Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 14, 1887, Page 12

- ©n sight or touc THE FAITH CURE DISCUSSED. Obapter II, Relating to the Healing Miracles of the Gospel. NUMEROUS OTHER MIRACLES ©Oures by Sham Medical Appliances— The Power of Pure Men Impressions to Heal Disease. That T may not pain the feelings of any reader—says Francis Power Cobbe in his atticle in the Contemporary Review on Faith Healing and Fear Killing—I will not attempt to analyze from this point of view the healing miracles of the gospels (notably the cures of epileptics and maniacs), but eite the observations upon them of the Bishop of London, than which in my humble judgment nothing can be more just or philosophical. Here aro his remarksTn his Bampton Lectures ‘for 1884: agaln, our Lord's miracles of Heal- ing. ‘There is no question at all that the power of the mind over the body 1s exceed- ingly great, and has .never yet been thor- oughly examined. Some have assigned to this eause the extraordinary cu that have been undeniably wrought at the shrines, or ‘n( relics, of Roman Catholic Bainl « .« . Itisquite conceivable that E‘(" y of His miracles of healing may have Tak n the result of this power of mind over y which we are now considering. It is ible that they may be due, not to an in- erence with the uniformity of Nature, but to a superiority in his mental power to ac similar power possessed by other men. [en seem to possess this power both over thelr own bodles and over the bodles of others, in different degrees. (The Relations of Rellgion and Sclence, p. 199, et seq.) Putting aside, however, the miracles of the gospel as not desirable subjects for our argument, we are elsewhere supplied with abundance of others; as, for exam- ;le‘ in the records of the miracles of St. rancis and numberless other saints, of Apollonius of ana, of Valentine Greatrakes, of Prince lfohunlohe. and of Father Mathew. If such “miracles” then, be explicable #8 results of strong mental excitement— the same in kind though - greater in de- gree than we have all experienced, —we are forbidden by the law of F:\rshnon to seck an explanation of them farther away, in any material force or eflnence, b. The second class of faith healing supports the same conclusion with even Rreater eo{ency. As I have already said, ‘s healing force proceeding from a living saint is Fn conceivable; but one issuing from holy water, oil, thorns, old bones, nails, hairs, and bits' of wood, is hardly within rational aceeptance. speciall ‘when it is noted that fictitious relics(such a8 the pieces of the *‘true cross,’’ of which there are said to be enough to build a ship) are just as efficacious as others, we cannot fail to see thatitis through the believing mind of the patient that the healing is achieved. As he approaches the holy shrine, to which he has perhaps made a long and toilsome pilgrimage— the longer and more toilsome the better —or 18 annointed on his sick bed,amud the tears and solemn prayers of his friends, the tide of rehigious emotign rises in the man’s soul as in the presence of a living npostle. The third class (c) of faith healings, wrought by charms and amulets, com- mon among uneducated people to this day in England, and everywhere impli itly believed amuur savages, are 8o obv ously cures wrought by mental stimulus alone (whenever wrought at all), that it is needless to speak of themat any length in this connection, ‘The fourth class (d) of cures includes those wrought by men supposed to po: natural healing powers. Here we ourselves in the midst of the mes- m and hypnotic controversies, into which I confess myself unable to pene- trate. One pont connected with them, ‘which supports the that faith heal- ings are purely subjective, 1s-that the phenomena produced when a powerful mesmerist makes passes over his patient and seems to fling the magnetic fluid upon him, are very nearly matched by the phenomena produced” by Braidism and hypnotisin, where no mesmerist is concerned. As I have said, 1 feel incom- petent to deal with this matter. There are many other cures, however, worked by faith in men or women quite inde- pendently of either mesmeric or religious pretensions, e. g., in the case of doctors of great reputation, whose mere presence in the sick room does more good than their prescriptions, Laatly, we reach the fifth (e) class of faith healings—cures wrougit by sham medical appliancos supposed to possess natural healing powers. In this depsrt- mont of the subject we have certainly evi- dence *llore of the power of purely mental impressions to heal disease. Itis ipossible to catalogue the absurd and absolutely inert drugsand agencies which ~—necessarily impotent on the body of the rnuent—hnve been powerful enough in beir influence on his mind to enable that mind to cure his body. As Hunter re- marked of one of them (a spider's web made into pills), it is necessary that they be administered “‘with the knowledge of the patient, else they have no effect at all.’’ [t1s, then, his° mental impression of their potency wherein all their potency resides. Dr, Carpenter admits that theso sham medicines produce their effect not only in maladies in which nervous disor- ders have a share, but also in some, such a8 seur d gout, which ‘‘seem to de- peud on 'the existence of a defimto per- version in the condition of the blood.” He quotes from Lind ''On Scurvy,”’ a story of the siege of Breda in 1625, when the fnrmun were in so deplorable a state from scurvy that they were on the point of capitulating when the prince of Urange managed to send three small phials con- taining & decoction of chamomile and camphor to the doctors, who gave out that four or five drops in a zallon of water, was an infallible remedy for scurvy. The “prince’s remedy 'thorough- ly checked the disease,and restored num- bers who had been invalided. (See “Mental Physiology,'’ p. 688.) We have now briefly surveyed the dif- ferent kinds of faith hnnunfis. from the noblest to the basest, and having found reason to attribute the cure to an influence exorted primarily on the mind of the pa- tient, we are in a position to proceed to the main inquiry: What is the nature of that influgnce on the mind which enables it t> conquer the diseases of