Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/61

Rh large experiences in many lines. "In 1846 and 1847 he traveled in Egypt. In 1850 he began explorations in South Africa, landing at Walfisch bay on the west coast and spending two years in the interior, which was then known as Damaraland; where he discovered the Ovampo tribe of natives, a very interesting branch of the Bantu race of Africa which had become completely separated from the rest of their people and consequently developed different customs and habits. He published two books on the subject of his travels in the Dark Continent, An Explorer in Tropical South Africa and Art of Travel. A visit to the north of Spain in 1860 was described in Vacation Tourists.

Galton then turned to meterology. In 1863 he published his Meteorographica, which was the first serious attempt to chart the weather on an extensive scale and in which was outlined for the first time the theory of anti-cyclones, which has since become one of the fundamental principles of present day weather forecasting. Also in this publication, Galton called attention to the phenomena of atmospheric displacement and storms. He showed that dense air is warmer than normal air, and will hold in suspension in the form of vapor a higher percentage of water; that is to say, its degree of humidity is greater. As it expands it becomes cooler, loses a measure of this capacity, and precipitates more or less of the moisture it contains in the form of rain, hail or snow in parts or all of the surrounding region.

BOUT this time, Galton, inspired by his cousin's Origin of Species (1859), began to study anthropology, heredity and the application of statistics to human attributes. He is regarded as the great authority on the subject of human heredity, having put that science on a quantitative basis. In a series of remarkable publications, he laid the foundation of the science of eugenics. For the improvement of mankind, he advocated the furthering of the productivity of the fit and the restricting of the birth-rate of the unfit.

Galton also made special investigations of color blindness, mental imagery, instincts, number forms and of criminality; he originated the process of composite portraiture, and paid much attention to fingerprints and their employment for the indentificationidentification [sic] of criminals.

Galton was knighted in 1909. He died at Haslemere on January 17, 1911, founding by his will a laboratory for the study of national eugenics. His chief scientific works are: Hereditary Genius (1869); English Men of Science (1874); Inquiries into Human Faculty (1883); Record of Family Faculties (1884); Natural Inheritance (1889); Finger Prints (1892); Finger Print Directories Eugenics (1900). THE END 



HAT mass of grey matter lodged tenderly in the cranium, called the brain, has an electrical beat all its own. The beats are measured by a newly discovered instrument with a formidable title, the electroencephalograph. Every individual has a pattern of brain waves as distinctive as his outward features.

To record these hidden beats, a pair of electrodes are fastened on 'the head, one on the forehead, the other on the back of the skull, and these are connected with a kind of radio set containing amplifying vacuum tubes. The electrical beats then picked up are recorded by writing points upon a moving strip of paper, making a pattern of waves.

Just as the heart has a normal beat when it is not being driven by pressure during excessive body action, so has the brain when it is not being taxed by thinking. This fundamental beat is called the alpha rhythm and comes at the rate of about 10 per second.

Studies of the brain waves have revealed astounding and beneficial characteristics of the beats. For instance, in sleep, the alpha rhythm undergoes five different changes according to the depth of the sleep. Perhaps the most important discovery concerning brain waves is that they can be used in detecting brain tumors and some types of epilepsy.

This amazing gadget to measure the height and speed of the brain waves came to the attention of Professor George L. Keezer of Cornell and he was immediately struck by the possibility of using the electroencephalograph to measure intelligence. He decided to determine the relation of alpha rhythm to intelligence. He discovered that as the intelligence increased, the height of the alpha waves also showed a tendency to change.

But Dr. Keezer knew perfectly well that other conditions might have caused the wave pattern to change, so he did not offer his results as final. However, if he is right, and the electroencephalograph can distinguish one level of intelligence from another, a great advance in psychological methods will have been made.

Some people have thought that the electroencephalograph might be able to measure thought, but that cannot be done. It would be like trying to reconstruct a radio broadcasting system merely by listening to sounds that come out of a loudspeaker. But intelligence is measurable, and maybe the brain wave machine can eventually be made to measure it. Carter T. Wainwright.