The disintegration of organic tissue by high tension discharges / by J. Inglis Parsons.

  • Parsons, J. Inglis, 1857-1928.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The disintegration of organic tissue by high tension discharges / by J. Inglis Parsons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the muscular fibres were broken across in places and frayed out; whereas a piece of beef removed for exami- nation, and of which a section was easily made before the current was passed, showed no such alteration. The next experiment was to try the full force of the current that could be developed. A series of discharges were sent through a piece of beef 5 inches thick. When Dr. Maclean tried to cut some sections he found it im- possible ; the specimen simply crumbled away even when it was frozen. However, after a great number of experiments and after wasting many pounds of beef, I at last found the right strength of current, and suceeeded with great difficulty in obtaining some sections that showed the breaking-up of the muscular fibres. For these I am indebted to Dr. T. W. Eden, who cut them for me at the College Laboratories. I have had these photographed and now place them before you as Nos. 1 and 2. No. 1 shows the beef before any discharge was passed. No. 2 shows the loss of striation and partial breaking across of the fibres at one point after a discharge. In this experiment the two needles were four inches apart, and the section was taken in the direct line of the current and midway between the needles, and therefore out of the area which would be affected if there were any heat or caustic action. However, in order to demonstrate how little heat or caustic action is developed, I took a small piece of the beef as near as possible to the point of one of the needles, and it exhibited no charring or chemical action such as one finds when the voltaic current is used. In fact the change in tissue is almost exactly the same at the needle points as it is at a distance two inches off. The next point was to determine as nearly as possible the area throughout which this breaking-up of the fibres took place. I made several experiments in this direction, and had a large number of sections made from small