The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-04-26
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

long DPtn KNOWN 10 surgeons tlat Wllel
|, a limb has been cut off the sufferer doe.
! not lose the consciousness of its existence
This has been found to be true i'm nearly
every such case. Only about five pei
cent. Of the men who have suffered am
: putatiOn never have any feeling of the
. part amputated as being still present. Ol
. the rest, there are few who in time come
= to forget the missing member, while the
, remainder seem to retain sense Of its eX-
istcnce SO vivid as to be more definite and
intrusive than is that of its truly living
fellow member.
| A person in this condition is haunted. as
it were, by Il constant or inconstant frac-
tiOnal phantom of so much of himself as
has been Topped of, an unseen ghost of the
lost part, and sometimes a presence made
sorely incOnvenient by the fact that while
but family felt at times, it is at others
acutely called to his attention by the pain
or irritation which it appears to suffer
from a blow on the stump or a change i'm
the weather.
There is something almost tragical,
something ghastly, in the notion of these
thousand spirit limbs haunting as many
good soldiers, and every now and then
tOrmcnting them with the disappOint-
mcnts which arise when, the memory be-
ing Offguard for a moment, the keen sense
Of the limbs presence bctrays the man
into some effort, the failure Of which re-
minds him of his loss.
Many persons feel the lost limb as ex-
listing the moment they awake from the
mcrciiul stnpOr Of the ether given to tic
| strOy the tOrmcnts Of the knife: others
come slowly to this consciousness in days
or weeks, and when the wound has healed:
but as general rule. the more sound and
serviceable the stump, especially If an ar
tificial limb be worn, the more likely is
the man to feel family the presence of his
sllOrn member. Sometimes q blow on the
stump will rpwaken such consciousness.
or, rs happened in one case, a reamputa-
ton higher up the limb will summon it
anew into seeming existence.
In many, the limb my be recalled to the
man by irritating the nerves i'm its stump.
Every doctor knows that when any part
of nerve is excited by pinch, a tap, or
by clectricity-which is an altogether
| harmless means-the pain if it be a nerve
Of feeling, is felt as II 1t were really caus-
ed i'm the part to which the nerve finally
passes. A familiar Illustration is met
| with when We hurt the IS crazy- bone he
hind the elbow. This crazy bone is mere
| " the ulnar nerve, which gives sensation
to the third and fourth fingers, and In
which the latter parts we feel the numb
ing pain Of blow on the main nerve. If
We were to divide this nerve below the ell
bow, the pain would still seem to be in
the fingers, nor would 1t alter the ease
we're the arm cut of. When therefore,
the current of battery Is turned upon
the nerves ot an arm stump. the Irritation
caused i'm the divided nerves j. carried to
the brain, and there referred at once to all
the regions of the lost limb from which,
when entire, these nerves brought those
impressions Of toucl, or pain which the
brain converts into sensations. As the
electric current disturbs the nerves, the
limb Is sometimes called back to sensory
being with startling reality.
On one occasion the shoulder was thus
electrified three inches above the point
where the arm had been cut off. For two
years the man had ceased to be conscious
Of the limb. As the current passed, al
though ignorant of its possible effect, he
started up, crying aloud, "Oh. thelhand,
the h;,nd!' and tried to seize 1t with the
living grasp Of the sound fingers. No
resurrection of the dead. no answer of |
summoned spirit, could have been more |
startling. As the current was broken the |
lost part faded again, only to be recalled |
by the same means. This man had ceas-
cd to feel his limb. With others it is |
presence never absent except in sleep.
POISONOUS PAPER.-A gentleman who |
has had fourteen years experience I'm the |
matter regarding which he now directs /
the attention Of the public, makes the
appalling statement not only that-as has |
long been generally yknOwn-green papers |
for house walls contain arscnical prepara-
tons which for years may evolve poison
Ous particles, but that arsenic Is used not |
only in papers containing green, but fire.
quently, and even in large quantities, i'm
papers of all cOlOrs, even in some that are
nearly white. As his authority. he quotes
''an eminent analytical chemist, late lee
turer ut st. Bartholomew HOspital-this
must he either DIR. StenllOuse or the late
Dr. Matthiesen)-tO whom he sent papers
Of many cOlOrs-dark, brown, huff. white.
blue, and various delicate shades of gray.
drab and mallve--which, from the symp-
toms to which they apparently gave rise.
were suspected of containing this metal.
The results of analysis were that, in
every instance, the papers which were
taken from bedroom walls contained
arsenic; and clearly indicate that lit is
impossible for any one. professionally or
otherwise, to judge by the eye whether a
paper contains arsenic or not, or whether
much or little" The Indications of pOis-
oning caused by the paper containing
only little arsenic were clear i'm each
case. After fourteen years suffering with
few intervals) from arsenical poisoning
entific position and power rs an observer
is vOuched for by the editor of the British
MEDICAL Jo,1ndi,' who publishes the pa
per-has given up having paper on his
walls, and the atmosphere of his rooms is,
he says, far purer than it was. II distem-
per or oil-painting he substituted for pa
per, care must be taken i'm the selection
of the pigments, many Of which also con-
tains arsenic, and have proved very in
furious. r
BEECHER ON NDARwINIsM.-HenryW Ward
Beecher has had his say on the Darwin
ian theory, and it is probable that the ma
jOrity Of mankind will be willing to ac-
ccpt his disposition Of the matter. lnhis
sermon preached on the substantial unity
of the race for all moral purposes, refer
ring to the view that man Is but an ex-
tension of the animal kingdom. i'm anal
opy to the growth Of the vegetable world,
ne said: do not care if one man came
from monkeys, another from alligators. l.,
and another from lizaryls-anything you
I could mould them Alright, it
makes no difference what they sprang
from. Ifin evolving, in working up, they
are substantially the same. the Important
questions are settled. We hear a great
deal about the length Of the heel and the
Of the chin! But are not all
men alike in all great fundamental points?
Are not the principles Of generation and
the same, whether Ethiopian,
Norman or Dane? Don't
we all have hvers, and stomachs, and
hearts, and spleen? If the Africans
heart could be proved to be in his liver,
that would be knock-down argument
against the unity Of the race but what
difference can a kink in the hair make?