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scientificamerican.com/magazine/saSCIENTIFIC AMERICAN,VOL. CXXI, NO. 21; NOVEMBER 22, 1919NOVEMBER1969
Lung
Support
“Respiratory failure is now revers-
ible in a large percentage of cases if
proper treatment is provided. Such
treatment is available in respirato-
ry intensive-care units: properly
equipped hospital facilities direct-
ed by a new kind of medical spe-
cialist, the intensivist, and manned
by teams of trained physicians. The
increasing capability of respiratory
intensive care is the result of an in -
creasing discourse between respi-
ratory physiologists and physicians
who treat patients. Data that have
long been available are now being
brought to bear through active
intervention to preserve the life of
critically ill patients. Treatment of
acute respiratory failure is proba-
bly as close to being a quantitative
science as any field of clinical medi-
cine can be today. In this situation,
precise measurement approaches
or exceeds in importance the ‘clini-
cal judgment’ that for so many
years has been the prime quality
of the good physician.”
1919
Merry
Mountaineers
“France’s task of beating swords
into ploughshares included the
conversion of tanks into some-
thing having peacetime value.
Some have been employed for
towing canal barges; others have
be come agricultural tractors; oth-
ers have made their way into the
factory. But the most novel con-
version is no doubt that of the
mountain-climbing tanks, now
available to tourists of the French
Alps of Savoy. Shorn of its coat of
armor and its fighting equipment,
and provided with seats, it be -
comes an excellent passenger-car-
rying vehicle for traversing rough
terrain. Our illustration offers
some idea of the thrills of a ride
in the mountain-climbing tank.”The Unemployed Horse
“Professional horse-breeders still
boost for the business; but they are
merely whistling to keep up their
courage. The days of the horse as
a beast of burden are numbered.
The automobile is taking the
place of the carriage horse; the
truck is taking the place of the dray
horse; and the farm tractor the
place of the farm horse. Nor is
there any cause to bemoan this
state of affairs. We all admit that
the horse is one of the noblest of
animals; and that is a very good
reason why we should rejoice at his
prospective emancipation from a
life of servitude and suffering. That,
of course, is the humanitarian side
of it; the business side is more to
the point: the machine is going to
do the hard work of the world
much easier and much cheaper
than it ever has been done. At least
50 percent of the horses will have
been laid off by January 1st, 1920.”1869
Vaccination
“A long article
recently appeared in the New York
Times, taking the strongest ground
against vaccination, urging that itpropagated disease, while as a pre-
vention of mortality from small-
pox, it was utterly inefficient.
This article represented views
now entertained by many upon
this subject. The London Lancet
in an article in favor of vaccina-
tion makes the following re marks:
‘The fact is, that the only people
injured by the Compulsory Vacci-
nation Act are medical men.
There is no disease which pays
medical men better than small-
pox. A good attack of it makes
man, or child, a patient for a
solid month.’ ”“Cardiff Giant” Hoax
“Letter of John F. Boynton, Geolo-
gist, to Prof. Henry Morton, of the
Pennsylvania University: ‘Dear Sir:
On Saturday last, some laborers
engaged in digging a well on the
farm of W. C. Newell, near the vil-
lage of Cardiff, about 13 miles
south of this city, discovered, lying
about three feet below the surface
of the earth, what they supposed
to be the ‘petrified body’ of a
human being of colossal size. Its
length is ten feet and three inches,
and the rest of the body is propor-
tionately large. The excitement
in this locality over the discovery
is im mense and unprecedented.
Thousands have visited the locali-
ty within the last three days.
On a careful examination, I am
convinced that it is not a fossil,
but was cut from a piece of strati-
fied sulphate of lime. It was quar-
ried, probably, somewhere in this
county [Onondaga, N.Y.], from our
Gypsum beds. My conclusion
regarding the object of the deposit
of the statue in this place is as fol-
lows: It was for the purpose of
hiding and protecting it from an
enemy who would have destroyed
it, had it been discovered.’ ”
t he statue had actually been sculpted
the year before under the direction
of one George Hull as either a joke
or a hoax and buried on the prop erty
of his relative William c. newell.1969191918691919: A former military tank gets repurposed as
an all-terrain vehicle for the amusement of tourists.© 2019 Scientific American