Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1931-10-15

- Fkes reak' ana suffering from mountain SICK
ness.
A group of volunteers in a psychology laboratory in
New York City, breathing ar IN winch the oxygen pro-
portion has been reduced, and becoming Temporarily un-
balanced mentally and emotonally.
Patients with a mental disease which has reduced them
to a stuporous state. breathing a mixture of carbon dloxide
and oxygen. and miraculously becoming active.
All these together may have provided scientists with a
new approach to the ageold and vexing problem OF the
cause and possible cure of that mental disease which at
Aicts about one-hfth of all hospital patients. dementia
praecox.
For the characteristic effects which come from breathing
air containing too little oxygen have recently been found to
be very much like those which come from taking too much
alcohol. And. except for the fact that they are temporary.
they are significantly similar to the symptoms OF that type
OF insanity known 10 physicians as demenla praecox.
Like the drunken man, the person starving tor oxygen
seems to lay bare a second personality. All the brakes
that he has learned to put on his impulses as a result Of
training are released. and he responds IN a manner char
acterrtic Of his innate nature.
One man will become unreasonably angry. will try to
break things to pieces. Another may become sentimental,
even to a silly extent. One becomes happy and starts to
sing, another may 60 10 the other extreme OF moroseness.
Il IKE the drunken man. too. the person deprived of
oxygen is usually completely unaware that anything
is wrong with him. For this reason the y. S. Navy
now equips The oxygen apparatus used by high-altitude Ay-
es with an automatic valve which feeds him the amount OF
oxygen which he should have at the altitude at which he
is flying.
Ii il were left 10 the hyer 10 decide when and how much
to turn on the oxygen. he might go on thinking he was
doing we'll without it until he was unable to turn it on:
The Army Air Service requires the use Of oxygen by all
flyers going above Is. 900 feet.
An officer, who tried for an altitude record back IN
1918. thus describes his sensations after his supply OF oxy-
gen gave out. He had reached $4,000 feet.
But the lack OF oxygen was affecting me, was begin
ming to get cross. and | could not understand why | was
only 10000 feet after climbing for so long a time.
remember that the horizon seemed to be very much out OF
place, but felt that | was flying correctly and that | was
right and the horizon wrong.
u insana mn and drunken nersnn aIso have fhe con.
victon that it is the horizon, not themselves. that is wrong.
The same altitude does not affect all persons to the same
degree.
Lieut.. Apollo Soucek. the L.. S. Nays record holder.
once had the misfortune to have ice form in his oxygen
tube at an altitude of over $4,000 feet. He was able.
however. to guide his plane safely down to an altitude
where he could breathe without, difficulty. Another per-
son might have lapsed Immediately into Inconsistencies, or
at least would have lost his good judgment.
Each person has his ceiling" beyond which he cannot
60 and retain his normal mental ability. The U. S. Navy
Air Service therefore CLASHES aviators according TO the al
ttude to which they can fly in safety. This is done on
the ground before the candidate makes even his first flight.
with the aid OF a "TebTeatheT.
T,HE "rebreather" holds a tank filled with ordinary air.
This air is inhaled by the person being tested. The
exhaled air passes through a container over a chemical,
sodium hydroxide. which removes the carbon dioxide pro-
duced by breathing. and then IT goes back into the original
tank to be breathed again.
After each return. the air is perfectly free from poison
Jus elements. but has a smaller percentage of oxygen. The
effect of breathing this oxygen-dehcent air is practically
the same as that OF breathing ordinary air at greatly re-
duced ATMOSPHERIC pressure.
When the candidate begins to fail on the simple mental
ests given him, he is Immediately removed from the APP
,aratus. The air in the tank is tested to find out what per-
eentage of oxygen remains, and that tells what altitude"
has been reached. That marks that mans ceiling.
In the psychology laboratory at Columbia University,
under the direction Of DR.. r. "A. Mcfarland. Is persons
volunteered to 80 up" in a similar. apparatus. Starting
at $1,000 feet they went up in steps Of two to three thou
sand feet until the individual ceilings were reached. AT
each level they took a number Of tests Of simple and COM
pick mental functions and tests which would bring out emo
tional reactions and temperamental differences, such as
iritabliy and perssiency.