January 17, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



43 



dynamometer, which in turn was connected by a belt with the 

 dynamo under examination. At a convenient distance from the 

 dynamo were located the lamps and resistances (resistance coils), 

 through which the current furnished by the former was allowed to 

 flow, as well as the various instruments employed in the electrical 

 measurements. Steam for the engine was furnished by a set of 

 boilers located near by, but in a separate building. 



" The source of motive power was, as stated before, an Arming- 

 ton & Sims engine, rated, nominally, at about seventy horse-power 

 when supplied with steam at about eighty pounds pressure. The 

 normal speed of the engine was about 275 revolutions per minute, 

 but this could be varied within limits of a considerable range, 

 without any serious interference with the action of the governor. 



" For measuring the power supplied to the dynamo, there was 

 employed a dynamometer originally designed by W. P. Tatham of 

 Philadelphia. This instrument was the same as that used some 

 years ago by the committee appointed by the Franklin Institute of 

 Philadelphia to conduct the competitive tests of dynamos exhibited 

 at the Electrical Exhibiticn held in Philadelphia in 1885. A de- 

 scription of the apparatus will be found in the Jonrnal of the 

 Franklm htstiiuie, November, 1885. 



" For measuring the current furnished by the machine, there 

 were employed two methods, the full-load current being 400 am- 

 pere, — too great for any single instrument in our possession, — a 

 part of this was measured by a Thomson balance, and part by ob- 

 serving the potential difference between the ends of several heavy 

 strips of German silver immersed in oil. The latter method is 

 known generally as the method of fixed resistances, and the appa- 

 ratus referred to was standardized by observing the difference of 

 potential at its terminals, when a current of known value, as meas- 

 ured by the Thomson balance, was allowed to pass through it. 



" In the measurement of electromotive force there was used a 

 Weston voltmeter, received only a few days previously from the 

 laboratory of Mr. Edward Weston, where it had been standardized. 

 This, however, as well as the other measuring apparatus, was, after 

 the completion of the test, carefully calebrated in the physical lab- 

 oratory of this -university. 



" It may be stated that owing to the construction of the measuring 

 apparatus employed, and also to the circumstances that a consid- 

 erable distance separated the instruments used from the dynamo, 

 no magnetic influence could have interfered with the accuracy of 

 their indications. Before measuring the power absorbed by the 

 dynamo, the dynamometer was run without load, in order to de- 

 termine its own friction. This amount of power consumed was, in 

 all cases, subtracted from subsequent measurements. The friction 

 of the dynamo itself was determined by running it on open circuit, 

 and with the brushes removed. 



" The order of making the tests was as follows : first, the dyna- 

 mometer was run without load ; second, the dynamo was run on 

 open circuit, brushes removed (this measurement gives friction of 

 dynamo) ; third, the dynamo brushes were placed in position (this 

 measurement represents losses due to friction in bearings, losses 

 due to heating of field magnet wires, losses due to reversals of 

 magnetism of armatures, core, and losses due to Foucault currents 

 in the armature). These losses are, for a given speed, nearly con- 

 stant. After this, the dynamo circuit was made, and measure- 

 ments of power, current, and electro-motive force at different loads 

 were begun. The following table gives the results of the several 

 determinations. 



A NEW USE FOR THE PHONOGRAPH. 



At a meeting of the Massachusse'tts Medical Society on Nov. 

 20, A. N. Blodgett, M.D., made some interesting remarks on the 

 use of the graphophone or phonograph in taking and recording the 

 clinical history of a patient. As reported in the Boston Medical 

 attd Sttrgzcal Journal, Dr. Blodgett spoke as follows : — 



" Some time ago my attention was called to this instrument, 

 about which I had known something, although not in its present 

 state of perfection. It occurred to me that this might be of inter- 

 est to physicians in various ways, and particularly to those con- 

 nected with public institutions. As you have seen, by speaking 

 into the mouth-piece a record can be produced upon the yielding 

 cylinder of wax, which will remain permanent, and can be repro- 

 duced a great nnany times. 



" Last night Mr. Thomas and I made experiments at the City 

 Hospital on a patient just admitted to the accident room. His 

 clinical history was taken ; but it was not in all respects a success, 

 because he had an injury preventing his speaking with much force, 

 it being a fracture of the ribs. But we got a record from an actual 

 patient in an actual examination which was reproducible and could 

 be understood. Later we got another record from a hypothetical 

 patient ; namely, one of the house-officers of the hospital, who was 

 questioned in the same way as would be an ordinary patient ad- 

 mitted under circumstances which precluded any previous knowl- 

 edge of him or his condition. That record was more distinct, 

 could be very well understood, and I am sure any one with a little 

 practice could use this machine in a way to obtain durable and 

 trustworthy records from the lips of the patient. 



" An instrument of this kind might be made portable, and a 

 visiting physician in a hospital might give his directions into the 

 funnel, when they would be recorded upon a small cylinder, which 

 can be put upon another machine, and the physician's directions as 

 to treatment or his description of lesions can thus be accurately 

 recorded. This record is got by means of the graphophone, 

 which is used a great deal in conjunction with the typewriter. I 

 know how difficult it is to get full directions in the wards from the 

 visiting physician, and here we have the means of an absolute 

 record. In medico-legal cases I think it would be of great service 

 because the utterances of the patient could be reproduced at an in- 

 definite period afterward, and I should suppose would be evidence 

 in the case." 



' Speed of dynamo, 330 revolutions per minute." 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Hallucinations in Alcoholism. 



Dr. F. W. Mann, in a paper upon alcoholic hallucination read 

 before the Detroit Medical and Library Association, brings to- 

 gether some facts and theories which are published in the Pliysi- 

 cian and Surgeon, November, 1889 : — 



" The visual hallucinations of alcoholics are exceedingly varied. 

 They may be hideous, grotesque, or awful, or they may be gor- 

 geous, splendid, or inspiring. Unpleasant features usually pre- 

 dominate, and the patient is puzzled and tormented by the presence 

 of rats, mice, beetles, worms, fleas, and other insects. This con- 

 dition of zooscopic hallucination is one of the commonest among the 

 .phenomena of alcohol poisoning. 



" I do not recall having seen any explanation of the reason why 

 animals enter so largely into the composition of the primary illu- 

 sions of alcohol. These illusions a little interrogation of the patient 

 will usually substantiate as present. A patient only the other day 

 declared how he saw a rhinoceros, several huge elephants, and 

 strange-looking reptiles browsing in the yard. 



" A word should be said on the snake hallucination. Disorders 

 of this kind are associated in the popular imagination with excesses 

 in the use of alcohol. ' Seeing snakes ' is in reality not a common 

 experience. The two or three cases we have seen convince us, 

 however, there is some basis for esteeming this one of the occa- 

 sional retributions of excessive zeal in devotion to Bacchus. 



"The snake hallucination is difficult to explain. Disturbances 

 in the peripheral organs of vision seem hardly competent to ac- 

 count for such aggravated symptoms, although there are facts 

 suggesting the plausibility of such an explanation. A patient in a 



