The Project Gutenberg EBook of Scientific American Supplement, No. 421,
January 26, 1884, by Various

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Title: Scientific American Supplement, No. 421,  January 26, 1884

Author: Various

Release Date: July 24, 2005 [EBook #16353]

Language: English

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[Illustration]




SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 421




NEW YORK, JANUARY 26, 1884

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XVII., No. 421.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS


I.    ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Furcot's Six Horse Power
      Steam Engine.--With several figures.                        6714

      Foot Lathes.--With engraving.                               6715

      Endless Trough Conveyer.--2 engravings.                     6715

      Railroad Grades of Trunk Lines.                             6715

      English Express Trains.--Average speed, long runs, etc.     6715

      Apparatus for Separating Substances Contained in the
      Waste Waters of Paper Mills, etc.--2 figures.               6717

II.   TECHNOLOGY.--An English Adaptation of the American Oil
      Mill.--Description of the apparatus, and of the old and
      new processes.--Several engravings.                         6716

      Large Blue Prints.--By W.B. Parsons, Jr.                    6717

III.  ELECTRICITY, ETC.--Electrical Apparatus for Measuring
      and for Demonstration at the Munich Exhibition.--With
      descriptions and numerous illustrations of the different
      machines.                                                   6711

      A New Oxide of Copper Battery.--By F. De Lalande and S.
      Chaperon.--With description and three illustrations.        6714

IV.   MATHEMATICS, ETC.--To Find the Time of Twilight.--1 figure.  6720

      A New Rule for Division in Arithmetic.                      6725

      Experiments in Binary Arithmetic.                           6726

V.    ARCHAEOLOGY.--Grecian Antiquities.--With engravings of the
      Monument of Philopappus.--Tomb from the Ceramicus.--Tower
      of the winds.--The Acropolis.--Old Corinth.--Temple of
      Jupiter.--The Parthenon.--Temple of Theseus, etc.           6721

VI.   NATURAL HISTORY, ETHNOLOGY, ETC.--Poisonous Serpents and
      their Venom.--By Dr. Archie Stockwell.--A serpent's mouth,
      fangs, and poison gland.--Manner of attack.--Nature of
      the venom.--Action of venom.--Remedies.                     6719

      Ethnological Notes.--Papuans.--Negritos.                    6720

VII.  HORTICULTURE, BOTANY, ETC.--The Hornbeams.--Uses to
      which the tree is put.--Wood for manufactures.--For
      fuel.--Different varieties.--With engravings of the tree
      as a whole, and of its leaves, fruit, flowers, etc.         6724

      Fruit of Camellia Japonica.--1 engraving.                   6725

VIII. MEDICINE. SANITATION, ETC.--House Drainage and Refuse.
      Abstract of a lecture by Capt. Douglas Galton.--Treating
      of the removal of the refuse from camps, small towns, and
      houses.--Conditions to observe in house drains, etc.        6717

      Pasteur's New Method of Attenuation.                        6718

      Convenient Vaults.                                          6719

IX.   MISCELLANEOUS.--Spanish Fisheries.--Noticeable objects
      in the Spanish Court at the late Fisheries Exhibition.      6722

      Duck Shooting at Montauk.                                   6723

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ELECTRICAL APPARATUS FOR MEASURING AND FOR DEMONSTRATION AT THE MUNICH
EXHIBITION.


Apparatus for use in laboratories and cabinets of physics were quite
numerous at the Munich Exhibition of Electricity, and very naturally a
large number was to be seen there that presented little difference
with present models. Several of them, however, merit citation. Among
the galvanometers, we remarked an apparatus that was exhibited by
Prof. Zenger, of Prague. The construction of this reminded us of that
of other galvanometers, but it was interesting in that its inventor
had combined in it a series of arrangements that permitted of varying
its sensitiveness within very wide limits. This apparatus, which Prof.
Zenger calls a "Universal Rheometer" (Fig. 1), consists of a bobbin
whose interior is formed of a piece of copper, whose edges do not
meet, and which is connected by strips of copper with two terminals.
This internal shell is capable of serving for currents of quantity,
and, when the two terminals are united by a wire, it may serve as a
deadener. Above this copper shell there are two identical coils of
wire which may, according to circumstances, be coupled in tension or
in series, or be employed differentially. Reading is performed either
by the aid of a needle moving over a dial, or by means of a mirror,
which is not shown in the figure. Finally, there is a lateral scale,
R, which carries a magnetized bar, A, that may be slid toward the
galvanometer. This magnet is capable of rendering the needle less
sensitive or of making it astatic. In order to facilitate this
operation, the magnet carries at its extremity a tube which contains a
bar of soft iron that may be moved slightly so as to vary the length
of the magnet. Prof. Zenger calls this arrangement a magnetic vernier.
It will be seen that, upon combining all the elements of the
apparatus, we can obtain very different combinations; and, according
to the inventor, his rheometer is a substitute for a dozen
galvanometers of various degrees of sensitiveness, and permits of
measuring currents of from 20 amperes down to 1/50000000 an ampere.
The apparatus may even be employed for measuring magnetic forces, as
it constitutes a very sensitive magnetometer.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ZENGER'S UNIVERSAL RHEOMETER.]

