576 Popular Science Monthly 



The One-Man Animal Ambulance Wood That Gives a Wonderful 



and What It Does Fluorescence to Water 



AN ambulance for 



animals which was 

 recently placed into active service 

 by the Humane Animal Commission of 

 Los Angeles, Cali- 

 fornia, presents 

 many novel and 

 ingenious features. 

 The ambulance 

 body is mounted 

 on a motor truck, 

 with the driver's 

 seat in front, and 

 the enclosure for 

 the animal pa- 

 tients in the rear. 

 Both parts are 

 protected by a 

 roof. The rear en- 

 closure has side 

 doors and a rear 

 door, hinged at the 

 bottom, so as to 

 form, when let 

 down, inclined 

 gangways, reach- 

 ing the ground. 

 The sides of the 

 enclosure are 

 heavily padded 

 and the floor consists of a removable plat- 

 form which rests on rollers and which is 

 also padded. 



The platform is removed from the car 

 and rolled alongside the prostrate animal. 

 A rope is attached to the feet and, by 

 means of a windlass worked by the motor, 

 the animal is pulled upon the platform. 

 Then, by the same method, the platform 

 is rolled into the car. The windlass will 

 also raise the rear door after the loading is 

 completed. Ani- 

 mals able to walk, 

 are led into the en- 

 closure by the rear 

 incline and leave 

 the ambulance at 

 their destination 

 through the side 

 door. One man 

 can operate the 

 amViulance, and 

 the animals are 

 moved in com- 



R^ 



parative comfort. 



Roller platform being drawn, with its bur- 

 den, into the car by the power windlass 



lECENT investigations have led to 

 the rediscovery of two species of 

 trees known centuries ago, but never 

 definitely identi- 

 fied and sub- 

 sequently for- 

 gotten, the wood 

 of which gives to 

 water a most re- 

 markable fluores- 

 cence. One of the 

 trees with the 

 scientific name 

 Ey se nhar df ia , 

 poJysfachya, is a 

 small bushlike tree 

 with small, fra- 

 grant white blos- 

 soms and is found 

 in Mexico, while 

 the other, Pfero- 

 carpus in die us, 

 known to the na- 

 tives under the 

 name of nana or 

 naga, is a giant 

 tree growing in the 

 forests of the Phil- 

 ippine Islands. 

 Chips of the wood of these trees, placed in 

 water over night, cause it to become 

 highly fluorescent and to display, accord- 

 ing to the degree of illumination, a won- 

 derful variety of opalescent colors, ranging 

 from golden yellow and rich red through 

 green to a deep blue. The fluorescence 

 becomes particularly pronounced under 

 the influence of the ultraviolet rays of the 

 spectrum. The active substance con- 

 tained in the wood of the two trees which 

 causes the fluores- 

 cence has not yet 

 been determined 

 or isolated. The 

 first mention of 

 this remarkable 

 wood is found in a 

 book printed in 

 Seville in 1574. It 

 was there spoken 

 of as being a 

 native of Mexico 

 and was called lig- 

 niitn ncphriticHtn. 



Shows end door and standing horse 

 Shows side door for walking animals 



