The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 25, 1896, Page 17

“HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1896. 17 THE MICROSCOPICAL POWER OF THE HUMAN EYE A most remarkable and astonishing dis powers of the human eye has been made by Professor F. L. 0. Roehrig of Pasa The scientific world will be dee: for it is quite probable that the learned ge initial step in the whole continuous series of connected subsequent facts, leading, perhaps, to many as yet wholly unexpected important sciertific truths and variously valuable new discoveries. Professor Reeurig formerly occupied nell Un he chair of Sanskrit and modern the genial climate of California. States ofala Ny, acting as a specialist on the Reeh ‘‘Some time ago while attending to my mere accident, to look in an almost perpen tance of, more or less, an inch or two down onto my beard, on my mus- tache as well, and especially the whiskers surrounding my chin. great was my astonishment at the strange what I then saw—every bair greatly magnified, just as seen through some microscope. Each hair stood out in a plain and distinct manner, often variously hent, knotted, irregularly twisted and forming a tube which, according to all appearance, was transparent, rather coloriess, hollow and e on both sides by a geaerally well-marked bright white line or border, sometimes also more or less striated inside, bruptly in an open, either circular or, more frequently, pen- ; sometimes, but rarely, in a closed point. varies from that of an ordinary dsrninz-neet_!ls to e of a small lead-pencil; 1t increases gradually in proportion as I move those tubes slowly upward from the chin: and it seems to reach imum when seen nearly high enough to be somewhat on a level embpty, bounded as it w and end tagonal o magnified the vol hair tu , or right opposite to it. d the result was just the same. skers, p! TS In order to s 1 invariably the same result. he experiment succeeded as well in bt ning artificially illuminated. no essential difference in d and , moreo ns with the Itooka ti zht, when a very trings or cords, wa: e stream of & very brig he ha of my whiskers ap seemed in their whole ler parallel strok ersity, New York State, but was compelled on account of his health to flce the Tigors of the Eastern winters and take up his abode in He is a man of wide learning and great culture. He holds the degree of doctor of philosophy from the University of Leipzig, and is also a graduate in medicine. During the late war he became prominent in the surgeon-general’s department of the United e number of works on languages, and they are quotel as an au- thority in both Europe and America. At the age of 77 years Professor still retains his full intellectual powers. £ ed him in his laboratory at Pasadena, Dr. Roehrig concerning his new discovery, as follows: ewise examined the very thin and short hair on my hand and ced it out, and, isolating it completely, beld it between bLject it to the same examination—which gave on v or white hair, served the purpose equaliy well. this magnified appearance perceptible to | me clearness with which I saw it myseif. & hairiock from some child’s head and held it ap ze mass of strongly magnified intertwined roportion as I moved it slowly upward; it reached when it had come high enough to be in front of my eyes re at a distance of, more or less, an inch or two. periment in a darkened ¢loset, where through a longitudinal | t, da er before, and the inside of nearly all those magnified hair- th, as it were, lined with numerous fine omewhat similar to the shading of a pencil- covery in regard to the visual ply interested in the premises, ntleman has simply taken the Oriental languages in the Cor- eye and ear. He is the author To a representative of morning toilet I happened, I_Jy dicular direction and at a dis- How and unexpected appearance of The size of the Then I took one of those hairs road daylightas when the room Monocu!ar or binocuiar vision that respect. Dark as well as s at once seen. It increased in At last I ng and glaring sunlight. ared considerably more en- P z, Or as we often see it also in certain flowers, leaves and plants. b Remarkable Discovery That Opens a New Door to Science and May Liead to Wonderful Results. One or two og those tubes appeared in beautiful rainbow-like colors. “I also tried these experiments with the additional aid of a reflector, when I obtained the same magnified appearance of the hair-tuhes; some \ LBAYY of them, perhaps, a little more bright and d istinct, and showing many of the orifices less round or peniagonal, but rather somewhat uneven and irregular, lacerated, with a break of continuity in their rim, such as the DR. ROEHRIG, DISCOVERER OF THE PHENOMENON. fragments of a glass tube when roughly smashed would generally