Astounding Stories, August, 1931 by Various (well read books .TXT) 📕

Dear Editor:

It has been my purpose to write to you before, but due to an extraordinary amount of detail work which I have had to do, I have been unable to.

I have read your marvelous magazine ever since the first issue came into my hands, and I can honestly say that there is no other book on the market which has held my attention as long as yours has. I congratulate you on your very interesting magazine.

Arthur J. Burks, in his latest story, has conceived an entirely new type of story, and I, for one, think it very interesting. Plenty of science for the laymen and enough interest for the others.

I liked R. F. Starzl's story, "The Earthman's Burden," very much, and I hope you will have more by this author soon. His stories are perfect. Starzl is a deep thinker, and I am right here to say that there is a man who understands men and men's longings and inhibitions.—A. W. Gowing, 17 Pasadena St., Springfield, Mass.

"The Readers' Corner"

All readers are extended a sincere and cordial invitation to "come over in 'The Readers' Corner'" and join in our monthly discussion of stories, authors, scientific principles and possibilities—everything that's of common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories.

Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this is a department primarily for Readers, and we want you to make full use of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explanations, roses, brickbats, suggestions—everything's welcome here; so "come over in 'The Readers' Corner'" and discuss it with all of us!

The Editor.

A disembodied heart, not only still steadily beating but writing, as it throbbed, a permanent, minutely precise record of its pulsations, was exhibited recently at Princeton in a demonstration of the newest instrument developed by science for the advancement of medicine and psychology.

The device, invented by A. L. Loomis of Tuxedo Park, N. Y., and perfected in collaboration with Dr. Edmund N. Harvey, professor of psychology at Princeton University, is called the Loomis chronograph.

It will facilitate study of the phenomena of heart action and the effect of drugs on that vital organ. The chronograph opens the way to the accurate measuring and recording of the speed and variation of human heart beats over long periods, even during the sleeping hours of the subject, which is expected to prove of great value to physiologists and criminologists.

The heart of the recent demonstration was that of a turtle, removed from the reptile while alive, freed of all extraneous tissue and suspended in a physiological salt solution exactly duplicating body conditions. In this state the organ continues to beat for thirty-six hours, at the same time setting down, by means of the chronograph, a graphic history of the approximately 72,000 pulsations it makes in that time. With each beat the tiny organism pulled down a little lever that dipped a fine filament into a drop of mercury and made a contact that transmitted an electric impulse to the chronograph. There it was translated to a fraction of a second into a record inked on a chart.

Introduction into the solution of nicotine—one part in 10,000—and of adrenalin—one part in a billion—was immediately noted by a marked retarding of the heart tempo in the first case and swift acceleration in the second.

Use of the chronograph to study the action of any heart that can be removed from the living body is possible, the scientist said, adding that a comparatively simple adjustment will make possible recording of the human heart by a device applied to the chest.

Application of the instrument to tests of human nerve reactions and to psychological tests is forecast.