Tx,6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ure, or incident of any kind evokes, in different persons, a response 

 that varies in intensity, celerity, and quality. An observer watching 

 children, heart and soul at their games, would soon collect enough 

 material to enable him to class them according to the quantity of 

 emotion that they showed. I will not attempt to describe particular 

 games of children or of others, nor to suggest experiments, more or 

 less comic, that might be secretly made to elicit the manifestations we 

 seek, as many such will occur to ingenious persons. They exist in 

 abundance, and I feel sure that, if two or three experimenters were 

 to act zealously and judiciously together as secret accomplices, they 

 would soon collect abundant statistics of conduct. They would grad- 

 ually simplify their test conditions and extend their scope, learning to 

 probe character more quickly and from more of its sides. 



It is a question by no means to be decided off-hand in the nega- 

 tive, whether instrumental measurements of the magnitude of the 

 reflex signs of emotion in persons who desire to submit themselves to 

 experiment are not feasible. The difficulty lies in the more limited 

 range of tests that can be used when the freedom of movement is 

 embarrassed by the necessary mechanism. The exciting cause of emo- 

 tion, whatever it be, a fright, a suspense, a scold, an insult, a grief, 

 must be believed to be genuine, or the tests would be worthless. It is 

 not possible to sham emotion thoroughly. A good actor may move 

 his audience as deeply as if they were witnessing a drama of real life, 

 but the best actor can not put himself into the exact frame of mind of 

 a real sufferer. If he did, the reflex and automatic signs of emotion 

 excited in his frame would be so numerous and violent that they would 

 shatter his constitution long before he had acted a dozen tragedies. 



The reflex signs of emotion that are perhaps the most easily regis- 

 tered are the palpitations of the heart. They can not be shammed or 

 repressed, and they are visible. Our poet-laureate has happily and 

 artistically exemplified this. He tells us that Launcelot, returning to 

 court after a long illness, through which he had been nursed by Elaine, 

 sent to crave an audience of the jealous queen. The messenger util- 

 izes the opportunity for observing her in the following ingenious way 

 like a born scientist : 



" Low drooping till he well-Digh kissed her feet 

 For loyal awe, saw with a sidelong eye 

 The shadow of a piece of pointed lace 

 In the queen's shadow, vibrate on the wall. 

 And parted, laughing in his courtly heart." 



Physiological experimenters are not content to look at shadows on 

 the wall, that depart and leave no mark. They obtain durable traces 

 by the aid of appropriate instruments. Maret's pretty little pneumo- 

 cardiograph is very portable, but not so sure in action as the more 

 bulky apparatus. It is applied tightly to the chest in front of the 

 heart, by a band passing round the body. At each to-and-fro move- 



