October 12, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



171 



arid country, and diversified groves will be developed. But not all 

 the arid lands can be redeemed, as the water of all the living 

 streams is inadequate to the task ; but the intervening Innd will be 

 utilized for pasturage purposes, and will be protected by the people 

 from fire, and groves will be planted, and the face of the country 

 not under cultivation will be forested. 



•■ In the region practically uninhabited the water now flows from 

 the mountains to the sea; but, when the streams are utilized in 

 irrigation, the water will be evaporated, and the humidity of the 

 climate will be increased thereby, and dry winds will no longer 

 desiccate the soil and shrivel the vegetation. As the general hu- 

 midity is increased, the moister air. as it drifts eastward in great 

 atmospheric currents, will discharge more copious rains, and the 

 humid region will extend farther westward, and the arid region will 

 correspondingly shrink in its proportions. Irrigation will increase 

 the humidity of the climate, and increase protection from fires to 

 the non-irrigated lands ; and, as the lands gain more and more 

 water from the heavens by rains, they will need less and less water 

 from canals and reservoirs. When all the water of the arid country 

 is ultimately appropriated for irrigation by using all the streams 

 through the season of irrigation, and by storing the surplus that 

 flows through the non growing season, and by collecting in reser- 

 voirs the storm-waters of the streamless valleys, the general hu- 

 midity of the atmosphere in the arid region will be increased, and 

 hence the rains will be increased, and a smaller amount of artificial 

 irrigation will be needed. By all of these means a large share of 

 the arid lands will be redeemed. But all will not be redeemed : 

 there will still be extensive areas of pasturage-lands not under the 

 plough, for all that man may do will be insufficient to radically 

 change the climate. The non-irrigated lands can be greatly im- 

 proved by extensive tree- planting ; but as these trees are to be sup- 

 ported by the general rainfall, which is scant, it will be necessary 

 to select trees adapted to arid conditions, and this will require ex- 

 tensive experimentation. The wide distribution of the cedar, and 

 of the pinon or nut-pine, throughout the country under considera- 

 tion, points out the fact that these two trees may be widely used ; 

 but there are many others on the Pacific coast which perhaps will 

 be more valuable ; and it will probably be found that there are 

 many trees in the arid lands of the eastern hemisphere which can 

 be introduced wilh advantage. But this tree-planting is a question 

 of a somewhat remote future. At present the trees planted in the 

 arid region will depend for their existence and vigorous growth 

 upon irrigation, and the experiments demanded at the present time 

 must be with such trees. 



" The great currents of air which now traverse the plains are 

 impelled by agencies that produce the general circulation of the 

 atmosphere throughout the globe, modified by the general config- 

 uration of the plains in its relation to the mountains of the West 

 and the low humid lands of the East. These general conditions 

 cannot be modified by man ; and the storms will come and the 

 winds will blow for ages as they now do, unchanged by the puny 

 efforts of mankind ; and yet the agricultural conditions of the country 

 may be greatly modified and improved by the efforts of man. Man 

 cannot change the great laws of nature; but he can take advan- 

 tage of them, and use them for his purposes. 



" There is a theory held by some persons in the West that rain- 

 fall is largely dependent upon the electrical conditions of the atmos- 

 phere, and that these conditions are modified by the various changes 

 wrought by the hand of man in the settlement of the Great Plains. 

 As this appeal is to some occult agency, it becomes quite popular to 

 those who love to revel in the mysteries of natui-e. Of course, it is 

 never explained. It is a case where cause and effect are confounded. 

 Atmospheric electricity is the result of certain conditions and move- 

 ments in the atmosphere. To explain atmospheric changes by at- 

 tributing them to electricity is like explaining the origin of the fire 

 by the light it produces, or like explaining the explosion of the pow- 

 der in the cannon by attributing it to the roar which may be heard in 

 the distance. The electricity in the air is related to atmospheric 

 changes as effect is related to cause. 



