24 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 466 



face and hands; I moaned all the time I was doing this; they all 

 thought I knew what I was doing. I walked out towards the 

 hack, but told them I preferred to wait till the crowd got out of 

 the way. On the way home my daughter got into the hack, and 

 I told her not to worry, that I was all right. I walked from the 

 back into the house. The doctor asked me to sit down, but 1 

 said I did not dare to, for I should lose control of myself. I 

 asked to have a pin taken out of my dress. They gave me some 

 whiskey. Then I suggested if it would not be a good idea to 

 take a hot bath. My daughter asked me where the arnica was, 

 and I told her in the office on second shelf, which was correct. 

 Then they gave me the hot bath, and while the servant was pour- 

 ing some water on ray bead I came to myself for the first time 

 since calling to the man to get out of the way, but only for a few 

 seconds, hearing only voices and feeling something strike m3' 

 head, gi^'ing pain. I was then taken out of the bath and put into 

 ted ; I told them how to unfold the bed ; then the doctor put a 

 saturated clotb on the wounded part of my head; I told them to 

 get towels and put them on the pillow to prevent soiling it. Then 

 I began to be very delirious [patient now passes from hypnotic 

 into a delirious state], and talked incessantly about a railroad ac- 

 cident; my husband is constantly on the road and I have worried 

 sometimes about it. I repeated the same things over, saying the 

 railroad switch was wrong, etc. This delirium lasted aboit an 

 hour. The surgeon arrived, and on putting his finger between 

 the scalp and skull I felt a flash of lightning and savv it. I said 

 ' I cannot stand this pain,' and then I became conscious for the 

 first time of the injury on the back of my head. I was in agony, 

 I could feel distinctly a grating when his finger was put under the 

 scalp, and on pressure in one spot there was a bubbling sensation, 

 that seemed to shoot right over the brain. During this time I 

 was conscious, but did not see anything. It is three weeks since 

 the accident occurred, and I have had headache continually, being 

 a re-echo of the old pain. When I try to read, the right eye sees 

 double; my head feels double ; the wounded side feels thick; I 

 have bad very unpleasant dreams since." 



According to the description of the surgeon, the wound was on 

 the right parietal protuberance over the third descending convolu- 

 tion; it was a contusion. 



Inquiries of those who saw the accident and subsequent events 

 confirm the statfment of the patient. When picked up her eyes 

 were closed; then water was poured on her head, and she opened 

 her eyes; she could not quite remember her husband's name; then 

 she said she felt better and went and washed her face, etc., as 

 already described. 



It is interesting to note the states of consciousness: first, un- 

 consciousness at time of accident; then, water being poured on 

 her head, patient passes into the hypnotic state; this lasts nearly 

 an hour, during which she so conducts herself that her friends do 

 not suspect but that she is herself. During this hypnotic stale 

 suggestibility may be said to have been normal, since she re- 

 sponded to every one naturally. Her normal self seemed to con- 

 trol her hypnotic self fully; this latter self was the only one 

 during the hour which was conscious. 



Arthur MacDonald. 



Georgetown Medical Sjhool, Washington, D.C. 



Cold Waves. 



In the December number of the American Meteorological Jour- 

 nal Dr. A. Woeikof has presented a paper on cold waves, in which 

 he attacks with some force views which have been expressed by 

 Professor Eussel. The belief that a cold wave is due to the pas- 

 sage of a mass of cold air, which has a vert cal diminution in 

 temperature of 1° in 180 feet, at twenty or more miles per hour, 

 over the earth's surface heated somotimes 30° or 40" above the air 

 in contact with it, for a aistance of 2,000 miles, without accretion 

 or reinforcement, is certainly unique. It is certain that Dr. 

 Woeikof will not recognize this as his view. He will say that the 

 cold will be added to by radiation from the sod or soil, all the 

 more intense because of the clear, dry air of the cold wave. 

 When we think, however, that, as the cold wave advancesat great 

 velocity, the earth's surface is frequently 40° warmer than the 



air immediately in contact with it, it is difficult to see how the 

 earth's surface can do aught except waim up the air. It eeeins 

 an inevitable conclusion that a mass of cold air. passing in any 

 direction over the earth, which is itself heated many degrees 

 above the air, must inevitably lose its characteristics in a very 

 short time. 



