SCIENCE. 



253 



Suppose we smoke the interior of our spectrophonic 

 receiver, and fill the cavity with peroxide of nitrogen gas. 

 We have then a combination that gives us good sounds 

 in all parts of the spectrum (visible and invisible), except 

 the ultra-violet. Now, pass a rapidly-interrupted beam of 

 light through some substance whose absorption spectrum 

 is to be investigated, and bands of sound and silence are 

 observed upon exploring the spectrum, the silent posi- 

 tions corresponding to the absorption bands. Of course, 

 the ear cannot for one moment compete with the eye in 

 the examination of the visible part of the spectrum ; but 

 in the invisible part beyond the red, where the eye is use- 

 less, the ear is invaluable. In working in this region of 

 the spectrum, lamp-black alone may be used in the spec- 

 trophonic receiver. Indeed, the sounds produced by this 

 substance in the ultra-red are so well marked as to con- 

 stitute our instrument a most reliable and convenient sub- 

 stitute for the thermo-pile. A few experiments that have 

 been made may be interesting. 



(1.) The interrupted beam was filtered through a sat- 

 urated solution of alum. 



Result : The range of audibility in the ultra-red was 

 slightly reduced by the absorption of a narrow band of 

 the rays of lowest refrangibihty. The sounds in the visi- 

 ble part of the spectrum seemed to be unaffected. 



(2.) A thin sheet of hard rubber was interposed in the 

 path of the beam. 



Result : Well-marked sounds in every part of the ultra- 

 red. No sounds in the visible part of the spectrum, ex- 

 cepting the extreme half of the red. 



These experiments reveal the cause of the curious fact 

 alluded to in my paper read before the American Asso- 

 ciation last August — that sounds were heard from 

 selenium when the beam was filtered through both hard 

 rubber and alum at the same time. (See table of results 

 in Fig. 14.*) 



(3.) A solution of ammonio-sulphate of copper was 

 tried. 



Result : When placed in the path of the beam the 

 spectrum disappeared, with the exception of the blue and 

 violet end. To the eye the spectrum was thus reduced 

 to a single broad band of blue-violet light. To the ear, 

 however, the spectrum revealed itself as two bands of 

 sound with a broad space of silence between. The in- 

 visible rays transmitted constituted a narrow band just 

 outside the red. 



I think I have said enough to convince you of the value 

 of this new method of examination, but I do not wish 

 you to understand that we look upon our results as by 

 any means complete. It is often more interesting to 

 observe the first totterings of a child than to watch the 

 firm tread of a full-grown man, and I feel that our first 

 footsteps in this new field of science may have more of 

 interest to you than the fuller results of mature research. 

 This must be my excuse for having dwelt so long upon 

 the details of incomplete experiments. 



I recognize the fact that the spectrophone must ever 

 remain a mere adjunct to the spectroscope, but I antici- 

 pate that it has a wide and independent field of useful- 

 ness in the investigation of absorption spectra in the 

 ultra-red. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO COMPARATIVE PSY- 

 CHOLOGY. 



By S. V. Clevenger, M. D. 



I. INSTINCT AND REASON. 



In St. George Mivart's recent work, "The Cat," Chap. 

 XI treats of the Psychology of that animal. Amidst the 

 usual ambiguity to be found wherever such subjects are 



*See page 250 for illustrations. 



treated, Mivart occasionally formulates his views. On 

 page 369 his words admit of no other interpretation than 

 an acknowledgement that instinct is nearly, though not 

 quite pure automatism. The possession of reason by the 

 cat is at first evasively dealt with, and finally on page 

 373, flatly denied. Mivart finds fault with Herbert Spen- 

 cer's views as to instinct : "According to Mr. Spencer it 

 is a higher development of reason which it has replaced, 

 owing to the establishment of a more perfect adjustment 

 of inner relations to outer relations than exists where 

 mere reason is concerned." That opinion of Spencer's 

 is one of the many which deserves to be rescued from the 

 oblivion his involved style threatens to inflict upon the 

 mass of his writings. From pure morphological and his- 

 tological observations I have been led to the conclusions at 

 which Spencer arrives by a wholly different route. The 

 nervous system is a net-work of conducting substance 

 interrelating the units of the animal body. 



In an article by Spitzka (" Insane Delusions " page 34, 

 Journal Nervous and Mental Disease, January, 1881), 

 occur the following words : " In fact I should, if asked to 

 point to the chief factor on which the higher powers of 

 the human brain depend, lay less stress on the cortical de- 

 velopment as such, than in the immense preponderance of 

 the white substance clue to the massive associating 

 tracts." 



Automaticity created by unvarying persistence of im- 

 pressions resulting in certain definite movements, whether 

 occurring through heredity, or during the lifetime of the 

 individual (as proficiency in piano playing, etc.), has, for 

 its material substratum, absolute definiteness of associa- 

 tion of those parts which the nervous system connects ; 

 thus, regarded as a colony, the component individuals of 

 the organism are brought into thorough automatic rela- 

 tionship with one another, and to that part of the environ- 

 ment to which the organism responds instinctively. 



On the other hand reason is represented by the discon- 

 nected, shifting, short and long nerve fibres, as the arcu- 

 ate of the cerebrum, not as yet assigned to any definite 

 location. Reason thus is the struggle toward automa- 

 tism. Instinct is the outcome of the struggle. Broadly 

 viewing the higher nervous organization of animals there 

 is a perpetual tendency to the establishment of nerve 

 routes which would eventuate in handing over perfect 

 control of every function to the highest nerve system. 

 Spitzka expresses this (Architecture of the Brain, page 

 649 J. N. & M. D. Oct. 1879) : "With the development of 

 these highest projection fibres, the cerebral hemispheres 

 gradually encroached on the independency of the lower 

 ganglia, until in its maximal development as found in 

 man, it resembles a great empire which holds a number 

 of tributary states in sway under a common powerful 

 rule. The automatical unity now attained, finds its par- 

 allel psychical culmination in that more perfect conscious- 

 ness of the ego, which is peculiar to man." There is 

 nothing debatable about this tendency on the part of the 

 nervous system ; the greater relative masses of the longi- 

 tudinal and transverse associating tracts in the spinal 

 cords, spinal and cerebro-spinal nerves and brains of all 

 animals, in proportion to their reasoning and instinctive 

 abilities, point to a prevailing law which seei<s the reduc- 

 tion of all animal movements to the simplest mechanical 

 methods. A corollary from instinct being perfected 

 reason, would be that the saivation of reason to 

 the race depended upon the vicissitudes and shifting cir- 

 cumstances with which we are surrounded, amounting to 

 rescue from the fate mentioned by Wallace in degrada- 

 tion through parasitism. DeQuincey calls the human 

 brain a palimpsest. In old age new tissues of any kind 

 are formed with difficulty, new routes in the brain strive 

 in vain for establishment; in senility the nervous tracts 

 established in youth, and upon which all subsequent as- 

 sociations are founded, are the last to suffer disintegra- 

 tion, hence youthful recollections become at this time 

 more vivid. 



