The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 25, 1897, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 1897. 19 THE LATEST PHASES OF X-RAY INVESTIGATION Why the Mysterious Radiance Is Visible to/if i Some Blind People ing as the days go by | constantly on the heory as to its ori- ized upon | nd the pub- | Instead of dimi increase gin, actio 2 by medical men, ele lic in generai. 1 v ! not proved all expected a year ago, but in ot i 15 surpassed the wildest co s possibilities. 1t has been thing 10 be st boundless. entgen made | ce of the X Lave constantly been expe- | tain why the wonderful | e to a nermal oye. | 4 to pass with ease through oak the buman eye | iile it is shown thata c feet around an active | es tube t bea perfect glow of as far as the human eye is concerned | iess. Truly this 15 mys- | me the generally accepted the vibrations of the X pid for the human sense It was estimated that times the vibraiion of ¥ Then c: g statement that many blind ced the sensation of 1 the astonis people exp on looking be sure they saw no objects, but the fact ihat they were able to distinguish lLight was something wonderful. Charles Guilianme, an eminent scientist of France, has just issued a circular in re- gard to this aspect of the X ray that seems reasonable in many been madein t the co of the circ i s been re- 4 Naillen of the School of E n he has on. been & to show it to those inter- me states that | ations by the edgeda connection between the X tbe ultra v.olet rays of the| 5 has been shown photo- | y that the uitra violet rays ex- | they cannot be seen by the Whether they are also capa- | penetrating solids is stilla matter | cture, owing to the lack of appa- | r coilecting and separating them er colors of the spectrum. | wing up his theory, Guillaume | ided that there was something in rmal eye that resisted the X rays prevented their reaching the nerve | The aqueous humor and crys- | se of the eye are as transparent | 7 light as the finest window- ons show them 1o be | impervious to the X ray as a piece of | This is why tne rays cannot be ¥ cases of blindness, particularly | caused by some accident, the | ¢ condinion, but the | ture of the eyeball has changed. The | n of it has decayed and | tead of u perfect piece of | d an arrangement of refrac- ‘ ly a piece of organic e in many oiher parts this condution it is plainly | | The eyes of sheep and rabbits did not | zive as good radiographs as those of calves and sheep, for the reason that they were much smaller and the differentiation | was not as plainly indicated. Stili, in seen that it will offer no more resistance | with enough ammonia to destroy the na- | everr instance the results showed that to the X ray than a portion of skin, ana the nerves are still perfeci, the them and the sensation of ht be conveyed to the brain. To ascertain the correctness of Gui laume’s theory several experiments were made for THE CALL on both normal and blind eyes. Professor Van der Naillen kindly ioaned his avparatus for tiis pur- pose, and the resuits have been more than enough to show that Guillaume is on the | right tzack at least. What the future will | develop remains to be seen. £ For these experiments the eyeballs of different domestic animals were used, most of them being obtained in Butcher- town as soon as the ng was done. There was the greatest uniiormity of re- | sult observable in all the tests. In the first experiment the naturally blind eye of a calf and also a normal eye of the same animal were placed side b side on the same plate and given exactly | the same.time of exposure. They were of | course developed at the same time and | rinted on the same sheet of paper. | The proof showed the normaleye simply f as a dark spot, with a slight indication of | the crystalline lens appearing a little darker than the other paris. ‘The conclu- | sion to be reached from this is that the rays couid not pass through the eye. The biind eye, on the contrary, freely per-| mitted the passage of the X raysand ap- peared quite lignt, with considerable du- | serentiation of the lay Taere was .} slight indication of the lens and also sev- | eral spots that were meaningless. But the difference between the two eyes wasap- parentata glance. Experiments were also made with the | eyes of sheep and rabbits and the resnlts | were about the same in all cases. The normal eyes came cut perfect'y biack in all instances, but the blind eyes showed different comparative shades, owing, of course, to the condition of the tissues. | Experiments were also made with eyes artificially blinded. From some the lens | was removed and others were injocted | Radiograph of normal eyeball of calf, show- | ing that the X rays cai netrate it o the optic nerve, consequently there is no sensa- tion of light at the visual center of the brain. ture of the tissue, Onthe whole the results of these tests | more or less, but were resisted almost were similar to the others. The normal | entirely by the healthy eyes. eves showed dark and the artificially | ©But what use is all this?” some might blinded eyes permitted the passace of the | ask. The answer is, Dossibly a gpreat deal Radiograph of blind eyeball of calf, showing | <% ance is offered tne X rays so P can reach the optic nerve ana o produce | doubtedly be a great help to the pati the effect of light. X that sittle re | the X rays passed through the blind eyes, ¥’s in spots, possibly such spots as were | and possibly none. It may be very usefnl | dered visivle. Professor Wilhelm Konrad acted on