EVEN FROG NERVES THINK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 75, 29 March 1928, Page 9

EVEN FROG NERVES THINK.

WHAT CHICAGO FOUND. SIMPLE CHEMICAL IDEA, NOT BRAIN SPASM CHICAGO, February 25. Thought, as defined in the dictionary, is "mental concentration on ideas as distinguished from sense perceptions or emotions." Dr. Waldo Gerard, of the University of Chicago, however, is engaged in experiments to show it to be merely a cheuical process.

The work of Dr. Gerard, an assistant professor of physiology, has been conducted with the themopile, an apparatus ao delicate it can detect one-millionth part of one-millionth of an ampere of electricity. His theory is that all stimulation of nerve activity results in chemical reactions, which produce heat.

Minute electric shocks were used to stimulate artificially the nerve fibres, which brought about chemical reactions, which in turn produced heat. The heat was converted into electricity and the intensity of the current measured. Nerves extracted from live frogs were used in the experiments. Dr. Anton J. Carlson, chairman of the department of physiology said: "Dr. Gerard's work in the field of nerve physiology is an achievement comparable to that of Professor A. A. Michelson in physics."