YOU THOUGHT IT WAS BUT IT ISN'T!

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 27, 2 April 1907, Page 7

YOU THOUGHT IT WAS BUT IT ISN'T!

I SOME POPULAR FALLACIES FULLY EXPLAINED AWAY. ' I A magistrate the other day expres- | sed surprise that people should believe, in these days of enlightenment that, the eye can be taken out and then returned to its place. Of course this is quite impossible, as the eye is held in the socket by a, thick, unyielding vein and six muscles which no surgical skill can reunite, if they are' once divided. Hut there are dozens of such errors floating about. How many people, for instance ,kno\v that a gasometer —or properly a gas-holder— cannot, explode ? Great fear was expressed when it was first proposed to erect gas holders. Even scientific men thought they might explode and deal out terrific; destruction. A Royal Commission considered the matter, and Sir William Congreve proposed to build a very high and thick wall around each gas-holder for the protection ol people. living near. In reality, gas alone is as nnexplosive as water. If a 'blazing barrel of tar or a hundred of them, could be dropped into a gas holder there, would be no explosion. The burning tar would be instantly extinguished.

TRY TORCHES IN GASOMETERS

To become explosive gas must become united with air. Even with three times as much air as gas the mixture could not explode. With seven or eight volumes of air to one of gas we have a highly explosive mixture. 'But when we come up to fourteen volumes of air to one 'of gas the mixture once more is harmless unless it is put under pressure. Suppose a hole were made in a gasholder and the stream of gas were lighted, it would burn away quietly until the whole of the gas was consumed.

Concerning the weather, many fallacies abound—as, for instance, that when the wind comes it will blow away the rain. On the'other hand, when a storm is raging people hope for rain, under the impression that it will lay the wind. The wind does not blow away the rain, for both wind and rain travel in circles, and the rain does not put a stop to the wind, but what happens is that the whole cyclone shifts, and, as the windy part passes, the rainy part comes along. The wind continues to blow, however, in another district. Then many people think that a piece of seaweed is a good weather prophet All that happens is that the seaweed grows damp when the air has more water than it can hold. Hot air can hold more water than cold air, so that a mere fall in temperature might make the seaweed damp. NIGHT AIR IS HEALTHY. The falling dew does not. fall. Pew is formed from (he moisture held by that layer of air which is in contact with the ground or any cool surface. As this layer of air cools it deposits the moisture which it can no longer hold. Nearly everyone believes that night air is unwholesome and dangerous. It is really finer than day air, and the dompnesss of it is not in the least, more dangerous than a mist at anv time of the day. •

The terror of damp sheets is universal and there, is scarcely any disease for which they have not been blamed. In summer, a damp sheet might cause a chill if it were the j only covering, or if only a light coverlit were worn over it. But in winter, with a couple of blankets to keep in the heat, a damp sheet would warm a person rather than cool him. and it could not give disease. The wet-pack treatment of hydros proves this point. Wh >n anyone gets a. fatal attack of pneumonia, bronchitis, etc., while travelling, it, is a case of infection, not of damp sheets. Of all fallacies those with regard to illness and medicines arc the most numerous. That a medicine which is good for one must be good for all is a very common belief which has done a great deal of damage. Each drughas its own peculiar action, and it is sure to do harm unless the person's body is in need of that particular effect. To take one example. One person might have a dry cough without any manufacture of phlegm, and in this case the various cough lozenges and mixtures, most of which contain opium, would be of great service, as opium stops an irritating cough. But, if this drug were taken by a person with a cough who was manufacturing a large quantity of phlegm, the cough, which was ihe means of getting rid of th<* ph'egm, would be stopped, and so all 111' little air lubes would become blocked — a vt'ry daifgerous stale of affairs. One often hears a man say to another, "You are run down. You want a tonic Take so-and-so ; it has done me any amount of good." Now there are many tonics—nerve tonics, blood tonics, stomachs tonics, heart tonics, etc. Perhaps one person' l lvart is weak, another person's blood is watory. a third's nervous system wants bracing up, and so on. Obviously what suits one person will not suit another, and if he takes the wrong tonic he will do himself much harm, A man who has rubber tips put on his worn-down I heels might as well recommend' this treatment for another man's silk hat ; which needed ironing as recommend the bitters he was taking as a stomach tonic to a man with a weak heart. NO AGOXY IN DYTNG. Whoever invented the phrase "death agony " is responsible for a great deal of groundless apprehension. Probably there never is any deathagony. Either life quietly flickers out or death is sudden and gives no pain. Disease is often painful before death approaches—pneumonia and diphtheria for example. Hut towards the end the power of feelinggoes, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred death must be quite painless. Where a bomb explodes, or a motor-car strikes and kills a person, or in such a case as an explosion death is absolutely painless. BEEF-TEA NOT NOURISHING. .The belief that beef-tea is nourish-

ing ; that, hoi Is are good in spring time, as ihoy draw out the bad la>lnours : that a poultice also draws the bad humours out of a wound ; that it is dangerous to .slop the perspiration of any part, such ax the feet; that a person is specially liable to locUjaw if he gets a cut bev fwoen the fingers and thumb'; that a. nerve goes directly from one particular tooth to (ho eye rendering extraction dangerous, are a few more fallacio,s that will probably flourish for ever.

But beef-lon. is really nothing more than a. brain stimulant, ; boils nro caused by a microbe that attacks from outside; a poultice merely cleans the wound and is only a convenient way of applying water for a long time ; perspiration is only the means of cooling the body, and there is, no danger in stopping excessive persnirati'Mi of the feet or any other limited part; lockjaw is caused by a germ which naturally lives in the. soil and is equally dangerous at whatever point it gets into the body and there is no nerve going direct to the eye from any tooth.—" Answers."