Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882

V >> Various >> Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882

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He also cites the case of a clergyman who fainted whenever a certain
verse in Jeremiah was read, and of another who experienced an alarming
vertigo and dizziness whenever a great height or dizzy precipice was
described. In such instances the power of association of ideas is
probably the most influential agent in bringing about the climax. There
is an obvious relation between the warnings given by the prophet in the
one case, and the well-known sensation produced by looking down from a
great height in the other, and the effects which followed.

Our dislikes to certain individuals are often of the nature of
idiosyncrasies, which we can not explain. Martial says:

"Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te;"

or, in our English version:

"I do not like you, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I can not tell;
But this I know, and that full
I do not like you, Doctor Fell."

Some conditions often called idiosyncrasies appear to be, and doubtless
are, due to disordered intellect. But they should not be confounded with
those which are inherent in the individual and real in character. Thus,
they are frequently merely imaginary, there being no foundation for them
except in the perverted mind of the subject; at other times they are
induced by a morbid attention being directed continually to some one or
more organs or functions. The protean forms under which hypochondria
appears, and the still more varied manifestations of hysteria, are
rather due to the reaction ensuing between mental disorder on the one
part, and functional disorder on the other, than to that quasi normal
peculiarity of organization recognized as idiosyncrasy.

Thus, upon one occasion I was consulted in the case of a lady who it was
said had an idiosyncrasy that prevented her drinking water. Every time
she took the smallest quantity of this liquid into her stomach it was at
once rejected, with many evident signs of nausea and pain. The patient
was strongly hysterical, and I soon made up my mind that either the case
was one of simple hysterical vomiting, or that the alleged inability was
assumed. The latter turned out to be the truth. I found that she drank
in private all the water she wanted, and that what she drank publicly
she threw up by tickling the fauces with her finger-nail when no one was
looking.

The idiosyncrasies of individuals are not matters for ridicule, however
absurd they may appear to be. On the contrary, they deserve, and should
receive, the careful consideration of the physician, for much is to
be learned from them, both in preventing and in treating diseases. In
psychiatrical medicine they are especially to be inquired for. It is not
safe to disregard them, as they may influence materially the character
of mental derangement, and may be brought in as efficient agents in the
treatment.--_N.Y. Medical Journal_.

* * * * *

PYORRHEA ALVEOLARIS.

[Footnote: Abstract from a paper lately read before the Southern Dental
Association, Baltimore, Md.]

By Dr. J. M. RIGGS, of Hartford, Conn.

A gentleman, a physician, aged thirty-two years, strong and vigorous,
with no lack of nerve-energy, calls to have his teeth attended to, with
the disease in the first stage throughout the mouth. Upon examination,
he observes upon the gum of one of the lower cuspids a dark purplish
ring encircling the neck, from one-sixty-fourth to one sixteenth of an
inch in depth; the tooth _in situ_ is white and clean. With the aid of
the mouth and hand mirror he shows the condition to the patient, and,
taking up an excavator, endeavors to pass it down between the tooth
and gum, on the labial surface. After it gets down a little way the
instrument meets with an obstruction, over which, calling the patient's
attention to the fact, he carefully guides the instrument until it drops
down on the tooth-substance beyond it; then, turning the instrument and
pressing it upward, he breaks off a portion of the concretion; which
proves to be what is ordinarily called lime-salts, or tartar. That is
the cause of the purple ring on the gum, which is merely the outward
manifestation of the disease. Take it off thoroughly, polish the surface
of the tooth, and in three days' time the gum will show a perfectly
healthy color. The condition described is the first stage of the
disease, and the treatment given is all that is required for a cure of
the case at this time. But take the same man and let him go for ten
years without the simple operation detailed. The disease spreads,
and causes inflammation of the process, and, finally, its
absorption--sometimes on the labial surface for one half or two-thirds
the length of the tooth. It runs its course, the tartar accumulating,
all the time following up the line of attack. At the end of ten years
what has become of the line of tartar? Sometimes it will be found
extending clear around the tooth. Sometimes it will not be found at all;
it has done its work--the tooth is loose, but the concretion is gone, in
whole or in part. In this case the patient wants the tooth out, but,
he asks, what has become of the tartar? The answer is that the natural
acids found in the oral cavity have dissolved it, and it has passed into
the stomach or out of the mouth in the saliva. But the tooth is so loose
that it is a torment to the man; it lies in its socket, entirely loose,
almost ready to drop over. It hurts so that he cannot bear the pain. The
tooth is taken out. There is no tartar on it, or very little; there is
a little speck near the point that looks like a foreign body; but the
point of the tooth--the apex--is as sharp as a needle. After the
disease has done its work of separating the tooth from its socket, the
destroying agent begins to absorb the tooth at the point, irregularly,
causing the sharpness described. Now, because no tartar is found upon
the tooth, does that argue that it has never been there? Not at all;
the loosened tooth shows simply that it has been there and has been
absorbed. The speaker has never seen a tooth in that condition on the
point of which he could not show patches or specks; we may not see the
tartar, but it certainly once existed there, and has accomplished its
work.

