PHYSIOLOGIC AND FUNCTIONAL ANOMALIES. 6 page

reported by the older writers. Bartholinus mentions an instance after

the person had drunk too much wine. Fouquet mentions a person ignited

by lightning. Schrader speaks of a person from whose mouth and fauces

after a debauch issued fire. Schurig tells of flames issuing from the

vulva, and Moscati records the same occurrence in parturition,

Sinibaldust, Borellus, and Bierling have also written on this subject,

and the Ephemerides contains a number of instances.

In 1763 Bianchini, Prebendary of Verona, published an account of the

death of Countess Cornelia Bandi of Cesena, who in her sixty-second

year was consumed by a fire kindled in her own body. In explanation

Bianchini said that the fire was caused in the entrails by the inflamed

effluvia of the blood, by the juices and fermentation in the stomach,

and, lastly, by fiery evaporations which exhaled from the spirits of

wine, brandy, etc. In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1763, there is recorded

an account of three noblemen who, in emulation, drank great quantities

of strong liquor, and two of them died scorched and suffocated by a

flame forcing itself from the stomach. There is an account of a poor

woman in Paris in the last century who drank plentifully of spirits,

for three years taking virtually nothing else. Her body became so

combustible that one night while lying on a straw couch she was

spontaneously burned to ashes and smoke. The evident cause of this

combustion is too plain to be commented on. In the Lancet, 1845, there

are two cases reported in which shortly before death luminous breath

has been seen to issue from the mouth.

There is an instance reported of a professor of mathematics of

thirty-five years of age and temperate, who, feeling a pain in his left

leg, discovered a pale flame about the size of a ten-cent piece issuing

therefrom. As recent as March, 1850, in a Court of Assizes in Darmstadt

during the trial of John Stauff, accused of the murder of the Countess

Goerlitz, the counsel for the defense advanced the theory of

spontaneous human combustion, and such eminent doctors as von Siebold,

Graff, von Liebig, and other prominent members of the Hessian medical

fraternity were called to comment on its possibility; principally on

their testimony a conviction and life-imprisonment was secured. In 1870

there was a woman of thirty-seven, addicted to alcoholic liquors, who

was found in her room with her viscera and part of her limbs consumed

by fire, but the hair and clothes intact. According to Walford, in the

Scientific American for 1870, there was a case reported by Flowers of

Louisiana of a man a hard drinker, who was sitting by a fire surrounded

by his Christmas guests, when suddenly flames of a bluish tint burst

from his mouth and nostrils and he was soon a corpse. Flowers states

that the body remained extremely warm for a much longer period than

usual.

Statistics.--From an examination of 28 cases of spontaneous combustion,

Jacobs makes the following summary:--

(1) It has always occurred in the human living body.

(2) The subjects were generally old persons.

(3) It was noticed more frequently in women than in men.

(4) All the persons were alone at the time of occurrence.

(5) They all led an idle life.

(6) They were all corpulent or intemperate.

(7) Most frequently at the time of occurrence there was a light and

some ignitible substance in the room.

(8) The combustion was rapid and was finished in from one to seven

hours.

(9) The room where the combustion took place was generally filled with

a thick vapor and the walls covered with a thick, carbonaceous

substance.

(10) The trunk was usually the part most frequently destroyed; some

part of the head and extremities remained.

(11) With but two exceptions, the combustion occurred in winter and in

the northern regions.

Magnetic, Phosphorescent, and Electric Anomalies.--There have been

certain persons who have appeared before the public under such names as

the "human magnet," the "electric lady," etc. There is no doubt that

some persons are supercharged with magnetism and electricity. For

instance, it is quite possible for many persons by drawing a rubber

comb through the hair to produce a crackling noise, and even produce

sparks in the dark. Some exhibitionists have been genuine curiosities

of this sort, while others by skilfully arranged electric apparatus are

enabled to perform their feats. A curious case was reported in this

country many years ago, which apparently emanates from an authoritative

source. On the 25th of January, 1837, a certain lady became suddenly

and unconsciously charged with electricity. Her newly acquired power

was first exhibited when passing her hand over the face of her brother;

to the astonishment of both, vivid electric sparks passed from the ends

of each finger. This power continued with augmented force from the 25th

of January to the last of February, but finally became extinct about

the middle of May of the same year.

