Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/686

668 of people who are distracted by trouble, who are absentminded, excited, mentally disordered, almost crazed by an amazing success as well as by an equally amazing failure, may be characterized by incalculably erratic action, even if the action be decidedly exceptional. Such people may have little more than the power of ordinary locomotion. In many instances, owing to the unprecedented nature of the occurrence, the individual at his best can not cope with the conditions. Some accidents may take place only once in a lifetime, and the person threatened is necessarily unable to instantly decide upon the wisest course.

Accidents may be dealt with coolly by the professional man, or the coroner who attends like cases. The growing complications of modern life are such that the highest form of natural shrewdness is almost inoperative under these rare circumstances when compared with experienced intelligence.

The modern railroad train, with its tremendous momentum, calls for a greater number of mechanical engineers of superior ability whose ingenious constructive power shall further lessen not only the danger but the amount of destruction caused by railroad accidents. Prevision of the effects of an accident may involve the elaborate calculations necessary to the solution of an intricate mathematical problem. In fact, the contingent or possible results in a given instance suggest the importance of long and careful training. Undoubtedly, with the lapse of time, and with wider experience, the imperfections in railroad construction and material will steadily decrease.

The accidents from contact with electric-light wires that carry a deadly current are well known, but the complex nature of these accidents demands special attention. Sometimes the attempt to close an iron door or an iron window shutter is at once followed by a severe electric shock, if not by serious injury. The men who repair ordinary telegraph wires have learned to be cautious because of the possible presence of a deadly current. An operative who was accustomed to the work of readjusting dangerous wires was killed because, unknown to him, an apparently disused, rusty wire was charged with intense electric force, as evinced by the fact that a metal cornice, wet with rain, carried the current from the wire through his body. A somewhat similar accident occurred to a skilled electrician who was connecting one wire with another on a switchboard. He lost his balance while on a stepladder, and, as he put out his hand to save himself, he by chance touched another wire, and this completed a circuit that killed him instantly. Still another phase of this kind of accidental death from electricity was seen in New York city when an Italian, who was cleaning a window, completed a circuit from his hand through his body, the current penetrating the sole of his shoe which rested