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Show salt. lakk tkiuunk, bund ay mobndcg, November n, mx Ti;;: . eounting Habit cience Otudies trie If Uan t Xbu Oimply Kesist toe 1 emptation -- To m See Hew Man? ;. - Mata a Stories y Skyscraper, i 1 1 y , Hou; Many .Telegraph Poles MaJce a. Mile, V'-- V. Or Y Solve Any of a ThousaruLandOne Other Similar Stunts in Simple Mental Arkhmetkt Then You Are' Indulging in Common to 54 P Cent Harmless .Hobfry vl . the .Human Race o '',iifi. t. i . ' ' ,VAf SW" "Coimfan . , . one of the : worlat oldest msomma cure . t , n based on rhat science nov believes is an effort to forget & Workaday vorld in concentration , on meamngles numbers. iff T - VI V f Bj EMILY C. DAVIS O you count fene potti tiitettl u - " A t , t w & . V ' - J Jt t v - - " .' ' I -- ., "Stejs on a craclr . . break your uncle's back" thai isn't the exact version of. the sidewalk yrm Xou played as a' youngster, but some variation ..J5.Lll: "1 almost uriversal trail of childhood. lt t. It makes life work pleasantly for her. One day she alls ia what she wishes to do and the day is the thirteenth.-Thethe has to avoid everything connected with the thirteenth. It it no longer lucky; but unlucky." Such a person has shifted the responsibility of making ' decisions away from herself and placed the' responsibility squarely on the turn of magic numbers. If she happened to count 3 children playing in a school yard, her apprehensions would be aroused. Something unpleasant would happen. , If she then met a friend at the turn of the corner, her distorted imagination would probably suggest that the friend wished to do her evil and that she had been forewarned. And so the entire life of such a person becomes a maze pf ritual counting and fears and expectations. "Narvout ".people"'' aid Dr. Seif, "live either in" yetterday or tomorrow, but they mist th full consecration to the preser.t moment. It is not how long we live, but what we make of our life . Poz-nan- . ' i . ' it ... eMBtiajssisMiHiji ..5 . Jjou'can nave u are tin a tot 0 fun txercisinff your nobfcS wdh pMtet leflci ami art Um6re(t, tm L an'irSmo-tA)mi- c'. Com-plyin- sj to r plained. Among 96 college students evenly divided as to set, he found that 67 per cent of the women bad the ' habit at compared with, only 44 pel cent of the men. He jnade a retest, using .71 new students, and again Women were the chief counters. "This slant on the feminine mind is Unexpected considering the popular belief that women are inclined to shy from figures. If we look into the mat- - .' trr more closely, however, we can see that the popular belief is not necessarily discredited. For being addicted ? it to arithmo-thyrni- a very different righ's, then walk up the from having a mathematical turn of ' Pall . Mall, through the mindr - The individual who- - counts the Park, out at Buckingham street House, ndi to to Chelsea, people opposite in a counted nif Learned Doctor Samuel- Johnson , car is not really juggling with any prina little beyond the Church. foohlcps so he could al&ays ler$ the room tt 1 let out about tuhseV and ciple of arithmetic beyond the first lesthe same joot fittV sons in addition. The then In something ten Si an hour) mental effort of adding One to 23 is not it -- it two' to be compared with the mental effort of making a bank good milet, and just $748 ttept." account balance." But suppose you become to accustomed to counting ttept The psychologist's figures show that some of the students You omit that it is a regular part of your daily routine. count only one sort of object. Others are more libefal in their the counting process one morning, and an unpleasant tens In the interest. One student made a remark which the psychologist of incompletertest lurks in the back of your head. course of the day's Work an order it bailed up. and yo'r regards as tvoicalr- ;;, brain switchboard flathet instantly a connection between the "If I see something in a row. pictures upon the wall, for office difficulties and the failure to start the day according instance, I count them." Another student said: "I always count tie stations to custom. Superstition, luck, feat when these insidiously link themselves with the Counting habit, the inclination to Perhaps" I do' so because I always journeys. describe my journey in detail. I count the houses and jot count may soon shade over into a compulsion. down my precisejabservations in my diary." The" experiences of the students show that the counting 'VEN then the person may be