Prof. Zenger likewise had on exhibition a "Universal Electrometer"
(Fig. 2), in which the fine wire that served as an electrometric
needle was of magnetized steel suspended by a cotton thread. In this
instrument, a silver wire, t, terminating in a ball, is fixed to a
support, C, hanging from a brass disk, P, placed upon the glass case
of the apparatus. It will be seen that if we bring an electrified body
near the disk, P, a deviation of the needle will occur. The
sensitiveness of the latter may be regulated by a magnetic system like
that of the galvanometer. Finally, a disk, P', which may be slid up
and down its support, permits of the instrument being used as a
condensing electrometer, by giving it, according to the distance of
the disks, different degrees of sensitiveness. One constructor who
furnished much to this part of the exhibition was Mr. Th. Edelmann of
Munich, whose apparatus are represented in a group in Fig. 3. Among
them we remark the following: A quadrant electrometer (Fig. 4), in
which the horizontal 8-shaped needle is replaced by two connected
cylindrical surfaces that move in a cylinder formed of four parts; a
Von Beetz commutator; spyglasses with scale for reading measuring
instruments (Fig. 3); apparatus for the study of magnetic variations,
of Lamont (Fig. 3) and of Wild (Fig. 5); different types of the
Wiedemann galvanometer; an electrometer for atmospheric observations
(Fig. 6); a dropping apparatus (Fig. 7), in which the iron ball opens
one current at a time at the moment it leaves the electro-magnet and
when it reaches the foot of the support, these two breakages producing
two induction sparks that exactly limit the length to be taken in
order to measure the time upon the tracing of the chronoscope
tuning-fork; an absolute galvanometer; a bifilar galvanometer (Fig. 8)
for absolute measurements, in which the helix is carried by two
vertical steel wires stretched from o to u, and which is rendered
complete by a mirror for the reading, and a second and fixed helix, so
that an electro-dynamometer may be made of it; and, finally, a
galvanometer for strong currents, having a horseshoe magnet pivoted
upon a vertically divided column which is traversed by the current,
and a plug that may be arranged at different heights between the two
parts of the column so as to render the apparatus more sensitive (Fig.
9).

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--ZENGER'S UNIVERSAL ELECTROMETER.]

We may likewise cite the exhibit of Mr. Eugene Hartmann of Wurtzburg,
which comprised a series of apparatus of the same class as those that
we have just enumerated--spyglasses for the reading of apparatus,
galvanometers, magnetometers, etc.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--EXHIBIT OF TH. EDELMANN.]

Specially worthy of remark were the apparatus of Mr. Kohlrausch for
measuring resistances by means of induction currents, and a whole
series of accessory instruments.

Among the objects shown by other exhibitors must be mentioned Prof.
Von Waltenhofen's differential electromagnetic balance. In this, two
iron cylinders are suspended from the extremities of a balance. One of
them is of solid iron, and the other is of thin sheet iron and of
larger diameter and is balanced by an additional weight. Both of them
enter, up to their center, two solenoids. If a strong current be
passed into these latter, the solid cylinder will be attracted; but
if, on the contrary, the current be weak, the hollow cylinder will be
attracted. If the change in the current's intensity occur gradually,
there will be a moment in which the cylinders will remain in
equilibrium.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--EDELMANN'S QUADRANT ELECTROMETER.]

Prof. Zenger's differential photometer that we shall finally cite is
an improvement upon Bunsen's. In the latter the position of the
observer's eye not being fixed, the aspect of the spot changes
accordingly, and errors are liable to result therefrom. Besides,
because of the non-parallelism of the luminous rays, each of the two
surfaces is not lighted equally, and hence again there may occur
divergences. In order to avoid such inconveniences, Prof. Zenger gives
his apparatus (Fig. 10) the following form: The screen, D, is
contained in a cubical box capable of receiving, through apertures,
light from sources placed upon the two rules, R and R'. A flaring
tube, P, fixes the position of the eye very definitely. As for the
screen, this is painted with black varnish, and three vertical
windows, about an inch apart, are left in white upon its paper. Over
one of the halves of these parts a solution of stearine is passed. To
operate with the apparatus, in comparing two lights, the central spot
is first brought to invisibility, and the distances of the sources are
measured. A second determination is at once made by causing one of the
two other spots to disappear, and the mean of the two results is then
taken. As, at a maximum, there is a difference corresponding to 3/100
of a candle between the illumination of the two neighboring windows,
in the given conditions of the apparatus, the error is thus limited to
a half of this value, or 2 per cent. of that of one candle.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--WILD'S APPARATUS FOR STUDYING MAGNETIC
VARIATIONS.]

Among the apparatus designed for demonstration in lecture courses, we
remarked a solenoid of Prof. Von Beetz for demonstrating the
constitution of magnets (Fig. 11), and in which eight magnetized
needles, carrying mica disks painted half white and half black, move
under the influence of the currents that are traversing the solenoid,
or of magnets that are bought near to it externally. Another apparatus
of the same inventor is the lecture-course galvanometer (Fig. 3), in
which the horizontal needle bends back vertically over the external
surface of a cylinder that carries divisions that are plainly visible
to spectators at a distance.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--ELECTROMETER FOR ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATIONS.]

