3i6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 513 



TURKISH TIME-PIECES. 



BT F. A. SEELT, WASHINGTON, D O. 



Many years ago X ventured the opinion that the development of 

 !he mechanical clock veas hindered for many centuries by the 

 general use of the Roman system of hours. I am more than ever 

 convinced of this. It is perfectly well known that prior to the 

 Cliristian era trains of gearing and other mechanical expedients 

 were in use whereby the hand of a clock could be made to travel 

 with uniform motion on a dial. There was, to be sure, no true 

 mechanical escapement, but Cte?ibius had devised what I venture 

 to call a water escapement, which, under certain restricted con- 

 ditions, performed the true function of that element of the modem 

 clock. But the ingenuity of the times was not adequate to the 

 production of the varying movement necessary to keep time in a 

 system in which the length of the hours was constantly changing; 

 and so the clock waited many centuries until the system of hours 

 was changed. 



This subject has been brought quite forcibly to my mind by 

 coming into the possession of a number of German and Sniss 

 patents for clocks designed to keep Turkish time. It appears 

 from the specifications that the Turkish system of hours is prac- 

 tically identical with that of ancient Rome, the day commencing 

 and ending with sunrise, and the middle being at sunset, the two 

 periods of day and night being divided into six hours each, which 

 constantly var.V in length with the change of season. 



It is obviously Impracticable to make up a railroad time-table 

 on such a system, or to accommodate it to numerous other re- 

 quirements of modern social life ; and therefore the wonder is that 

 anybody should think it worth while to construct a clock adapted 

 to this system ; but, as the patentees are in all cases residents of 

 Constantinople, it may be inferred that, in devising these clocks, 

 they are endeavoring to minister to a felt want of that capital. 



The device employed is of the same character in all the patents, 

 though in some automatic, in others requiring frequent attention. 

 It consists in so adjusting the governing member (pendulum or 

 balance-wheel) as to give it a faster or slower rate from month 

 to month ; that is to say, in the winter months, when the period 

 from sunrise to sunset ia short, to quicken the action of the move- 

 ment so that the hand shall pass in proportionately less time over 

 that portion of the dial which represents the hours of daylight 

 than it does in summer, when the days are long. It is obvious at 

 once that this does not accomplish the purpose sought for, and 

 the inference is natural that in the German and Swiss Patent 

 Offices the question of utility cannot have been raised on these 

 applications. If the pendulum is adjusted to a slow beat in the 

 month of June, when the hours from sunrise to sunset are long, it 

 might measure time during the day, but that same slow beat will 

 destroy its capability of measuring off the short hours of the night. 

 A parallel statement is true for the month of December. For 

 this reason these inventions are useless, though they may serve the 

 purpose of the patentees by imposing on the credulous Moslem. 



It does not seem impossible in the present state of the arts to 

 construct a time-piece capable of marking off this kind of hours 

 with reasonable precision. The exactness of an a_stronomical 

 clock or even of an ordinary kitchen clock would be unnecessary. 

 But the inventions above referred to do not approach a solution 

 of the problem, the key to which is to be found in a clock pre- 

 sented to this Government by that of Japan at the close of the 

 Centennial Exposition. In this the hand moves around the dial at 

 a uniform rate throughout the year, the adjustment for, different 

 seasons being accomplished by shifting the figures on the dial. 

 It is many years since I have seen this clock, but, as I recollect 

 it, the top of the dial represents sunrise and the bottom sunset, 

 the half-circumference on each side being divided into live hours 

 by a set of figures which can be shifted in place as the seasons 

 change so as to make the day hours long and the night hours 

 short, and vice versa, the sunset hour being shifted also. 