captain of his fate. That habit occurs with very different degrees of distinctness and is. his counting impulse may not inter iere with hw daily force among normal people. life any more than a superstitious belief that events may be expected to go in series of threes, for good or evil. it may on is so powerful that an jBukK a, you are an arithmo-thymijnean tJiaLpjicejiLa while you set yourself some such task as counting the not dare to act contrary to kfhen he is aTirtirrr number of biojisuTcoata on the street, because it pops into of paralysed will, and be is eligible for fhe doubtfully de si ralle title of being an arithmmanic. your mind that an extraordinary num7ofrw1ivc1a6Tpe3pfir" In the part, psychologists have thought of the countinr are in sight. Or, you may count steps as you watk, because habit as bing abnormal. : because many patients luflerfnc your sense of precision pesters you to find out how many steps . you have to lake to reach ..a given point, or because, like Pa..from mental disease are slaves to a mania for counting, Sherlock Holmes, you believe in close attention to details ol tients with this compulsion to count 'ong go attracted the this sort. You may remember that he advised his f rienW of science, because their symptoms were conpicuou interest . I .1 I t It I I Watson to ascertain the number of steps in their lodin!! DiacnowsKi pointed oil! i.hat Here, as in otiif rrotessor house. domains, science at firl occuptet itsrlt w.iK. exireme ca.e in shis fashion, md in riie author Swift thai arithno ,ind lor a limit time It escorted .vhii 'Daqc..otJStella'. written- in 171 1, mamar rs mrrcly'mrahiroTmHfTtEtTt-ihT'Tanmon. i "I leave my best gown and periwig at Mrs. Vanhom- lo count.' - first-gra- ! . counting-compulsi- . .1 . amused-himsel- j ... obrvaW e 1. Copy rlt tt aiatttln it average pertoa who togaget In arithmo-thyrnthereby filling up the mental vacuum which hit brain Would abhor by spending hit time with thoughts that are painless and effortless. If m k couritina fence oottt he it not bothered by the letter he ought to write, nor the rent bill, nor the embarrassing remark he made that morning. Nor, on tht other hand, it he tolvinf any of the great and weighty problem of his . .. universe. Blachowski goet deeper into the when Professor Perhaps at ho hat promised to do, he will subject of arithrno-thymi- i, gather statistics en how much time the average arithmo-thymi- c spends at hit avocation, and whether thit should be cultivated at beneficial mental relaxation or condemned at innocuous "X desuetude, Ther are many form of habit closely allied to the counting impulse which are alto waiting for statistic! studies fend. Sama complete explanation from science, The learned-Dt- . uel Johnson tapped with his eane against fence railings in Fleet street a h walked along, and if he missed on he turned back to touch it He also had the habit of counting hi footstep to that he might go out of a door with the tame And counting footsteps, bjr the way, it still a foot first. more widespread habit, thn you might imagine. jj ia freight tar Countmti too, it harm leu . . . unes (on itorf trying mena( addi - . face-to-fa- to normal life Dr. Seif theory of people count, it appear that the APPLYING : c. ' - the Counting habit than men, t o t e 1 1 o r uiacnowtki tx IF n " " today." But it it difficult even, for the normal person to give himself wholly to a present situation with other people, the ptyttiiatrist continued, ws have to adjust ourselves continually to othet peobutton on t coat, ple, but while we talk we may be playing with or jingling coins in i pocket or counting the books on desk. Dr. Seif t explanation of these habitual acta it that- while we are yielding to the social situation and with al ike requirements of Our everyday' world, w keep one small part of ourselves independently to ourselves. Thai small oart of the oersonalitr which jingle or Countt hat retreated to what Dr. Seif calls a 'safety Island," where it atsertt itl independence. . - - 1 . more inclined 1 . . OMEN art' a you walk along the '"' . i ? - much more popular than nat heretofore, been supposrd. for" oO until now nobody hat taken the time to count the people who have the counting habit. .. A peychologist who apparently likei counting thing him-tehat at hut gathered statistic on the number of itudenU t hit university who have what he calls "rithmo-thymi- c inclinations." Hit discovery it that more than flat f ei these young people count one thing or another. It may