Finally, let us cite an instrument designed for demonstrating the
principle of the Gramme machine. A circular magnet, AA', is inserted
into a bobbin, B, divided into two parts, and moves under the
influence of a disk, L, actuated by a winch, M. This system permits of
studying the currents developed in each portion of the bobbin during
the revolution of the ring (Fig. 12).

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--WIEDEMANN'S CURRENT BREAKER.]

To end our review of the scientific apparatus at the exhibition we
shall merely mention Mr. Van Rysselberghe's registering
thermometrograph (shown in Figs. 13 and 14), and shall then say a few
words concerning two types of registering apparatus--Mr. Harlacher's
water-current register and Prof. Von Beetz's chronograph.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--WIEDEMANN'S BIFILAR GALVANOMETER.]

Mr. Harlacher's apparatus was devised by him for studying the deep
currents of the Elbe. It is carried (Fig. 15) by a long, vertical,
hollow rod which is plunged into the river. A cord that passes over a
pulley, P, allows of the apparatus, properly so called, being let down
to a certain depth in the water. What is registered is the velocity of
the vanes that are set in action by the current, and to effect such
registry each revolution of the helix produces in the box, C, an
electric contact that closes the circuit in the cable, F, attached to
the terminals, B. This cable forms part of a circuit that includes a
pile and a registering apparatus that is seen at L, outside of the box
in which it is usually inclosed. In certain cases, a bell whose sound
indicates the velocity of the current to the ear is substituted for
the registering apparatus.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--WIEDEMANN'S GALVANOMETER FOR STRONG CURRENTS.]

Fig. 16 represents another type of the same apparatus in which the
mechanism of the contact is uncovered. The supporting rod is likewise
in this type utilized as a current conductor.

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--ZENGER'S DIFFERENTIAL PHOTOMETER.]

It now remains to say a few words about Prof. Von Beetz's chronograph.
This instrument (Fig. 17) is designed for determining the duration of
combustion of different powders, the velocity of projectiles, etc. The
registering drum, T, is revolved by hand through a winch, L, and the
time is inscribed thereon by an electric tuning fork, S, set in motion
by the large electro-magnet, E F. Each undulation of the curves
corresponds to a hundredth of a second. The tuning-fork and the
registering electro-magnets, G and H, are placed upon a regulatable
support, C, by means of which they may be given any position desired.

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--VON BEETZ'S SOLENOID FOR DEMONSTRATING THE
CONSTITUTION OF MAGNETS.]

The style, c, of the magnet, C, traces a point every second in order
to facilitate the reading. The style, b, of the electro-magnet, H,
registers the beginning and end of the phenomena that are being
studied.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--APPARATUS FOR DEMONSTRATING THE PRINCIPLE OF
THE GRAMME MACHINE.]

The apparatus is arranged in such a way that indications may thus be
obtained upon the drum by means of induction sparks jumping between
the style and the surface of the cylinder. To the left of the figure
is seen the apparatus constructed by Lieutenant Ziegler for
experimenting on the duration of combustion of bomb fuses.

[Illustration: FIG. 13.--VAN RYSSELBERGHE'S REGISTERING
THERMOMETROGRAPH.]

Shortly after the drum has commenced revolving, the contact, K, opens
a current which supports the heavy armature, P, of an electro-magnet,
M. This weight, P, falls upon the rod, d, and inflames the fuse, Z, at
that very instant. At this precise moment the electro-magnet, H,
inscribes a point, and renews it only when the cartridge at the
extremity of the fuse explodes.

[Illustration: FIG. 14.--VAN RYSSELBERGHE'S REGISTERING
THERMOMETROGRAPH.]

This apparatus perhaps offers the inconvenience that the drum must be
revolved by hand, and it would certainly be more convenient could it
be put in movement at different velocities by means of a clockwork
movement that would merely have to be thrown into gear at the desired
moment. As it is, however, it presents valuable qualities, and,
although it has already been employed in Germany for some time, it
will be called upon to render still more extensive services.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--HARLACHER'S APPARATUS FOR STUDYING DEEP
CURRENTS IN RIVERS.]

We have now exhausted the subject of the apparatus of precision that
were comprised in the Munich Exhibition. In general, it may be said
that this class of instruments was very well represented there as
regards numbers, and, on another hand, the manufacturers are to be
congratulated for the care bestowed on their construction.--_La
Lumiere Electrique_.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.--HARLACHER'S APPARATUS FOR STUDYING DEEP
CURRENTS IN RIVERS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 17.--VON BEETZ'S CHRONOGRAPH.]

       *       *       *       *       *


COPPER VOLTAMETER.


Dr. Hammerl, of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, has made some
experiments upon the disturbing influences on the correct indications
of a copper voltameter. He investigated the effects of the intensity
of the current, the distance apart of the plates, and their
preparation before weighing. The main conclusion which he arrives at
is this: That in order that the deposit should be proportional to the
intensity of the current, the latter ought not to exceed seven amperes
per square decimeter of area of the cathode.

