ANTHROPOLOGY, 535 



time is ISSc the paranoiaced time is 174a', the maniacal type is 312a', 

 the demented 3440", the epileptic 36L>a, the melancholic 374a' — a very 

 snggestive table. 



Gniccardi and Cionini stndied the effect of repetition in shortening 

 the time of simple acts, and conclude that the more complicated the 

 act the greater abbreviating power has repetition. A simple touch 

 re-action was shortened ISa by 2o0 repetitions; distinguishing that a 

 single point was in contact by 1210"; the time of writing three letters 

 by 1,9560" in 500 repetitions; in associating a word, a diijference of 

 nearly five seconds betweeji the shortest and longest. 



Dr. Joseph Jastrow (Science, September 10, 1886, Proceedings of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, xxxv, p. 272) 

 proposes a simplification of the methods of measuring simple re-action 

 time, distinction time, choice time, and association time that dispenses 

 with all api)aratus except a watch, packs of cards, and slips of paper, 

 and is well suited for a class demonstration. The principle throughout 

 is to have a continuous series of the processes, the time of which is to be 

 measured, and by dividing, to get the time of a single act. For simjyie 

 re-actiontinies a circle of persons touch hands, and the time it takes for 

 a pressure to pass around the circle divided by the number of persons 

 (after considerable drill) gives a normal reaction time. [This was pre- 

 viously suggested by Dr. O. W. Holmes.] The perception time is meas- 

 ured by the difference in time necessary to throw down a pack of cards 

 one by one, and the time necessary to notice the color, suit, or the like 

 while throwing. The cards must be held with the backs towards the 

 subject. The additional choice time is gotten by subtracting the unre- 

 duced perception-times from the time needed for sorting the cards into 

 heaps according to suit, color, and so on. For the association time you 

 first get the sum of the association-times of two observers by subtract- 

 ing (fl) the time for each to call a certain number of words from (b) the 

 tin)e fur one to call a word to which the other replies with an associa- 

 tion-word, and in turn gives a call- word to the first, etc., and then group 

 a third person with each of the two in the same process. This gives 

 six equations, from which all the values may be ascertained. The 

 method is found to be satisfactorily accurate and admits of much varia- 

 tion and adaptation. 



Mr. Francis Galton (A descriptive list of Authropometrical Appa- 

 ratus) describes an instrument which by the release of a falling rod 

 on the presentation of the stimulus (to eye, ear, or touch), and by its 

 being caught again when the subject re-acts to the signal, measures 

 simple re-action-times very conveniently and without the need of an 

 .assistant. 



In announcing the publication of a journal of psychology, Prof. G. 

 Stanley Hall outlines the study as it now stands in the minds of ad- 

 vanced anthropologists. 



The records of psychological work of a scientific as distinct from a 



