Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-14
MAN AS A LIGHTNING ROD.
A Conductor Between the Air Above
md the Enrth BcIOM.


ana the Earth Below.
1t is possible, and even probable, that the
electrical conditions of the atmosphere have
an important bearing on bodily health. AS
evidence of this, says the London Lancet, may
be instanced that tendency to headache, irri-
liability and general malaise experienced by
many persons just previous to a thunder
storm. Among the conditions that pred!spose
to sunstroke in India there has been noticed
that peculiar condition of the air lin which
the hairs of a horses tail repel each other, in
which the hairs of the head stand on end, in
which a man exposed to its influence becomes
irritable, headachy and restless without knjw-
ing exactly what is the matter with him."
Various observers have remarked that a thun-
der storm Is often preceded by an increased
frequency of cases of heat apopleXy. Whether
this phenomenon be strictly attributable to
electrical conditions, to the heat, to some al
t~eration in the respirability Of the air, or to
other causes, it is difficult to determine.
As to the source of atmospheric electricity
there are many hypothesis, but little positive
knowledge. The problem of the thunder cloud
still awaits solution; yet this would seem only
to require a series of well arranged laboratory
experiments on a sufficiently extensive scale.
In the meantime, 1t IS safe to say that the
identification of the air is in some way con-
nected with the presence of water. Whatever
be the determining cause, the air before a
thunder storm becomes charged with cleo
tricity, and a charge of opposite sign Is in
duced upon the earth; in other words, the diff
ference of potential between the earth and the
air goes on increasing. The body of a man
standing on the earth's surface, and having,
therefore, the earth's potential, may be re-
garded as a discharging point doing its best
to effect. the restoration Of electric equilibrium
between the earth and the air in it's vicinity.
This process Will continue until, either by a
steady discharge or by the descriptive dis
ntn of tho tbrnIap ctnrr, tnncipp &c RI
l!eved and equilibrium is effectually restored.
The man has really been suffering from an ac-
celebrated rate of electrical discharge. Now, II
his body be regarded as a connection between
earth and air, it 10 to be that the
difference Of potential between the two latter,
and therefore between the head and feet of
the man, is subject to various sudden and ex-
tenSiye fluctuations.
A potential difference at one moment of 100
volts or less may, in a few minutes, rise to
the same number of thousands. Experiment
ing in the Isle of Arran, Lord Kelvin found
the difference of potential between the earth
and an insulated burning match at a height
of nine feet to vary from 200 to 400 volts, and
during breezes from the east and northeast
1t went up to 900 volts" He points out that
the gradual variations minute after minute
through SO wide = -ange as three or four to
one. and not infrequently rising to twenty
times the ordinary minimum, must have been
due to positive electrified masses of air within
a few hundred feet Of the place Of observa-
tion, waited along with the gentle winds of
five feet, or ten feet, or fifteen feet a second"
If, therefore, the body be subjected to such
variations of potential as occur in fine weather
between the earth and the electrified masses
Of air, Of which Lord Kelvin speaks,
much more formidable must be the
conditions that exist between the
earth and the heavily charged thunder
cloud. The animal body, accustomed as it
has become to its electrical environment, and
little sensitive TO the slighter fluctuations OF
may, nevertheless, be seriously In
fiuenced by the severer manifs stations of the
storm. Questions of this kind raise
interesting points in connection with
the therapeutic use of the so-called electro
s'atic bath, This consists, as is well known,
Of the simple placing of the insulated body
in connection with one or the other pole of
conditions the electricity is strictly static"
Or at rest; the body of the patient Is ira
versed by a current at very high potential, /
completes its circuit through the air.
II Is stated that with a four-plate HoltZ ma
chine the insulated body was brought to Il
potential of 0.000 volts, the current passing
being about lac, 900 Of an anlpere. For this
there are claimed we!l-determined
effects, such as increased ac-
ion Of the skin; an influence on blood pres
iure, as shown by sphygmographic tracings;
IN increase in The frequency and the depth
}! the respirations. as well as increased ex-
Of urea and phosphates.
Now, reverting to what has been already
tated, It is evident that a living body exists
N the earth under definite, although change
Ible. electrical conditions. In point of fact,
I lives and moves and has its being in an
bath. The kind of bath-that Is,
he electrical condition Of the air, and, there
ore, Of the earth-varies with the weather.
There seems 10 be "a normal fair weather
'ositive of natural atmospheric electricity"
IN a cloudy day the sign varies. How far
% facts Of this kind help to explain the in
.uence Of weather upon health? 1t has beer
uggested that, inasmuch as the neurasthenic.
he equity, the rheumatic and persons suffer
NJ from diseases Of The spinal cord are bet
er on a clear day han on a cloudy one, the 4!
ndlcation Is to treat them by negative cleo
rlncation. 1t must be in the highest degree
lflcult TO trace such effects TO the electrical
ather than to the hygrometric or other con-
itions Of the atmosphere. still, vague az =
UGH conjectures are, II Is not impossible
the electrical conditions Of the air may
v~entually furnish the key to treatment by
he electrostatlc bath.
Omaha Gets a New Train.
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