       *       *       *       *       *


Speaking of steel ropes as transmitters of power, Professor Osborne
Reynolds says these have a great advantage over shafts, for the stress
on the section will be uniform, the velocity will be uniform, and may
be at least ten to fifteen times as great as with shafts--say 100 ft.
per second; the rope is carried on friction pulleys, which may be at
distances 500 ft. or 600 ft. so that the coefficient of friction will
not be more than 0.015, instead of 0.04.

       *       *       *       *       *




A NEW OXIDE OF COPPER BATTERY.

By MM. F. DE LALANDE and G. CHAPERON.


We have succeeded in forming a new battery with a single liquid and
with a solid depolarizing element by associating oxide of copper,
caustic potash, and zinc.

This battery possesses remarkable properties. Depolarizing electrodes
are easily formed of oxide of copper. It is enough to keep it in
contact with a plate or a cell of iron or copper constituting the
positive pole of the element.

Fig. 1 represents a very simple arrangement. At the bottom of a glass
jar, V, we place a box of sheet iron, A, containing oxide of copper,
B. To this box is attached a copper wire insulated from the zinc by a
piece of India rubber tube. The zinc is formed of a thick wire of this
metal coiled in the form of a flat spiral, D, and suspended from a
cover, E, which carries a terminal, F, connected with the zinc; an
India-rubber tube, G, covers the zinc at the place where it dips into
the liquid, to prevent its being eaten away at this level.

The jar is filled with a solution containing 30 or 40 per cent. of
potash. This arrangement is similar to that of a Callaud element, with
this difference--that the depolarizing element is solid and insoluble.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

To prevent the inconveniences of the manipulation of the potash, we
inclose a quantity of this substance in the solid state necessary for
an element in the box which receives the oxide of copper, and furnish
it with a cover supported by a ring of caoutchouc. It suffices then
for working the battery to open the box of potash, to place it at the
bottom of the jar, and to add water to dissolve the potash; we then
pour in the copper oxide inclosed in a bag.

We also form the oxide of copper very conveniently into blocks. Among
the various means which might be employed, we prefer the following:

We mix with the oxide of copper oxychloride of magnesium in the form
of paste so as to convert the whole into a thick mass, which we
introduce into metal boxes.

The mass sets in a short time, or very rapidly by the action of heat,
and gives porous blocks of a solidity increasing with the quantity of
cement employed (5 to 10 per cent.).

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]

Fig. 2 represents an arrangement with blocks. The jar V, is provided
with a cover of copper, E, screwing into the glass. This cover carries
two vertical plates of sheet-iron, A, A', against which are fixed the
prismatic blocks, B, B, by means of India rubber bands. The terminal,
C, carried by the cover constitutes the positive pole. The zinc is
formed of a single pencil, D, passing into a tube fixed to the center
of the cover. The India rubber, G, is folded back upon this tube so as
to make an air-tight joint.

The cover carries, besides, another tube, H, covered by a split
India-rubber tube, which forms a safety valve.

The closing is made hermetical by means of an India rubber tube, K,
which presses against the glass and the cover. The potash to charge
the element is in pieces, and is contained either in the glass jar
itself or in a separate box of sheet-iron.

Applying the same arrangement, we form hermetically sealed elements
with a single plate of a very small size.

The employment of cells of iron, cast-iron, or copper, which are not
attacked by the exciting liquid, allows us to easily construct
elements exposing a large surface (Fig. 3).

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

The cell, A, forming the positive pole of the battery is of iron plate
brazed upon vertical supports; it is 40 centimeters long by 20
centimeters wide, and about 10 centimeters high.

We cover the bottom with a layer of oxide of copper, and place in the
four corners porcelain insulators, L, which support a horizontal plate
of zinc, D, D', raised at one end and kept at a distance from the
oxide of copper and from the metal walls of the cell; three-quarters
of this is filled with a solution of potash. The terminals, C and M,
fixed respectively to the iron cell and to the zinc, serve to attach
the leading wires. To avoid the too rapid absorption of the carbonic
acid of the air by the large exposed surface, we cover it with a thin
layer of heavy petroleum (a substance uninflammable and without
smell), or better still, we furnish the battery with a cover. These
elements are easily packed so as to occupy little space.

We shall not discuss further the arrangements which may be varied
infinitely, but point out the principal properties of the oxide of
copper, zinc, and potash battery. As a battery with a solid
depolarizing element, the new battery presents the advantage of only
consuming its element, in proportion to its working; amalgamated zinc
and copper are, in fact, not attacked by the alkaline solution, it is,
therefore, durable.

Its electromotive force is very nearly one volt. Its internal
resistance is very low. We may estimate it at 1/3 or 1/4 of an ohm for
polar surfaces one decimeter square, separated by a distance of five
centimeters.

The rendering of these couples is considerable; the small cells shown
in Figs. 1 and 2 give about two amperes in short circuit; the large
one gives 16 to 20 amperes. Two of these elements can replace a large
Bunsen cell. They are remarkably constant. We may say that with a
depolarizing surface double that of the zinc the battery will work
without notable polarization, and almost until completely exhausted,
even under the most unfavorable conditions. The transformation of the
products, the change of the alkali into an alkaline salt of zinc, does
not perceptibly vary the internal resistance. This great constancy is
chiefly due to the progressive reduction of the depolarizing electrode
to the state of very conductive metal, which augments its conductivity
and its depolarizing power.

