The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-02
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC }. HAsKN. Director,
Washington. D. O
ART SERVES SCIENCE.

, public health service. A water color
painting of grains of dust SO highly
magnified that you can see the SHARP
| edges of some grains and the jagged
| saw-like edges of others IS one of his
| latest works. A different style of art
| is represented by a pen and ink draw
\ ing on his studio wall, showing cross
section of a straw tick with myriads
of parasites swimming in us blood.
p All about the wall hang other eX-
| amples of the scientific artists Skill
| They are not the sort of pictures that
you would buy to hang in the parlor
| but they are painted, many of them,
| for the benefit of the public.
| You may have seen some of this
artists work in public health service
publication maps of critics showing
/ disease areas, pictures of the muscle
groups of the body. a flea highly mag
nified, a shoe that wiz cramp the foot
diagramed to show how the distor-
ton occurs.
In it's attempts to show the people
the dangers of disease ana the great
need for preventive measures the
public health service keeps Mr.. Will
der busy at his easel making several
hundred illustrations a year. The gov
eminent doctors and scientists have
found that a retailed verbal descrip-
ton of how a mosquito implants ma
ler:a parasites in the body is far less
impressive than a highly magnified
picture of the parasite entering the
proboscis of the mosquito. A short
description with the picture may tell
how the malaria germ gets into the
mosquitoes salivary ducts and is trans
ferred to the wound that the mosquito
inflicts. The observer, seeing with his
own eyes the enlarged mosquito in all
its dangerous ugliness goes out deter
mined to slay the pests with increased
vigor. The picture does it.
Just now a number of Mr.. Wilder'S
newest art works have been sent to
Rio de Janeiro to the centennial ex-
position. Some of them, painted on
scientific art.
Using Microscope.
A microscope has always been re-
garded as the most lucid way OF
showing scientific wonders to the pub
lie. But if you have ever been Of
fered a peep into a high power micro
scope you know that a short glimpse
at the object on the plate is rarely
satisfactory. Even a person accus-
toned to using scientific apparatus
may have difficulty in focusing the
instrument. Mr.. Wilder says that he
never like to use any microscope ex-
cept his own because it takes several
days to get used to a strange instru-
nent, even if it is of the same make
and type as his own. So it is not
strange that the public, offered a
quick view of a few interesting germs
at some exhibition, rarely gets a good
look. Nothing, however, seemed so
convincing to the layman as a micro
scopic plate, and the Public Health
service often packed and sent out six
teen instruments to health exhibitions.
a few months ago, tho, Mr.. Wilder
experimental with some water color
paintings of parasites on five inch
squares of glass. Each of these was
put in the bottom of fairly deep box
and a F;ass cover was fitted on the
top. The result was a view that stood
out in relief just as the microscopic
plate did, and the painting was larger
and din not have to be squinted at or
brought into focus. The Transparent
cieS went to an exhibition in Chicago
and doctors and other visitors ap-
proved of them highly.
Among the glass paintings sent to
Rio de Janeiro are number of pic
lures showing the dangers of dust. Mr.
Wilder went into the street and got
some samples that he thought typical
of municipal dust. He magniffed them
highly and painted them on glass.
Seven-eighths of the grains had cut
ting edges. The grains with sharp
edges like glass were crystalline prod
ucts, probably the finest sand. Gin
ders were in the dust, too, and the
microscope showed that they had saw
like edges, injurious to the ears and
eyes. 1t took a microscope enlarging
the dust 500 times to show clearly the
character of ordinary dust. The moral
was so obvious that it was scarcely
necessary to write on the label plea
for cleanliness. The sharp, grains,
tiny as they are, may do damage to
the lungs and leave them susceptible
to the attacks of germs.
For another picture, Mr.. Wilder
took a tiny piece of cotton from the
floor of a cotton mill and a piece OF
finest possible condition and magni-
fled them. The resulting picture
showed that in these fine leased fibers
there was a certain amount of or
ganic matter which. If taken into the
system of a human being, would cause
serious Inconvenience. These fine
atoms of cotton and wool are breathed
in by workers in mills.
He also made picture of flour
dust. which blows about in the air of
a flour mill. His picture showed that
this flour dust which falls on the floor
and then blows up into the dry air is
largely impregnated with organic mat
ter. The pictures of dust were all
sent to Rio to show the people that
such industries may be dangerous I'M |
less workers are clearly.
Artists Varied Career.
Mr.. Wilder's work takes in every
phase of art training, and he says that
if he had not had a varied career he !
would not be able to paint all of the |
pictures that government inveStiga- |
tors casually request. Before doing |
government work, he had a long ca
reer as a landscape artist, portrait |
painter and teacher of art. He studied |
and etching and was re- 1
garded as an expert etcher. Then |
scientists persuaded him that science |
needed artists with a passion for /
truth and exactness- He gave up pro- |
ducing beauty and began to make his |
art serve science, first at the Univer- !
sfty of Chicago and now for fifteen |
years at the public health service lab |
oratory. His scientific art attracted |
attention in Englend and he was made |
a Fellow of the Royal Art Society.
He chose an extremely difficult |
field. In drawing a fly magnified so |
that it is as large as a hand, the art /
ISt must reproduce even the number /
Of hairs on the leg of the insect. The I