slightly. All but one had gained in the
size of the unpracticed left biceps. Strangely enough, those who had
gained most in power had gained least in size. The case was quite
similar in regard to the girth of the forearm. The gains in power were
unquestionably mostly central--that is, in the nerve centers--and not
in the muscles. Yet there was also a strange but unquestionable gain in
the size of the muscles at the same time.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
We have arrived at the second step of the ladder, which is: The gain
by practice which shows itself in cross-education consists in a
development of higher nerve centers connected with the two sides of
the body. We must next ask: Is this effect of practice confined to the
symmetrical organ, or does it extend to other organs? This question was
answered by a peculiar experiment.
The experiment consisted in testing the effect of educating one of the
feet to tap as rapidly as possible on a telegraph key. The apparatus
is shown in Fig. 1. The clocklike instrument is really a piece of
clockwork actuated by a magnet, so that it counts up one point every
time the electric circuit is closed. The electric circuit is comprised
of a battery and two keys. Any form of battery will do; the one in
the figure is a "lamp battery"--that is, an arrangement of lamps in
series and in shunt, such that the ordinary high-voltage city current
is conveniently transformed into a low-voltage current. The key to the
left is the experimenter's key, and that to the right the subject's
key. When the subject is set to tapping on the latter key the counter
will register whenever the experimenter keeps his key closed.
For the actual experiments by Professor Davis the subject's key was
removed to a distant room. Here there were three keys of this kind, any
one of which would register. One key each was arranged for tapping with
the big toes; the third key could be tapped by either right or left
index finger.
On the first day all four digits--right and left index fingers and
right and left large toes--were carefully tested in tapping as rapidly
as possible. Thereafter the right large toe was practiced daily in
tapping for several weeks, the other digits being left unpracticed.
At the end all four digits were again tested. Four of the six persons
experimented upon showed a gain for the right large toe--that is,
for the digit practiced; the other two showed a slight loss, due
unquestionably to "over-practice," or "over-training." All of those
who gained for the right large toe gained for the other digits also.
Their average gains were: Right foot, thirty-three per cent; left
foot, thirty-one per cent; right hand, twenty-one per cent; left hand,
thirty-one per cent. Even both of the "over-trained" men gained for
the left foot and one of them gained for the left hand. Thus we have
reached the third step--the effects of practice are extended to various
parts of the body.
Beyond the third step the experimental investigations have not yet
advanced, but I believe that sooner or later we shall be able to
establish the fact that development of those forms of the will involved
in simple muscular activities does also develop the more complicated
forms that express themselves in acts of a mental nature.
It has long been claimed that sports, games, and manual occupations are
among the best developers of character. Football develops solidarity
of feeling and action; running rapids or cross-country hunting
develop coolness in danger and promptness and firmness of judgment;
wood-turning requires boldness and foresight; forge work requires
regulation and reserve of power, and so on. This is no place for an
account of the psychology of sports and occupations, but if the reader
has ever tried any of these things and failed he will easily recognize
the lacking mental quality.
Yet there has never been but one attempt, as far as I can learn, to
organize a system of manual occupations on the basis of this principle.
The success of the attempt furnishes, I believe, the still-lacking
laboratory proof of the principle itself. I refer to the remarkable
experiment of Mr. Z. R. Brockway, Superintendent of the Elmira
Reformatory.
Most of the young felons sent to the Elmira Reformatory are set to
learning trades, by which they can support themselves on leaving.
Those, however, who are too stupid to even learn the simplest trade
are put into a manual-training school, in the hope that their brains
can be sufficiently developed to enable them to keep out of the prison
or the asylum. Those who are so stupid that they have difficulty in
learning the alphabet or in counting their fingers are put into a
kindergarten, where they practice on letter blocks and sticks and
straws.
Those who are too stupid to learn a trade are the ones of interest
here. Three main lines of defect are recognized in Superintendent
Brockway's classification of them. Those who are intellectually weak,
but of fair power of self-control, are classed as Group I; those who
are reasonably bright, but are unable to get along because they can not
control their impulses, are classed as Group II; those who fail on both
sides are classed as Group III.
Group II is composed of those who are for the most part devoid of moral
sense--those who fight, swear, assault officers, are licentious, and
generally unresponsive to the usual reformatory measures. To this class
belong some of the most intellectual inmates of the reformatory, but
this intellectuality runs riot on account of weakness of character.
How are their characters to be built up? They are required to devote
most of their waking hours to athletics and calisthenics, wood-turning,
making wooden patterns for castings, mechanical drawing, sloyd, clay
modeling, and chipping and filing metal. These exercises have been
selected on account of their character-building qualities.
The work is a great success. Nearly all inmates subjected to this
building-up process finally graduate with sufficient self-control from
the manual-training department into the trades school. A concrete
example will give an idea of the change produced in the pupil. The
record of No. 6,361 is instructive. The account is taken from a report
by the manual-training instructor, R. C. Bates:
"The pupil, previous to his assignment to manual training, had earned
for himself the sobriquet of 'dangerous man' among the officers and
inmates. His offenses have been mostly threatening language, lying,
contraband articles, talking, fooling, assaulting officers, and
institutional crimes of that nature.