The peroxide of manganese, which forms the base of an excellent
battery for giving a small rendering, possesses at first better
conductivity than oxide of copper, but this property is lost by
reduction and transformation into lower oxides. It follows that the
copper battery will give a very large quantity of electricity working
through low resistances, while under these conditions manganese
batteries are rapidly polarized.

The energy contained in an oxide of copper and potash battery is very
great, and far superior to that stored by an accumulator of the same
weight, but the rendering is much less rapid. Potash may be employed
in concentrated solution at 30, 40, 60 per cent.; solid potash can
dissolve the oxide of zinc furnished by a weight of zinc more than
one-third of its own weight. The quantity of oxide of copper to be
employed exceeds by nearly one-quarter the weight of zinc which enters
into action. These data allow of the reduction of the necessary
substances to a very small relative weight.

The oxide of copper batteries have given interesting results in their
application to telephones. For theatrical purposes the same battery
may be employed during the whole performance, instead of four or five
batteries. Their durability is considerable; three elements will work
continuously, night and day, Edison's carbon microphones for more than
four months without sensible loss of power.

Our elements will work for a hundred hours through low resistances,
and can be worked at any moment, after several months, for example. It
is only necessary to protect them by a cover from the action of the
carbonic acid of the atmosphere.

We prefer potash to soda for ordinary batteries, notwithstanding its
price and its higher equivalent, because it does not produce, like
soda, creeping salts. Various modes of regeneration render this
battery very economical. The deposited copper absorbs oxygen pretty
readily by simple exposure to damp air, and can be used again. An
oxidizing flame produces the same result very rapidly.

Lastly, by treating the exhausted battery as an accumulator, that is
to say, by passing a current through it in the opposite direction, we
restore the various products to their original condition; the copper
absorbs oxygen, and the alkali is restored, while the zinc is
deposited; but the spongy state of the deposited zinc necessitates its
being submitted to a process, or to its being received upon a mercury
support. Again, the oxide of copper which we employ, being a waste
product of brazing and plate works, unless it be reduced, loses
nothing of its value by its reduction in the battery; the
depolarization may therefore be considered as costing scarcely
anything. The oxide of copper battery is a durable and valuable
battery, which by its special properties seems likely to replace
advantageously in a great number of applications the batteries at
present in use.

       *       *       *       *       *




FARCOT'S SIX HORSE POWER STEAM ENGINE.


This horizontal steam engine, recently constructed by Mr. E.D. Farcot
for actuating a Cance dynamo-electric machine, consists of a cast iron
bed frame, A, upon which are mounted all the parts. The two jacketed,
cylinders, B and C, of different diameters, each contains a
simple-acting piston. The two pistons are connected by one rod in
common, which is fixed at its extremity to a cross-head, D, running in
slides, E and F, and is connected with the connecting rod, G. The head
of the latter is provided with a bearing of large diameter which
embraces the journal of the driving shaft, H.

The steam enters the valve-box through the orifice, J, which is
provided with a throttle-valve, L, that is connected with a governor
placed upon the large cylinder. The steam, as shown in Fig. 2 (which
represents the piston at one end of its travel), is first admitted
against the right surface of the small piston, which it causes to
effect an entire stroke corresponding to a half-revolution of the
fly-wheel. The stroke completed, the slide-valve, actuated by an
eccentric keyed to the driving shaft, returns backward and puts the
cylinders, B and C, in communication. The steam then expands and
drives the large piston to the right, so as to effect the second half
of the fly-wheel's revolution. The exhaust occurs through the valve
chamber, which, at each stroke, puts the large cylinder in connection
with the eduction port, M.

The volume of air included between the two pistons is displaced at
every stroke, so that, according to the position occupied by the
pistons, it is held either by the large or small cylinder. The
necessary result of this is that a compression of the air, and
consequently a resistance, is brought about. In order to obviate this
inconvenience, the constructor has connected the space between the two
pistons at the part, A', of the frame by a bent pipe. The air, being
alternately driven into and sucked out of this chamber, A', of
relatively large dimensions, no longer produces but an insignificant
resistance.

[Illustration: FARCOT'S SIX H.P. STEAM ENGINE.
  Fig. 1.--Longitudinal Section (Scale 0.10 to 1).
  Fig. 2.--Horizontal Section (Scale 0.10 to 1).
  Fig. 3.--Section across the Small Cylinder (Scale 0.10 to 1).
  Fig. 4.--Section through the Cross Head (Scale 0.10 to 1).
  Fig. 5.--Application for a Variable Expanion (Scale 0.10 to 1).]

As shown in Fig. 5, there may be applied to this engine a variable
expansion of the Farcot type. The motor being a single acting one, a
single valve-plate suffices. This latter is, during its travel,
arrested at one end by a stop and at the other by a cam actuated by
the governor. Upon the axis of this cam there is keyed a gear wheel,
with an endless screw, which permits of regulating it by hand.

This engine, which runs at a pressure of from 5 to 6 kilogrammes,
makes 150 revolutions per minute and weighs 2,000 kilogrammes.
--_Annales Industrielles_.

       *       *       *       *       *




FOOT LATHES.


