Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 118 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 118 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883.

[Illustration:  Fig. 9-11 APPARATUS USED IN VIVISECTION.]

And now, after these preliminary remarks, we present herewith a series of cuts representing the various apparatus used in the practice of vivisection, which are taken from a recent work by Claude Bernard.  Fig. 1 shows the mode of muzzling a dog with a strong cord placed behind an iron bit.  Fig. 2 shows a method of tying a dog.  Fig. 3 is a vessel in which hares or cats are placed in order to anaesthetize them.  Fig. 4 shows the mode of fixing an animal on its side, and Fig. 5 the mode of fixing him on his back.  Fig. 6 shows a dog fixed upon the vivisecting table, and Fig. 7 a hare secured to the same.  Fig. 8 exhibits the general arrangement of a vivisecting table, properly so called.  Fig. 9 shows (1) an anaesthetizing muzzle applied to a dog, and (2) the extremity of the apparatus in section.  Fig. 10 shows how the muzzle is applied for anaesthetizing, and gives the details of construction of the chloroform box.  Fig. 11 exhibits the arrangement of the apparatus used for holding the animal’s jaws open upon the vivisecting table.—­L’Illustration.

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INSANITY FROM ALCOHOL.

[Footnote:  Read at the late meeting of the National Association for the Protection of the Insane and translated for the American Psychological Journal by Carl Sieler, M.D., of Philadelphia.]

By A. BAER, M.D., of Berlin, Germany.

The benevolent efforts of your society diverge in two different directions, which have totally different aims and purposes, and which require different means in order to attain lasting success.  Since the number of insane has increased alarmingly within the last few years, in all civilized countries, so that the responsibility of the proper charge of them occupies continually not only the community, but also the State; and since the public as well as the private asylums are filled almost before they are finished, it becomes necessary to rid the institutions, as soon as possible, of those patients which have been cured, as well as of those which are improved.  Patients of this kind are, as early as possible, returned to the unrestrained enjoyment of liberty with the expectation that the new scenes and surroundings may have a beneficial influence, besides having the advantage of relieving the overcrowded institutions.  Unfortunately, however, it has been frequently found that the hut suddenly restored mental and emotional equilibrium is not of sufficient stability to withstand the storm of conflicting interests.  Frequently it happens that the but recently discharged patient returns to the institution, after a short lapse of time, because the “rudder” (steuer) of his intelligence was soon shattered in the turmoil of life.  How can, for instance, the indigent and poor patient, after his discharge from the institution in which he has found a shelter and the proper care, stand up in the struggle for existence and the support of his family?  Is it not to be expected that a large proportion of those who have been discharged as improved, or even cured, cannot withstand the ever-moving sea of the outside life and bear up under the turmoil which constantly stirs mind and soul?

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Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.