ap- pear. “Then I extended my observations to various small objects, such as horse:hair, blades of grass, needles, minute insects, ete. Tue result was invariably the same. The best view, however, presented longitudinal ob- lects, in linear form, such asneedles, strings and the like—which seemed to lengthen out, or stretch otten quite considerably, besides increasing in bulk and growing apparently thicker. At last I resorted to magnifying glasses in order to find out whether and in what manner or degre- the ap- pearance of the objects examined would differ from that observed by the microscopical power of the naked natural eye. This has, then, served as an independent and perfect test to confirm minutely and with the utmost accuracy the entire result in all its particulars as had been obtained by the preceding experiments and observatiors. “My eyes and the eyes of all those whom I made to see just what 1 saw, and that exactly as I saw it, are perfectly normal in every respect. Persons whose sight is not defective can, without any effort or sense of strain, at once perceive those magnified appearances. Almost every one will find at first some slight difficulty in so doing, but with a little patience will readily become accustomed to the strange sight. Those, however, whose visual powers are even in the least degree vitiated by anything anomalous or abnormal, such as myopia, presbyobia, hyper- metropia, astigmatiomus, staphyloma posticum, etc., in short, by any- thing that in the domain of opthalmology would come under the head of morbid states or pathological conditions of the eye, cannot reasonably be expected to possess or acquire the necessary aptitude for these microscopic perceptions, **We must also distinguish between this constant, continuous and per- manent microscopic power and those merely accidental and transitory states of morbid exaltation of the sight that are known as oxyopia and megalopsy, in certain diseased conditions of the eye. Moreover, imagina- tion, as it may probably be urged, fancy or self-deception are altogether out of the question in this case, since the phenomena under consideration can be reproduced at will and may be at any time verified by any one ever 80 little interested in the matter. Here only the fact in itself may be stated, without our indulging for the present in any sort of hypothesis and explanation. “If any statement cannot be explained away by the supposition of its being owing to mere fancy ana imagination, to some kind of illusion or hallucination—and if, on the contrary, it really stands firm and secure on the solid foundation of true, substantial, incontrovertible facts, and has for its further support the possibility of being experimentally demon- strated as an objective reality—then we must needs look for an analytical ‘rationale,” some sort of law underlying those unquestionable phenomena; in all probability some law resting on physiological optics and, as it were, on the very constitution and mathematics of the eye. “Like many other things in nature the fact here presented could have been very easily overlooked during the past,and thus have altogether escaped general notice; it has perhaps never come heretofore under ob- servation. Still we should not indifferently let it altogether pass un- noticed; for all this may be merely a first step in a whole continuouns series of connected subsequent facts and may thus gradually lead to per- haps many as yet wholly unexpected important scientitic truths and variously valuable new discoveries. “When applied to objects not tangible, to things lying in a surface, then something equally surprising will be observed, viz.: two refracted rays; and the natural naked human eye will exhibit the double refraction of light, very much the same as that of the Iceland spar. In a printed or a written page all letters will appear double, one set in their original encircling the former.” blackness and the other considerably less dark; the latter appearing, as the case may be, either behind or somewhat lower, now and then even as As Strong as Men Will women ever be man’s equal 1n{ phy strength? A good many of the new woman’s ad- s contend that she will. They be- | with better | = lieve that with a freer life, ities for physical training and al development, the time is not far distant when woman’s muscular strength will equal man’s. oks as though the advocates | y had a good many points in | The modern girl, East as | weil as West, is two inches taller than | what was the average two gemerations | near'y a stone heavier than | t ber age, and that she al strength to the die- of the popular novel of a since 1s evidenced by her | tennis and basket-ball, gz. She can run faster, nd accomvlish more in a han could her sister of even ] and, chiefest and charm- | item of