We illustrate a foot lathe constructed by the Britannia Manufacturing
Company, of Colchester, and specially designed for use on board ships.
These lathes, says _Engineering_, are treble geared, in order that
work which cannot usually be done without steam power may be
accomplished by foot. For instance, they will turn a 24 inch wheel or
plate, or take a half-inch cut off a 3 inch shaft, much heavier work
than can ordinarily be done by such tools. They have 6 inch centers,
gaps 71/2 inches wide and 61/2 inches deep, beds 4 feet 6 inches long by
83/4 inches on the face and 6 inches in depth, and weigh 14 cwt. There
are three speeds on the cone pulley, 9 inches, 6 inches, and 4 inches
in diameter and 11/2 inches wide. The gear wheels are 9/16 inch pitch
and 11/2 inches wide on face. The steel leading screw is 11/2 inches in
diameter by 1/4 inch pitch. Smaller sizes are made for torpedo boats and
for places where space is limited.

[Illustration: LATHE FOR USE ON SHIPBOARD.]

       *       *       *       *       *




ENDLESS TROUGH CONVEYER.


[Illustration]

The endless trough conveyer is one of the latest applications of
link-belting, consisting primarily of a heavy chain belt carried over
a pair of wheels, and in the intermediate space a truck on which the
train runs. This chain or belt is provided with pans which, as they
overlap, form an endless trough. Power being applied to revolve one of
the wheels, the whole belt is thereby set in motion and at once
becomes an endless trough conveyer. The accompanying engraving
illustrates a section of this conveyer. A few of the pans are removed,
to show the construction of the links; and above this a link and
coupler are shown on a larger scale. As will be seen, the link is
provided with wings, to form a rigid support for the pan to be riveted
to it. To reduce friction each link is provided with three rollers, as
will be seen in the engraving. This outfit makes a fireproof conveyer
which will handle hot ore from roasting kiln to crusher, and convey
coal, broken stone, or other gritty and coarse material. The Link Belt
Machinery Company, of Chicago, is now erecting for Mr. Charles E.
Coffin, of Muirkirk, Md., about 450 ft. of this conveyer, which is to
carry the hot roasted iron ore from the kilns on an incline of about
one foot in twelve up to the crusher. This dispenses with the
barrow-men, and at an expenditure of a few more horsepower becomes a
faithful servant, ready for work in all weather and at all times of
day or night. This company also manufactures ore elevators of any
capacity, which, used in connection with this apparatus, will handle
perfectly anything in the shape of coarse, gritty material. It might
be added that the endless trough conveyer is no experiment. Although
comparatively new in this country, the American _Engineering and
Mining Journal_ says it has been in successful operation for some time
in England, the English manufacturers of link-belting having had great
success with it.

[Illustration: ENDLESS TROUGH CONVEYER.]

       *       *       *       *       *




RAILROAD GRADES OF TRUNK LINES.


On the West Shore and Buffalo road its limit of grade is 30 feet to
the mile going west and north, and 20 feet to the mile going east and
south. Next for easy grades comes the New York Central and Hudson
River road. From New York to Albany, then up the valley of the Mohawk,
till it gradually reaches the elevation of Lake Erie, it is all the
time within the 500 foot level, and this is maintained by its
connections on the lake borders to Chicago, by the "Nickel Plate," the
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, and the Canada Southern and Michigan
Central.

The Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio roads pass
through a country so mountainous that, much as they have expended to
improve their grades, it is practically impossible for them to attain
the easy grades so much more readily obtained by the trunk lines
following the great natural waterways originally extending almost from
Chicago to New York.

       *       *       *       *       *




ENGLISH EXPRESS TRAINS.


The _Journal of the Statistical Society_ for September contains an
elaborate paper by Mr. E. Foxwell on "English Express Trains; their
Average Speed, etc. with Notes on Gradients, Long Runs, etc." The
author takes great pains to explain his definition of the term
"express trains," which he finally classifies thus: (a) The general
rule; those which run under ordinary conditions, and attain a
journey-speed of 40 and upward. These are about 85 per cent. of the
whole. (b) Equally good trains, which, running against exceptional
difficulties, only attain, perhaps, a journey speed as low as 36 or
37. These are about 5 per cent. of the whole. (c) Trains which should
come under (a), but which, through unusually long stoppages or similar
causes, only reach a journey speed of 39. These are about 10 per
cent.[1] of the whole.

  [Footnote 1: 10 per cent. of the number, but not of the mileage,
  of the whole; for most of this class run short journeys.]

He next explains that by "running average" is meant: The average speed
per hour while actually in motion from platform to platform, i.e., the
average speed obtained by deducting stoppages. Thus the 9-hour (up)
Great Northern "Scotchman" stops 49 minutes on its journey from
Edinburgh to King's Cross, and occupies 8 hours 11 minutes in actual
motion; its "running average" is therefore 48 miles an hour, or,
briefly, "r.a.=48." The statement for this train will thus appear:
Distance in miles between Edinburgh and King's Cross, 3921/2; time, 9 h.
0 m.; journey-speed, 43.6; minutes stopped, 49; running average, 48.

