The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-29
NOTHING IS NEW
UNDER THE SUN
This Remark Isn't Original, But II Fits
the Facts.
ONE LEARNED WOMAN'S RESEARCHES

Raw, the Telephone, the Nickel-in-
the Slot Machine and Even the New
Woman--AIl. All Are Chestnuts, She
Says.
Mrs. Amelia Weed Holbrook of the
scientific department of the Chicago
Womans club has, If we may believe
the Times Herald. found that the Ro
entgen rays and their application are
nothing new, and she has proof of the
fact. Mrs. Holbruok recently found a.
publication of the year 1916, which con-
tanned an account of the appearance
before a gathering of French scientists
of a Greek, whose name was not given.
The meeting had been called to hear
the Greek explain the workings of an
instrument, which he called the an
throposcope. 1t was an invention
which enabled him by an application of
an electrical current to see through
opaque bodies. In his description of his
invention and discovery the Greek said
he was enabled by means of the gener-
ated rays to look straight into "a mans
body, to follow the course of the cir
culation, to examine plainly his or
like bullets, and to determine the seat
of disease. The description of the
methods used and the claims made for
results are identically the same as
those which startled the world when
Roentgen made known his experiments
and their outcome.
The publication, the Mechanics Mag
azine. containing the account of the
&c ipin
lication of 1916. and is not a reprint
about whose authenticity there might
be some doubt.
HER RESEARCHES.
For fear that something of import
ance to the modern scientific world
might be mentioned for which she
could not claim antiquity, Mrs. Hul-
brook has recently been to Washing
ton, where she went through the librar-
les having with her for reference a
long list of things which people are
now using and priding themselves
were unknown to the fathers. Librar-
ian Spofford worked side by side with
her, and now she has come back t.
Chicago to tell the scientifically in
clined that they are not much smarter
than their forbears.
Mrs. Holbrook left a meeting of the
Woman's club the other day with q
woman to whom she confided her re.
searches and their results. Surely
said the friend, the Roentgen rays are
new"
Fifty years Old" said Mrs. Hol
brook. calmly.
Just then they passed cigar store
: Ia, In
ging a nickel-in- the-slot machine.
certainly that iniquitous thing is
the invention of this wicked genera
ton" said Mrs. Holbrook's companion
Used by the priests of the polythe
istic Greek religion 500 years befor,
Christ for the same purpose it is now,
was the reply.
NOTHING NEW.
"Why, the very telephone that I call
ed the club up with this morning" sh'
continued, lis about as old as this put
| in your money and get nothing Ou
machine The steamboat, the tele
| graph. the telescope and the compass
| all belong in inches on the walls tina
line the very beginning of the corri
| dorS of time"
But the new woman." broke in tn
friend triumphantly.
"Older than the hills" retorted Mrs
| Holbrook, though, womanlike, sh
probably won't admi! it.
Then her friend gave it up.
you see," said Mrs. HolbroOk yes
terday, eve moderns don't give our an
cestors credit for knowing anything
Why. l read scare head article in
daily paper recently which told how
State street dentist had extracted
tooth. filled it and put it back in agair
the gum closing naturally round it an
holding it as soundly as ever. Thi
was said to be the only case on recor
and one that marked the greatest ste
ever made in dentistry. Why, tina
same thing was done to tooth of m
grandmother in Orange county, NeN
York, in 1901"
NEW WOMAN AN OLD RELIC.
"The new woman was an establishe
institution in 1884 and the woman
rights movement was in full career !
| Poland in 1885 when the Polish marie
women got together and resolved tina
they had rights as we'll as their hus
bands, and declared, moreover, tina
they intended to have a good time i
all fitting ways for at least ten year
after they We're married, whether thei
husbands liked it or not.
"The tobacco plant was known an
its use INDUCED in by prehistoric man
The priests in India 1000 years ag
sat in one tower listening at a tele
phone receiver while penitents Wer
into another tower a mile distant an
told their sins. There was a telephOn
transmitter in this second tower VI
known to the sinners and the priest
gained great renown for wisdom by bo
ing able to know things not told With
their hearing.
THE nickel in the-slOt maChir
worked exactly ON the same princip
as those which the Women's Christia
Temperance Union has put about
different places for the dispensary
cherry phosphate to the thirsty. TT
Greeks and Romans used to go to Il
temple before the Christian era to g
: sacred water. There was big il
l with a slot. \ coin was dropped
whose weight tipped a balanced leVe
which let a certain amount of II
! water from an inner jar to an out,
2 one The coin slid from the balance I'M
5 box and when the box was fun II
1 priests pocketed the money"
JERMYN