all, she is healthier. what are her chances of becoming sical equal of man? Scientists tell us that women possess more endurance, more re vous stamina than men; we | are toid that eil fine, magnificently de- | loped muscles that come under scientific tion the f t, most magnificently developed are the right biceps of a black- smith and the left forcarm of a working mother, wh arm receives its wonderful development in carrying her child while going about her daily tasks. We know er can carry a child in her | her and longer than a man can oming exbausted. I once e, semi-invalid woman child in a difficult and ion for four hours. The ndertook to relieve her at be ing pos 1's fath the end of that time, but ere two hours had elapsed his unwonted arms were ex- hausted. The mother then took the child again, and for nine consecutive hours Leld the little one quietly and steadily. 1| | do not think it couid be maintained that | | the father’s love was less than hers, but | there is certainly a wonderful quaiity of endurance that steels a mother’s muscles ana tempers them to such feats as this. The average girl of to-day is not only taller than the average girl of twenty years ago, but she is very nearly as tall as the averace young man of to-day, while he, statistics go to show, is a good deal be- low what was the average height of the young men of the last generation. Scien- tists and moralists unite in telling us that this generation of undersized young men is due to the excessive smoking of cigar- ettes among boys, an explanation which is probably correct in the main. young man of to-day is unoquestionably not so much tze physical superior of the young woman as his father was physically superior to the young woman of his gener- ation, but this isa different proposition from cvhe one that the woman say of the next generation will be man’s equal in physical strength. Yet this is a possibility which is se- riously claimed for the coming woman. There is, on the whole, a marked im- provement in the health and physical de- velopment of the present generation of lit- tle girls, They are more sensibly dressed, they have greater freedom of motion, they are more capable, physically, every way. I question if any middle-aged ‘womsan of to-day can watch a group of girls, say about ten years old, to-day, as they walk or run about their play or work, and re- member the physical restraints of her own childhood, without feeling that in The | | demurely, one within the other, before me this regard, at Jeast, we bave improved | upon old methods. I remember weil in my childish days being required to walk up and down a long hall, my hands folded and a thin book held between my arm and body, on either side. I thinkI must have had peculiarly unraly elbows, for ITam to this day distinctly concious that not even that early training was sufficient to bring them within bounds. Plenty of girls of | my generation did, however, profit by this sort of tramning in genteel carriage, and the result of it and kindred methods has been a great array of narrow-chested, thin-armed, ill-developed women, who conf with no apparent shame at the admission, that they are “not good walk- ers.” A ridiculous assertion for any able- bodied human being to make. The athletic girl is bonnie to behold and we like to see her with her erect carriage, free movements, clear eyes and fresh color. She usually has a gracefrl capable body, with something nearly approaching a normal waist, and feet that have not been pinched out of shape by shoes that are like nothing on earth or in the sea. But when ail is said and done, how does stie compare with her brother? It is not fair to compare her with the degenerate type of unathletic young man, the enfeebled result of cigarette-smoking boyhood, for this type is not on the in- crease, and it is not even among the prob- abilities that the masculine half of the race is going to degenerate while the femi- nine portion continues toimprove. There area good many reasons why this is not possible despite theinclination of a certain class of thinkers seriously to consider it. There has recently been held in the East the tenth annual meeting of the American Association to Promote Physical Culture, whereat Dr. Kelloge of Battle Creek, Mich., read a paper giving some interesting figures regarding the relative strength of men and women. Dr. Kellogg made tests with the dynamometer, an instrument for measuring force exerted by men, animals or machines, on 200 men and 200 women between the ages of 18 and 30, all in good physical condition. The measurements taken were of the force exerted by the muscles of the neck, back, trunk, thoulders, arms, hands, legs and feet, and the difference in power be- tween these picked representatives of the sexes was very marked. The average force exerted by the arm flexors among the men, for instance, was 120 as com- pared with 48 among the women; arm ex- tensors, men 127, women 53. A very sug- gestive lesson is contained in the differ- ences existing in the power of the muscles of inspiration, a difference due in some measure to the corset-wearing habit among women. While among the young men the force exerted by the inspiratory muscles of chest and waist were respectively 170 and 190, among the young women it reached only 79 and 85. The following measurements of some of the muscles of locomotion are also interesting: MEN, | WoMEN. Foot flexors.. 