1 889. J ArchcBology and Anthropology. 515 
miles of wire, over the land like the network of the fowler, and 
through the sea like the seine of the fisherman, until with its 
sudden cession, the trade, commerce, and government of the 
world would come to a standstill ? 
Professor Bell, one of our countrymen, has taken one of these 
wires — it may be a thousand miles long — and put on it at one 
end a patent mouth and at the other a patent ear, which can 
speak and hear with as much distinctness as if they were both 
attached to the same head. 
The latest invention is a machine, about the size of a small 
sewing machine, into which one may speak in his natural 
voice, then boxing up his speech, may, after a thousand years 
of time, or at a thousand miles distance, by the simple turning 
of a crank, unwind the same speech in the same tone and voice 
as it was spoken. 
Surely, there is much new under the sun. 
After this preamble upon the possibilities of science, let us 
see if we may not measure and record in figures the attributes 
of man's mind. 
Man holds communication with the outside world through 
his^ five senses. The action of either of those produce a sen- 
sation. Sensation produces perception, and perception intelli- 
gence. If we can measure the sensation we are on the road to 
measuring the perception, and so on, to the understanding and 
intelligence, and possibly the mind in its more subtle and 
abstruse operations. 
What a conquest of science if we could be able to measure 
the sensations produced upon the mind, and passing through 
the upward scale, to calculate the mental force expended, say by 
Webster in his great constitutional arguments, or by deter- 
mming the vividness and depth of perception, and so of under- 
standing ; to be able to calculate, by mathematical formulas, the 
reserve mental power necessary to make such arguments. 
Decision requires an entire mental operation. It pre-sup- 
poses choice; choice, discrimination; discrimination, impres- 
sion or sensibility; and this, sensation, which is obtained 
through one of the organs of sense. The operation of this or- 
gan, say of sight, can be easily measured, and one step accom- 
plished. Is it not possible to continue it further ? 
The higher and more complex operations of the human mind 
may not now be measured. But why not the lower and sim- 
pler? When thus measured in different individuals may not 
their differences denote their differences in mental calibre? 
