Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-02
CONCERNING LIFE's ELIXIR
Psychic Effect Of Ceremony Some.
times Strong as Natural Effect Of
Drus-rne Search for
Missing Links
BY GEORGE NOX Mccain
.R. JOSEPH IEJpy ,.no...,,.,

Brown Sequard elixir Of life' thirty voara
ago wrote some days ago. tells me Of some
that connection.
They are illustrative of the influence Of
mind over matter ! OF the important part that
psychology plays in the individual affairs
At the time when the experiments were
made, with the elixir, hypodermically admin.
istered by injection several of the volunteers
they were ignorant.
:, Instead Of injecting the solution, simple
qistilled water was injected instead by DR..
The results were similar to those obtained
with the glandular extract.
Ihe etects OF both were clearly psychic"
said the doctor, I'm line with what we term
invaidate those produced by the present day
introduction Of certain elements obtained
from the So called ductlcss glands. which.
however, is not the character of the gland
life, so called"
THE conservatism and caution of the sci
L enlist Is disclosed by DR., Lcidy speak
ing of the recent experiments in the so called
6landular treatment.
Scientists are invariably cautious. It is
wei that they are 40. To this fact Is
largely due the wonderful progress of science
Ill recent years.
Recent experiments in France by trans
pIantlng certain gland from q monkey into
the human; or even portion of the gland
being placed in the tissues Of man with pur.
ported remarkable results, must be OBJ
served with great care declares DR.. Lcidy.
Extreme caution must be exercised in
accepting hnsty conclusions.
There can be no doubt that science Ia on
the eve or obtaining some valuable nforma-
ton from similar experiments, aud medicine
IN particular from what has been termed
glandular therapy.
But again great caution should be OBJ
served in drawing conclusions based solely
upon Isolated experiments.
THE catholicity of DR.. I,eidy's views pnor
l. another phase Of the article which called
forth his comment Is displayed in his re-
marks about foreigners .'cribbing'' the ideas
and discoveries of Americans.
Apropos Of the disposition of German
confreres to ignore the work of American
Investigators, 1 find they hold no brief in
this matter: 1t Is quite as noticeable among
french ,1 bar and j. English ,si writer's" he said
largely culpable, for there has been for many
years disposition among American writer's
to quote Mt great length the observation of
foreigners, giving but scant notice to their
cow0rkers here III America.
once heard n great man of science"
continued DIR. Leidy, reply to the query
as to where DIR. X had gone. The fact
was he had started for Europe.
Oh he has gone abroad "to sharpen
the flats. " was the reply.
Il would not underrate the advantages de-
rived from foreign studies, when 1t Is un
dcrtaken with seriousness. But many of our
young men nre apt to go abroad to sharpen
the flats and return with the halo Of a
winter spent in study abroad at Berlin or
elsewhere.
I'm the minds of truly great investigators
science knows no country. To quote an
other man Of science: 1T makes very little
difference. to intelligent development who
MAKES ab@ +. the important fact is that
THE renewed interest that has been !
i aroused during and since the war over |
the subject OF wireless telephony, and the |
success 1t has thus far achieved, recalls an |
incident concerning telephony of another |
kind in which the experiments were made |
in this city.
1t was twenty years ago and the incl
dents connected with the Experiments took !
place on Sixth street below Chestnut, in one
of the buildings that stood on the site of the |
present massive structure Of the Curtis Pub !
fishing Company.
The object of the attempt was to tele-
phone through the earth without wires.
The experimenter was Prof. A. F. Col |
Inns, an electrical engineer who came to
Philadelphia from Chicago. Professor Col |
Inns was then about thirty five years of age
He had completed n scientific course at Chi |
cago University and Joined the Thomson
Houston Electric Company and did expert |
mental work for them
The Collins scheme of telephony was dis
tinct from the Marconi system Of utilizing
the atmosphere He proposed to use the
earth.
Under the Collins plan no cohcrer was
used The theory was that while the earth
is q poor conductor of electricity, the cur
rents projected through it would meet with
no such resistance as the ether waves util-
LIS system, which provided for utilizing
IL the terrestrial currents, was to bury
copper plates in the earth An ordinary Bell
transmittcr and receiver, by wire with these
copper plates, or rather copper coil and
copper plate proper.
The plates could be buried at varying dis
tances from a foot to thirty feet.
The sound, or rather the vibrations, were
to be transmitted over the wire to the sunken
plate, thence through the earth to the cor
responding plate buried at the receiving point
and connected with the receiving instrument
There were batteries attached to cabinets,
and a Crookes tube as well. The induced
current was to pass simultaneously with the
earth current.
mand the attention Of two Philadelphia men,
who took out patents and arranged for the
formation OF a private company to operate
the invention.
Then the whole thing failed of success
for one reason or another.
THE expedition of Roy Chapman Andrews
i to central Asia in search Of the miss
ing link, or, to be more exact, traces of
the beginnings of the human race, is, | find,
attracting considerable attention in Phila.
delphia.
This city has always been noted for its
interest in ancient civilizations and pre-
historic ruins.
Its capitalists have financed a number ~
these expeditions. Particularly conspicuous
was that Of DR.. Hilprecht to Sumeria' or
Babylon, and the Egyptian exploration ex-
petitions.
We have been a trihe shy on anthropology
and ethnology.
AS to the scene Of mans first entry upop
this sr :ere there has always been wide
divergence Of opinion.
Some years ago Samuel Waddington in
the Nineteenth Century started an animated
discussion among scientists by his attempts
to show that the origin of mai dates back
more than 200, 900 years. He wasn't quite
sure, however, as to just where the advent
took place.
IIacckel put the cradle of the race in