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Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 293, 10 December 1910, Page 15

Moving pictures of the human brain in action through the medium of which medical scientists expect to solve the mystery of our subconscious thoughts, nre (says "Popular Science Sittings") among the latest developments of the X-ray in combination with the cinematograph. Dr. Max Baff tells us a scientist is constructing a microscopic attachment for an x-ray apparatus that, will ttnagnify to 5000 diameters. By the application of this device to the X-ray and cinematograph, the cells of the human brain will appear in action upon the screen enlarged to 5000 times their natural size. A record for future study will be made of the brain at work, showing what movements take place during the composition of thought. Various "subjects" will be invited to think the same thoughts, if possible, for purposes of microscopic comparison. It may be a tedious proceeding, but by means of these pictures scientists may yet be able to discover exactly what place in the cells of the brain every time a person, or half a dozen different persons, for that matter, think one particular thought. "By such pictures," says Dr. Baff, "we shall also be able to know to a' nicety whether or not a child is fitted for the studies he is taking. We shall know the capacity of the brain, and thereby decide whether or not the individual may profit appreciably by a college iducation. For example, a person may simulate insanity so well that the keenest observer may be deceived. But the rush of blood to the brain in real excesses of insanity is altogether different in quantity from the rush of blood occasioned by. the mental and physical strain of acting the part of insanity. Thus with these magnified Xray moving pictures the man. or woman who enters a defence of insanity for a crime will be subjected to a test that cannot be questioned."