2145 Leg flexors. 00| Leg flexors. Ley extensors. 37| Leg extensors. Thigh flexors 5| Thigh flexors., Thigh extens 30| Thigh extenso: The average exertion of force of muscles of the entire body was, for the men 5190, for the women 2740, a very re- markable difference. According to Dr. Kellogg’s investiga- tions the strength of the average woman is about 57 per cent of that of the average man of the same height. The paper is exceedingly interesting and of immense value as affording a defi- nite basis for calculation as to the limit of physical exercise that is safe for girls and young women. There is a tendency among some thinkers to attribute woman’s superior endurance to superior although undeveloped physical - strength, . rather than to the difference of quality in nerve endowment to which it is really referable. These thinkers are among the clasa who nowadays may be heard boasting that the glrl of to-day can walk as far, ride as rap- idly, play tennis or golf as long and swim farther and for a longer time than her brother. 8he may and does attempt all these, but she should not be permitted to do so. Itis more than probable that more at- tention to hygienic dress and regular ex- ercise will greatly lessen the wide differ- ence in. strength existing between the sexes. The average woman of to-day is not in as full possession of her physical powers as ig the average man, but, taking into consideration the relative differences in height and weight of the sexes, the pro- vortion, even after another decade of better development for .the women, must remain nearly the same. It must be admitted that nature seems to have established this difference, and while the sensible woman will continue todoall in her power to accomplish the best physical development she will do well to remember that, ascompared with that of a man, her strength is limited, and will regulate her exercise and her achisvenzents accordingly. 2 PeNELOPE POWELSON. The Grave of a Poet. It is a touching coincidence that the little English churchyard. in which Wil- liam Morris was laid to rest is the very spot which, in his beautiful romance, “News from Nowbhere,’”’ he chose as the scene of the ending of the dream-life ae- picted in that wonderful series of pictures of the upper Thames. Dream-life and real life have met at the end. The poet thus describes his own- place of burial: “Presently we came to a little avenue of lime trees which led us straight to the church porch. The church was a simple little building witn one little aisle divided from the nave by three round arches, a chancel and a rather roomy transept for so small a building, the windows mostly of the graceful Oxfordshire fourteenth century type. There was no modern architectural decoration in 1t; it looked, indeed, as if none had been attempted since the Puritans whitewashed the medieval saints and histories on the wall. Though 1t is a little thing, it is beautiful in its way.” Henceforth it will have a new beauty—the beauty of associa- tion with its poet. The most curious use to which paper is to be put is that suggested by the recent patenting of a blotting-paper towel. It is anew style of bath towel, consisting of a full suit of heavy blotting-paper. A per- son upon stepping out of his morning tub has only to array himself in one of these suits, aad in a second he will be as dry as a bone. There are 200,000 deaf-mutes in India and there are in existence for their spacial training only two small schools, contain- ing altogether not more than fifty pupils. Shakespeare’s horoscope, which ap- peared recently in the Modern Astrol- ogy, a monthly magazine devoted to that exceedingly occult science, will per- haps interest some of our readers, says the Westminster Gazette. We append the ‘“‘map’”’ of the poet’s nativity and a brief abstract of the salient points covered in the delineation. : Shakespeare was born when the celestial sign of the zodiac, Virgo, was in tne as- cendant, hence Mercury, who rules that sign, was the poet’s significator. At birth Mercury was in Aries, the sign governing the head and brain, Venusrules the third, the house of intellect, and is placed in her own—Taurus—in elevation over