The Placer herald., 1867-01-19
LIGHTNING STROKES PAINLESS.

is inflicted The nerves are not the reposi.
tories Of sensa,ioni they are bu! the conduc'
tors Of the motion which produces senoatlon
The seat Of sensa,on is the brain, and 10 it
the intelligence of any in Jury done to the
nerves has 10 be transmitted, before that in-
Jury becomes manifest in consciousness
The transmission, moreover. requires time,
and the co.'s, quenre is that n wound inhlc,.
ed at a portion Of the body distant from the
brain is moro ,ardy appreciated that one
inflicted adjacent to the brain. BY an In
genous experimental arrangement, Helm
bollz has determined the velocity OF ners
vous transmission both in warm blooded
and cold blooded animals. In frog, he
found the velocity to be about eighty feet
a second, or less than one thirteenth Of the
velocity Of sound in air. II this holds
good, which it probably does, in the case of
a whale, then creature Of this class eighty
feet long, if wounded in the tail, would moi;
the i, jury ill Sc nd after the wound had
been Inflicted. But this is not the only -
gredient in the delay that occu:s between
the impression on the nerves and the con-
sciousness Of the impression. There can
scarcely be doubt that to every act Of COM
sciousness belongs de,erminate molecular
arrangement Of the brain that every
thought or feeling bu. his physical correla
tive in that organ; and nothing can be more
certain than that every physical change,
whether molecular or mechanical, requires
time for its accomplishment. SO that, even
after the intel gence Of an impression, made
| l;.t,pt Nortino <( bo k,,lu k,o
reached the brain, still further time is
necessary for the brain itself TO put its house
in order-for It's molecules 10 take up the
position necessary to the completion Of
consciousness. lIelmbol,z considers one
tenth of second necessary for this purpose.
Thus in the case Of the whale, we have one
second consumed in the transmission Of ~
telligence through the censor nerves from
the tail to the head; oneenth of q second
is required by the brain to become conscious
Of the intelligence it has received, and, if
the velocity of transmission through the
motor be the same as that through the CEN
sor nerves, a second would Le consumed in
sending command TO the tail TO defend
itself. Thus more than two seconds would
elapss before an impression made upon it's
caudaI nerves could be responded to by a
whale eighty feet long.
Now, it is quite conceivable that an in
jury might be inflicted which would render
the nerves unfit 10 be the conductors of the
motion which results in sensation; and if
such thing occurred, no matter how se'
we're The injury might be, We should not he
conscious of it. Or it may be. that long be-
fore the time required for the brain itself
to complete the arrangement necessary for
the act Of consciousness, its power Of ar
rangement nigh, be wholly suspended. In
such case alao, though the injury might be
Of such a nature as to cause death, this
would occur not only wi,hou. pain. but ab
sou,s|y without feeling Of any kind.
Death, n this case, would be simply the
negation Of life, accomplished without any
intervention consciousness. Doubtless, there
are many kinds OF death of this character.
The passage of a musket ball through the
brain is case in point; and the placid aspect
of man thus killed is in perfect accordance
with the conclusion which might he drawn
a priori from the experiments Of H-lmbollz.
Cases Of insensbili,y, moreover, are not un-
common, which do not result in death, and
after which the person affected has been
able to testify that no pain was felt prior to
the loss Of consciousness.
The time required for a rihe-bullet to pass
through mans head may be roughly est-
mated at one.thousandlh Of a second. Here,
therefore, we should have no room for SEN
sa,ion, and death would be painless. But
there are other actions which far transcend
10 rapidity that Of the rite-bullet. A flash
Of lightning cleaves cloud; appearing and
disappearing in less than ne-hundred- thou
sandth Of second; and the velocity Of elec
tricty is such a. would carry it over dis
tance equal to that which separates the
eerth and moon in single second. 1t is
we'll known that luminous impression once
made upon the restina endures for about
one.six,h Of second, and that this is the
reason why we can see ribbon Of light
when a glowing coal is caused TO pass rapid
ly through the air. A body illuminated by
an instantaneous flash continues to be seen
for the sixth Of second after the flash has
become extinct, and if the body thus iIIumi-
mated be in motion, it appears at rest at the
place which it occupied when the flash fell
upon it. The color-topis familiar to most
Of Us. BY this instrument disk with df
ferenlly colored sections is caused to rotate
rapidly, the coIors blend together, and if
they are chosen in the proportion necessary
to form white light, the disk appears white
when the motion is sufficiently rapid. Such
top, rotating iu dark room, and iIlumi
mated by an electric spark, appears notion
less, each distinct color being clearly seen.
Professor Dove has found that flash of
lightning produces the same effect! During
thunder storm be put color top in ex
ceedingly rapid motion, and found that
every fash revealed top as motonless
object, with coors distinct. II illuminated
solely by flash ofightnng, the motion Of
all bodies on the earth's surface would, as
Dove has remarked, appear suspended. A
cannon ball, for example, would have its