Now suppose we find a patient with all the teeth loosened; he has
neuralgia pains in the face, for which medicine seems to furnish no
remedy; he has also catarrh, and the malar and nasal bones are all
affected. In the third and fourth stages a low inflammatory action
pervades all the bones of the face, accompanied by neuralgic pains,
extending to the brain itself. In such a case the disease of the teeth
intensifies the catarrh. A medical man called upon him for treatment for
pyorrhea alveolaris; the patient was also afflicted with catarrh. He
cured the pyorrhea alveolaris, and cured the catarrh, too, at the same
time.

Another case.--A lady called in great distress. Nearly all her teeth
were affected, and the discharge was most offensive and abundant; if she
lay on her side in bed, the pillow would be covered with large splotches
of the discharge in the morning; if she lay on her back, the mass was
swallowed, and the result was that the whole alimentary canal was
demoralized by the pus, blood, and vitiated secretions. When she arose
she wanted no breakfast, only two or three cups of strong coffee and
some crackers. She was nearly blind, could only see a great light, and
was totally unable to see to read. He told her that the trouble with her
sight was caused by the diseased condition of the teeth; that unless
that was remedied, she might live three months, but she would die
suddenly. He treated three or four teeth at a time at each sitting. This
consumed three weeks. The teeth became firm, her appetite returned,
her sight was restored, and she was able to walk a mile or two without
disturbance. He was called to Brooklyn, where they had a live society,
and an infirmary for the treatment of dental diseases, at which members
of the society were delegated to attend from day to day. He was invited
to give a clinic upon pyorrhea alveolaris, and he told them of this
patient, whom he showed to some fifteen members. The woman was
apparently in fair health. It was not loss of nerve-energy which started
the disease in this case, but the disease caused the loss of appetite
and the vitiated condition of the whole alimentary canal. Her physician
would have sent this woman to the grave, not recognizing the disease and
its management.

He maintains that it is not lack of nervous energy that causes this
disease, but the disease will lead to loss of nerve-energy. That small
purple ring on the gum of the cuspid in the case first mentioned would
eventually have led to the loss of the whole set, if left to work its
way unopposed. He had tried in these remarks to controvert the old
ideas, and to present the cause of the disease and its treatment as he
sees it. You may see it differently; if so, give us your information, in
order that we may correct our views, if wrong.

One gentleman says he finds it is only those who are strong and vigorous
who have this disease. The speaker finds some cases of this kind; he
also finds consumptives who have not a trace of it, but he would take
the strongest man in the room and cause a beautiful case of pyorrhea
alveolaris in his mouth in three weeks, with a fine cotton thread tied
around one of the lower front teeth at the line of the gum. The thread
will work its way under the gum, and the gum will become inflamed;
it will work its way down between the gum and the tooth, and in the
meantime the flour and the particles of food will also work down under
the loose gum, finding a rallying-point on the thread; the mass will
become impregnated with lime-salts, and will then begin to harden, and
in a very short time you will have an excellent example of the disease
under discussion. Patients suffering from salivation fall an easy prey
to this disease, due to the action of the drug on the glands and the
hard and soft tissues of the mouth, the gums in such cases affording a
ready pocket under their edges for the deposits.