the body? ‘We must dismiss the idle notion which seems so strangely to have contented the majority of writers and talkers on this subject, that it is enongh to name some one faculty of the mind as concerned in the case, as if by so doing wo explained the modus operand: of the cure; such, e. ., 88 hope, expectant attention, orimag- nation. Most absurd is it to speak of imagina- tion, as is constantly done even by thoughtful medical writers,as if it were a faculty which not only ‘‘images’—i. e., -nr ies unreal pictures in the mind—but is likewise capablo of sroh-cflng 1 into the material world as a force, like eleatricity, Indolent and baffled in- quivers seem to think it convenient to refer in this vu{ to imagination, because it lprnn a sorl of Puck or Ariel nmong our faculties, and less amenabie to law than mem: or judgment, either of hich 1t would be just as monstrous to cite as tho proximate cause of the cure 8 It 18 to throw psychol mto lwtoh&m to apply the name of the m-«u ng faculty to somethin Ru;t:rm sical mlmls:l. pon one to maintain fl each given case the original dis- #as0 was umaginary, and consequently PR ) THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: BUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 1887.~TWELVE PAGES. that the su| cure was only the pa= tient's to reason; as when a man awakes from s dream and says, ‘I imagined [ had lost my leg, and am glad to find I have done nothing of the kind.’ B is sheer nonsense to describe his ng and coming back to his nses a8 the reeult {magination. hen a disease has been accurately ding- nosed by a competent physician,and pro- nounced to be serious, there is no room left for imagination to play in the cure. The cure, if wronght at ali must be ef- fected some real agent, such as we assume the soul itself to be; for the mere pioturing faculty which we call imagina- nation can at the most have only sup- rhed some stimulus to the mind or soul, But if neither imagination nor, for simi- lar reasons, hope nor attention can of themeelves produce a bodily disease,what are we to think of the entity, of which they are but facultios and phrases which must be the real agent—an agent which, without recognizable machinery suddenly steps forth to assuage pain and to send a flood of fresh vitality through the dis- eased tissues and palsied limbs of its own fleshly companion? With all due hesitation in treating such a matter I would say that the truth see ms to me to be this: That part of us which we call mind, soul, or spirit, and which in its ordinary relations with the body resembles a coupled dog, now pulling 1ts companion its own way, now pulled by it in an opposite direction, 18 capable, under certain exceptional and yet obscure conditions, of entirely mastering its mate. It can render the body insensible to the pain_of mutilation on the battle- field,or of ficry dissolution at the martyr’s stake; and it can effect, independently of any exiraneous agency, such a change in the processes of physical life—the circu- lation, the innervation, we know not what—as to banish disease and reinstate health. So far as we understand them at pres- ent, the conditions under which this soul healing is accomplished seem always to be those of excitement. They are not capable of being produced voluntarly and spontancously by the subject, but must be created by something outside of himgelf. That something may be--and in the Mlghnr kinds ot soul healing 1 pre- sume always is—an exalting idea pre- sented to the mind either by some grand personality, or by arelic or token sug- gestive of sacred or patriotic sentiments, and touching those cords which vibrate deepest in the human heart. The theory recently put forth by Messrs. Myers and Gurney, speaking of Braidisma—that the state in which the mind 1s abnormally concentrated on a bodily condition 1sthat wherein its influence is at a maximum-— is, in .my humble opinion, the very re- verse of the truth. It is, I hold, precisely when the mina is most completely hfted above the body and its pahological conditions, that it can exert its supreme spiritual faculty of healing. Concentration of the mind on the body is the source, I conceive, always of disease, not of health, There are also, as we have noted, other and lower stimu- lants of the excitement which may suflice to produce healing results; the most com- monly effectual being the hope of recov- er{‘ through the use of some nostrum. The last and supreme problem regard- ing soul healing, can we find out how to apply it? is,of course, the real crux of all. nfortunately the persons who are just now 8o busy in endeavoring to accom- plish faith cures of the religious kind— some of them very humble and obviously silly folks,others on a much higher social and intellectual level—are all on the wrong tack (if the views stated in this paper be correct) to discover a real method of faith healing. They versist in looking “for the angel to stir the waters,” instead of seeking the natural fount of hope and courage and viety in each man’s bosom.* ‘We now reach the gravest side of this matter, If faith and piety and hope so elevate and stimulate the soul a3 to en- able it to dispel disense like Gabriel in Guido's picture striking down Lucifer, then, beyond all doubt, mistrust and pes- simism and fear must correspondingly depress the soul aad leave Lucifer mas- ter of the situation. In this ease also, it is literally true that *‘he who will save his life shall lose it.” tle who values his life beyond the purposes for which life was given, will forfeit it by his sickly anxicties, As Mill found of happiness,so it holds good of health; necither are to be attained by making it the chief object of mortal care. How then do we now stand as regards fear killing, the antithesis of faith healing? It seems to me that aloufinidu o? the gains which have ac- crued to our generation from the pro- gress of hgglanic science we have ac- quired habits of mind which go far to counterbalance them. Proverbially, & brave man dies but once. a cow- ard a thousand times; and we are coming perilously near the verge of cow- * [ am informed that the ‘‘true” faith- healing people do not allow the use of any “means” whatever, If any reader desire to see