The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-22

therefore between the head anu iect VA
the man. is subject TO various suoueh
and extensive fluctuations.
A potential difference at one mo-
ment OF 100 volts or less may, In a rev
minutes rise to the same NUMBER OF
thousands. Experimenting In tne isle
of Arran, Lord Kelvin found the olL-
ference Of potential between the eartn
and an insulated burning match AT a
height of nine feet to vary from zoo 10
400 volts, and during breezes from the
east and northeast IL went up TO 4,Voo
volts" He points out that the grauuai
variations minute after minute
through so wide a range as three or
four to one, and not infrequentiy us
ing to 20 times the ordinary minimum
must have been due TO positive electrl-
fed masses of air within few nun
dred feet of the place of observation,
waited along the gentle winds OF rve
feet, or 10 feet, of 10 feet second. II,
therefore. the body be subjected 10
such variations of potential as occur IN
fine weather between the earth ana
the electrified masses OF air, or whicn
Lord Kelvin speaks, much more for-
midable must be the conditions that
exist between the earth and the heav-
lily charged thunder cloud. The AMI
NAL body, accustomed as IL has become
to its electrical environments. and ut
tie sensitive to the slighter fiuctua-
be seriously influenced by the severer
manifestations of the thunder storm.
Questions of this kind raise some IN
teresting points in connection with the
therapeutic use of the so-called elec-
trostatic bath. This consists, as is wei
known, of the simple placing OF the IN
sulated body in connection with one or
the other pole of the static machine.
Not that under these conditions the
electricity is strictly static or at rest;
the body of the patient is traversed
by a current at very high potential
which completes it's circuit through
| the air. 1t is stated that with a four
plate Holtz machine the insulated body
was brought to a potential of 10000
volts, the current passing being about
| lao, 900 of an ampere. For this proce-
| dure there are claimed well-determined
| physiological effects, such as Increased
action of the skin; an influence on
| blood pressure, as shown by sphymo-
graphic tracings; an increase In the
| frequency and the depth of the respi-
/ rations, as well as increased excretlon
| of urea and phosphates.
| Now, reverting TO what has been al
ready stated, ii is evident that Nv
| ing body exists on the earth under def
mite. although changeable, electrical
| conditions. In point of fact, 1t lives
| and moves and has its being in an cleo
| trostatic bath. The kind of bath-that
is. the electrical condition of the air.
and, therefore, of the earth-var1es
with the weather. There seems to be
"a normal fair weather positive of nat
ural atmospheric electricity. on a
cloudy day the sign varies. How far
do facts of this kind help to explain
the influence of weather upon health
1t has been suggested that. inasmuch
as the neurasthenic, the equity, the
rheumatic and persons suffering from
disease of the spinal cord are better on
a clear day than on a cloudy one. the
indication is to treat them by negative
electrification. 1t must be in the high
est degree difficult to trace such effects
to the electrical rather than to the n.y.
grometric or other conditions OF the
atmosphere Still, vague as such con-
lectures are IL Is not impossible that
the electrical conditions of the air may
| eventually furnish the key TO treat
ment by the electrostatic bath.