Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/298

 order to produce sweating rapidly, followed by a temperature of about 130° Fahr. during the remainder of the stay in the hot rooms. This the author regards as the best practice for habitual bathers, as perspiration, being once freely established in the hottest room, is kept active by the lower degree of heat.

The investigation was specially directed to the effect produced by immersion in hot, dry air on—1. The amount of material eliminated from the body in excess of the normal; 2. The alteration produced in the temperature of the body; 3. The influence on the pulse-rate; 4. The influence on the rate of breathing; 5. The alteration in the composition of the urine; 6. The composition of the sweat; and, 7. The arterial tension as shown by the sphygmograph. The results of the investigation are presented in the form of averages representing a large number of observations.

Omitting a description of the manner in which the experiments were conducted, and also the detailed results obtained, the following are the conclusions drawn by the author from those results. It was shown—1. That a very large quantity of material can be eliminated from the body in a comparatively short time by immersion in hot, dry air; and, although the greater part of this is water, still solids are present in quantity sufficient to render this a valuable emunctory process; 2. The temperature of the body and the pulse-rate are markedly raised. The respiration falls at first, but afterward is less influenced than would be expected. The urine is increased in density, and deprived of a large portion of its chlorides, while, if anything, an increase in the amount of urea is produced. Arterial tension is increased, due probably to the rapid action of the heart and the gorged condition of the capillary circulation.

From these the following practical considerations as to the use of the Turkish bath in medicine are deduced: Its most important effect is the stimulation of the emunctory action of the skin. By this means we are enabled to wash as it were the solid and fluid tissues, and especially the blood and skin, by passing water through them from within outward to the surface of the body. Hence, in practice, one of the most essential requisites is copious draughts of water during the sweating.

The elevation of the temperature, and more especially of the pulse-rate and blood pressure, point to the necessity of caution in cases where the circulatory system is diseased.

Excessively long duration of the bath seems to produce more or less depression, as shown by the fall of the pulse and temperature after fifty-five minutes.

The great advantage of the bath seems to be the power it gives of producing a free action of the skin in persons of sedentary habit, or suffering from disease interfering with fluid excretion, and by its means probably a considerable elimination of morbid matter may also be brought about. Besides, and along with this, it is an efficient means, if resorted to sufficiently early, of relieving internal congestion.

Distribution of the Electric Light.—A recent trial, in San Francisco, of Molera's and Cebrian's system of dividing and distributing the electric light, is thus described in the San Francisco "Morning Call" of September 30th: "An exhibition of a new system of utilizing and dividing the electric light, recently discovered by Messrs. Molera and Cebrian, civil engineers, of this city, was given last night at 412 Market Street. Quite a crowd of spectators witnessed the experiments, which had a very satisfactory result. Two floors were well and uniformly lighted by the light obtained from a generator placed in one corner of the upper story of the building. The manner of thus dividing the electrical current consists of the use of a system of reflecting mirrors and lenses, which concentrate and conduct the parallel rays or beams of light by the medium of tubes to any desired distance without weakening, except in a comparatively small degree, its intensity. The main advantages claimed by the inventors for this system are, that the light may, through the agency of a diffusing lens, be distributed from a single beam throughout all the rooms of a house or hotel, and may be divided without material loss of power. The supply of light is also controlled by the reflector, and in any or all of the rooms the brilliancy of the light may be increased or diminished at will. It is further argued that the system dispenses with the necessity for regulators or lamps, that the loss consequent upon the use of