all the planets in the midheaven. The benefic Jupiter, who presides over hope, compas- sion and benevolence, is placed in the cardinal sign Cancer, the sign of his ex- altation, and he throws his influence over Saturn in the eleventh house, which rules friendships, hopes and desires. The sun and moon sre in conjunction in Taurus, the exaltation of the lunar orb; Mars, the planet of strength and energy, isin the midheaven and the third natural sign of the zodiac. The pars fortuna is in the as- cendant, and Uranus has a ninth house influence in the fourth. All these testi- monies indicate an illustrious personage. At the time William Shakespeare began his professional career the astrological portents were most favorable aud hon- ors and success were most clearly presigni- fied, which were, in fact, showered upon him. When he reached the pinnacle of fame as an author and dramatist in 1593, the year in which his “Venus and Adonis’’ was published, an array of bene- fic astral testimonies was present. Later on it is found that disasters fol- | lowed evil aspects of the planets, such as What the Stars Say of Avon's Famed Bard Jupiter, progressive, applying to a semi- square Mars, and square the ascendant; his father died under several adverse as- pects, chiefof which was Sun, progressive, in opposition to Uranus, radical, in the fourth house, the bouse ruling or indicat- ing his father. At 38 good aspects brought him success; at 40 he retired from ths stage and lost a brother under evil astral influences; at44 his mother died under like directions, while in March, 1610, he goined a lawsuit through favorable plan- etary causes. The horoscope is necessarily ex post facto. We knew all that ever will be known about Shakespeare before any one ever cast his horoscope. But the editor of Modern Astrology finds remarkable confirmatory evidence in the stars that Bhakespeare wrote his own plays, A remarkable intuition is clearly marked, as also his wonderful observing power. He was truly a student of man, and, unlike Milton, he wrote from what he knew and observed. To the astrologer there can be no doubt as to whowrote Shakespeare’s pla ys, and we have no hesitation, judging from the natal chart, in saying that Shakespeare could be quite independent of Bacon, the latter being more imitative, as his works, full of quotations as they are, prove. The above horoscope is that of a genius, which Shakespeare undonbtedly was. Greatfame after death is shown by the conjunction of Satan and Jupiter in the cardinar sign Cancer. The permanency of his writings are to be found in the elevation of Venus, ruler of the third house, in the fixed sign Taurus in the tenth house; the excellence of his works is indicated by the dignity of the planets, and no better testi- mony could be offered to verify the truth of astrology than in Shakespeare’s case. SOME RARE AND PIGTURESQUE SGENES NOT FAR REMOTE Though Nava County is, generally speak- | ing, well explored and highly cultivated, yet there are wide ureas among the | mountains which are to-day as wiid as | they were before California was known. | La Jota Creek, which flows down the | slopes of Howell Mountain throush a| gigantic canyon, is for its lenath one of | the most beautiful streams in the State, | affording in its brief course touches of | most charming scenery which at all times | delight the eye and sometimes astonish by their absolute grandeur. La Jota Falls descend in two cascades a distance of 250 feet. When the waters are hizh they are magnificent, but at all times they are en- trancing in their beauty. The falls are located about eight miles from St. Helena and are very inaccessible, and conse- quently are but rarely visited. California has no scene more attractive than La Jota Falls. The first flourmill ever built in Napa County is still in existence but a short distance from St. Helena. It is many years since it waserected, and over twenty singe the big undershot wheel has turned upon its shaft. The wheel is now covered with a thick ‘growth of Virginia creever, and forms one of the most unique and in- teresting obizcts imaginable, iy Gascades of Wildcat Ganyon. One of the most charming bits of natu- ral beauty in close proximity to.San Francisco is Wildcat Canyon, which is located just over the crest of therange which shuts in Berkeley from the east. The road to it runs from the last station on the Berkeley local and goes due east HE BAY until the opposite slope is reached, thencs for a mile the road is followed whena turn to the left across the fields bringsone to the headwaters of Wildeat Canyon. The cascades Jdescend about 300 feet in half a mile, and in the spring after the rains the view is lovely. The canyon itself is very deep, with precipitous walls. The foliage is very rich and dense there.