Show MYSTERY OF SLEEP SOLVED IN PART BY psychiatrist special electrodes and galvanometer enable doctor richter to test depth of unconsciousness baltimore md A definite step in unraveling the mystery ot has b from earliest times has been made by dr curt I 1 lift liter of the henry phipps Isy clil clinic of johns alty jtb a string gah an ometer and specially constructed electrodes h has been able to tell how soundly a person Is sleeping without awaken ing him ilia experiments not only have shown eliat sleep la of two distinctly different but that there Is a great difference between real sleep and conditions in certain types ot mentally people appear to be asleep ills discoveries are reported in a paper entitled the significance of changes in the resistance of the body during sleep which ap pears in the proceedings of the ia academy of sciences IHs research showed that the resist ance to an imperceptible electrical current sent from hand to hand during sleep was localized almost entire ly in the skin this resistance in creased in one instance from ohms when the subject was awake to ohms when asleep the current was applied by two electrodes of zinc covered ath a thick kaolin paste ailed with satu rated zinc sulphate solution these were attached to the hands and con necked to the string galvanometer designed to measure the smallest currents the experiments showed that the intensity of the resistance varied dl with the intensity of sleep it was discovered however that when sleep was not sound the resistance of the skin on the backs of the hand usually decreased in these cases taft subject was not refreshed by sleep in the of patients suffering from catatonic stupors stu pors which so closely resemble sleep that it is impossible to tell by looking at the patient that he Is not asleep a ery dir ferent condition wag found in these cases it w as discovered that the palm to palm resistance of the hand wa less than normal indicating an intense consciousness while the resistance from back to back of the hand was ery high indicating complete muscular relaxation and lack of con arol from these studies it Is hoped that new light will be thrown upon nervous conditions not only of mentally patients but of relatively normal people suffering from denous strain |