If Dr. Woeikof could study only a very few of our cold waves 

 he would very quickly change his belief. He is at a great disad- 

 vantage in that he resides in a country where they have no cold 

 waves, properly speaking. It is well known that in Europe the 

 high areas remain nearly stationary for weeks at a time, and as a 

 result a very abnormal condition of temperature supervenes. The 

 sun shining upon stagnant air heats it up, and this effect becomes 

 cumulative, a little more heat being added each day; besides this, 

 the earth's surface, in this stagnant air, cools down by radiation, 

 as a consequence it frequently happens that the earth's surface is 

 cooler than the air at 10,000 feet; and this has given rise to the 

 most extraordinary theory and one that directly contradicts all 

 known orthodox hypotheses, namely, that in our high areas the 

 air is abnormally heated, while in our storms it is abnormally 

 cooled. It is evident that no discussion of cold waves can be in- 

 telligently carried on under such conditions. Dr. Woeikof also 

 suggests that observations at Pike's Peak might be of assistance 

 in studying these phenomena, but this cannot be done at that 

 point for this reason. Pike's Peak is situated on the edge of a 

 plateau about 4,000 feet above sea-level and abnormally heated; 

 also, on the east, there is a marked falling off of the plateau. In 

 consequence, the summit sometimes has the temperature of the 

 plateau and sometimes that of the eastern plain. No cold waves 

 pass over the summit, for the reason that the mountains form a 

 barrier. Most of the cold waves pass down from Manitoba or 

 Assiniboia far to the east or north-east of the mountain. 



Il would appear that one or two considerations which have an 

 important bearing on this question have been overlooked. For 

 example, it is not proper to think of a cold wave as a mass of cold 

 air having a uniform velocity throughout its height. It is well 

 known that, owing to friction with the earth's surface and other 

 obstructions, the velocity of the air at the earth is much less than 

 at 6,000 feet. It is probable that on Mt. Washington, during the 

 passage of a cold wave, the velocity of the wind is double that at 

 the base. We may consider that the velocity increases uniformly 

 up to this height, or at 3,000 feet it would be about midway between 

 that at the earth and that at the summit. The consequence of 

 this is readdy seen. A point in a layer of air at the earth, mov- 

 ing 30 miles an hour, in 10 hours would be 200 miles from its 

 starting- place, but at 6,000 feet a point in the layer would be 400 

 miles from its first position. If we suppose the temperature dim- 

 inution in height is 1° in 180 feet at the beginning, and the hori- 

 zontal temperature difference at the same time is 40" in 300 miles, 

 then, at the end of 10 hours, the vertical diminution in height 

 would become about 1° in 90 feet. The temperature distribution 

 in the latter case would cause a serious disturbance in the equi- 

 librium, according to orthodox views, and there would be an up- 

 setting of the layers, and, in consequence, the cold of the upper 

 layers would ultimately reach the earth. Of course in nature 

 there are no such violent changes, except rarely in summer time, 

 but such an interchange must take place by degrees. 



The observations at Mt. Washington abundantly bear out this 

 vievv. These have been recently published by the Weather Bu- 

 reau in curves for January, February, and March ("Monthly 

 Weather Review,'' July to Oct., 1891). On examining the curves 

 we find that in front of a cold wave the diminution of tempera- 

 ture with height is much increased, frequently to more than double 

 the normal, while after the cold wave the temperature is fre- 

 quently lower at the base than at the summit. In other words, 

 the cold wave reaches the summit 5 to 8 hours before it does the 

 base, and the warming up also lags behind, at the base, the same 

 length of time. A neglect of this consideration lies at the boltom 

 of many of Dr. Hann's vagaries regarding temperature distribu- 

 tion in cyclones and anticyclones. Now, if a cold wave is com- 

 posed of layers of air moving at different velocities as we recede 

 from the earth, it is easy to see that the velocity of the air at the 

 earth need not be that of the cold wave, for the upper layers of 



