RECORDS OF MEETINGS OF 1908 



465 



arm movement. To the car of the Cattell-Fullerton extent of movement 

 apparatus is attached a signal magnet, which controls the vibrations of an 

 enlarged Pfeil time marker. On a smoked paper, stretched on a horizontal 

 frame, the writing point traces the extent of the movement and records the 

 time in twentieths of a second. The interruptions are made by means of a 

 reed oscillator. The car pulls against a set of springs, which are adjustable, 

 so that the force may be varied independently of the extent, but correlated 

 with it empirically. A pulley attachment provides for the use of w^eights in- 

 stead of springs. The traditional method of controlling the extent of a 

 movement by impact against an upright is found to cause a large positive 

 constant error which is a function of the force of impact, and the magnitude 

 of which increases the variable error. When the movement was blocked 

 at one centimeter from the starting-point, the varying speeds, indicated in 

 mm. per tenth of a second, gave the following results: 



Speed 68 100 110 



Constant error +138 mm. +174 mm. +171 mm. 



Variable error 30 " 42 " 41 " 



"When stopped at two centimeters: 



Speed 32 120 138 



Constant error +100 mm. +158 mm. +166 mm. 



Variable error 24 " 38 " 32 " 



When stopped at three centimeters: 



Speed 103 155 



Constant error + 90 mm. + 132 mm. 



Variable error 24 " 28 



In order to eliminate this factor a sound hammer, introduced at optional 

 points along the track, serves as a signal for stopping the movement. The 

 movement is thus terminated by the subject himself and becomes a unit, 

 commensurable with any other free movement. 



Dr. Meyer, in his paper, noted as a characteristic sign of our times in 

 psychopathology, as in other biological and extrabiological domains, the 

 surrender of the quest for the final nature of events in terms of physicochem- 

 ical materialism. The chase for the noumenon, or Ding an sich, has lost 

 its charm. We realize that much of what is expressed in psychology or 

 psychopathology in terms of nerve-cells is pseudo-scientific tautology, the 

 facts on which the claims are based being extra neurological, and the in- 

 ferences being often enough not only unverifiable, but directly opposed by 

 what we know in terms of nerve histology and nerve physiology. This form 