Schneider mentions a strong, healthy, dark-haired Capuchin monk, the

removal of whose head-dress always induced a number of shining,

crackling sparks from his hair or scalp. Bartholinus observed a similar

peculiarity in Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. In another case luminous sparks

were given out whenever the patient passed urine. Marsh relates two

cases of phthisis in which the heads of the patients were surrounded by

phosphorescent lights. Kaster mentions an instance in which light was

seen in the perspiration and on the body linen after violent exertion.

After exertion Jurine, Guyton, and Driessen observed luminous urine

passed by healthy persons, and Nasse mentions the same phenomenon in a

phthisical patient. Percy and Stokes have observed phosphorescence in a

carcinomatous ulcer.

There is a description of a Zulu boy exhibited in Edinburgh in 1882

whose body was so charged with electricity that he could impart a shock

to any of his patrons. He was about six-and-a-half years of age,

bright, happy, and spoke English thoroughly well. From infancy he had

been distinguished for this faculty, variable with the state of the

atmosphere. As a rule, the act of shaking hands was generally attended

by a quivering sensation like that produced by an electric current, and

contact with his tongue gave a still sharper shock.

Sir Charles Bell has made extensive investigation of the subject of

human magnetism and is probably the best authority on the subject, but

many celebrated scientists have studied it thoroughly. In the Pittsburg

Medical Review there is a description of a girl of three and a half, a

blonde, and extremely womanly for her age, who possessed a wonderful

magnetic power. Metal spoons would adhere to her finger-tips, nose, or

chin. The child, however, could not pick up a steel needle, an article

generally very sensitive to the magnet; nor would a penny stick to any

portion of her body.

Only recently there was exhibited through this country a woman named

Annie May Abbott, who styled herself the "Georgia Electric Lady." This

person gave exhibitions of wonderful magnetic power, and invited the

inspection and discussion of medical men. Besides her chief

accomplishment she possessed wonderful strength and was a skilled

equilibrist. By placing her hands on the sides of a chair upon which a

heavy man was seated, she would raise it without apparent effort. She

defied the strongest person in the audience to take from her hand a

stick which she had once grasped. Recent reports say that Miss Abbott

is amusing herself now with the strong men of China and Japan. The

Japanese wrestlers, whose physical strength is celebrated the world

over, were unable to raise Miss Abbott from the floor, while with the

tips of her fingers she neutralized their most strenuous efforts to

lift even light objects, such as a cane, from a table. The

possibilities, in this advanced era of electric mechanism, make fraud

and deception so easy that it is extremely difficult to pronounce on

the genuineness of any of the modern exhibitions of human electricity.

The Effects of Cold.--Gmelin, the famous scientist and investigator of

this subject, says that man has lived where the temperature falls as

low as -157 degrees F. Habit is a marked factor in this endurance. In

Russia men and women work with their breasts and arms uncovered in a

temperature many degrees below zero and without attention to the fact.

In the most rigorous winter the inhabitants of the Alps work with bare

breasts and the children sport about in the snow. Wrapping himself in

his pelisse the Russian sleeps in the snow. This influence of habit is

seen in the inability of intruders in northern lands to endure the

cold, which has no effect on the indigenous people. On their way to

besiege a Norwegian stronghold in 1719, 7000 Swedes perished in the

snows and cold of their neighboring country. On the retreat from Prague

in 1742, the French army, under the rigorous sky of Bohemia, lost 4000

men in ten days. It is needless to speak of the thousands lost in

Napoleon's campaign in Russia in 1812.

Pinel has remarked that the insane are less liable to the effects of

cold than their normal fellows, and mentions the escape of a naked

maniac, who, without any visible after-effect, in January, even, when

the temperature was -4 degrees F., ran into the snow and gleefully

rubbed his body with ice. In the French journals in 1814 there is the

record of the rescue of a naked crazy woman who was found in the

Pyrenees, and who had apparently suffered none of the ordinary effects

of cold.

Psychologic Effects of Cold.--Lambert says that the mind acts more

quickly in cold weather, and that there has been a notion advanced that

the emotion of hatred is much stronger in cold weather, a theory

exemplified by the assassination of Paul of Russia, the execution of

Charles of England, and that of Louis of France. Emotions, such as

love, bravery, patriotism, etc., together with diverse forms of

excitement, seem to augment the ability of the human body to endure

cold.