by the injected chemicals. The | at opening up new fields in the study of | Roentgen, while engaged in electrical ex- veriments, discovered that certain *‘rays” ! penetrated opaque bodies and produced leffacts analogous to those produced by i r of light upon a sensitive photograph | | 7 How Tie X Ray ECOMES V) §1BLE To Jerje BLINP Preopis. | radiation which will be of great use in the | fature. It may be ail wrong and can only be put down as so much timo wasted in | the study of science. | Butit would seem as if it wounld be use- | ful in dete; ing the extent of an affli person’s biindness. It has been demonstrated from time to time that per- sons who have lost the sightof an eye | tnrougn some accident have nearly al- | ways been able to see the X ray. Th would prove that the nerves were not in- | jured, and that it the eye couid be re- | pairea sight would be restored. Cases of people blinded from other | causes might be tested if the physician | could aetermine the concition of the ey: | ball. Should he be able to ascertain that it was in a condition to allow the X rays | to pass tirough it, and the person still be | unable to see them,1: would show that | the nerves wero dead and blindness per- | manent. On the other hand, if the sensa- | tion of light was experienced, and there | was hope of repairing the eyeball, there 1d be little doudt of a permanent re- covery. The assurance of this would un- WiLL Spax |A Possibility That the Rays May Be Ex- amples of Universal Force About one year ago the scientific and | static machine, 1s sent through the glass | bullets, needles, etc., 1n the human body, unscientific world was startled by an an- | nouncement thata professor in the uni- versity at Wurzburg, Germuny, had | covered a means whereby the hidden in- | | terior of the human frame might be ren- plate, although the plate was inclosed in a plate-hoider. In other words a perfect | | cuttine picture was produced without ex- | | posure to light. | Unable atthe timae to definitely deter- | mine the chemical, mechanical or other | attributes of the rays, the term X was | given them, X standing for an unknown quantity. Since their discovery a great many people have satisfied their curiosity regarding the raye, and have learnea that J it is quite easy by the employment of the ray to produce a photograph of the bony | stracture of the body, or of coins, etc., | hidden within a box or purse. The flesh | of the body and the substance of the box | or purse offer no impediment to the pas- | sage of the X ray. These remarkable happenings, involv- ng a sudden seiting aside of all previous | | conceptions of the limit and power of | human vision, however artificially aided, i were suflicient to confer upon the newly | found power a reputation bordering on the miraculous, and it is not improbable | (e reople behieve that with the use of the X ray it is possible to see for long distances through walis of houses | withott number. It is to essist in creat- | | ing a proper idea of what the new dis- | | covery really is, what it is capable of | | doing, and to what extent the knowledge | | of its qualities and abilities may modify ‘ our present conception of natural physics | that this article is presented. | _All forces of powers are termed energy. | | The science of physics uses the term *'ra- diant energy’” as meaning energy pro- ceeding outwara from a source and pro- ducing effects at some distant point. The | energy may be transmitied by its actual | | transfer to the distant poini of matter, as | the flight of a bullet from a gun; orit may propagate itself alongaline by the motion of the particles of the media through which it operates. If you lay a number of marbles in a row, touching | each other, and then strike one end of the row marbie at the distant end will move away. All the marbles intermedi- | ate between the one struck and the one moved will show no movement. Each one translers the energy it receives to the | xt one, no one undergoing mcre than | very sligh: displacement. Ihis is the | movement of ordinary lizht “wave mo- | tions.” The former, sented by the tlight of the bullet, is that of the X ray. The X ray is produced by the employ- ment of a glass globe from which the air s almost but not quite exhausted. Two | wires enter the globe through its glass sides. One of the wires terminates inside | theglobe in a small concave disk ; the other wire hason its end, within the globe, a | | small platinum plate set at an anele of | forty-five degrees. A currentof electricity | | of very high frequency and potentiality, obtained either from the secondary wire | of a powerful induction coil, or from al | : there is thrown off from the platinum | found that the enode carbon forms a cup | posed more rapidly than is the cathode, globe, the anode terminator Dbeing | ached (o the wire having the pla-| tinum plate, and the cathode to the other, and while the current passes plate what is known as the X ray. Al- most every schoolboy is familiar with the fact that if a wire carrying a carrent be broken a spark wiil oceur at the break. For convenience in distinguishing the ter- minalsof an electric circuit, the end giving off a negative current iscalled the cathode and the positive the anode. In the operation of the arclight it is like depression on its end and is decom- showing that a stream of force passes from the cathode. Hence in experiments upon electrical emanations, especiaily in | | Improved form of Focus Tobe. vacuum tubes where the energy becomes luminous, the cathode