"We begin his record in September, 1895, when he was reduced to the
second grade for fighting. October and November he lost three marks
each for lying and threatening language, and, by the influence of
September markings, caused his reduction to the third grade, or
incorrigibles, a closely defined group. He was in the third grade two
months and three days, when he was placed in the foundry, where, amid
blinding smoke, stifling air, and the task system, it was thought he
would tone down, upon the theory that the muscular demands of such a
place on a 124-pound body would vitiate sufficiently to weaken the
will and curb the disposition to riotous acts.
"From January 15th to February 15th he was on modified treatment. On
February 18th he was unconditionally restored to the second grade.
February and March he did fairly well, losing one mark each month,
but in April his period of passably well-doing was checked by his
committing an assault, along with assumption of authority, and on the
27th of April he was returned to the third grade for the second time,
remaining in the same two months and three days, when he was again
placed on modified treatment, and did well for three months, when he
fell again, this time for fighting, losing six marks in October. In
November he made a perfect month, securing promotion to second grade.
"On December 15, 1896, he was assigned to manual training, Group
II; object, development of self-control, with subjects as follows:
Athletics, drawing, sloyd, woodwork, chipping and filing, molding. Each
subject one hour and a half per day, five days per week. The influence
of the new environment sustained the effort made in November to
improve, and, by securing a perfect month in December, all his past was
blotted out and he was restored to the lower first grade again, through
'amnesty,' on December 25, 1896.
"Thus, on December 25, 1896, he was where he was institutionally
classed at the time of his admittance two years and three months
ago--viz., lower first grade, from which all who are committed begin
the reformatory course of treatment, additionally thereto in the
manual-training department. His development now begins. In January,
1897, he lost two marks as a result of school failures, but in February
he secured a perfect demeanor record; in March he lost two marks; April
and May were perfect months in all respects, and he was graduated
from manual training in May, returned to institutional life, and
assigned to the exercise squad in the morning and stone masonry in the
afternoon. Later his daily assignment was changed, placing him in the
molding class of the technological department to complete trade. His
development was complete and permanent. He was returned to the manual
training as _assistant instructor_ in the molding class, and is now
doing well in all departments, having been promoted to the upper first
grade in August and ranking as sergeant in 'I' company."
This record is only one example of many.
When manual-training schools organize their courses on the principle
of adapting the exercise to the ability to be developed, we shall have
abundance of similar proof. When these facts have been incontestably
established, there will be a means of satisfying the complaints of
those who are constantly attacking our schools because they develop
intellect and ruin character. "What is the use," say they, "of teaching
children to read and think if you do not make them honest and truthful?
How is it better for the community to educate liars and thieves merely
that they may lie and steal successfully in business and politics,
where they can not be caught, rather than to leave them in the slums,
where the police can get them?" The accusation is bitterly unjust
in many ways, but its force can be met by introducing a system of
character building based on a careful study of the means of developing
truthfulness, honesty, carefulness, persistence, bravery, courage under
defeat, and the other qualities that go to make up a true man. The
foundation of this system is to be found, I believe, in the _principle
of character-building by motor activity_.
The ladder of cross-education will be slowly climbed by psychological
investigators; if they find at the top a principle of such value and
wide application, surely the climb will have been worth the time and
trouble.
THE MORBID "SENSE OF INJURY."
BY W. F. BECKER, M. D.
As a fog about a ship removes it from exact relations to surroundings,
so, from the standpoint of morbid psychology, we may fancy the mind
peering through a more or less misty envelope to the true adjustment to
things--the "glass" through which we see "darkly." Were all action and
reaction of the mind to surroundings perfectly adapted, there could be
such a thing as _absolute_ sanity. So long, however, as evolution with
continuous readaptation and the processes of dissolution with attempted
adaptations continue, so long can there be but groping, imperfect
relations to surroundings, so long must there be defective or morbid
mental action, and sanity and insanity therefore but relative terms.
Thus many symptoms of the insane appear to be but varying degrees
of the morbid mental manifestations of health, and we may assume _a
priori_ that they have a common genesis and can be identified for
study. If we take, for example, one of the commonest of these--viz.,
the idea of persecution among the insane--we may safely identify it
with the "sense of injury" equally common among the sane.
By this "sense of injury" is meant that vague sense which afflicts many
of us at times of being the object of hostile feelings on the part
of others. No doubt we often _are_, for, in the stress of necessary
rivalry and conflict upon which progress depends, we give and take
injuries. But there remains a large excess of this "injured" feeling
which can not be so explained, or which is disproportionate to its
cause or entirely gratuitous, and is thus shifted into the field of
morbid psychology. This only is here treated--the _morbid_ sense of
injury.
It seems to find an easy entrance to the mind from a mere feeling of
being ill used or stinted in sympathy to the entertainment of serious
grievances or persecutory ideas. In certain temperaments it is marked.
On so-called "blue" days we are constantly moved to a "sense of injury"
from fancied aloofness of our friends. Madam Lofty slights us, and our
jaundiced imagination has it that she has heard something detrimental
and dislikes us. But lo! to-day, when the liver is released, madam
smiles sweetly, and never heard a thing.