Cold seems to have little effect on the generative function. In both

Sweden, Norway, and other Northern countries the families are as large,

if not larger, than in other countries. Cold undoubtedly imparts vigor,

and, according to DeThou, Henry III lost his effeminacy and love of

pleasure in winter and reacquired a spirit of progress and reformation.

Zimmerman has remarked that in a rigorous winter the lubberly Hollander

is like the gayest Frenchman. Cold increases appetite, and Plutarch

says Brutus experienced intense bulimia while in the mountains, barely

escaping perishing. With full rations the Greek soldiers under Xenophon

suffered intense hunger as they traversed the snow-clad mountains of

Armenia.

Beaupre remarks that those who have the misfortune to be buried under

the snow perish less quickly than those who are exposed to the open

air, his observations having been made during the retreat of the French

army from Moscow. In Russia it is curious to see fish frozen stiff,

which, after transportation for great distances, return to life when

plunged into cold water.

Sudden death from cold baths and cold drinks has been known for many

centuries. Mauriceau mentions death from cold baptism on the head, and

Graseccus, Scaliger, Rush, Schenck, and Velschius mention deaths from

cold drinks. Aventii, Fabricius Hildanus, the Ephemerides, and Curry

relate instances of a fatal issue following the ingestion of cold water

by an individual in a superheated condition. Cridland describes a case

of sudden insensibility following the drinking of a cold fluid. It is

said that Alexander the Great narrowly escaped death from a

constrictive spasm, due to the fact that while in a copious sweat he

plunged into the river Cydnus. Tissot gives an instance of a man dying

at a fountain after a long draught on a hot day. Hippocrates mentions

a similar fact, and there are many modern instances.

The ordinary effects of cold on the skin locally and the system

generally will not be mentioned here, except to add the remark of

Captain Wood that in Greenland, among his party, could be seen

ulcerations, blisters, and other painful lesions of the skin. In

Siberia the Russian soldiers cover their noses and ears with greased

paper to protect them against the cold. The Laplanders and Samoiedes,

to avoid the dermal lesions caused by cold (possibly augmented by the

friction of the wind and beating of snow), anoint their skins with

rancid fish oil, and are able to endure temperatures as low as -40

degrees F. In the retreat of the 10,000 Xenophon ordered all his

soldiers to grease the parts exposed to the air.

Effects of Working in Compressed Air.--According to a writer in

Cassier's Magazine, the highest working pressures recorded have been

close to 50 pounds per square inch, but with extreme care in the

selection of men, and corresponding care on the part of the men, it is

very probable that this limit may be considerably exceeded. Under

average conditions the top limit may be placed at about 45 pounds, the

time of working, according to conditions, varying from four to six

hours per shift. In the cases in which higher pressures might be used,

the shifts for the men should be restricted to two of two hours each,

separated by a considerable interval. As an example of heavy pressure

work under favorable conditions as to ventilation, without very bad

effects on the men, Messrs. Sooysmith & Company had an experience with

a work on which men were engaged in six-hour shifts, separated into two

parts by half-hour intervals for lunch. This work was excavation in

open, seamy rock, carried on for several weeks under about 45 pounds

pressure. The character of the material through which the caisson is

being sunk or upon which it may be resting at any time bears quite

largely upon the ability of the men to stand the pressure necessary to

hold back the water at that point. If the material be so porous as to

permit a considerable leakage of air through it, there will naturally

result a continuous change of air in the working chamber, and a

corresponding relief of the men from the deleterious effects which are

nearly always produced by over-used air.

From Strasburg in 1861 Bucuoy reports that during the building of a

bridge at Kehl laborers had to work in compressed air, and it was found

that the respirations lost their regularity; there were sometimes

intense pains in the ears, which after a while ceased. It required a

great effort to speak at 2 1/2 atmospheres, and it was impossible to

whistle. Perspiration was very profuse. Those who had to work a long

time lost their appetites, became emaciated, and congestion of the lung

and brain was observed. The movements of the limbs were easier than in

normal air, though afterward muscular and rheumatic pains were often

observed.

The peculiar and extraordinary development of the remaining special

senses when one of the number is lost has always been a matter of great

interest. Deaf people have always been remarkable for their acuteness

of vision, touch, and smell. Blind persons, again, almost invariably

have the sense of hearing, touch, and what might be called the senses

of location and temperature exquisitely developed. This substitution of

the senses is but; an example of the great law of compensation which we

find throughout nature.