" In conclusion let it be said, first, that a large body of the arid 

 lands can be redeemed by irrigation, and that the agriculture re- 

 sulting therefrom will be in the future, as it has ever been in the 

 past, the highest condition of agriculture, for the agriculture which 



is dependent upon rains is subject to storms on the one hand, and 

 to droughts upon the other ; but, when the water-supply is prop- 

 erly controlled by the arts of man, the soil is made to yield its most 

 abundant returns; second, that, under the culture and protec- 

 tion of man, vineyards, orchards, and groves can be established 

 over vast areas, where, under the control of nature, only deserts are 

 found ; third, the siroccos of the Great Plains cannot be tamed, but 

 men may protect their homes, their gardens, and their fields from 

 devastation by them ; fourth, the lightnings of heaven cannot be 

 employed to bring rain upon the plains, but electricity may be used 

 to illumine the cities and towns and hamlets that must ultimately 

 spring up over all that land." 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Recovery from Lightning-Shock. 



Dr. J. B. Paige read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society of 

 Montreal an account of a case of lightning-shock which resulted 

 in recovery. 



The accident occurred in Prescott, Mass., during a terrific thun- 

 der-storm, July 29, 1887, about five o'clock p.m. 



Lightning struck the house, to all appearances the chimney of 

 the upright part first. At the roof the current divided into three 

 parts, one following the chimney down to the floor of the second 

 story, then passed along a stove-pipe out of the chimney, and partly 

 to a nail in the floor by the legs of the stove, and thence by the 

 timbers to the earth. A second subdivision of the current followed 

 a rafter on the north side of the roof, after leaving which it could 

 not be traced. This rafter was completely torn from its place. A 

 third current passed down a rafter on the south side of the roof. 

 At the lower end it divided again, one portion following the finish 

 of the roof, passed along the other side of the L to the opposite 

 corner, followed the track of a rolling-door, and reached the earth 

 by the corner post of the house. The other part coursed along the 

 studding of the house, near the window, and passed to the earth. 

 Attached by a screw to the upper casing of the window was a large 

 iron hook on which was suspended, by a brass chain, a bird-cage. 

 One part of the current, going by this chain to the bird-cage, left it 

 at one corner, entered the body of the subject of the accident, and 

 left the room by a nail in the floor. 



That the electrical influence in this quarter was intense, is proved 

 by the fact that the links of the chain in some places were neariy 

 melted apart, while the solder at the corner of the cage, where the 

 fluid left, was completely melted. Again, the nail by which it 

 passed through the floor was considerably roughened. It appeared 

 as if it had been partially melted at a high temperature. 



The patient was thrown from the chair in which she was sitting, 

 directly across another chair, a distance of two or three feet. She 

 was taken out to the piazza immediately, and her condition was 

 found to be as follows : completely unconscious ; motionless; mus- 

 cles relaxed ; left eye closed, right open; face purple ; pulse at wrist 

 imperceptible; neither heart-sounds nor respiratory murmur to be 

 heard. 



Later, an examination showed the course of the electric current 

 to be as follows : it struck the head above the left eye, midway be- 

 tween the eyebrow and hair, which was apparently the part nearest 

 the corner of the bird-cage ; passed along in front of the ear, then 

 to the central line of the thorax, descending by the stocking-sup- 

 porter, which was attached to the corsets; thence to the top of the 

 stockings, leaving marks upon both limbs, but more especially upon 

 the left, on the back of which, just above the knee-joint, was a bum 

 about the size of one's hand. It had the appearance of an ordinary 

 burn, and was only superficial. No trace of the current could be 

 detected again until the foot was reached, from which it passed off 

 by the joint of the great toe, tearing a place about two inches in 

 diameter in the stocking and slipper, but not leaving the slightest 

 mark upon the skin. With the exception of the burned spot on the 

 posterior part of the left leg and one or two small burns on the 

 body and the right leg, hypersmic lines alone marked the course of 

 the electricity in its passage over the body. 



After removal of the patient to the piazza, the clothes about the 

 neck and chest were loosened, and artificial respiration commenced. 



