ELECTRIC SHOCKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

ELECTRIC SHOCKS

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES SOME BAFFLING EXAMPLES Accidents, fatal and non-fatal, due to electricity are on the increase. One high authority in England has stated that they are bound to increase even more rapidly in the next ten years owing to the wider use of electricty for domestic and industrial purposes. Yet only two people in Britain—Dr. A. M. Critchlev, M.D., Ch.B., D.Ph., and Miss Hilary Long, B.Sc., M.8., B.S.— have made a special study of the treatment of electric shock. A paper on "Clinical Features and Treatment of Electrical Injuries," by Miss Long, in a recent issue of the " Medical Press and Circular," reveals the variety of effects that electric shock can have on the human body, and the blunders, sometimes fatal to the victim, that have resulted from lack of medical knowledge. For instance, when a man receives an electric shock he sometimes falls apparently dead. There is no sign of breathing, 110 sound of the heart beating, and the pulse stops. Artificial respiration is tried for perhaps twenty minutes and then abandoned as hopeless. " It must he begun on the scene of the accident, and continued for a least'an hour, even in the apparent abscence of success, says Miss Long. Queer things happen that even men who have made a life-long study of electric shock cannot understand. The most baffling example occurred recently. Only four cases of it are known. This is what happens:—A man receives an electric shock and collapses as if dead. After a few seconds he stands up, makes a perfectly sensible remark, such as " I've been struck," walks three yards—and then falls dead.

Human resistance to electrical shock varies. Even in the individual it varies from minute to minute. No one knows why. It has been found that a person prepared for electric shock, such as a workman handling electric wires or machinery, is in less danger of injury than the person to whom the shock is completely unexpected. Much remains to be learned about electrocution if lives are not to be thrown away through ignorance.