Sunstroke by Electricity.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 249, 24 March 1888, Page 6

Sunstroke by Electricity.

In one of his popular but sufficiently accurate weekly scientific retrospects in the ''Journal cles D<sbats," M. Henri do ParTine gives an account of some extraordinary medical obsev\ ations on electric sunstroke collected at the famous Fi'ench foundry, OeuKot, by the modicaloffieer-iivchief thore, Dr. DefonUine, and communicated by him tso the Surgical Society in Paris. We will endeavour to follow M. do Parvills as closely as possible, abridging, if at all, whero we 1 «afely can. Otdinary sunstroke wo all know. But there is another kind of sunstroke indefinitely more str.i'ige vet scaicely known, and that is the electric sunstroke. Now what is electric sunt-t'okc? Dr. Defontaine, in his character of head physician at Creuzot, Ims been called upon to examine its offecls. It is already known that clocti icifcy is employed in the form of an intense ifoctuffoyir) to .smelt certain mineral'!, and especial!}' to melt and solder metals. Thus, a metal placed in the electric arc is fused as if by magic. Steel melts like butter in a few seconds. Now Creuzot, where the progress of science is foliowctt ftep by stej). has for some time possessed its electric furnace. Steel is soldered directly by the hi'jh temperature produced by electricity. The electric arc in which the metal is placed is of marvellous radiance. Its luminosity focussed upon a few squate inches exceeds 10,000 Carcel lamps and burpasses 100,000 candles. The sight is a highly interesting one to witness, but nenwimpunc. It happens that j*pect'itors standing at a distance of(-ny) ten yards feel no heat : but presently they become conscious of acute pain "Very odd," said a bystander: "1 feel no heat. but T have a sense of being burnt which recalls the sunstroke I had lapt summer." Therefore he stood of}*, but not before he Jiad in fact experienced something like a second sunstroke. It almost alvrays happens that, after an hour or two, persons witnessing the experiments feel a burning sensation, with more or less pain, in the neck, face, and forehead, and their skin at the same time assumes a copperyred tint. It is customary to protect spectators' eyes with blackened sunglasses ; yet their retina is affected to such an extent that blindness supervenes in broad daylight for several minutes, and for an hour all objects are seen in deep saffron colour. There is irritation of the conjunctiva :and the concretion lasts forty, eight hours at least, accompanied by a sense of gritty particles inside the eyelids. The lachrymal £fland= suffer excessive stimulation, and tears flow. Other symptoms are headache and sleeplessness. Afterwards the skin of the face gradually peele off in broad Hakes, when the complexion is left of a fine brick colour. This we take to be the description ot severe case 1 -. In oidinaiy sunstroke it is lea^onahle to attribute the sun's shnie to heat, it for no other teason than that the KVar heat is felt. Butheie there is no *«mw of heightened tempeiaturc. Nay, ath m ino;:iet«r, placed within live y.'trd* of the arc which is melting steel \V<(> butter, is ha'-dh a fleeted at all. All the heat seems to remain con-; centra ted : and while at five yaids' distance' the thei.nometer hutdly mow*, bystanders ■ suffer stroke <wn at fourteen yaids. To ! ■what else cjn ur appeal, therefore, but to, light pine and Maple? The fact i.> interest-! ing in many way*, but it illustrates once! more the active part payed b) light in a> variety of biological phenomena. It niay ! now be asked, is the skin affeeteJ by the red and yellow rays of light, or h it not rather to the chemical lays, the violet 1 and purple rays, we should look? Jl. dc Parviile inclines to the latter hypothesis. M. Defontaine is silent : but J!. de Parville thinks that by trying tho alternate effects on the skin of the red and yellow rays and the violet ray.", respectively isolated, the problem may be capable of easy solution.