FEELING YOUR PULSE BY TELEGRAPH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 725, 28 November 1914, Page 6

FEELING YOUR PULSE BY TELEGRAPH.

A wonderful instrument has been perfected, called the "electro cardiograph," by moans of which a physician is able to soo and count tho patient's heart-beats from a distanco of a mile or more. Tho progress of several common diseases us plainly indicated by tho frequency and forco of tho patient's hoart-beats. By tho uso of this now instrument a doctor, while sitting in his office, may watch tho progress of tho diseases of several patients, hour by hour, and so avoid unnecessary porsonal visits. This instrument is, in effect, a heart I telephone, which shows tho doctor to I the minutest fraction of a second how T | the heart is beating. In tho hospital ward tho patient places each hand in a dish of salt water, to which conducting wires aro connected with tho it- S strument in tho laboratory. %» Every time tho heart boats it pro- £. duces an electric current, and this current is conducted to a fine thread suspended between tho poles of a very powerful electro-magnet. Tho throne} is so thin as to bo almost invisiblo to tho naked eye. It is made from drawn glass, and is 7-1000 of a millimetre in diameter. As tho patient puts his hands in tho dish of salt water by tho bedside, tho action of tho heart is olectrically telegraphed to tho thread, which is deflected with every hoart-betit. On tho principle of tho magic lantern—tho thread is practically tho "slido"—a powerful arc light throws tho thread's magnified reflection on a scroon, and by a cunning contrivance it is automatically photographed on a moving iilato. In this way an "elec-tro-cardiography" or heart-boat picture, is obtained. "It is possible," said a doctor who explained tho apparatus, "to record hoart-beats a milo distant. Indeed, I think it might bo possible to bring tho telephone into uso and record tho throbbing of tho heart over greater distances." Some interesting experiments have been mado by tho authorities at a London hospital. An elephant was taken into tho yard and mado to stand with his feet in hip baths of tho salt solution while his heart-boa t s were photographed in a room upstairs. The cardiograph showed that his heart was boating forty time to the minuto. A rat was also experimented on, with small glass dishes for his feet. His heart boat GOO times in a minute. The normal heart-beat of a human being is at tho rate of sixty a minuto.