THE INTELLECTUAL PILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3604, 17 August 1912, Page 3

THE INTELLECTUAL PILL.

CLAIMED STIMULATES THOUGHT

It took a German scientist to invent the intellectual pill. The basis of this is a drug called antikenotoxin, which has the quality of neutralising the poisons which are said to be the cause of mental fatigue. Dr Weichardt, professor at the University of Erlangen, recently demonstrated that the muscles of animals suffering from physical or mental weariness secrete a certain poison, to which he gave the name kenotoxin. Then it was shown that antikenotoxin injected into a man increased his physical and mental vigor.

This led Prof. Lorentz to think of utilising antikenotoxin to stimulate brain work.. He considered that errors of calculation, for example, should be set down to fatigue. He found that problems given to bis class in mathematics at the beginning of the lesson were solved in five minutes by three students; in eight minutes by thirty-three, in ten minutes by sixteen. Other similar problems given at the close of the lesson, were solved in five minutes by one student; in eight minutes by twenty-seven; in ten minutes by twenty-three. Evidently, said the professor, it is mental fatigue that causes the slower work.

On a subsequent day Prof. Loren tz vaporised antikenotoxin in the classroom first before the close of the period, and then set his pupils problems as before. The result was that they were solved in three minutes by three, students; in four minutes by thirtyone, and in ten minutes by one. And the solutions contained fewer errors than usual.

This was the origin of Dr Lorentz’s intellectual pills ! European physicians are still a- hit sceptical, ..saying the pills must bo subjected to more thorough tests.