The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1900-02-17
BIOGRAPH IN MEDICINE.
NEW AID POR DOCTORS IN STUDYING
OBSCURE DISEASES.
Operations Performed by Famous Surgeons
Also Shown by the kaleidoscope -The
Instrument Harnessed TO the 1ele.
Jcope and the Microscope.
New Results Obtained.


the notable scenes and occurrences of
the world kinetoscope or moving pic
lures are becoming useful for scientific
as well as for amusement purposes. In
hospitals, particularly. the invention is
finding application, declares the New
York Sun. One hospital in New York
is now adapting a machine to record
infinitely the actions of patients in cpl
leptic fits and similar affections, and
many moving pictures have been taken
showing the movements in walking Of
persons afflicted from locomotOr
ataxia. Reproduced slowly, on the
screen, doctors are enabled to study
the symptoms more carefully In their
laboratories. And the pictures taken
in Vienna, showing operations being
performed by famous surgeons, become
valuable instructors to medical stu
dents. 1t is also in hospital work that
this invention with the microscope at
tachment, or micro-kinetoscope, is
finding the greatest practical use. The
movement of all kinds of microbes
when thus photographed make strik-
ing animated pictures, and the actions
Of healthy and diseased corpuscles are
easily distinguished when thrown upon
the screen and magnified thousands of
times. Such pictures Of diseased
blood, taken from time to time, show
the improvement or decline in the con-
dition of patients.
1t has just been found by one ex-
pertinent that X-ray photography, now
so valuable in hospitals, may be won
derfully developed by the use of the
biograph camera, as it is equally posi-
BILE to take moving pictures with the
penetrating light. He believes there Is
no function Of the human body which
may not be shown in action by such
pictures, even to the beating Of the
heart and blood circulation.
Many of the animated pictures that
are exhibited now for their beauty
alone, will likely be useful in school
instruction and lecture work, but the
difficulty, 50 far, as was the case with
the early development Of the phono-
graph, is that these machines are held
Mt high prices, and will only be
brought within the reach of public in
structors as their possibilities and i'm
provements bring great demand for
them.
One of the novel subjects that will
soon be put on exhibition will show
infinitely the growth and Towering Of
plants from the time of planting until
in full bloom. To obtain such results
rs these special room is set aside in
the new Botanical Gardens at Bronx
Park. In order to show the entire
growth Of lily ON the screen in one
series, the biograph cameras and the
growing bulb will be arranged in posi-
ton in this room and picture will be
taken every half hour continually for
about thirty days and nights. In or
der to get uniform light for every
view, artificial illumination will be
employed. Something like thousand
pictures will be made Of one subject,
the final picture showing the opening
of the lily, and then it's fading away.
Though such results have previously
been obtained, they were not taken
with the necessary uniformity Of light
This work will be under the direction
of T.. s. McGregor, curator Of the gar
dens. Experiments of this kind, too,
are being made to show rapidly the
changes in scenery from winter to
summer, etc.
The experiments of Flammarion, the
fnd OF
the possibilities of the biograph for re-
cording astronomical wonders. He
has taken moving pictures which show
moonrise, the Milky Way, lightning.
shooting stars, sunrise and sunset.
Professors of astronomy in Columbia
College also realize the possibilities of
the invention in their work and eXper
imenters are improving extremely SEN
sitive films necessary to take impress
siOns of the weak astronomical rays
of light. 1t is particularly the phe-
nomena Of the heavens seen at inter-
walls of many years-a strange eclipse,
transit, or meteoric shower-which
men travel far to observe, and which
astronomers hope to observe in photo
graphic effects, making it possible for
those at home to observe the heavenly
wonders that few now have the Op-
portunity Of seeing.
And as the microscope has been
combined with the biograph, so also
the astronomers telescope lenses are
being combined, so that we may see
distant movements invisible to the
naked eye. Many Of the moving pic
lures of naval actions, which natural
ly could not have been taken at close
range, have resulted from the tele-
scopic attachment.
Captain John Finley, an expert on
tornadoes, now in the American mete-
geological service, has taken some re-
markable moving pictures Of lightning
storms, and expects to get some pic
lures Of the approach Of Kansas tor
nadO.
Another new and novel exhibit is
brilliant display Of fireworks, taken
at night. While it has hitherto been
impossible to photograph fireworks, by
the use of magnesium powder the bio
| graph has faithfully recorded the
shower and pinwheel effects Of the
| most costly pieces made.
An adventurous operator in Europe
devised the idea of taking pictures
Il T. II