132 P87GH0L0GT. 



Dr. Romanes gives an interesting variation of these 

 time-measurements. He found * 



' ' an astonishing difference between different individuals with respect 

 to tlie rate at which they are able to read. Of course reading implies 

 enormously intricate processes of perception both of the sensuous and 

 of the intellectual order ; but if we choose for these observations poi- 

 sons who have been accustomed to read much, we may consider that 

 they ai'e all very much on a par with respect to the amount of practice 

 which they have had, so that the differences in their rates of reading 

 may fairly be attributed to real differences in their rates of forming 

 complex perceptions in rapid succession, and not to any merely acci- 

 dental differences arising from greater or less facility acquired by 

 special practice. 



" My experiments consisted in marking a brief printed paragraph in 

 ft book which had never been read by any of the persons to whom it 

 was to be presented. The paragraph, which contained simple state- 

 ments of simple facts, was marked on the margin with pencil. The 

 book was then placed before the reader open, the page, however, being 

 covered with a sheet of paper. Having pointed out to the reader upon 

 this sheet of paper what part of the underlying page the marked para- 

 graph occupied, I suddenly removed the sheet of paper with one hand, 

 while I started a chronograph with the other. Twenty seconds being 

 allowed for reading the paragraph (ten lines octavo), as soon as the 

 time was up I again suddenly placed the sheet of paper over the printed 

 page, passed the book on to the next reader, and repeated the experi- 

 ment as before. Meanwhile, the first reader, the moment after the 

 book had been removed, wrote down all that he or she could remember 

 having read. And so on with all the other readers. 



"Now the results of a number of experiments conducted on this 

 method were to show, as I have said, astonishing differences in the 

 maximum rate of reading which is possible to different individuals, all 

 of whom have been accustomed to extensive reading. That is to say, 

 the difference may amount to 4 to 1 ; or, otherwise stated, in a given 

 time one individual may be able to read four times as much as another. 

 Moreover, it appeared that there was no relationship between slowness 

 of reading and power of assimilation ; on the contrary, when all the 

 efforts are directed to assimilating as much as possible in a given time, 

 the rapid readers (as shown by their written notes) usually give a bet- 

 ter account of the portions of the paragraph which have been com- 

 passed by the slow readers than the latter are able to give ; and the 

 most rapid reader I have found is also the best at assimilating. I 

 should further say that there is no relationship between rapidity of 

 perception as thus tested and intellectual activity as tested by the gen- 

 eral results of intellectual work ; for I have tried the experiment with 



* Mental Evolution in Animals, p. 136. 