Jonston quotes a case in the seventeenth century of a blind man who, it

is said, could tell black from white by touch alone; several other

instances are mentioned in a chapter entitled "De compensatione naturae

monstris facta." It must, however, be held impossible that blind people

can thus distinguish colors in any proper sense of the words. Different

colored yarns, for example, may have other differences of texture,

etc., that would be manifest to the sense of touch. We know of one case

in which the different colors were accurately distinguished by a blind

girl, but only when located in customary and definite positions. Le Cat

speaks of a blind organist, a native of Holland, who still played the

organ as well as ever. He could distinguish money by touch, and it is

also said that he made himself familiar with colors. He was fond of

playing cards, but became such a dangerous opponent, because in

shuffling he could tell what cards and hands had been dealt, that he

was never allowed to handle any but his own cards.

It is not only in those who are congenitally deficient in any of the

senses that the remarkable examples of compensation are seen, but

sometimes late in life these are developed. The celebrated sculptor,

Daniel de Volterre, became blind after he had obtained fame, and

notwithstanding the deprivation of his chief sense he could, by touch

alone, make a statue in clay after a model. Le Cat also mentions a

woman, perfectly deaf, who without any instruction had learned to

comprehend anything said to her by the movements of the lips alone. It

was not necessary to articulate any sound, but only to give the labial

movements. When tried in a foreign language she was at a loss to

understand a single word.

Since the establishment of the modern high standard of blind asylums

and deaf-and-dumb institutions, where so many ingenious methods have

been developed and are practiced in the education of their inmates,

feats which were formerly considered marvelous are within the reach of

all those under tuition To-day, those born deaf-mutes are taught to

speak and to understand by the movements of the lips alone, and the

blind read, become expert workmen, musicians, and even draughtsmen. D.

D. Wood of Philadelphia, although one of the finest organists in the

country, has been totally blind for years. It is said that he acquires

new compositions with almost as great facility as one not afflicted

with his infirmity. "Blind Tom," a semi-idiot and blind negro achieved

world-wide notoriety by his skill upon the piano.

In some extraordinary cases in which both sight and hearing, and

sometimes even taste and smell, are wanting, the individuals in a most

wonderful way have developed the sense of touch to such a degree that

it almost replaces the absent senses. The extent of this compensation

is most beautifully illustrated in the cases of Laura Bridgman and

Helen Keller. No better examples could be found of the compensatory

ability of differentiated organs to replace absent or disabled ones.

Laura Dewey Bridgman was born December 21, 1829, at Hanover, N.H. Her

parents were farmers and healthy people. They were of average height,

regular habits, slender build, and of rather nervous dispositions.

Laura inherited the physical characteristics of her mother. In her

infancy she was subject to convulsions, but at twenty months had

improved, and at this time had learned to speak several words. At the

age of two years, in common with two of the other children of the

family, she had an attack of severe scarlet fever. Her sisters died,

and she only recovered after both eyes and ears had suppurated; taste

and smell were also markedly impaired. Sight in the left eye was

entirely abolished, but she had some sensation for large, bright

objects in the right eye up to her eighth year; after that time she

became totally blind. After her recovery it was two years before she

could sit up all day, and not until she was five years old had she

entirely regained her strength. Hearing being lost, she naturally never

developed any speech; however, she was taught to sew, knit, braid, and

perform several other minor household duties. In 1837 Dr. S. W. Howe,

the Director of the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, took Laura in

charge, and with her commenced the ordinary deaf-mute education. At

this time she was seven years and ten months old. Two years later she

had made such wonderful progress and shown such ability to learn that,

notwithstanding her infirmities, she surpassed any of the pupils of her

class. Her advancement was particularly noticed immediately after her

realization that an idea could be expressed by a succession of raised

letters. In fact, so rapid was her progress, that it was deemed

advisable by the authorities to hold her back. By her peculiar

sensibility to vibration she could distinguish the difference between a

whole and a half note in music, and she struck the notes on the piano

quite correctly. During the first years of her education she could not

smell at all, but later she could locate the kitchen by this sense.