ray is the impor- | tant one. The X rays are radiant ener gv. They are possessed of a singuiar di rectness of purpose, as they cannot be di verted or turned from their path, refracted nor reflected, as may be rays of heat and light and sound. They are not the cath- | ode rays reflected from the platinum plate, for the cathode rays pass completely over to the anode terminator to form the | circuit. They induce chemical action in certain classes of matter, asa photographic plate. They cause fluorescence when they fall upon certain substances; tbat is, the | substances glow with light when the “X | rays strike them. The rays are propa- | gated in straight, cirect lines, and are not | susceptible of polarization, as are those of light. They discharge all bodies either | positively or negatively electrified, the | former more rapidly than the latter, ‘ The immediate results, the application of the di:covery to the needs of surgery, | naiurally receives greatest popular atten- | tion, for 2 most wonderjul knowledge has | suddenly been bestowed upon the practi- | tioner. Not only foreign substances, as | are accurately located, but the heaithful or unhealthful condition of the internal organs may be discerned and determined by the use of the X ray. If nothing else had resulted from Professor Roent- gen’s discovery, this alone must place it in the front rank of valuable acquisitions. But 1t is the further fact that much of the action of the ray is bounded by totally un- known law, which arouse speculative in- quiry among scientists. The question is, What bearing has the newly discovered physical manifestation on our praconceived notions of the phy- ical universe? It 1s one that awakens profound contemplation among students of the sciences. What are these rays? Tkey originate at that point on the platinum plate where it is bombarded by the cathode ray. They are in some respects electrical in char- |acter and in others not. They seem to follow some of the known laws governing light, and again disregard them. There is an increasing tendency among investigators to assert that the primal cause of physical manifestation, the universal force, is some form of electricat energy. What is termed space, the spaca betweén the planets, is said to be filled with ether, but just what ether is no one seems to know. Some say it is imatter; others say it isnot. Phenomena oceur in the ether, light is transmitted through it, perhaps forn.ed in it; electric and mage netic phenomena, attraction and repuls sion have their field of action in it. The X ray is the product of electrical energy and is manifest only in vacua ap- proacning that of spac>, and its force in- creases with the reduction of temperature. In many things it exhibits fts greatest powers under conditions which approach the conceived idea of interplanetary space. Did Roentgen discover a meaus of making actual exhibition of the universal force? May it not lead to the positive de- termination of the vexed question as to thecharacter of the ether? Common air onsists of two gases oppositely electrified, which if decomposed wonld expand enor- { mously. The single fact of the X ray's ability to discharge electrified bodies is pregnant with meaning, for by its opera- tion along this line it may be found possi- ble to utilize such action in the generation of dynamic ener:y to work machinery. | It may be possible to employ some modi- tied application of the X ray to disrupt the molccular bonds of the gases, and then power will become unlimited. ¥ CrosE, D.Sc. Summer Evening. The sky is aglow with eolors untoid, | Withat ph of crimson wnd opal and gold, ng curtains woven of fire r the portals of Day’s Desire. | The sun goes to rest in his western halls And over the world the twilight falls. The breezes sleep on the grassy pond, The hadows rove through the grove beyond; The robins carol in rapture of love, And the martins dart through the splendor above. Oh twilight marvel! mysterious hour! Our henrts are swayed like the sea by thy power! NatHAN HASKELL DOLE. —_———— South Africa hasabout 750,000 European and 3,001,000 colored innabitants. he Oldest Bridk Building In San franasco On the southwest corner of Merchant and Montgomery streeis two-story structure—a pioneer of ding in San Fr: ancisco. It has an x on Merchant sireet, erected a year or so later, and on its facade workmen have been ergaged for s mastic or cement cover! rears past and fal everal weeks past in ing, which has been ling at intervals to of the headgear of passing wayfarers. Now resentsa rejnvenated appearance, witha fresh coat of cement. Of these two old landmarks, familiarly known to the pio- neer as the Naglee work on the one on the corner of Montgomery and ant streets was commenced on May , 1850, and the structure completed foar nionths after. Its owner then—Captain Henry M. lee—was graduated at the head of his class at West Point in 1835, and after serving a few years in the United States Infantry he resi took up the occupation of a civil engineer d surveyor. At the outbreak of the M girdled on his sword and fought valiantly while hostilities were still progre: captain of Company D, First Reziment ot son’s) Volunteers and cisco) with that regiment in March, 1847 the Rebellion he served with distinction as major-general of volunteers, United States army. As a manutacturer of fine brandies he is well remembered by old-time connoisseurs ana bom vivants. 