the exceeding nonsense which can be written and printed on this subject, he isreferred to a book which has passed through nine editions in America —viz, 'Scie d ) a Key 1z, “*Science aud Health, with a Key to the Scriptures,” by Mrs. Eady, president of the Massachusetts Metapnysical college (2 vols. 8vo, Boston, 1884), ‘The following are specimens of the counsels of Mrs. Eddy on ling the sick,” vol. 1., p. 180: rgue there Is no disease. Itis but the evidence and object of the senses {ou have to deslroY not a reality....Say to the patient mentally, you are not sick, and hold your ground with the skill of a lawyer. Argue down the witnesses against your plea, and you will destroy those witnesses, and the dis- ease will disappear. Rely not in the least on the evidence of the senses, but on the evi- dences in metaphysical science of man’s har- mony and immortality....Avoid talking dis- ease to the sick. Make no unnecessary in- quiries relative to their symptoms; never ...Zlve them names for their disease: . “If the case te be treated is consumption, bezin er argament by taking up the lead- ing points....showing that it is not inher- ited; that inflammation, tubercles, hmuwor- rhage, and decomposition are but thoughts, bellefs, mental images before mortal minds, not the immortal mind. Hence they are not the truth of man, and should be treated as error—put out of mind, and then they will disappear from the bmly o And again, vol. 1,p. 133: *'Conservation or dishonesty(!) In the theory or practice of metaphysies applied to the treatment of dis- ease would betray a ‘gross ignorance of the whole subject. Disease can neither be treated nor healed metaphysically if drugs or external applications are employed; and pe- titioning a personal God todo your work, or enable you to do it, is not metaphysics wherein truth works, and you understand the divine principle of your” demonstiration. Animal magnetism, clairvoyance, medium- nhlip. OF mesmerism are antagonlstic to this sclence.” Vol. 1., p. 248: “Bathing and brushing, to correct the secretions or remove unhealthy exhalations from the cuticle, receive a useful rebuke from Christian healing, that makes not clean the outside of the platter.” Vol. 1, p. 225: “That mother is not a meta- rh{llchu. and her affections nead better ald o their duration, who says to her child, ‘yon look sick,’ or ‘vou look ‘tired.’ etc., or who goes to her little one fallen on her nose on the carpot, and moaning more childishly than her child, says, ‘siamma knows you are hurt.” Druj n-ntullhsmn and whisky are shockinz substitutes for the diznity and ?olrncy of mind and the divina power 1o heal. Through the byways of physiology and materia medica to lead man into temptation in every direction Is pitiful.” “P’alsy 18 & belief that attacks mortal mind, and this mind paralyzes the body through fear. Ossification or any abnormal condition of the bones is the action of mortal mind as directly as insanity. lones have no more substance than thouchts, and are only what they are nanied by and appear to mortal mind, What we call matter was primitively ervor in solution.” (! P, 253: “Called to the bed of death, what romod( have we In matter when all its ies have falled? Mind must be only resort at last. There is no (death. i, ‘Lh.nn 13 no matter: ‘He is at the m‘u«m" means by “meta- physies” fu these volumes can. only be ki 'I:y should shink, by the ;:rw-uc' dnd::: :‘ :‘r:fl‘:.fl:myun u:?hm took up his parable, and_ preached well and wisely of religious ol ce to tho natu- ral Iawa of health. But had his noble lite |asted till now, his voice, I think, would have been loudest in the denuncia- tion of that hygeiolatry which threatens to become our only religion. Kingsley adjuredus to preserve health that we nlu‘ht the better sorve God with vigorous brains and hands. We coddle ourselves, chietly, it is to be feared, for our own comfort, ana ardently cherish_this life, having no particular expectation of an- other, While our fathers considered the most sublime line In French poetry to be the profession of Joad, Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n’al point d’autre crainte; e have ceased to fear God, and loatned to fear microbes, . Two causes contribute to this change. One is the decline of faith; the other is that advancement of science which places us in the position of the poor Brahmin who was cruelly induced to look through a microscope and perceive all the unsnspected monsters in a drop of the water he was drinking. W hether the old belief in an over-ruling Providence was, ot was not, well founded, its super- ior suitability to produce courage as con- ELECTRICITY IN HARNESS. Great Expeotations Regarding Eleotrical Inventions. THE TELEPHONE Lighting Cars With Kleotrioity—How Rods Shounld be Placed—Magnie tude of the Telegraph Business ~Queer Klectric Antics, The Telephone in China. Chicago Tribune: The syadicate or- ganized by Wharton Barker and Si Hung Chang for the introdection of a telephone system in China has a fine field before it. The telephone 1s one of the simplest, handiest, and most useful of modern in- ventions, and it has come into such gen- eral use the world over, that 1t is only surprising the Chinese have delayed tak- ing it up so long. So far as the Chineso IN CHINA, }""‘i’d '{,‘:‘h “de""n"n"hyfik“"‘ll‘ o"‘::f"mi:: ure concerned the telephone must be .,!,-T{h,',fl; ,,‘;,‘,“{,3%“%,' Iougm rentz':le- ranked as marking the introduction of a which | new art, and not, as has been so strongly Eree that Abhangigkeitsgefuh Schleiermacher deemed the very founda- claimed in this country, “‘an improve- tion of religion; and with 1t the sense of ment in telegraphy.” The Chinese have never been able to use the telegraph, owing ‘to the cxistence of over 4,000 characters in their alphabel. Even it a system of dots and dashes could be de- vised to represent such an alphabet it would be practically impossible to em- ploy it 1n an{ commercial use of the telegraph, Of course no such difticulties attend the telephone, which will “‘talk” Chinese or any other. lonixa with as much accuracy as it does ‘nghsh, quality of voice and ennunciation being equal. The telephone, therefore, offers the Chinese their first opportunity to se- cure the speedy transmission of intelli- gence between distant parts of the em- pire. Whenever the Chinese have used the telegraph in other countries, asin sending messages to diplomatic agents and ministers, the dispatches had to be sent in English and translated at both the sending and receiving stations. Odd as it may seem, there is a strong probability that the telephone may re- ceive great improvement 1n Cl The purpose there is to use it not simply in- side towns and cities but for long distance communication between remote points, ng Safe in the hand of one d!slwulnz Power, As in the natal, in the mortal hour. No one talks now of "evor{ bullet hav- ing 1ts billet,” or thinks of life as an “‘ap- pointed span.”” ‘The bullet xroneeds by the laws of dynamics, and the length of life is determined by those of biology. 