When you find a tooth with the characteristic concretion of tartar upon
it, the first principle of surgery demands that you clean that tooth
thoroughly. Go down beyond the line of the disease, go around the tooth
thoroughly, and break up the diseased tissue, and apply tincture of
myrrh, and in three days you will notice a marked improvement for the
better, and if the patient takes proper care of the teeth the disease
will not return. Practitioners should watch the teeth of the young
people under their care, and see that the mouth is kept scrupulously
clean and healthy.

In reply to a question, Dr. Riggs stated that whenever absorption goes
on irregularly, unless the inflammatory action is extreme, it will
sometimes absorb one or two bone-cells, and then skip one or two, and
these last, being isolated, naturally die, or become necrosed to
some extent. In treating this disease you must break up the line of
disintegrated tissue. You must, as it were, transfer your eyesight to
the end of the instrument, so that when you strike dead bone you will
know it. Live bone will feel smooth and greasy.

It requires some years of experience to treat this disease properly,
because you have not your eyesight to aid you, but must depend
absolutely upon the sense of touch. With experience, however, you
will learn to give a great deal of relief in one of the most annoying
conditions to which the teeth are subject. The reason the profession
are not familiar with the treatment of this disease is, they fail to
recognize it until it reaches its third or fourth stage, and then
they treat it by depletion and therapeutic remedies. Some treat it by
stippling in acids underneath the gum, thinking thereby to dissolve away
not only the tartar, but the necrosed bone. Another writer takes off
patches of the diseased tissue, and another a strip of the gum, from
wisdom-tooth to wisdom-tooth. This treatment he could only characterize
as simply barbarous. The treatment of this disease is purely surgical.
Any therapeutic treatment is to alleviate the pain and soreness
immediately after the operation.

Dr. W. N. Morrison, St. Louis, referring to the method of treating
pyorrhea alveolaris described by Dr. Riggs, said he cheerfully bore
testimony to the importance of loosening the scales of tartar, and
teaching patients the value of cleanness of the mouth. In his experience
he had found that all instruments will occasionally fail to dislodge the
deposit. In such cases he used as an assistant a little ring of para gum
about an eighth of an inch wide. This was sprung on the tooth at the
edge of the gum. If this is done and the ring allowed to remain a few
hours, you will see an entirely new revelation, and you will readily be
able to get at the tooth to clean it. He had found it advisable to give
patients practical showing how the brush should be used.

* * * * *

SULPHUR AS A PRESERVATIVE AGAINST MARSH FEVER.

At a recent meeting of the Paris Academy, M. D'Abbadie called attention
to some facts regarding marsh fever, which African travelers and others
might do well to ponder. Some elephant hunters from plateaus with
comparatively cool climate brave the hottest and most deleterious
Ethiopian regions with impunity, which they attribute to their habit of
daily fumigation of the naked body with sulphur. It was interesting to
know whether sulphurous emanations, received involuntarily, have a like
effect. From inquiries made by M. Fouque, it appears that in Sicily,
while most of the sulphur mines are in high districts and free from
malaria, a few are at a low level, where intermittent fever prevails. In
the latter districts, while the population of the neighboring villages
is attacked by fever in the proportion of 90 per cent., the workmen in
the sulphur mines suffer much less, not more than eight or nine per
cent. being attacked. Again, on a certain marshy plain near the
roadstead in the island of Milo (Grecian Archipelago), it is hardly
possible to spend a night without being attacked by intermittent fever,
yet on the very fertile part near the mountains are the ruins of a large
and prosperous town, Zephyria, which, 300 years ago, numbered about
40,000 inhabitants. Owing to the ravages of marsh fever the place is now
nearly deserted. One naturally asks how such a town grew to its former
populous state. Sulphur mining has been an important source of wealth in
Milo from the time of the ancient Greeks. Up to the end of last century
the sulphur was chiefly extracted at Kalamo, but since that time it
has only been mined on the east coast of the island. The decadence of
Zephyria has nearly corresponded to this transference. The sulphurous
emanations no longer reach the place, their passage being blocked by
the mountain mass. Once more, on the west side of the marshy and
fever-infested plain of Catania, traversed by the Simeto, is a sulphur
mine, and beyond it, at a higher level, a village which was abandoned in
the early part of this century because of marsh fever. Yet there is
a colony of workmen living about the mine, and they seem to be
advantageously affected by the emanations. M. D'Abbadie further mentions
that the engineer who made a railway through this notorious plain
preserved the health of his workmen by requiring them to drink no water
but what was known to be wholesome and was brought from a distance.

