The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

10 THE PHONOSCOPE June, 189? Ube Dussaub fTIMcropbonoorapb Some new experiments have recently been made by M. Dussaud apropos of the perception of sounds by deaf mutes by means of an apparatus devised for the purpose and called a ' ' microphonograph." The microphonograph is an apparatus that serves to amplify the voice, just as a lens enlarges an image, and so it opens in the sciences a new chapter that may be entitled ' ' microphonography, " or the microscopy of sound. In an auscultation this new instrument will permit of studying the feeblest sounds of healthy It was possible in this way to register the pulsations of the heart of a young man in whom a crisis of palpitations had just been artificially determined. In this manner, too, may be ascertained the variations that occur in the rhythm and pulsations of the beating of the heart. In an analogous way, M. Dussaud has registered the crises due to the mental disturbances of the artist and orator. Hereafter not only song and speech may be preserved, but also the emotions of the mind ; in a word, it is a registering of life. In impassioned strophes that require the entire strength of an individual, we find quicker and harder strokes, and true internal emotions that are shown by graver and more metallic sounds that it Fig. Instantaneous Photograph taken before the Apparatus began to Operate. Fig. Instantaneous Photograph taken while the Apparatus was in Operation. EXPERIMENT WITH A DEAF MUTE. or diseased organs, and, on another hand, will render immense sen-ices to the deaf and to deaf mutes. .In January, 1896, M. Dussaud, touched by the fate of an unfortunate deaf mute, resumed a study that he had begun some time before, and applied his efforts to the finding of an apparatus that should increase the intensity of sound at will. After a year of research, he, on the 29th of December last, operated with entire success, before a certain number of physicians, in the laboratory of physiology of the Sorbonne, the instrument to which he has given the name mentioned above. The amplification of sounds seemed extraordinary, and on the next day Dr. Laborde, superintendent of the laboratory of physiology, pre sented to his colleagues of the Academy of Medicine the result of the observations that he had made with the apparatus under consideration. The microphonograph consists of two parts, a registering apparatus and a repeater. The Registering Apparatus. — This consists (Fig. 3) of a horizontal cylinder actuated by clockwork^ Upon this cylinder is fixed a wax roller in front of which a piece of the size and shape of a watch is moved through a mechanism. This piece is formed essentially of small electromagnets that act upon a disk which controls the tool that is designated to engrave the wax. For registering feeble sounds, there is placed in the region corresponding to the organ to be examined a microphone of a peculiar system, that is connected with the microphonograph registering apparatus by an electric current derived from 1 to 60 small sulphate of mercury elements. Through the intermedium of this current, the sounds collected by the microphone are faithfully repeated by the disk of the microphonograph and inscribed upon the wax by the graver. will be possible to preserve forever as witnesses of the hours in which one feels that his entire soul is in vibration. It is possible to inscribe the slightest sounds perceived in the different affections of the lungs and heart. The importance of such an instrument for auscultation and diagnosis may be easilj perceived. Everything is registered and may be repeated ten thousand times without undergoing any alteration. The ears of students of medicine will be able to become habituated to hearing all the sounds made b} the organs, whether healthy or diseased. The apparatus repeats what the master has just heard, and the student may thus learn how to distinguish between these sounds and those that follow and may van in a certain measure. The professor of internal pathology, through this apparatus, will be able to cause his auditors to hear all the normal and abnormal sounds of the human body. The practitioner will thus be able, with the aid of his observations, to hear anew the pathological sounds that he heard at the time of his first visit and thus ascertain the progress of the disease. On the other hand, in difficult cases, when there are several physicians, or when it is necessary to hear the sounds produced at different times, in order to ascertain the state of an organ, a single application of the apparatus will permit of listening to them indefinitely without fatigue to either the physician or patient and unbeknown to the latter. It is a study of the infinitely small in the domain of sounds. Who knows the revelations that awaits us ? M. Basaldu, an American engineer, has already consulted Mr. Edison on the subject of some work that he wishes to undertake with an extra sensitive Dussaud microphonograph. It is a question of registering the sounds of thought. In the hours of intense cerebral activity there occurs, through the flow of the blood, a series of sounds in our brain, the skull of which is the resonator. -Thought is a sound that is imperceptible to our ears and is, perhaps, a mysterious and sweet harmony which goes off to fill the unknown media in which it is agitated and in which the psychic and telepatic phenomena occur. In another order of ideas, M. Dussaud, through a horizontal microphone, has registered the infinitesimal sounds that insects produce through their walking or the friction of certain organs. Here again there is a host of curious notions that have been ignored and that throw a singular light upon the habits of these beings, which also have their musical sense and their preferred fashion, if we may so express ourselves, and that sometimes move with odd and varied cadences that are proper to them. Who can say whether or not they find agreeable sensations in their rhythms, and whether or not ants, in their long processions, have certain definite gaits that recall our military step? It is an immense and fruitful horizon that has just been suddenly opened up in the field of physiology, medicine and natural history. The Repeater. — This likewise consists of a horizontal cylinder actuated by clockwork. Upon this cylinder is placed the wax roller engraved by the registering apparatus, and before this, a mechanism moves a disk provided with a rounded Fig. 3. THE DUSSAUD MICROPHONOGRAPH. A, horizontal cylinder; B, registering microphone; C, electric batteries ; D, telephone receiver