HABIT FORMATION AND FEELING QUALITIES 261 



proach to equality between the dimensions without a large ex- 

 cess of boxes. The boxes were 3.5 inches in width, 2 in height 

 and 4 in depth, thus permitting a free unhampered distribution 

 by a slight tossing of the card, if the subject so desired. Uni- 

 formity of labels for the boxes was secured by using the picture 

 labels printed on the corners of the playing cards. These were 

 inserted in clips at the upper right corners of the boxes (diagram 

 1). Prominence was given to the labels by staining the boxes a 

 dead black. The lower edge of the bottom row of boxes and the 

 lower edge of the upper row was 37 and 54 inches respectively from 

 the floor. A black cardboard fixed to a wooden frame, supported 

 by a pulley and adjusted to move up and down readily in front 

 of the case served to expose or screen the case as required. Two 

 cases were fitted up for two slightly different plans of work 

 and placed in a dark room. The electric lamps used for lighting 

 bore reflectors so adjusted as to throw the light on the case and 

 at the same time to shield the eyes of the subject from its glare. 

 A small space, 4 by 5 feet was curtained off for each case. This 

 enabled the subjects to work unobserved and afforded conditions 

 quite similar to those employed in railway mail cars and in cen- 

 tral post offices for distributing mail. 2 Over and above the feel- 

 ings growing out of the distributing process, which were likely 

 to appear, wax and wane irregularly in time, quality and inten- 

 sity, it seemed desirable to create feelings by artificial means with 

 the view to control their temporal and qualitative ways of ap- 

 pearing. For this purpose supposedly pleasant and unpleasant 

 visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory stimuli were em- 

 ployed. The visual stimuli consisted of artistic pictures, and of 

 photographs of the human body bearing malignant tumors and 

 surgical scars; the pleasant auditory was made by three har- 

 monious tuning forks mounted on resonant boxes, and the un- 

 pleasant auditory, by a half dozen empty cocoa cans tied in a 



2 Some fourteen years ago I observed two men as railway mail clerks distribute 

 "practice" cards to a mail case labeled with routes for dispatching mail. The 

 combination of cards and practice-case suggested the possibilities of their use 

 as apparatus for the study of the integration of movements and of the develop- 

 ment of the sense of position. 



PSYCHOBIOLOGY, VOL. II, NO. 3 