* * * * *

HYDRAULIC FILTERING PRESS FOR TREATING OLEAGINOUS SEEDS.

Messrs. Laurent Bros. & Collot exhibited at the Paris Universal
Exhibition in 1878 a patented hydraulic apparatus styled a filtering
press, the principle and construction of which it will prove of interest
to describe. The apparatus is remarkable for its simplicity and ease of
manipulation, and is destined to find an application in most oil mills.

_Details of Structure_.--The filter, which is shown in detail in Figs.
5 to 7, is formed of two semicylindrical cast iron shells, F, that are
firmly united, and held by a strong iron band which is cleft at one
point in its circumference, and to which there is adapted a mechanism
permitting of loosening it slightly so as to facilitate the escape of
the oil-cake. Within these shells, F, there are grooves, a, which have
the arrangement shown by the partial section in Fig. 11, and through
which flows the oil expressed by pressure. To prevent the escape of the
material through these grooves or channels, the interior of the shells
is lined throughout with plates or strips of brass that fit very closely
together, and present a simple slit with chamfered edges opposite the
grooves. At the two joints of the shells four of these plates are
riveted two by two; all the others are movable, and rest, like the
pieces of an arch, against the fixed plates that form abutments. Each
half lining is thus held by means of a central plate, b' (Fig. 10), with
oblique edges, and which, being driven home by the top of the filter,
binds the whole tightly together. All these plates, which are slightly
notched at their upper part, rest on a small flange at the lower part of
the shells.

[Illustration: FILTERING PRESS FOR OLEAGINOUS SEEDS.--AUTOMATIC
INJECTION PUMP]

As regards their manufacture, these plates are cut out of sheets of
perfectly laminated brass, and are afterward set into a matrix to center
them properly. After the shells have been bored out, all the plates are
mounted therein so as to obtain a perfectly cylindrical and uniform
surface. The plates are then numbered and taken out; and, finally, a
slit with chamfered edges is cut longitudinally through them, save at
three points--two at the extremities and one at the middle. The plates
thereafter rest against each other only at these three points, and leave
at the chamfered places capillary openings just sufficient to give
passage to the oil, but not to the pressed paste, however fine it be.
As will be seen in Fig. 5, the points of contact are not in the same
horizontal plane, but are arranged spirally, so that the flow will not
be stopped at this place as it would be were these solid parts all at
the same height. The filter, F, is completed by two pieces that play an
important part. The first of these is a cast iron rim, J, which is set
into the upper edge, and forms a sort of lip whose internal diameter
corresponds exactly to the surface of the plates, b. This rim, J,
is cast in one piece, and carries on its circumference two small,
diametrically opposite iron studs, which are so placed that they may
engage in the groove, p, at the upper edge of the shells, F.

The second of the two pieces is a cast iron bottom, K, which works on a
hinge-joint, and which is perforated with a large number of holes for
giving passage to the oil that has traversed the hair cloth cushion of
which we shall speak further on. These holes must correspond accurately
with the radial conduits presented by plate, E, and through which flows
the oil to a circular channel running around this same piece. In order
to exactly maintain such a relation between the holes and channels, the
piece, E, is provided with a stirrup-iron, d, that passes around one of
the columns, C, of the hydraulic press.

The entire filter thus constructed is attached to one of the columns,
C', of the hydraulic press in such a way that it can revolve around it.
For this purpose, the column is surrounded by an iron sleeve, L, cast in
two pieces, and which in its lower position rests on the shoulder, e, of
the column. The filter is connected with the sleeve by means of screws,
as shown in Fig. 6.

We shall now describe the mechanism for loosening the band, I, and
moving the bottom, K.