1f we desire that our days may be long in the land, we know that that end must be sought exclusively by sanitary and hygienic precautions; and that (barring nomdenuf it depends exclusively on how successfully we “struggle for existence' whether our existence will be extended for a Jonger or shorter period. No one can doubt that this scientific view must prove in the long run more conducive to caution than the motion of a providential span, or of fate, or a planet, or kismet; and accordingly we practi- cmll{ find all around us evidences of re- doubled care concerning the conditions of health. Of course in many directions this new caution is good and rational. More temperate diet, more airy bed- rooms, better drained houses, and more effectual ablutions, are real im: provements on the habits of our ances- tors,but the excess to which hygenic pre- | and hence it is likely that the capacity cautions are carried, the proportion | of the instrument ~for such Wwork which such cares now ocupy amid the | will be greatly improved. In this_coun- serious interests of life, is becoming ab- | try tho contract between the Western surd,and conductiag us rapidly to a state | njon and the Boll company binds the of things wherein, if we are not killed by | Jutter not to compete with the talegraph tear,we aro paralyzed byit for allnatural | or gyve the public the advantages of enjoyment. The'old healtnful, buoyant long-distance communication by tole- spirit seems alroady fled from tho ‘ma- | nhone. The Bell company is in fact jority of Enghsh romes. Aged people | hribed not to permit any considerable (from this “di no doubt, other concur- | jmprovement of the telephone service. rent canses) seldom exhibit now that gen- | 1n China, on the contrary, every indue- tle f"’“‘y which so often brightened | meng js held outto have the invention “”I' h hues of sunset 1L the —long, | hrought up toits full capacity. Lf the ‘”f‘ m evening of a wellspent Dfe, | Chinese make any such general use of :; ter .'l;“ .'“d"l days' work ‘“1 the telephone as i8 expected, marked im- °“°'ld e middle-aged are one and all | ;rovements will doubtless follow, and by hag-ridden by anxiety; and as to the | {hq time the Bell patent expires or is_set young, i we may trust the reports which | a5iqe by the supreme court, the United reach us trom the great schools, a very States may adopt & system of communi cation as simple, rapid, cheap and sati: marked change has come over them, 5- curiously indicative of the sensitiveness factory as the telephone service of China. Underground Wires. of young souls to the chill breath of the.| Boston Commercial Bulletin: The Zeitgeist. The lads have grown colder and harder, and are interested in pecu- niary profits rather than in nobler pro- | placing of wires underground has been fessional ambitions. Nay, we have been | often advocated by the newspapers and told (it is a large demand upon cred- | would no doubt be a Ipo pular movement ulity!) that English schoolboys have al- | with the great body of the citizons. The most ceased to be reckless abont heat and | great wefi of overhead wires is not only cold, about eating indigestible things, | an eyesore but an incumbrance and in- about climbiug trees and precipices, | jury to roofs and a menance to the safety about going on deep water in unseawor- | of property in preventing proper work thy boats: in short, about all those | by firemen in addition to being, unless pursuits which excited the perennial | properly issulated, dangerous to people alarms of their =~ fond = mothers. | who come in contact with them as well Many boys are to be found, it is stated (I | g liable to causg fires. Poles in a public street are a nuisance and only partially lessen the objections to overbead wires. write always under reservation),who may 1t is merely » question of years when be dese! as Molly-coddles,so cautious the wires in all ghe great cities must to a are they about their health and their limbs., ~ Urchins in round jackets spaak of the danger of checking perspiration | great extent go underground and if no practical system exists 1t must be devised, for the popular senfiment on this matter after cricket, and decline to partake of unripe apples and pastry on the never- before-heard-of ground “of dyspensi 18 becoming stronger every day. The matter of underground wires has re- ceived some atteption in Boston from the Invited in the holidaysto the ecstatic “lark’’ of a long excursion on horseback, various electric companies and from the city government, for several years past, they have declined with reference to the” but has been given no sucn thorough at- playfulness of their pony's heels; and have been seen to shrink from a puppy’s caressing tongue, murmuring the omin- | tention as in other American cities where ous word ‘“‘rabies.” In short, our girls, | commssions have been appointed to in- who are just acquiring physical courage | vestigate various systems and make ar- as anew virtue, are sometimes braver | rangements for placing all wires under- than their brothers, who think it “good | ground. form” to profess disinclination to risk In Boston, about five or six years ago their valuable persons. an attempt was made to run_arc lights It is not a small matter that this ebb underground in_front of the Providence railroad station,but it wasnot sucoessful owing to the disintegation of the insu: should be noticeable