Mr. Foxwell then proceeds to describe in detail the performances of
the express trains of the leading English and Scottish railways--in
Ireland there are no trains which come under his definition of
"express"--giving the times of journey, the journey-speeds, minutes
stopped on way, and running averages, with the gradients and other
circumstances bearing on these performances. He sums up the results
for the United Kingdom, omitting fractions, as follows:

  =========================================================================
  Extent of|                   |           | Average  |         |         |
  System   |                   | Distinct  | Journey- | Running | Express |
  in Miles.|                   | Expresses.|  speed.  | Average.| Mileage.|
  ---------+-------------------+-----------+----------+---------+---------+
    1773   | North-Western     |   {54} 82 |    40    |    43   |  10,400 |
           |                   |   {28}    |          |         |         |
    1260   | Midland           |    66     |    41    |    45   |   8,860 |
     928   | Great Northern    |   {48} 67 |    43    |    46   |   6,780 |
           |                   |   {19}    |          |         |         |
     907   | Great Eastern     |    34     |    41    |    43   |   3,040 |
    2267   | Great Western     |    18     |    42    |    46   |   2,600 |
    1519   | North-Eastern     |    19     |    40    |    43   |   2,110 |
     290   | Manch., Sheffield,|    49     |    43    |    44   |   2,318 |
           |   and Lincoln     |           |          |         |         |
     767   | Caledonian        |    16     |    40    |    42   |   1,155 |
     435   | Brighton          |    13     |    41    |    41   |   1,155 |
     382   | South-Eastern     |    12     |    41    |    41   |     940 |
     329   | Glasgow and       |     8     |    41    |    43   |     920 |
           |   South-Western   |           |          |         |         |
     796   | London and        |     3     |    41    |    44   |     890 |
           |   South-Western   |           |          |         |         |
     984   | North British     |    11     |    39    |    41   |     830 |
     153   | Chatham and Dover |     9     |    42    |    43   |     690 |
                               +-----------+----------+---------+---------+
                               |   407     |    41    |    44   |  42,683 |
  =========================================================================

A total of 407 express trains, whose average journey-speed is 41.6,
and which run 42,680 miles at an average "running average" of 44.3
miles per hour.

If we arrange the companies according to their speed instead of their
mileage, the order is:

                                   Average
                                     r.a.     Miles
  Great Northern.                     46      6,780
  Great Western.                      46   [2]2,600
  Midland.                            45      8,860
  Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln  44      2,318
  London and South-Western.           44        890
  North-Western.                      43     10,400
  Glasgow and South-Western.          43        920
  Great Eastern.                      43      3,040
  North-Eastern.                      43      2,110
  Chatham and Dover.                  43        690
  Caledonian.                         42      1,155
  South-Eastern.                      41        940
  Brighton.                           41      1,155
  North British.                      31        825

  [Footnote 2: Not reckoning mileage west of Exeter.]


EXPRESS ROUTES ARRANGED IN ORDER OF DIFFICULTY OF GRADIENTS, ETC.

  North British,
  Caledonian,
  Manch., Sheffield & Lincoln,
  Midland,
  Glasgow and South-Western,
  Chatham and Dover,
  South-Eastern,
  Great Northern,
  South-Western,
  Great Eastern,
  Brighton,
  North-Western,
  North-Eastern,
  Great Western.


LONG RUNS IN ENGLAND.

  =======================================================================
                                      | Number of | Average |  Running
                                      |  Trains.  |  Speed. |  Averages.
  ------------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------
                                      |           |  Miles. |   Miles.
  Midland.                            |     104   |    53   | 46  (5,512)
  North-Western.                      |      98   |    60   | 45  (5,880)
  Great Northern.                     |      49   |    73   | 50  (3,616)
  Great Western.                      |      24   |    56   | 48  (1,344)
  Great Eastern.                      |      24   |    56   | 42  (1,362)
  Brighton.                           |      23   |    45   | 42  (1,047)
  North-Eastern.                      |      20   |    56   | 44  (1,120)
  South-Western.                      |      13   |    47   | 44    (615)
  South-Eastern.                      |      12   |    66   | 42    (795)
  Chatham and Dover.                  |       8   |    63   | 45    (504)
  Caledonian.                         |       8   |    59   | 45    (476)
  Glasgow and South-Western           |       8   |    58   | 44    (468)
  Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln. |       8   |    48   | 43    (390)
  North British.                      |       7   |    60   | 40    (423)
  ------------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------
             Total.                   |     406   |    58   | 45 (23,550)
  =======================================================================

From this it will be seen that the three great companies run 61 per
cent. of the whole express mileage, and 62 per cent. of the whole
number of long runs.

       *       *       *       *       *




IMPROVED OIL MILL.


