A POWERFUL MAGNET.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11626, 4 July 1903, Page 7

A POWERFUL MAGNET.

The equipment of the operating hall of the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital has been improved by the acquirement by the management of a powerful electro magnet of a type and strength superior to the hand magnets formerly in use for detecting the position of steel and iron splinters in the

eve. A demonstration with the magnet was given by Dr. J. W. Barrett the other day (says the Melbourne "Argus"). The magnet", whidi is of 30.000 ampere turns power, is an American adaptation of the Huab, a Swiss invention, and it is so jwised that it con b- directed at the will of the operator, towards any point of the compass. When "alive" the magnet« influence in the operating room is so great that watches are stopped, and the members of the party that witnessed the demonstr .tion delivered up their timepieces to a nurse who was iv attendance, so that their works should not suffer harm. Dr. Barrett explained that under the system hitheno in vogue at tiie hospital the point of the magnet in use had to be inserted into the eye in which a spliuter of steel or iron had been embedded, with consequent great damage to the member, the sight of which very frequently was lost completely, but with the Uaab* in operation the number of such coses, it was hoped, would be reduced by fully one-half, for with the new instrument the necessity for perforating the eve with the point of a magnet would be avoided, its power being so groat that either the foreiim body could be drawn into a positkm where it would be seen by the operator, or its position would be indicated exttctlv to the patient. Current was applied "to the magnet, which whisked up little heaps of iron tilings that lay upon a sheet of plate gins* held o couple of feet away from it: caught to itself wire nails thrown into the air. aud from the hands of the visiters snatched metal objects with a swiftness tliat was startling. Experir_. ntin_ w.h a number cf cheep's eyes. Dr. Barrett then demonstrated that the magnet could draw nee-dle points, etc.. right through the eye from the back to the front, whence "their removal would be a comparatively easy matter.