May 15, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



731 



plainly seen as shadows on tlie screen. 

 The cartilaginous laminge between the ver- 

 tebrse could be distinguished. The heart 

 could be seen in faint outline, being slightly 

 more opaque than the lungs, which are 

 very transparent. The liver is very opaque, 

 and its rise and fall as the patient under 

 examination breathed was very easily seen. 



I was able to make a diagnosis of cases 

 of tuberculosis, pneumonia, enlarged heart 

 and enlarged spleen without difiiculty. The 

 outline of the heart was indicated by me 

 and by Mr. Lawrence, who is working with 

 me almost exactly as it had been mapped 

 out by percussion, our greatest disagree- 

 ment being about one-half an inch, the 

 diameter of the heart being seven inches. 

 An examination of some five seconds con- 

 vinced us that a tuberculous patient was 

 at least fairly sound on one side and very 

 bad on the other, and this again agreed 

 with the previous diagnosis at the hospital 

 of which we, of course, were ignorant. The 

 enlarged spleen could be outlined with great 

 clearnesss, it being rather transparent, while 

 the abdomen is ordinarily quite opaque. 



A boy of three years, convalesceni after 

 an attack of pneumonia, was found to be 

 transparent in that part of the lungs which 

 had been diagnosed as ' clear,' and opaque 

 in those portions which were shown by 

 percussion to be still more or less filled up. 



A buckle or a small pellet of lead is 

 easily detected through any part of the 

 body, except the lower part of the abdomen, 

 and buttons and hooks and eyes are easily 

 seen through the more transparent parts. 



A patient was brought to us whose arm 

 had been broken by a musket ball, and the 

 exact location of the bullet was desired. 

 After an examination of not more than a 

 minute the bullet could be plainly seen. It 

 had broken the ulna and then imbedded 

 itself on the inner side of the radius about 

 three inches nearer the shoulder. We 

 marked the location of the bullet in two 



planes, and when the surgeons made an 

 incision it was found that we were not in 

 error by more than an eighth of an inch. 



We have taken photographs by means of 

 a Thomson high frequencj^ coil in one-fifth 

 of a second, as it seemed to be desirable to 

 be able to work very rapidly to get photo- 

 graphs of such objects as do not remain 

 fixed in position for any length of time. - 



The skull is not opaque, and the thicker 

 and thinner positions can be distinguished, 

 but of course no notion can be obtained of 

 the texture of the brain. The detail of the 

 lower jaw, its joint, the teeth, the filling in 

 the teeth, and so on, can be clearly made out. 

 The {esophagus is very transparent, and a 

 foreign metallic body could hardly fail of 

 detection unless well down in the lower part. 

 The cartilaginous rings in the trachea, the 

 glottis and epiglottis can be seen in fair 

 outlines. Younger persons are more trans- 

 parent than older, but show less differenti- 

 ation, even the bones being quite transpar- 

 ent in a boy of ten. The brilliancy of the 

 tube is increased many times by grounding 

 the cathode. Chas. L. Norton. 



Mass. Institute of Technology. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY: 



DE LAPPAEENT'S LEMONS DE GEOGEAPHIE 



PHYSIQUJE. 



There is no European text-book that has 

 SO fulljr caught what has come to be called 

 the American method in physical geog- 

 raphy or geomorphology, as de Lapparent's 

 Legons de geographie physique (Paris, Mas- 

 son, 1896, 590 p.). Omitting other divi- 

 sions of the subject, the whole volume is de- 

 voted to the physiography of the land. 

 The work of denuding forces, acting on 

 various initial land forms produced by up- 

 lift, deformation, volcanic accumulation or 

 otherwise, is deliberately followed through 

 the geographical cycle to its close in a 

 peneplain of faint relief Modifications of 

 the general scheme of geographical devel- 



