POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



285 



culation which can pass the lungs. The 

 respiratory type acquired by the gymnast 

 consists in an enormous increase in the ex- 

 pansion of the chest and a notable retarda- 

 tion of the thoracic movements. M. Marey 

 and Dr. Hillairet selected five recruits and 

 registered the rate of respiration of each of 

 them when at rest, and again after they had 

 run a course of six hundred metres at the 

 gymnastic pace. By following the changes 

 of respiration of these gymnasts from month 

 to month, a series of curves was obtained, 

 and the following results were furnished : 

 At first, respiration was very perceptibly 

 modified by the running ; but toward the 

 end of the experiments, that is, after four 

 or five months of the exercises, it was al- 

 most impossible to distinguish any change 

 in the respiration of the men who had run ; 

 and this, notwithstanding their gait had be- 

 cdme a little more rapid, and they ran over 

 the six hundred metres in three minutes and 

 fifty seconds. The figures show that the 

 modification of the respiratory movements 

 is permanent that is, that it is maintained 

 when the man is at rest. The number of 

 respirations is reduced, in the mean, from 

 twenty to about twelve in a minute, and 

 their amplitude is more than quadrupled. 

 We may conclude, then, that these soldiers, 

 after having experienced the effects of gym- 

 nastic training, breathe about twice as much 

 air as before they were subjected to the dis- 

 cipline. 



Expectant Attention in Animals. A re- 

 markable instance of sagacity in animals is 

 described in an article on " Mental Physiol- 

 ogy " in a late number of the " Edinburgh 

 Review," in the case of a dog that belonged 

 to Professor Huggins. This dog, Kepler, 

 had the faculty of answering correctly with 

 his barkings arithmetical questions, includ- 

 ing such problems as giving the square root 

 of nine or sixteen, or the result of addinsr 

 seven to eight, dividing the sum by three, 

 and multiplying the quotient by two. No 

 power of calculation was implied in this 

 exercise, or operation of the understanding, 

 however it may have seemed. The case was 

 simply one of what is called by physiologists 

 expectant attention. A clew to the process 

 is given by the statement in the story that, 

 until the solution was arrived at, Kepler 



never moved his eye from his master's face, 

 but the instant the last bark was given he 

 transferred his attention to the cake which 

 was always held before him as a reward for 

 a successful performance. Professor Hug- 

 gins, the writer continues, was perfectly un- 

 conscious of suggesting the proper answer 

 to the dog, but it is beyond all question that 

 he did so. The wonderful fact is, that Kep- 

 ler had acquired the habit of reading in his 

 master's eye or countenance some indication 

 that was not known to Professor Huggins 

 himself. Professor Huggins was engaged in 

 working out mentally the various stages of 

 his arithmetical processes as he propound- 

 ed the numbers to Kepler, and, being aware, 

 therefore, of what the answer should be, 

 expected the dog to cease barking when the 

 number was reached ; and that expectation 

 sua-o'csted to his own brain the unconscious 

 signal which was caught by the quick eye 

 of the dog. In an analogous manner, a per- 

 son swinging a button by a thread near the 

 rim of a glass will unwittingly cause it to 

 strike the hour, if he knows the hour, through 

 the unconscious control of his brain over the 

 movements of his fincrer. 



Change as a Mental Restorative. Dr. 



Joseph Mortimer-Granville, discussing in tha 

 " Lancet " the subject of " Change as a 

 Mental Restorative," shows that great dis- 

 crimination is needed in prescribing this 

 remedy. Some patients there are, such as 

 those who have become wearied with a pur- 

 poseless life or one of idle dissipation, who 

 have become worn out with change, and to 

 whom a prescription of it for its own sake, 

 without consideration of the circumstances, 

 would only impose an additional infliction. 

 They are most difficult cases to deal with, 

 and demand especial study. The change 

 which a person of this kind requires is " one 

 that will stir a deeper spring of energy than 

 has yet supplied him with motive-force, by 

 compelling his recognition of the responsi- 

 bilities of life. It is idle to hope that he 

 can be roused to action by the discoveiy of 

 a new pleasure. . . . The energies of such 

 a character are more likely to be called out 

 by pain and necessity than by pleasure and 

 satisfaction." Some men of pleasure have 

 been delivered from the extreme of ennui, 

 which they had reached, by the loss of for- 