anywhere in tne tide of English manly courage. On the lating material. For the past three or four years a system of underground contrary,if it continue the results must be wires has been in successful use for a deploral le. For our present porpose it short distance, in lighting the Park thea- is enough to point out that all this new- born caution about their health (to which, perhaps, the very undesirable study of | tre the light being the Edison incandes- physiology by schoolboys has in some cent. The only telegraph line under- schools contributed) will at the best ere- | ground is a line from the Western Union nteufionerpfion of hypochondriacs and fiomiqunrteri on State street down valitudinarians, not of robust and stal- through Adams square to the Eastern wart Englishmen. depot. It is not a good system, being The fears of which we have been speak- merely iron pipes through which'the or- ing,fostered by over-attention to the con- | ginary cables are drawn. As the pipes ditions of health and longevity, may not | pave been down for a tew years the in- literally kill anybody. Tt may be carry- | guiating material has rotted, as no at- ing the paradox too far to say we shall tempt has been made to renew it. die of them, or even that they may not be Last year marked the only attempt of succagsful in longthening our calendar by | 4ny magMude to put wires underground. afew days. Butthe gain will be nil it | Tho Edison FElectric Light company they render every one of those days piti- applied to the city government for ful and mean and mosquin. Life, to bo | pormission to lay wires underground,and worth living, must be concerned with | tho New England Telephone and Tele~ "“‘"‘ h‘“h"" d“‘.‘“zfi b?l’m"“ diseases, frnph company asked for the same pri draughts and drains; and we wadt to | Juges put on different streets, and this year they have asked for additional priv- 1leges, and each has now some miles of conduit underground, some of it in the principal streets, and propose to extend their systems further underground in the city proper. - The systems which these concerns have adopted have so far worked successfully, though they have not been in operationa ient length of time to judge. The ison system consists of an iron pipe of different” dismeters, according to the amount of wires to be placed in them. The pipe is covered with an impervious asphalt preparation. It is about twenty foot lenfitlu. and tho joints are boxed and rendere: im;i.arvious by a coating at the joints. The wires are put inside the pipe in cables, each wire being insulated from the other by rubber insulating prep- aration, and the cables are surrounded with an asphalt insulating compound. These pipes can be tapped like water or gas pipes. The system in use by the telephone company consists of cresoted hard pine boxes about fifteen square and about twenty feet long. These boxes are subdivided by creosoted wooden partitions into nine chambers. In each of these chambers 15 laid a lead pipe which contains a hundred or more wires, according to their size, each wire being insulated by being wound with cotton thread soaked with parafline. The cro- osoted boxes are covered with tar paper and tar at the joints, over which strips of creosoted planks are laid, Righta have also been granted to the American Conduit ,company to lay its conduits, which conaists of a” conduit or vipe composed jof cement and sand, chemically treated to render it impervi- ous to water., Each conduitis divided into chambers. The practical value of this system is yet to be fully determined. From the testimony of noted el¢otricians it appears that incangdescent electric light wires, telegraph wires and telephone wires can Iaid upderground without any danger to the publio, the only trou- ble being to get & ect system of in- sulation, though this'can be arrived at. current of the-above wires is not dangerous, but the very much astronger current of the arc light is very dangerous live, not marul{ to postpone death and d y inches through half a century. The general pessimism which weighs on us all, the atra cura who has mounted behind every horseman and whom no amount of tobacco smoking seems to odge, are lowering the vitality of our generation. Hope is the true elixir and instead of hoping all things with Paul, we fear all things with Dr. Rich ardson. One of the greutest artists of the day gave us two yoars ago—nossibly without precisely intending i1t—a bitter satire on our age. The radiant goddess, whom Collins described with “eyes so fair,” trilling her *‘delighted measure,” Mr. Watts depicted as a blindfolded pa- tient ont of the Brompton hospital, bent in a curve like an ammonite rather than u vertebrate creature, over a broken- stringed lyre. Such is the hope of the closing decades of the Viotorian era! [ 2t Sunday.) Several months ago Miss Emma Neuman, of Bristol, had her scalp torn from her head by her hair catching in machinery in the mill where she was employed. "Dr. J. Wilson of Bristol has been diligently en*’ngcd since in building L:r & new scalp &gmmng on the head munute bits of skin taken from the arms of various persons. Prob- ably he has exhausted the list of Miss Neuman's friends who were willing to contribute to her relief, for at this time he ?‘nlls for ouside aid in the following card: “Young persons, not over thirty, who are willing to confer a favor on Miss Emma Neuman, will greatly oblige her und her friends if they will allow seeds for grafting in the new Ip to be taken from their arms. The family and friends ed material, and a good p i3 being made, but the lack of suf- ficient material is now the greatest obsta- cle in successfully covering the entire The picce for grafting is pinched uj ped off without pain or bad effect on the person. Thosa who will ns- sist the recovery of Miss Neuman may call on Dr. Wilson at his office at 9:80 a. m. or notify ?l?.' and arrangements will. be made for the convenience of parties. inches, unless properly insulated, and there are great doubts among electricians of the success of any system of arc lkgms under- ground, though'it is claimed that they are successfully operated in Philudelphia. Outside of the are light wires the main objeotion to placing wires