DETECTION OF SOUND WAVES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 313, 30 September 1926, Page 15

DETECTION OF SOUND WAVES

APPLICATION OF DISCOVERY TO MEDICINE. During the war Professor Langovin, of Paris, invented a method of detecting the presence of submarines by the reflection of sound when a narrow beam of sound waves was projected under the water. Experiments conducted by Dr. R. W. Wood, Professor of Experimental Physics at John Hopkins University, New York, tend to show that the device may have important medical and biological applications (says the “Central News”). The possibility of applying the discovery to medicine is described as being found in the fact that circulation is greatly stimulated in any part of tlie body which is thrust into water in which the sound waves have been introduced. The stimulation is said to lie powerful enough to go to the bone without injuring any part of the body immersed. Dr. Wood said that while the experiments had not gone far enough for him to claim that cures might be accomplished, it had been found that circulation could be tremendously stimulated and (hat any method for stimulating circulation without injury was valuable to medicine. The discovery, it is said, may be used in the treatment of arthritis.’ That disease has been baffling physicians for years. It is maintained by some physicians that it is caused by organisms which leave chalky deposits in the joints. The sound waves might, it is thought, be used to stimulate circulation to carry off these deposits. Dr. Wood was asked about this application of the discovery. While he admitted that it might be found useful he wag ■unwilling to make any definite claims until the work had progressed further. It is said the possibilities for the science of biology and physiology are considerable. The laic Dr. Jacques Loob, of New York, altered the shapes of low forms of animal life by changing their environment. This discovery by Dr. Wood may be used along similar lines. Experiments are to lie made on fish, eggs, and other organisms io learn what effect on their development is produced by subjecting them to the sound waves. The instrument used for producing the sound waves resembles a radio set, but is much more powerful than the familiar form of the machine. Four hundred thousand vibrations a second at 60,000 veils are applied to a quartz plate, which is thrown into a powerful vibration. emitting sound waves of the same frequency as the electrical vibration.