Amador ledger., 1905-12-22

Electric Asphyxiation.- 1.-The Airs
Dust.-Loc Meteorites. -Radiother
apy Perception of Sound and Color
Electric Light Disinfection. AM
NAL Pests Not Wanted.
The human body varies greatly in
it's resistance to electric shocks, and
healthy men have been killed by G
little more than 100 volts, while Other
men have survived many thousand
volts. Nervous affections, heart
disease, intemperance and other NOR
bid conditions increase the danger.
! At , late congress of Austrian medical
men the conclusion was reached from
the experience of recent years that
death from electricity results from
paralysis of the central organs of re.
spiratlon, and is a special form OF
suffocation. Though apparently kill
ed, the victim of.elecrict shock is at
first seldom more than asphyxiated.
In the Austrian hospitals the treat.
ment is the same as in ordinary
suffocation,- "a process of artificial
respiration,-and many lives are un-
doubleday saved in this way, while
many others are certainly lost
through failure to apply the remedy
IN time.
The atmosphere contains a great
quantity of solid matter, usually
imperceptible, though visible when a
ray of sunlight enters a dark room.
A. Ditte states that cubic meter of
the air of Paris usually contains G
to 8 mllligrammes of dust, sometimes
% milligrammes, but away from
cities there is less. Nearly a third OF
the city dust is organic matter con
tanning living germs. The dust usual
ly carries a few metals-sodium cal
cum, magnesium, ALUMINIUM, and
especially iron, with nickel and
cobalt, the last three being brought
to the air in meteoric dust from
space.
The effect of ultraviolet rays OF
light on some kinds of glass is strik-
ingly shown at high attitudes. At a
mountain station of the Canadian
Pacific Railway-500O or 5000 feet
high-green glass telephone insulators
have changed to brilliant purple.
Meteurites are usually regarded as
stones from space. differing in CON-
position, but all having a similar
origin and belonging to one general
class. From 25 years of observation,
the director of the geological survey
of Mexico reaches novel conclusion.
Mexico is region of many meteor
ties, which range in size from a
monster of q tons downward; and a
study of these stones gives evidence
that there are three zones in the
country, northern, central and
southern, marked by different
class of meteorites for each zone.
This opens a remarkable field for
speculation. Why certain localities
should attract certain meteorites, or
why the meteorites select certain
places to fall upon, is difficult to
guess, and a solution of the problem
may show that some meteorites have
a terrestrial or local origin.
The possible value of radium to the
physician still remains chiefly a
matter of conjecture. Two Italians,
Tizzoni and Bongiovanni, have
satisfied themselves that it has an
important influence upon rabies,
and that it may act either upon the
virus or directly upon the bitten
animal. When the virus is exposed
for to 36 hours to radium rays it is
converted into a powerful vaccine, in
jections into rabbits eye overcom-
ing the otherwise fatal effects of in
oculations with dogs virus. With a
powerful specimen of radiunl, and
direct exposures of several hours
during six days, animals inoculated
48 to 100 hours before treatment we're
saved, while similarly inocuIated
animals not treated all died.
Many observations have convinced
Mabel s.. Nelson, a British psycholog
lst, that men hear better than women,
and that both men and women heal
farther with the right than the left
ear. Men are clearly superior il
recognizing blue, and women are
possibly superior in recognizing
yellow.
The largest grasshoppers are found
in South America, where some specI
mems reach length OF inches, with
a spread of wings of 10 inches.
The electric disinfector, recently
exhibited in London Is believed tt
be the first attempt to use rays o.
light for killing disease germs il
bedding and clothing as they have
been used by Finsen for destroying
germs in the skin. The apparatus
specially designed for hotels anc
hospitals, consists of metal chamber
feet high by 9 feet long and 6 fee
wide, fitted with the Dowsing system
of heating by means of powerful
electric lamps. The bedding anC
other articles to be disinfected ar,
placed in a rotating cage of fv'