underground by the com:\mea 8 the question of ex- ponse, but this will not vount in the face of n strong public demand for it. A Oarbon Feeder For Electric Lights, Hartford (Conn.) Times: Mr. Julian Denison, an employe of the Connecticut Electric company, “of New Haven, has made an invention of special importance to electric light companies. It is an ap- paratus to feed new carboms automati- cally as fust as the old ones burn out and are exhausted. In plain words, it does away with the man and ladder now in use, whereby the carbons have to be thrown to the street and fresh ones ‘mtln. The carbon feeder or magazine will con- tan seventeen carbons, ten upper and seven lower sticks. ~ Under the Denison patent an electric iight will burn steadily without watching for, say, ninety hours or more on a stretch. The first public experiment will probably be with a magazine, throwing six upper carbons calculated to burn for sixty hours, The magazine will revolve as fast as the lighted carbons become exhausted and drop new ones into Plucu 1n an instant, 1t 18 practically a self-feeder, and is cal- culated to do away with the constant worry and fuss under the present system of adjusting carbons. Within a week or 80 one of the Denison patent feeders will be attached to an electric light in New Haven. Queer Electric Antics, Hartford (Comn) Times: Over in New Preston, in the Litchtield county town of Washington, the other day. a light- ning bolt struck E. J. Cable's house with some of the strangest results on record. The lightning rods were evidently of no protection, As soon as the smoke cleared away it was found that the north side of the house had been badly shattered, the clnrbonnls blown off and the windows and glass flung oat into the grass. Plas- ter had been torn off' of evur{v room as the lightning distributed itself along tho beams in ~divers directions. Closed doors were wrenched off their hinges and hurled across the rooms, and every- thing, as the urchins say, ‘‘knocked fourtcen ways from Sunday.” Two pounds of blasting powder were exploded, but u flask * of rifle powder near by escaped. The side of a big bottle containing tur- pentine was knocked ont, but the fluid did not catch tire. Seemingly the largest current ran easterly, shivering the sill of the house, dodged into the pantry, tore a big hole in the cupboard, “setting it on fire, bored holes as large as a man's thumb through two tin pails, shattered some dishes, skittered across the floor, splintered the woodwork, tore off the plaster, almost melted a hole through the cast iron sink and plunged into the water pipe, ruining it, stoppin, the flow of waters. Down cellar,the flur ran along the chain of a steel trap which was set for rats and sprung the trap. Several holes were scorched in the flan- nel case of a violoncello, and the instru- ment was shattered. Several lamps and a clock were knocked off a mantel. The clock was destroyed with the hands pointing exactly at 6:15, which was the precise instant of the shock. One person who saw the flash said it was a fool wide, and another said it looked as red as fire. John Gunn, John Ludgate and Mr. Gahan ran over from Bolle’s marble shop, where they wore at work, expecting to find everybody dead, but were agreeably surprisad to find all the inmates lively and flinging water with great energy. The astonishing thing is that no one washurt or even shocked! Great Electrical Expectations, Electrical Review: The public expect much of improvements in which electri- city is employed. Millions may be spent in digging a “canal where the channel fills up from a slow movement of the soil as fust as it is removed h?' the dredging machines; failure after failure may be re- corded in the annals of mining develop- ments until success seems to be the ex- ception, but let there be a failure of an electrical piece of mechanism and every one wonders. In the early days of the developement of the systems of electrie lighting, storsge, and transmission of power, there were few failures,and those were instructive. The first devices for automatically Iiihtmg and extinguishing gas were somewhat crude. Now, how- ever, with careful installation, faiure is unknown; yet ten years ago the great system of Lighting by electricity had only been dreamed of. It required thirty years to perfect the system of telegraphy.” The methods used in gas-making were not improved for a long period. And it is possibly that the old process would have been in use for half a century longer 1f the competition of eleotric lighting had not necessitated improvements. So much has been accomplished that still more is expected of our electricians, The inven- tor or experimenter was once called a crank, Now large sums of money are oxpended yearly in systematic experi- menting, the highest skill, education and abiljty is employed and the professors in the univerasities and technical schools are retained as consulting electricians, Magnitude of the T'elegraph Business, New York Commercial Advertiser: No country in the world begins to approach the United States in the magnitude of its telegraphic business. In 1886 there were 667,710 iles of wire in this country. France came next, with 205,470 miles; Germany third, 180,000 miles, and Great Britain fourth, with 158,508 miles, It is not only in extent of plant thatthe United States takes first rank. We not only have wires, but we use them. 1n 1886 the num- ber of messages sent in this country was 72,000,000, more than double the number sent in Great Britain,which came second, with 33,278,450 me: theithird place, with 24 and Germany fourth, 0,855, There are also now in existence in the United States 128,231 milcs of wires used by telephone companies, through which, in 1886, 812,005,710 messages were trans- mitted. There is no data for compari- son at hand, but a recent writer in the Nineteenth Century makes the statement that the telephone is, practically speak- ing, not in general use Great Britain, and that its benefits are not appreciated to any appreciable extent on the conti- nent. Lightning-Rods. Engimeering News: Prof. Michael Fara- day says that the conductor should bo of half-inch copper rod, and should rise above the top of & chimney by a quantity equalto