1n th’s old Naglee building w sion of the United States District Court for California, and a view of the present sump- tuous quarters of the United States District Court and those of its attaches in the Ap- isers’ building taken in comparison with those of 1851 leads one to reflect upon the improvements made in courtrooms and clerks’ and marshals’ offices in the cycle of time now vergng on close to a half century. Judge Ozden Hoffman Jr. was the first ived in Yerba Buena (now San Fran- exican War Nagleo in Old Mexico, and was commissionea as New York (Steven- During the War of = as held the first ses- i Federal Judge to preside in California, and on March 19, 1851, hin the old walls of the Naglee building be ordered his com- ssion as Judge of tho United States District Judge for the Northern District of California to be spread upon the court min- utes. This old-time parchment bore the signature of President Millard Fillmore snd was attested by Danie! ot State. David F. Donglass was the First | Webster, Secretary United States Mar- shal and his deputy was George Penn Johnston, well known as a newspaper writer in journalistic circles. The first United States Grand Jury was also impaneled in this building, in the latter part of 1851, and alter serving two days ht in (wenty indictinents against n “Bob” Waterman, familiarly nown as “Buliy” Waterman, of the ship allenge, and his chiel mate, Douglass. Tney were charged with murder in one in- ctment and in the others with cruelties racticed on the crew of that vesse!. Learn- ing that Penn Johnston was after him with warrants of arrest, Douglass “took to the woods.”” There was intense excitement in the commurity at Lisescape. Marshal Douglass offered a reward of $1000 for his ture and abouta week aiter Colonel Jack Hays, Sterifl of “an Francisco, assisted by a deputation of s mate near San Mateo concealed in the ailors, captured the pottom of a farm wagon, on his way to Monterey, where Mate Douglass contem- plated shipping on a brig to oscape justice. Both captain and mate, although acquitted of ihe murder charge, were heavily fined on the other indictments.” Among the atiorneys in 1851 *ho had oflices in the court building was A. P, Crittenden, who was shot and killed by Mrs. Laura D. Fair on the ferry-bos El Capitan in November, 1874, and his law partner, Samuel V. Inge, the first United States Attorney for this district. Judge A. Glassell, who is now passing his declining days in afflu- ence at Los Angeles, also practiced law in the Naglee building. O=n the second floor Dr. Hugh H. Toland, the well-known surgeon, also had apartments from 1850 to the day of his death, some fifteen years ago. The owners of the present building, the sole tenant of which is now a printer, intend fitting up the interior of the structure to harmonize with modern times. Already the old iron railings which pro- jected from the windows on Merchant street, reminders of pioneer architecture have been ruthlessly torn from their fasten- ings and consigned to the junk hean. The bricks in this old building were well made and laid in a good bed of cement and mor- tar, as is evidenced by their lasting quali- ties at this day. It cost Captain Naglee $140 per thousand to lay the brick and the artisans employed by him—carpenters, masons, etc.—received from $15 to $20 a day, according to their skill. A Remarkable Newspaper. Mr. Edward Randle:t of Alameda has in his possession a relic of the Revolutionary days which he holds more valuable than money. It consists of a copy of a newspaper printedg127 years ago. The paper was the seven hundred and ssventy- ninth number of the Boston Gazette and County Journal.” Its editorial page announcements remark that it contains “the fresheft advices, Foreign and Domeftic,"» and bears the date of Monday, March 1 1770. It is a four-page paper about 20 inches when open. It was the first issue alter the Boston massacre, which occurred the previous week after the paper went to press. This subject is given two columns, inclnding nalf a column of explanations. Edward and Francis Archbald, William Merchant and John Leech Jr. are given the credit of bringing on the conflict, which occurred sbortly after 9 o’clock at night. Among the most notable features of this ancient paper as compared with the papers of to-day is the lack of headlines and the editorials in the first column o: the front page. Not a head~ line appears in the whole issue. Reports of a meeting of free- holders of the town of Roxbury is given. It was called ‘‘to know the minds of the Town, whether they will do anything to ftrengthen the hands of the Merchants in their Non-Importas tion agreement.” The advertisements are uniqueas wel as ludicrous. One. tmith offers a rewara for money lost between his resiience and the residence of Widow So-and-So, detail- ing the hours between which it was lost. The lcgal ads would be the laughing stock of the followers of Blackstone to-day. It is said that the oaly other copy of this paper is in the Smithsonian Institue tion, Washington, D. C. There is a lady in Aueusta who has never heen from under the old Confederate flag. Her name is known, but by request 1t is withbeld. Whether walking, eating or sleeping, there is always a Confederate flag over her head. While walk- ing on the streets there is always a fleg in her bat, ane, no mat- ter how many hats or bonnets she has, there is always to be found a flag pinned on the inside of the crown. On the heade post of Ler bed is securely fasiened a large flag of the Cone federate States. The flag is as necessary for her as three meals " a day. Shesays she has never surrendered and never will