Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1896-11-03
TO PICTURE THOUGHT
DIR. J. ALLISON HODGES PROPOSES
TO ACCOMPLISH THIS.
MILL PHOTOGRAPH THE BRAIN CELL.
Tie Has Perfected Ono of the Latest
Scientific Wonders Of the Age, and
Proposes TO show the Thinking
brain at work.

Dr. s. Mlnington Miller writing In the
New York Journal Sunday. gives the
following very interesting account OF a
wonderful work accomplished by Rich
mond physician:
with the aid Of a new ins;rument-the
photo crograph-Profossor J. Allison
Hodges, OF a Richmond (Na.) medical coll
lege. is about to photograph thought
1t is a thoroughly material thing which
Professor Hodges proposes to DO. He is a
practical man. Excepting Victor Horselly'
Of London. and Or William W. Keen, OF
jefferson Medical Conese Of Philadelphia.
Dr. Hodges has removed more thumb and
finger and wrist centres from the brain
for the relief Of epileptlc attacks than any
other surgeon in the world
He has already as a step toward hts
great undertaking. trephined a dead brain
and. after focusing sunlight or a search
light upon one OF the cells IN the surface
of the brain. has examined this cell and
made a picture OF Il with the photo
micrograph The resultant picture show
"a the cen wall the nucleus. and nucico-
lus. and the body plasm" and germ
plasm" exploited by Weissmann ana
Bury. and generally accepted by histoio-
sists the world over.
WANTS A REAL SUBJECT.
But TO cap the climax Of experimental
ton. Or. Hodges is now casting about for
some criminal, or other person. who viii
for money permit the trephning Of his
skull. ana who has sufficient nerve 10
carry on. after he shall have recovered
from the effects of the anacsthetic. some
species Of thought. while the hole in the
skull Is still open.
Or Alfred Blnet, Of Paris. contends that
a picture OF the thought is thrown mp in
the brain cell just as il is in the visual
purple of the retina. Professor Hodges rs
a believer in this theory. and when he
takes a photograph Of thinking brain
cell" he expects the photograph 10 be q
picture OF the thought.
The photO-micTograph with which Dr.
Hodges intends thus 10 take material hold
Of the very process Of thought, and stamp
it on a plate so it can be printed In
newspaper. is one Of the most important
scientific inventions OF recent years.
Various Intellectual efforts have been
made TO secure an instrument which
should magnify and photograph at the
same time
DEVICE OF PROFESSOR MASON.
Now the problem has been solved Mr..
Q. @. Mason has devised this combination
instrument, the photo-micrograph. when
Joins the two powers. and places them
conveniently at the management Of the
operator. MIR. Mason is widely known
among micrOscopists. lie has been Tor
many years the secretary Of the Ameri-
can MicrOsCoplcal Society and micro
scopist and official photographer to the
Bellevue Medical College Hospital
The photo-niCrograph VIII carry any
objective; that Is, an objective Of any
mode power of magnihcatiOn. OF course
the higher the power Of the objective me
closer must it's eye be 10 the OBJECT, or
field 10 be examined. And where slide
is not used. and the eve of the tube ex-
amines and pictures an object direct, an
objective OF slight power only can be en-
ployed.
The 'seventy-hfth objective" made by
r. 3. Tolles. Of Boston. Mass, the most
celebrated maker OF microscopes in the
world, magniies 1900 times the real
diameter of the object examined.
GREATLY MAGNIFIED.
one Of the photographs taken with this
apparatus shows white blood corpusc-e
magnifed 1900 diameters. This corpuscle
is from the blood Of a tuberculous or con-
sumptive patient, and such an enormous
exaggeration OF its size has enabled the
pathologist 10 detect delicate differences
and slight changes hitherto unnoticed.
The photograph shows that there are
two breaks In the conducting integrants
OF the reiina spaces where the nerves
leading Immediately from the rods or
cones of the visual purple end, and new
nerve cells with their neurous or roots
begin. Sense impressions coming into the
eve from the outer world and sent from
II 20 brain centres are sometimes so pow
erful that II not broken and diminished in
intensity they would shatter not only the
brain cells, but also our nerves, which
are the telegraph wires" Of the brain
Another Illustration of the instrument
use IS from Camille Golgi's great Work
lust published. on the Minute Histology
Of Brain Cells and the Courses Of the
Nerves OF Sense"
This illustration shows q section OF the
cortex or rind Of the brain. This rind
varies in thickness from one-quarter 10
one-eiehth of an inch in diameter. and IN
this rind are seen the various layers OF
brain cells and the tender hlaments or
nerve tendrils. which depend from them
and which play so important part in the
processes of thought