New Britain Herald Newspaper, September 29, 1928, Page 13

(99 t a CHAMPION BOXER HIT YOU LEDGE - HAMMER fists crashing against stone walls of human flesh. Either fists or human walls will be smashed under the terrific punch, Yet, amazingly, both survive, until, perhaps, a well-calculated blow finds a vul- neuffle spot, and one fighter crashes to the can- vas. Even then he often recovers before the fatal count of ten is reached. ‘What enables him to do this? How can a pro- fessional pugilist receive with a smile a blow that would surely knock you out? One man who surely can answer these ques- tions is Grover Theis, a boxing expert, who ex- plains i Popular Science Monthly what the tiny chemical ‘arsenals of the body—called ductless ’hnds—-meln to the fighter; how Nature's ‘shock absorbers” may decide a bout; where the most vulnerable-spots are, and how a boxer’s en- - durance differs from that of a Marathon runner. “I have talked on the subject of boxing with sthletic trainers, physicians, psychologists, and anatomists,” says Mr. Theis, “and most of them agree that boxing, of all sports, exacts the most in real athletic physique, skill and prowess. A boxer, to be of championship caliber, must com- bine the endurance of a athon runner, the agility of a tennis player, the skilled timing and judgment of a baseball star, the speed and alert- ness of a hockey player, and the nimbleness of a toe dancer. And besides gl these, he must have an abundance of that mysterious quality com- monly called ‘fighting heart.’ “How are such champions made? In a sense, they are not made at all, but born. Especially is this true when we come to the first essential re- uirements—the so-called fighting instinct, and e ability to withstand punishment. These elusive qualities, science has found, are not ac- quired primarily by training. They are natural roducts of the wonderful chemical factories in e human body. Some men possess much of them; others very little. The reason for this goes far back into history. Primitive man in the jungles was surrounded by powerful enemies. As a means of self-preservation, Nature supplied him with little chemical arsenals—endocrine or Province, South Africa, has patented re- cently a design for a railway coach with an underslung body that has two decks, afford- ing seats for a greater number of passengers. [ts arrangement is such that people can con- veniently enter and reach the seats, or leave the eoach, on either the. upper or the lower deck. OSCAB HULSE, of Bondebosch, Cape An armlike device conmsisting of new lazy Sugar for Energy NE of the best sources of fuel for the O human body is sugar, and when used in the correct proportion to the other necessary food elements, sugar is a valuable article of diet. It serves gnly the one purpose, that of supplying the essential carbo-hydrate, but it is the quickest, cheapest, purest and most ‘eMcient fuel for the human engine, according to Hygeia. It is likewise valuable as a flavor and in this capacity renders palatable important foods that would otherwise not appeal to the taste. Sugar, properly employed, has many advan- tages as a nutritional commodity. In the first cl.cs, it is & quick source of energy. Cane or eet sugar, for instance, begins to burn in the human system in about five minutes after it has been consumed. The value of such an article in the diet of those who do huvg physical work is apparent and experience has shown that athletes and manual laborers profit from the use of sugar. Members of college crews are frequently fed sugar before a grueling race, and marathon runners also find this food' of ud'v-nhge. Many r:“v-’rlfhu"!mmume L.hm quantities of sugar lous forms, su & ice cream chocolates. e What the Inventors Are Doing Should ductless glands. At the approach of danger, these stores released their chemicals into the blood, steeling and stimulating the muscles to in- stant flight or combat. They doubled his strength and endurance.” This marvelous chemical mechanism survives today, in greater or less degree, in every man. Very recently Dr. Charles E. de M. Sajous, Pro- fessor of Endocrinology at the University of Pennsylvania, told of the discovery of three of these chemicals of the body and how they act to make billions of tiny muscle fibers contract or relax. One of them, he said, proves to be the active basis of adrenalin, the wonderful gland extract which has aided in restoring people apparently dead. “With advancing civilization, however,” Mr. Theis continues, “and the removal of many of the perils that beset men, the response of the body’s chemical mechanism has grown sluggish in most of us through disuse. Generations of easy life, comparatively free from hardships and danger, have made men ‘soft’ and incapable of q)\lxic response to physical emergencies. Among the outstanding exceptions are the ‘bora fighters.’ “Any trainer will tell you that the most skil- ful boxer in the world, unless he has the ability to ‘take it,’ has not much chance of gaining the top. Neither are a giant frame and bulging muscles enough to make the greatest fighters.- “Another secret of great fighters’ endurance lies in the mechanical perfection of little shock absorbers which Nature has distributed through- out the body. The finely-strung mechanism of our bodies consists of a frame or ‘chassis’ of jointed bones actuated by the muscles through moving tendons. In cavities in the joints, be- tween muscles and tendons—in fact, between all moving parts where friction might develop—are placed little pouches or sacs containing a lubri- cating fluid called ‘synovia.’ These serve as shock algorbers. Their condition determines the resiliency of the boxer’s body in absorbing not only the shock of being hit, but that of hitting. They determine his ability to ‘travel’ with or from a blow without apparently moving from his position. And just as there are bumps in the road which an automobile shock absorber cannot offset, so-there are blows in the ring which are too much for the human shock absorbers. Then comes the knockdown. tongs washes the outside of a window. The de- vice takes the hazard out of window-washing and makes it convenient instead; for wherever, on the inside of the pane, the handle is moved, the washer will follow it on the outside surface. PR A contrivance for dog racing, in which an artificial rabbit, which serves as the object of the chase, is carried along by an automobile or a motorcycle, has been patented by Charles G. Bathe, of St. Petersburg, Florida. The rabbit is fastened to the end of a strong cord which hangs from the end of a long rod projecting hori- tontally outward from .the.nide of the vehicle. « An electric heater with which a fan is com- bined, to effect circulation of warmed air in a room, is the invention of a Philadelphian, John E. Marsden. e a A roll-top cover for the typewriter that does not have its own folding desk, is strong, dust- proof, disturbance-proof. The folding top, made of strong fabric folded like an accordion, may be locked in place when closed. When open, there is nothing to interfere with satisfactory typing. A copy holder ..ddl_to its convenience. A regular nine or 18-hole golf game can be rhy-d on a recently invented game. When a lever is pressed, the automatic golfer hits the ball which may make a hole-in-one or be “lost” in the painted lake. The player drives the ball first over the bunker into hole number 1; then over the bunker and brook into number 2; and finally, & long putt lands it in number 3. An automatic mon-kee.pin" devi“ is attached. .‘: ‘:’cte:hhllde ith two‘ wooden handles is P 0 the preparation of chopped vegetabl for small salads e The Anatomical Chart Below Indicates the Location of Vulnérable Spota of the Human Body to Which the Blows of a Boxer Are Most Dangerous Because of the Nerve Centers Affected. “In the average bout in which there is no knockout the quality of the shock absorbing mechanism in large measure determines the out- come. Often the man who does most of the hit- ting tires as fast as his opponent who takes the most punishment. “An average man, with no better than average shock absorbing mechanism, could hardly hope to endure more than a single blow from a cham- Kmn. Moreover, he might about as well drive is fist against a stone wall as to accept a pugi- list’s invitation to ‘hit me in the stomach and see How MIRRORS Produce the ILLUSION of a GHOST IFTY years have elapsed since mirror-made ghosts made their first appearance on the stage. No illusion has ever since ap- proached them in cleverness, ingenuity, and spectacular effect. Presented originally in Lon- don, and later in America, these ghosts com- . pletely mystified the public for a long time and still do so, for that matter. In full view of the audience, a ghost would appear on the stage, plain to the eye but unsub- stantial. A living actor, threatened by the specter, would stab at it with a knife, but his This Drawing Shows How Mirrors and Strong Lights Are A Impressively Striking Optical Illusion of a Glass the Ghostly Actions of 8 Bowspaper Festure Servias. MO R if you ean hurt me.’ [In either case it is Mr. Average Man who will be hurt. “But natural toughness alone is not enough to make & champion. He must preserve this in- herent quality by careful living; he must de- velop it to the highest degree by scientific train- g; and, of vital importance, he must acquire rhyslcl.l speed, quick thinking, and skill in box- ng science. Almofi every champion of modern times has emphasized clean livi: sential. Irregular or evil habits that interfere with the bodz;l smooth-running mechanism al- most always have proved disastrous in the end. “When two finely conditioned fighters meet, the outcome is likely to be decided by the ability of one to reach one of the few particularly vul- nerable spots of his ononent’- body. “Of these the most likely spots for a knockout, as we know, are on either side of the point of the Jaw, and the solar plexus. A well-directed blow on the ‘button’ momentarily paralyzes thescrve centers of the brain, producing unconsciousness. A lifting blow on the solar plexus has a bruising effect on the heart, and momentarily paralyzes the lower limbs. “One solid punch to either of these vital spots is enough to fell the average man. A first-class fighter, however, can shake off the effects of mahy hard punches to the jaw. It takes a swift succession of them to bring him down. Some boxers are known to have a fragile or ‘glas {aw.' “The early minutes of a fight are particularly dangerous, for then the body has not yet had time to warm up, and all sensitive points are particularly vulnerable. That is why most box- ers proceed cautiously in the first round. It is in this ‘cold’ period that most of the one-punch knockouts are scored.” Professor 0. Hering, of the University of Cologne, an eminent European physiologist’ who has been investigating the n&ltery of the knock- out, recently found that the carotid arteries, which lie along the upper part of the neck and the sides of the jaw, are other particularly vul- nerable points. They are the arteries, which carry the blood to the head. A hard “carotid” punch, he says, will produce senselessness. as the first es- weapon passed clear through it. In other in- stances skeletons, equally immaterial, appeared on the stage, gruesome to behold. The explanation was simple enough. It de- pended upon a fact familiar to every woman who pauses in front of a shqp window to see herself reflected therein. Ordinary window glass, par- ticularly if there is behind it a dark background, is a pretty fair mirror. For the production of the illusion, a huge sheet of plain glass was erected upon the staze, at some distance back