I see no great difficulty in producing this shifting of the sunset 

 hour automatically to the right or left as the season may require, 

 nor does it appear to me insurmountable to connect the inter- 

 mediate hours with the sunset hour so that they shall be shifted 

 proportionately with it. With such a contrivance an hour-hand 



moving at an equal rate over the dial would point to the true hour 

 by Turkish time at all seasons of the year, day and night. In 

 fact, the problem seems to me so easy of solution that I can only 

 explain the non-appearance of such clocks in the market by the 

 supposition that no actual demand exists for them. 



NOTES UPON THE ACTION OF DRUGS AND AGENCIES 

 UPON THE RESPIRATORY MOVEMENTS. 



BY HORATIO C. WOOD, M.D., LL D. (TALE), UNIVERSITY OF PENN- 

 SYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA. 



The results of a research which I have recently completed in 

 the laboratories of the University of Pennsylvania, although bear- 

 ing very directly upon practical medicine, have. I think, sufficient 

 scientific interest to be noted in the columns of Science. 



Hitherto, the study of the action of agencies and drugs upon 

 respiration has been made chiefly, if not solely, by noticing their 

 effects upon the rate of respiratory movements. It is evident, 

 however, that increased activity of rate does not necessarily imply 

 increased activity of function, since the respirations, though more 

 frequently repeated, may be so shallow as to have little effect. 

 Aided by Dr. David Cerna, now of the University of Texas, I have 

 measured the amount of air taken in and out of the lungs of the 

 dog under different conditions. 



Emotional or nervous excitement was found to be a most potent 

 agency ; the dog seemingly expressing his feelings in his respira- 

 tion as completely as a human being expresses his in his face; so 

 that during excitement more than twice as much air is moved as 

 during quiet. It has long been known that the dog, having prac- 

 tically no sweat-glands, cools himself through the respiration; 

 and so it was found that heating the animal, by such arrange- 

 ment of apparatus as not to cause pain, nor to bring hot air in con- 

 tact with the lungs, nearly doubled the respiratory movement of 

 air. Heat, therefore, is to the dog a powerful respiratory stimu- 

 lant; when in excess, however, it depresses function, as it was 

 found that if the heating were continued the air movement be- 

 came almost null. The rapid respiration seen in human beings 

 suffering from fever, indicates that they are affected by heat 

 similarly to the dog. 



Chloral was found to be a more positive, persistent, and certain 

 respiratory depressant than the morphine salts; it always reduced 

 the air movement, and the reduction, with repeated and increas- 

 ing doses of chloral, was progressive, until finally respiration was 

 completely arrested. 



The actions of atropine, cocaine, and strychnine were studied 

 both in the normal and in the chloralized dog. Each of these 

 alkaloids was found to be a powerful respiratory stimulant, in- 

 creasing most markedly the air movement. The rather unex- 

 pected result was reached that cocaine is probably the most pow- 

 erful of the three, but that strychnine is the most persistent and 

 certain in its action. Thus, whilst cocaine seemed to be almost 

 powerless against overwhelming doses of chloral, the influence of 

 strychnine never failed to be manifested. 



The bearing of this research upon practical medicine is very 

 evident. During the experimental preparation for my address 

 before the Berlin Medical Congress in 1890, 1 discovered the great 

 power of strychnine over the respiratory centres when almost 

 completely paralyzed by chloroform or ether; a discovery which 

 led to the universal practical use of strychnine in the treatment 

 of the accidents of anaesthesia. Atropine has long been used in 

 narcotic poisoning, but its value as a respiratory stimulant within 

 the last year or two has been very seriously challenged. Our re- 

 search, however, re-demonstrated its power as a respiratory stim- 

 ulant. Cocaine has been used to some extent as a respiratory 

 stimulant, but it seems to be much more efficacious than is gen 

 erally thought. It was found in our research that in the deeply 

 chloralized dog, after respiration had been brought up as far as 

 possible by one respiratory stimulant, the second stimulant was 

 able to still further increase the extent and power of the respira- 

 tory movements. I have apparently saved human life in respi- 

 ratory failure, by adding cocaine to the strychnine which was 

 being given in as large dose as was thought justifiable. Cocaine 