The band, I (Figs. 5 to 9), is cleft at a point in its circumference
corresponding to one of the joints of the shell, F, and carries at each
side of the cleft a bearing in which turns freely a steel pin. One
of these latter, i, is cylindrical, and the other, j, has eccentric
extremities that are connected with the former by two small iron rods,
k and l. The upper extremity of the pin, j, is provided with a bent
lever-handle, M, and the lower one carries in its turn a small disk, m,
the use of which will be explained further on. It results from such an
arrangement that by acting on the lever, M, with the band, and by reason
of the eccentricity of the pin, j, the two extremities of the band,
I, may be made to approach or recede at the will of the operator. The
position of nearest approximation is limited by the abutting of the hook
at the end of the lever, M, against the side of the filter. This latter
position corresponds to the moment of charging the apparatus (Fig. 6),
while the contrary one indicates the moment that the oil cake falls
(Fig. 4). Although the separation is but a few millimeters, it is
sufficient for disengaging and allowing the cake to drop.

The movable bottom, K (Figs. 5 and 6), which closes the base of the
filter during the pressing, becomes detached and drops vertically (Figs.
3 and 4), when the filter is disengaged from the press, and the oil cake
is to be dropped out. To render the maneuver of this part easy, the
bottom is provided with a projecting piece, N, united by a bolt with
the band, I, and furnished with an articulated hand-lever, N', that
terminates in an appendage, q. The upper part of the hinge is provided
with a tail piece, q', under which the appendage q, places itself when
the bottom, K, is brought to its horizontal position. Consequently, when
the operator desires to let the bottom drop in the position shown by the
dotted line (Fig. 5), after the filter has been loosened, he moves
the lever, N, to the position shown by the dotted line (Fig. 6). The
appendage, q, then disengages itself from the tail piece, q', and the
bottom is thus enabled to assume a vertical position. As the bottom at
the time of charging would not be sufficiently supported if there merely
existed the lever and catch, it is further provided at its opposite
extremity with an appendage, r, which slides over a catch, r'. This
latter is attached to the disk, m, at the lower extremity of the pin, j
(Fig. 7), and takes exactly the proper position when the band is closed
at the moment of charging, but leaves it, on the contrary, when the band
is loosened to allow the oil cake to drop out.

As the lateral flow takes place through the interstices of the brass
lining, there is need of but one cushion on the bottom and another
at the top to hold the material to be pressed. The first is a simple
hair-cloth disk for preventing the seed from passing through the
perforations in the bottom plate; and the second, O, of which Figs. 12
and 13 represent a segment, is formed of three thicknesses of the same
material united at the edges by two flat iron circles, s, riveted
together. These circles, which are made to fit the inside diameter of
the shells very accurately, prevent any leakage of the oil around the
presser, G, and keep the hairs from getting caught between this piece
and the plates, b.

_Charging of the Filter_. (Figs. 14 and 15.)--The apparatus for charging
the filter is of the same capacity as the latter, and is made of
galvanized iron. It is placed on a slide at the aperture of the steam
kettle so as to receive the warm seed as it is thrown out by the
stirrer. When full, it is taken up by its handles, rested on the rim of
the filter, and its contents emptied therein.

_General Manipulation of the Press_.--Supposing the filter in the
position shown in Figs. 3 and 4, at the moment the seedcake is about to
drop out: the operator takes hold of the lock lever, N, with his left
hand, raises the bottom, K, to a horizontal position, and at the same
time fastens the bolt of the lever by turning it. He then seizes the
lever, M, with his right hand, and turns it so as to close the filter,
having care at the same time to support the extremity, r, of the bottom
with his left hand so that the catch, r', may pass under it when the
lever is manipulated. The bottom haircloth is then put in place, the
charge is thrown in, and its surface leveled, and the hair-cloth cushion
is laid on top. The filter is then revolved around the column so as to
bring it into the position shown in Fig. 1. The cock of the distributer
that admits water under pressure being turned on, the ram, D, rises,
carries with it the filter, and compresses the material against the
presser, G. At the end of from six to ten minutes the pressure-valve is
closed and the discharge-valve opened. The filter then slides down with
its socket along the column, C', till it reaches the shoulder, e, where
it rests. It is next swung around to the position shown in Fig. 3, and
emptied of its contents by a manipulation, the reverse of that described
for charging it. All these manipulations of charging and emptying
require no more than half a minute on the part of an experienced
workman.

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