Philosophers in Philadelphia

"Every one of us lives in a world all his own," philosophized Dr. Albert Francis Blakeslee in Philadelphia last week.

"Each of us reacts differently to the stimulus which we experience." To illustrate this familiar thesis Dr.

Blakeslee, director of the Carnegie Institution's station for experimental evolution on Long Island, produced 45 tablets of mannose, a sugar which is extracted from manna, a mildly cathartic gum secreted by certain Oriental trees. Mannose is notable for the wide variety of taste reactions which it causes. Dr. Blakeslee gave one tablet to each of the 45 members of the American Philosophical Society assembled before him. At a signal, all the savants raised their hands in unison, put the tablets in their mouths. Eighteen reported a sweet taste. Others said it was bitter, some said it was both sweet and bitter, still others could detect no taste at all. Dr. Blakeslee declared his belief that differences of taste among human beings are inborn.

Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1727, the American Philosophical Society is the oldest learned body in the U. S. Philosophy was once synonymous with science, and the society's usual convention agenda are almost wholly scientific, with frequent speculative spice and many a dash of human interest. Noteworthy discussions at last week's meeting:

Ape Addicts. At his famed colony of chimpanzees in Florida, Psychologist Robert Yerkes of Yale proved that other animals besides man could become drug fiends. With evident gusto, dapper Dr. Yerkes told the philosophers how he had made morphine addicts of two male apes eight years old. After the animals became reconciled to having their flesh pricked by dummy syringes, they were daily given one milligram of morphine per kilogram of body weight and the dose was increased to four milligrams (a much smaller intake than that of human addicts). Symptoms of addiction were increased "grooming" (scratching, skin picking, hair plucking), restlessness, nocturnal activity, gastric and bowel disturbances, slight loss of weight, increased amiability and apparent sense of wellbeing. Curiously, the pupils of the ape addicts' eyes dilated, whereas those of human drug-takers contract. The sexual effect was mixed: shortly after receiving his dose the animal would mate readily, later fly into a rage and fight if a female was brought near. If deprived of the drug in the early stages of addiction, the chimpanzees showed few signs of discomfort except yawning, moping, sweating, salivation. But if deprived at more advanced stages, they became acutely miserable, carried the syringe to the keeper, ignoring food which had been offered as an alternative choice. Dr. Yerkes declared that, if he had cared to risk the apes' lives for the sake of a sensational stunt, he could easily have taught them to inject themselves. He proposes to experiment with medicinal cures which, if successful, may also prove successful with humans.

Race & Metabolism, Dr. Francis Gano Benedict of the Carnegie Institution's Nutrition Laboratory is the man who solved the problem of taking an elephant's temperature, by inserting thermometers in its fresh excretions (TIME, May 11). He has measured the metabolism of a great range of subjects, including a nude artists' model whose feet he slapped with a ruler. Last week Dr. Benedict declared that to the four known factors affecting the rate of metabolism in humans (weight, height, age, sex), a fifth must be added--race.

Said he: "Even when allowances are made for differences in temperament (Oriental placidity versus Occidental tenseness) and for inexperience in serving as subjects for metabolism measurements, it is clearly shown that Oriental races in general have a metabolism somewhat lower than that of Caucasians in the U. S." Goodness & Money, Professor Edward Lee Thorndike, famed psychologist of Columbia University, read a paper entitled "How Pernicious Are Disparities in Wealth?" He has set up a criterion which he calls "G. G." (General Goodness of Living). In 117 medium-sized U. S. cities he calculated the G. G. of each on the basis of such factors as per capita value of schools, libraries, museums, parks, percentage of home owners, rarity of extreme poverty, infant death rate, general death rate. Then he arrived at the family income factor by house rents and values in those cities as reported by Federal census. He found that, although the cities differed considerably among themselves in G. G., only .004 of the difference could be accounted for by disparities in personal wealth. "The burden of proof," said he, "is certainly upon those who consider inequality of income as a major detriment." When newshawks asked Dr. Thorndike what he thought accounted for the remaining 99.6% of differences in G. G., he declined to discuss it, said he would go into that this week at the convention of the National Academy of Sciences.

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