of the foot-lights, and PUTIIAN A rranged to Preduce the Mysterious and ral Figure by Reflecting Upon a Sheet of Persen Concealed Bemesth the Stage. I or Bodyless__J can live—a few seconds or minutes with the higher animals—for hours or eveam days with certain insects. Recent striking ex- periments are described in the French journal, La 8cience Moderne: “As everyone knows, the survival of the head, when removed from any of the higher animals, is vex brief,” say the experimenters. “It is true that a certain degree of muscular excita- bility may persist for hours, and the cells of some tissues may preserve their elementary life; but the most important element of cephalic life, | the nerve tissue, is already inert long before the tissues of lower organization and function have ceased to live, “In the lower animals the survival of parts and tissues is much longer, Edouard Patigaud has published some interesting experiments that were made on insects. It was observed that female moths of the genus Saturnia lived when decapitated from eleven to fourteen days, that is to say, much longer than their normal term of life, which is only eight or ten days. “The insect generally, when decapitated, ex- hibits agitation and convulsive movements' of the head and body. After several minutes the head becomes calm, but the body continues to move, often in an uncoordinated fashion, “If the decapitation has been correctly per formed, there is no loss of blood, and normal respiration and circulation continue. Nourish- ment of course is faulty. But in some adult forms it does not exist at all. The larva of the moth has already absorbed and stored up all the reserve nutriment necessary for its normal adult life. This suffices also for its headless life, for it hardly moves, and its expenditure of energy is thus reduced to a minimum, “Now, what happens to the head? Here the stored-up nutriment is relatively slight. Despite this, there is actual survival, but it is numbered in hours, not in days. The head of the insect, when tested for vitality by means of various kinds of stimulation, reacts, by moving its palpi and antennae, for a variable period—three, six, or twelve hours; sometimes twenty-four or thir- ty-eight. Generally, however, there is first a spasmodic phase lasting 8 few minutes, a phase of immobility and inhibition, lasting, g‘e.r:::pl, three to twelve hours, and finally a in which there are intermittent, isolated move- ments, and also movements of reaction to stim- ulation. It may be easily understood that the head will not survive so long as the body when the two are separated. It has neither circules tion nor respiration and contains no reserves." ““Earthquake Weather” S there such a thing as “earthquake weather?” The legendary idea of alarming conditions of air or sky supposed to presage great earth shocks is recognized as a proper subject for scientific inquiry by no less an authority than Prof. R. M. Wilson: of the Section of Volcanology of the United States Geological Survey. In a letter from the Hawa Volcano Re- search Association, Prof. Wilson mentions records kept by the Spanish Friuh of earth- quakes which happened in the Philippine Islands especially the great shock of Nov. 30, 1645, by which the city of Manila was almost tof destroyed. The weather which preceded this disaster is described by a tonttmpon?' chronicler. It was “calm, the sky cloudy and dull, the air hot and heavy with puffs of wind and drizzling at in. tervals.” An astonishingly large percentage of great earthquake shocks are described by wit- nesses as being preceded by weather of much s Kind. H EADLESS bodies and bodyless heads both inclined toward the audience. Between the glass and the front of the stage was an opening in the latter invisible to the spectators. Beneath the front part of the stage, and of course unseenm, was the living person who took the part of the ghost—perhaps a woman dressed and hooded in white. < Upon her was directed, from beneath the stage, the brilliant illumination of a calcium light. Her image was reflected upon the sheet of glass above, in a way which the accompanying illustration plainly shows, and by that means the spectral image of the woman was' made to a| pear as if standing or walking about on 15 stage. Vhen a person looks into an ordinary mirrer, his or her image, in obedience to a law of optics, seems to be as far behind the glass as the per- son is distant from the front of it. The same principle, of course, applied to the reflection seen in the sheet of plain glass on the stage, and hence the ghost appeared to stand or move at some distance back of the glass, making the illusion impressively striking. The Celestial Lotus N legend a symbol of ancient and sacred mystery, in science a marvel of structure and adaptation, the lotus is the most strangely fascinating of flowers. To the people of Japan, Korea, China, Siam, Java, Persia and it is a sacred flower, the very center of religious and mythological symbolism, There are but three living kinds of lotus. The old world species, with roseate flowers, is by far the best known and is popularly called Egyptian lotus, a writer in Nature explains, because it is supposed to have been sacred to the Nilotics. As a matter of fact both Egyptologists and botan- ists are pretty well agreed that, like papyrus, it was not a native of the Nile and was not brought there until the Egyptian race was in its old age in the period of Persian influence. The sacred water plant of early Egyptian ti was a true water lily, which has floating leaves. A genuine lotus may, even in conventionalised designs, be easily distinguished by the way in which Its leaves stand upright on stiff high out of water. So there is little doubt ;‘::[y]])iln lotus” ‘ix no;nethin: nlt . minumr as e plant was only cultivated along the Nile be- tween 500 B. C. and 1000 A. D.