Taste had developed to such an extent that at this time she could

distinguish the different degrees of acidity. The sense of touch,

however, was exceedingly delicate and acute. As to her moral habits,

cleanliness was the most marked. The slightest dirt or rent in her

clothes caused her much embarrassment and shame, and her sense of

order, neatness, and propriety was remarkable. She seemed quite at home

and enjoyed the society of her own sex, but was uncomfortable and

distant in the society of males. She quickly comprehended the

intellectual capacity of those with whom she was associated, and soon

showed an affiliation for the more intelligent of her friends. She was

quite jealous of any extra attention shown to her fellow scholars,

possibly arising from the fact that she had always been a favorite. She

cried only from grief, and partially ameliorated bodily pain by jumping

and by other excessive muscular movements. Like most mutes, she

articulated a number of noises,--50 or more, all monosyllabic; she

laughed heartily, and was quite noisy in her play. At this time it was

thought that she had been heard to utter the words doctor, pin, ship,

and others. She attached great importance to orientation, and seemed

quite ill at ease in finding her way about when not absolutely sure of

directions. She was always timid in the presence of animals, and by no

persuasion could she be induced to caress a domestic animal. In common

with most maidens, at sixteen she became more sedate, reserved and

thoughtful; at twenty she had finished her education. In 1878 she was

seen by G. Stanley Hall, who found that she located the approach and

departure of people through sensation in her feet, and seemed to have

substituted the cutaneous sense of vibration for that of hearing. At

this time she could distinguish the odors of various fragrant flowers

and had greater susceptibility to taste, particularly to sweet and

salty substances. She had written a journal for ten years, and had also

composed three autobiographic sketches, was the authoress of several

poems, and some remarkably clever letters. She died at the Perkins

Institute, May 24, 1889, after a life of sixty years, burdened with

infirmities such as few ever endure, and which, by her superior

development of the remnants of the original senses left her, she had

overcome in a degree nothing less than marvelous. According to a

well-known observer, in speaking of her mental development, although

she was eccentric she was not defective. She necessarily lacked

certain data of thought, but even this feet was not very marked, and

was almost counterbalanced by her exceptional power of using what

remained.

In the present day there is a girl as remarkable as Laura Bridgman, and

who bids fair to attain even greater fame by her superior development.

This girl, Helen Keller, is both deaf and blind; she has been seen in

all the principal cities of the United States, has been examined by

thousands of persons, and is famous for her victories over infirmities.

On account of her wonderful power of comprehension special efforts have

been made to educate Helen Keller, and for this reason her mind is far

more finely developed than in most girls of her age. It is true that

she has the advantage over Laura Bridgman in having the senses of taste

and smell, both of which she has developed to a most marvelous degree

of acuteness. It is said that by odor alone she is always conscious of

the presence of another person, no matter how noiseless his entrance

into the room in which she may be. She cannot be persuaded to take food

which she dislikes, and is never deceived in the taste. It is, however,

by the means of what might be called "touch-sight" that the most

miraculous of her feats are performed. By placing her hands on the face

of a visitor she is able to detect shades of emotion which the normal

human eye fails to distinguish, or, in the words of one of her lay

observers, "her sense of touch is developed to such an exquisite extent

as to form a better eye for her than are yours or mine for us; and what

is more, she forms judgments of character by this sight." According to

a recent report of a conversation with one of the principals of the

school in which her education is being completed, it is said that since

the girl has been under his care he has been teaching her to sing with

great success. Placing the fingers of her hands on the throat of a

singer, she is able to follow notes covering two octaves with her own

voice, and sings synchronously with her instructor. The only difference

between her voice and that of a normal person is in its resonant

qualities. So acute has this sense become, that by placing her hand

upon the frame of a piano she can distinguish two notes not more than

half a tone apart. Helen is expected to enter the preparatory school

for Radcliffe College in the fall of 1896.

At a meeting of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of

Speech to the Deaf, in Philadelphia, July, 1896, this child appeared,

and in a well-chosen and distinct speech told the interesting story of

her own progress. Miss Sarah Fuller, principal of the Horace Mann

School for the Deaf, Boston, is credited with the history of Helen

Keller, as follows:--

"Helen Keller's home is in Tuscumbia, Ala. At the age of nineteen

months she became deaf, dumb, and blind after convulsions lasting three

days. Up to the age of seven years she had received no instruction. Her

parents engaged Miss Sullivan of the Perkins Institute for the Blind,

South Boston, to go to Alabama as her teacher. She was familiar with

methods of teaching the blind, but knew nothing about instructing deaf

children. Miss Sullivan called upon Miss Fuller for some instruction on

the subject. Miss Fuller was at that time experimenting with two little

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 709