the width of the chimney at the top. The lengths of rod should be well joined metallically to each other, and this is perhaps best done by screwing the ends into a copper socket. The conne tion at the boliom should be good; if there are any pump pipes at hand going into a well they should be useful in that respect. As respects eleotr condue- tion, no advantage is gained by expand- ing the rod horizontally into o strap or tube—surface does nothing; the solid section is the essential element. There is no occasion of insulation of the con- ductor for this reason. A flash of light- ning has an intensity that enables it to break through many hundred yards, per- haps miles, of air, and therefore an insu- lation of 6 inches or 1 foot in length could have no power in preventing 1ts lead to the brickwork, supposing that toe conductor were notable to carry it away. Again 6 inches or 1 foot is so littie that it 18 equivalent almost to nothing. A very feble eleetricity could break throngh that barrier, and a flash that could” mnot break 5 or i0 feet coulddo mo harm te the chimney. A very grest point 1s to haveé no insulated masses of metal. If, therefore, hoops be connected metallically with the con- duoctor, otherwise a flash might strike a hoop at a corner on the orpoclh side on naulngm the conductor, from the near- ost of the hoop, re might be explosion, and the chimney injured t or even broken through. n, 00 rods or ties of metal should be wrought into the chimney parallel to its length, and therefore, to the conductor, and_then to be left unconnccwed, with it, The may be close along the_brick or stone, it makes no difference. There will be no need of a rod on each side of the build- ing, but let the cast iron hoop and others yon speak of be connected with the rod,if there were roda on every side of the chim- ney. A three-fourth rod is no doubt better than & half inch, and, except for the expenso, I like it better. ' But a half inch has never yet failed. A rod at Coutt's brewery has been put up 1 inches in diameter; but they did not min: expense. The Nelson Column in London has a half-inch rod—three fourths is bet- ter. Idonot know of any case of harm from hoop-iron inclosed in the building, but if not in connection with the conduc- tor I should not like it; even then it might cause harm if the lightning took the end furthest from the conductor. Electric Springs. 87. Lovts, July 12.—To the Editor of the Glebe- Democrat: The peculiar freaks of lightning are proverbial, and at tim its wonderful power is manifested in dis- astrous results, while on other occasions it proves to be beneficial. In this artiocle, with your kind permission, it is my plea- sure to chronicle a benelicial freak. On May 29, 1887, near Lorena, McLen- nan county, Tex., lightning étruck on a limes(ono.oropqlng on the prairie land owned by Mr. H. C. Wiiliams, at & point about one mile west of his residence. Several persons witnessed the electrioal discharge, and they state the stroke was a very heavy one, as the appearance of the earth clearly demonstrates. The sur- roundings looked as though they had been blown up with dygamite, and pieces of rock were scattered “around in every direction for a distance of mvnntf'-flva to 100 yards. Within 100 yards of where the spring lightning struck there is a periodi- cnl,which flows only in very wet weather, but which has been dry for over a vear. There are several other springs with a half-mile that have all been dry for over a year. That part of the country has had a severe drought for the past two years and water is very scarce. Upon examination of the place where the discharge took place, it was noticed that a number of springs had broken forth, discharging a stream of crystal purity in volume sufficient to fill a four- inch pipe. This heavy flow continued for two weeks, but since then the volume has slightly diminished. Mr. Williams states that these springs will be of untold value to him if they brove permanent, as he will be able to utilize the water to irri- ate land that will be highly productive. q‘hu water discharged varies in tempera- true, some being delightfully cold. My theory of the opening of these springs 18 that the discharge falling on the stratified limestone forced its way through the stratitied formations, which probably contained some moisture, and found a line of least resiffnce over which it passed to sume subterranean cavern or reservoir, which it opened and vermitted the confined waters to pass out. On the other hand it may have simply diverted a subterranean flow that supplied some other spring or springs, causing 1t to break forth at this point, and possibly stopping the flow of some other springs or greatly diminishing their volume. are put around the °M§“ each should The Electric Motor. Memphis Avalanche: Whirling along through the open country at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour, comfortably seated by an open window in a well-ven- tilated coach, the mind of the summer traveler is not likely to busy itself with speculations upon the development of the electric motor as if he sat behind a pair of froth-covered animals tugging along with a street car lond of passengers. Sympathy with the brutes is calculated to make a warm man warmer and a hot man hotter. Electricity would be cleaner, cooler and cheaper, if anything i8 to be argued from the successful trials lately made with improved motors in Philadelphia. Its use is not a new lhmf, but it has never yet been so successfully applied as to lead 1o its general adoption. It is still the exception rather than the rule. Montgomery, Ala., has a line of street cars run by electricity, so has Kansas City, Mo., and _similar !ines run out of Baltimore and Hamden. New York civy is about to try the experiment on Fulton street and Philadelphia has a line fairly uuder way. The Philadelphia Pressis inchined to the view that as soon as the single question of cost can be over- come, stored electricity as & motor is likely to displace both the use of horses and the cable system in that and other cities. Considerable progress has been made in the direction of electric street cars since the days of the Centennial, when a car was ‘successfully run about the grounds. The objection to overhead wires common to all cities will be a bar to the introduction of that crude method exceyt for suburbau lines, and it is plain that the plan of suudlnfi’ the current along the rails wili never be popular un- til horses are shod with rubber instead of iron. A currentin order to be cffec- tive is strong enough to shock horses whose feet touch the rails. 