be books on library bookshelves motif M Wail paper patterns buttons on clothing, ttept from en landing to another in university buildings, letters is tjtta Words on signboards, houts on each bleck in the towiVt A Complete list oi the or jectt that are found suitable for such Counting would be long And varied. The, student! who Wert questioned . y art at tn University oi in Poland. Out it h safe to lay that their mental habits arc fairly typical of human beings anywhere, and humane either. not merely college-ag- e The Poliih" professor. Stefan first presented his discovery, that counting objects it a prevalent oc cupntion. at the International Congress of Psychology held recently at YaJ. His address provoked lively discussion among his felloW psychologists. And wherever the Polish professor experi1 ments entered into A Conversation, I ' ' surprising number of Americans remarked, "Why 1 count that' way; . v ' Can you report precisely how man ttept yon Ule ivhen you walk home frott work ?. Do you find youraelf counting hi cm ot i painnu freight train or tbe automobile! that whu by al yon jriv down tlx load) '. If you do any of tltete mental arithmetic ituntt, or any etw of a hundred other similar one, you are Ujng your brain in manner that i highly popular with the human roe Jo" J. i- - .... Aon on the number painted en tht sides. jr. . yean ago, a French tctentitt Ginestoux, re; a society of anatomistt and physiologists the ttrange case of a young man who counted every letter In every phrase that cam to hit attention. Thit young man counted the letters in each tentence (hat he spoke, read, heard, The counting wrote, or thought. He had to. he explained. began when he awoke in the .morning and was kept ap unut ha fell asleep at night. If any tentence wat tpoken to him, THIRTY ho could immediately announce the number of letter it . contained. He had been at this incessant mental occupation since the age of 10, but ha told the scientist who investigated hit It did not case that he found hit habit no grtat burden. , Drevent him from holding a conversation, reading a book. not', from making a living at a profession, Ho Wat a placid and intelligent young man, in spite ol his arithmo-maniand that it the really remarkable part of hit: case. For most individuals who become saddled with the counting habit to the extent of incessant counting are no longer useful of contented members of society. Neediest to say, an individual it not likely to succumb to a counting mania unless his mental health it in a precarious When Professor Btachowski't re-- ' state from other causer. port. wat discussed at the International Congress of Psychology, Dr. Leonard Seif, of Munich, arose to suggest thai mental patients who cannot resist counting are using thit de- - -vice in order to escape from the retponsibilitiet of fif. The neurotic wishes to escape from the tasks that face him. His relations with other people have become disturbed in some way. and to when he hat to face responsibility or a task, he does something else, usually something useless, such as icounling, in order to evade his duty. take notrant that they .must not ttep on the .1. .LAM ...... .. .:J.....1L AW ....... tingle crack. A. A Milne delightfully shows the motive back of thit game in one of hi poem about Christopher Robin. Christopher imagines that matte of beeri wait at the corner to eat the til lie who tread on th lines, and he rHILD?lEN a, itvNE of these cases." the German psychiatrist ex-plained, "is a lady who wants to be a magician, thtHTnh this workaday planet is not arranged (or i -- -"" "magicians".-"- " ohe hs a magic number 13, and it n a wonderful nuat- " .: A and Sctritc Bcrio-rrlia V. " concludes: 1 4 "It't ever to 'portent how you walk, " And it' aver to jolly "to tall out, 'Bear. Just watch' me walking In all the tquaretl' When another, child than Christopher Robin ttept over ... . :j . ..... I l . .L. .l: , there it some victorious feeling of having escaped some- l. thing. ' . , - . Throughout all these mental stunts and habits there runs d human affinity for magic and a thread of the superstition. Alto, at Professor Blachowski ha ooiated out, there is a feeling of satisfaction which arises from letting things in peifect order and acting in a precise or rhythmical deep-roote- , , yj " Bt - - - apparently, are riot satisfied by our daily in Ameramusements, and so 54 per cent of ua a more ica, no doubt, as in Poland have arishmo-thymi- a . or less regular hobby. , These desires, f work and - |