The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1907-02-13
MAN AS LIVE BATTERY
How Professor Atkins Shows
Senses Are Electrical Actions,
USES STOMACH AS TELEPHONE

BY Remarkable Experiment Cali
fornin Medical School Physioloxist
Draws Electricity From a Human
Beings Interior without Introduce
Fluid Recorded by the Microphone.
THE entire human system is a mass
Of electrical energy, and the human
senses are developed and maintained
by electrical action"
This discovery Is one Of the results
Of the most remarkable series of ex-
periments ever made to determine the
electro activity Of the human organ
ism, says a San Francisco dispatch to
the New York American. Professor
Albert ]. Atkins, who as professor Of
physiology in the California Medical
school has for eight years applied him.
self diligently to research in this line,
Is the man who establishes the princi-
pie set forth.
Colonel E. p. Richardson, recently
sanitary foreman Of refuge camp No.
s, in San Francisco, was the subject
the other day. He submitted to every
proposition made by the professor in
the interest Of science. He swallowed
two tubes, which contained copper wire
and were fitted at each end with plat
mum caps, which came in contact with
the walls of his stomach.
A ~microphone, a highly delicate in
strument for the recording Of sound,
was placed against the subjects flesh,
pressed in tightly. The instrument
was charged very slightly with cleo
trlcity In order to %accentuate the vol.
ume Of sound recorded by it. But cleo
tricity never once came into actual
contact with the colonels body. Not
q single mechanical instrument, not q
single cell discharging electricity was
used excepting those necessary for the
operation Of the ~microphone.
Yet no sooner had the platinum OF
the two tubes come into contact with
the walls of the stomach than electric
lty literally flowed from the colonel's
body, and its strength was recorded
by the ~microphone, the scientists being
able to Judge by the agitation the vol
ume of electrical energy exuded. Thu
wires connected with the instrument
transmitted distinctly marked sount
waves. The Weston galvanometer EN-
ployed shot It's needle up to fifteen mil
lyo1%o op1 <ho,> oo,,col - <n 1rnn +.
seven, alternating between these two
figures.
A millivOlt Is the one-thousandth par
Of a volt. Two thousand volts will de
stroy the life Of a human being.
Using Colonel Richardson's interna
electricity in the n described, tn
slight sounds produced in the micro
phone were successfully transmitted t
listening ears by means Of the cope
wire and a telephone receiver.
The electricity produced by the hu
man stomach was due entirely t
chemical action, the stomach being tn
battery that generated the current, an,
the power. as generated, on the galva
nometer, was about the same as l
manifested In the receiving of a wire
less telegraph message. One Of tn
most notable results Of the expert
ments was the variation In the galva
nometer's registration after a larg
dose Of whisky had been given t
Colonel Richardson, the man supplying
the animal electricity.
Under normal conditions the highes
millivoltage had been seven.
II have found by experiments o.
myself" said DR.. Harvey, that 1t re
Quires ten minutes for a dose Of whis
ky to obtain It's maximum effect o
stimulation
DR.. Harvey and others held thei
watches, and when the ten minut
point was reached the galvanomete
recorded fifteen millivolts. That wa
the highest point reached.
Monater In Hallo0na.