1f the vlan of placing the condult below the rails can be brought to perfection, the prob- lem will be practically solved. Here is a rich field for the electrician, Electricity as a Street-Car Motor. Philadelphia correspondence New York World: A satisfactory test of a surfuce car operated by electricity was made yeosterday at the establishment of Whar- ton & Co., in the presence of a number of railway officials. The ear was supplied by eighty-four storage batteries placed beneath the seats, which furnished elec- tricity to a Sprague moior geared to the axle of the front wheels. I'he car wus run about experimentally, after whieh it was run out on the Union line and switched to the tracks of the Spruce and Pine streets line. A round trip was made, the car,when the track was clear for any considerable distance, attaining a speed of eight miles an hour. At times the car was cmul)lowly filled, and it was considered that a thoroughly practical test was given it. All ‘the sharp curves were rounded satisfactorily. At ull times the car was under absolute con- trol. The man in charge oan, by the de- vice at his hand, readily stop, start and back the car as well as ra‘iulale its speed. An electrie bell is sounded as . warning signal. By means of push-buttons the conductor caa signal the ariver to stop or start. It is estimated that the cost of running the clectric cars is from two- thirds to three-fourths the cost of horse- power. A car of this kind is running rgularly in London and another in Ber- lin. An Electric Bath, 0 News: During a thunderstorm ton, Pa., lightning struck a_pen- knife in the hands of High Sheriff Zierdt, who was bathing in a tub. When he re- covered he found nothing but small splinters of the tub he had been bathing 1n, and the water it contained was equally distributed over the floor, as if done with a mop in the hands of a serub-woman. The metal in the knife was melted. No other evidence that the lightning had en- tered the room could be found. Electric Brevitics, There is a scazcity of skilled labor in electrieal establishments. Three large Edison stations to supply power are to be erected 1n the upper part of New York city. A trial wl?l soon be made in this city with electricity in street cars. Blocks of cheap houses arc being fitted up with the finest electrioal appliances, and cles trioal supply mlnnhgrutm ing their plants daily. It is stated in Newburg, N. Y., thatia are expand' ashipysrd in that plsce there is boing ©o! l‘:‘{lufld the first vessel to be pro- lled by eleotricity ever built in "the nited States. It is a yacht 37 feet long, 7 feet wide and 5 feet deep. It is to be run by stored ulootrlcn{. It is building for a Newark (N. J.,) electric company, nymikwnll run between this city and New ork. A dynamo of 22,000 pounds weight and 500 horse power, with an armature forty-seten inches diameter, is nt work at Comlef, Ala,, to separate aluminum from clay. American electrical supply houses are building up a large trade in Australia. A company has been organized with a cap- ital of $500,000 to control the business. A Fronch engineer sonks ragsin petrol- eum and ignites them by electricity at tixed intervals when the mon are out of the mines to burn the ftire-damp. ——— A Musical Disagreement. Arkansas Traveler: Congregational singing may carry the appearuunce of brotherly loye and sisterly regard (if there 15 such a thing), but it is sometimes far from entertaining to the person who takes no part in the performance. Re- cently, at a very fashionable place of religious worship, where many untrained and unmusical voices run riot over per- suasive tunes,a man who knew niore ubout the 5rn|n market than of ‘“‘buckwheat lifted up his presumed voice to nssist in the presentation of a hymn of lon, hallowed standing A “modest but de- termined-looking fellow who stood just in front of him turned around, touche the singer on the arm and said: “Po you live in this town?'’ “Yes," the singer replied, after allow= ing his voice to fall to the floor. “‘Are you a member of this congrega- tion?” “1 am, sir.” s it not one of the aims of thischurch to treat strangers with marked cour« y and g0 “Well. then, will you please do me a favor?” “Certainly, if it is What can I'do for you?” CHUIR the s a ‘Hush!” the singer gasped. *“That's what I said.” 2 ‘s it pombln‘ sir, that youn don't want aman to sing?’ ‘‘Oh, [ don’t mind a man's singing; don’'t eare how much he sings, but I don’t want him to give himself up to such dis- tressing noises as you have been make in my power. ing.” fiMy gracious alive! has it come to such a pass that a man can’t sing in his own church?'? “It has come to such a pass that you can’t sing in any church.’’ “You are msulting, sir.” “And yon are tormenting."’ “If you don't like my singing—" “Ltell you that I've got no objection to anybody's singing." “Well, if yon don't like me, yon—'" *‘Got no objections to you at all.” By this time the hymn was finished and the congregation sat down, but pretty soon another hymn was announced. The annoying singer again lifted his voice, The man in front of him turned an touched him on the arm. “What do you want with me, sir?" “Want you to hush.” “J came here to sing and—"" “Wny don't you sing then? Don't object to your singing, understand, but to tell you the truth, your voice carries me back to a time when I was very un- happy, a time when 1 raised hogs in the south, and, sir, since then, whenever | hear anything that sounds like—'" “I won’t worship in the same house with you, sir,” said the singer. *I will leave this place,” “Thunk you,’’ the stranger replied, and, smoothing out tho unpleasant ex- pression from his face, he sat nimsell down and gave himself up to the enjoy ment of the sermon. ELECTRIC BATTERIES Cor, 13th St. and Capito! Am. OMAHA, NEB. 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