The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-26
THE LITTLE STEPS.

ne Gays are little steps we take away.
from joy transcendent or from grief
supreme;
Slowly we go, yet surely. day and day.
Until at last these seem
faint.
As some receding. Observation-Disclosures dream.
The days are little steps that lead US on.
TO newer love or sorrow. Though we
That certain goal beyond the farthest
dawn,
We may not haste nor rest
TIL at the house of joy or pain we stand,
And one comes forth to greet his one
nights guest.
-Theodosia Garrison. in January Ainslee's
Heart Tested by Phone.
The heart station the establish
ment of which has been contemplated
for some time by the directors of
Johns Hopkins hospital, is now in OPP
GRAFTON at that institution. The in
struments, which were manufactured
by Edelnann in Munich, Germany, ar
rived in Baltimore two weeks ago and
have been installed by DIR. G. S. Bond.
The purpose of the 'Herzstation'
or heart station" is to determine the
condition of a persons heart as an aid
in diagnosing disease.
1t is well-known principle of ply
sizes that when current is conducted
by nonstationary medium through a
L,
quently, the conductor will be defect
ed In direction at right angles to
the course of the current It has also
been known in the medical world that
as every muscle in the body generates
certain amount of electrical current
IN movement, SO the heart generates
a current in its movement. It is also
known that an imaginary line through
the body has on one side all the cur
rents generated by one side of the
heart and on the other side the cur
rents generated by the opposite side,
SO that by connecting an electrode to
each side of the body, obliterating all
other currents of the body by placing
it as nearly as possible at rest, the
physician has the current of the, heart
where he can measure and examine it.
Working on this principle scientists
have been trying for years TO devise an
instrument to record the heart cur
rents The most successful of these
was the capillary electrometer, in
which the nonstationary conductor
was small column of mercury. The
difficulty with this. as with all others
up to the present invention, was that
the sIownesS of the movement of the
medium preyented an accurate record.
To do away with this slothfulness in
the conductor was the aim of w. Elm
thoaven. the perfecter of the machine
that has been brought to Baltimore.
His success is due to the use of con-
ductor of spun quartz or platinum
wire of a diameter of one-twe1ve hum
dred and fiftieth of an inch, one-half
the thickness of red blood corpuscle,
which cannot be seen with the naked
eye. This wire is suspended in
magnetic field made by two powerful
magnets.
From the heart station in the
basement of the surgical building
wires and a telephone run to each
ward in the hospital. The patient
is put at rest, one electrode is fastened
to his arm and one to the opposite leg,
and the. current generated by the
movement of the heart of the patient
is conducted to the quartz wire sus-
pended in the magnetic field which is
detected according to the amount of
current flowing through it.
An arc light is thrown through a
condensing microscope upon the NOV
ing wire, the shadow from which is
thrown through another microscope,
which magnif1es it 500 times and
throws the shadow through slit at
right angles to the position of the wire
upon a screen. Back of the screen
is camera with a rotating film, which
takes a record picture of the move
ment on the point made by the inter-
section of the slit with the shadow of
with pictures of perfect normal heart
currents, and by this method the ply
sicians are often able to determine
the nature of the patients affliction.-
Baltimore Sun.