The old and cumbersome methods of crushing oil seeds by mechanical
means have during the last few years undergone a complete revolution.
By the old process, the seed, having been flattened between a pair of
stones, was afterward ground by edge stones, weighing in some cases as
much as 20 tons, and working at about eighteen revolutions per minute.
Having been sufficiently ground, the seed was taken to a kettle or
steam jacketed vessel, where it was heated, and thence drawn--in
quantities sufficient for a cake--in woollen bags, which were placed
in a hydraulic press. From four to six bags was the utmost that could
be got into the press at one time, and the cakes were pressed between
wrappers of horsehair on similar material. All this involved a good
deal of manual labor, a cumberstone plant, and a considerable expense
in the frequent replacing of the horsehair wrappers, each of which
involved a cost of about L4. The modern requirements of trade have in
every branch of industry ruthlessly compelled the abandonment of the
slow, easy-going methods which satisfied the times when competition
was less keen. Automatic mechanical arrangements, almost at every
turn, more effectually and at greatly increased speed, complete
manufacturing operations previously performed by hand, and oil-seed
crushing machinery has been no exception to the general rule. The
illustrations we give represent the latest developments in improved
oil-mill machinery introduced by Rose, Downs & Thompson, named the
"Colonial" mill, and recently we had an opportunity of inspecting the
machinery complete before shipment to Calcutta, where it is being sent
for the approaching exhibition. As compared with the old system of
oil-seed crushing, Messrs. Rose, Downs & Thompson claim for their
method, among other advantages, a great saving in driving power,
economy of space, a more perfect extraction of the oil, an improved
branding of the cakes, a saving of 50 per cent. in the labor employed
in the press-room, with also a great saving in wear and tear, while
the process is equally applicable to linseed, cottonseed, rapeseed, or
similar seeds. In addition to these improvements in the system, the
"Colonial" mill has been specially designed in structural arrangement
to meet the requirements of exporters. The machinery and engine are
self-contained on an iron foundation, so that there is no need of
skilled mechanics to erect the mill, nor of expensive stone
foundations, while the building covering the mill can, if desired, be
of the lightest possible description, as no wall support is required.
The mill consists of the following machinery: A vertical steel boiler,
3 ft. 7 in. diameter, 8 ft. 11/2 in. high, with three cross tubes 71/2 in.
diameter, shell 5/16 in. thick, crown 3/8 in. thick, uptake 9 in.
diameter, with all necessary fittings, and where wood fuel is used
extra grate area can be provided. This boiler supplies the steam not
only for the engine, but also for heating and damping the seed in the
kettle. The engine is vertical, with 8 in. cylinder and 12 in. stroke,
with high speed governors, and stands on the cast iron bed-plate of
the mill. This bed-plate, which is in three sections, is about 30 ft.
long, and is planed and shaped to receive the various machines, which,
when the top is leveled, can be fixed in their respective places by
any intelligent man, and when the machines are in position they form a
support for the shafting. The seed to be crushed is stored in a wooden
bin, placed above and behind the roll frame hopper. The roll frame has
four chilled cast iron rolls, 15 in. face, 12 in. diameter, so
arranged as to subject the seed to three rollings, with patent
pressure giving apparatus. These rolls are driven by fast and loose
pulleys by the shaft above. After the last rolling the seed falls
through an opening in the foundation plate in a screen driven from the
bottom roll shaft by a belt. This conveys the seed in a trough to a
set of elevators, which supply it continuously to the kettle. This
kettle, which is 3 ft. 6 in. internal diameter and 20 in. deep, is
made of cast iron and of specially strong construction. There is only
one steam joint in it, and to reduce the liability of leakage this
joint is faced in a lathe. The inside furnishings of the kettle are a
damping apparatus with perforated boss, upright shaft, stirrer, and
delivery plate, and patent slide. The kettle body is fitted with a
wood frame and covered with felt, which is inclosed within iron
sheeting. The crushed seed is heated in the kettle to the required
temperature by steam from the boiler, and it is also damped by a jet
of steam which is regulated by a wheel valve with indicating plate.
When the required temperature has been obtained, the seed is withdrawn
by a measuring box through a self-acting shuttle in the kettle bottom,
and evenly distributed over a strip of bagging supported on a steel
tray in a Virtue patent moulding machine, where it undergoes a
compression sufficient to reduce it to the size that can be taken in
by the presses, but not sufficient to cause any extraction of the oil.
The seed leaves the moulding machine in the form of a thick cake from
nine to eleven pounds in weight, and each press is constructed to take
in twelve of these cakes at once. The press cylinders are 12 in.
diameter and are of crucible cast steel. To insure strength of
construction and even distribution of strain throughout the press, all
the columns, cylinders, rams, and heads are planed and turned
accurately to gauges, and the pockets that take the columns, in the
place of being cast, as is sometimes usual, with fitting strips top
and bottom, are solid throughout, and are planed or slotted out of the
solid to gauges. The pressure is given by a set of hydraulic pumps
made of crucible cast steel and bored out of the solid. One of the
pump rams is 21/2 in. diameter, and has a stroke of 7 in. This ram gives
only a limited pressure, and the arrangements are such as to obtain
this pressure upon each press in about fourteen seconds. This pump
then automatically ceases running, and the work is taken up by a
second plunger, having a ram 1 in. diameter and stroke of 7 in., the
second pump continuing its work until a gross pressure of two tons per
square inch is attained, which is the maximum, and is arrived at in
less than two minutes. For shutting off the communication between the
presses, the stop valves are so arranged that either press may be let
down, or set to work without in the smallest degree affecting the
other. The oil from the presses is caught in an oil tank behind, from
which an oil pump, worked by an eccentric, forces it in any desired
direction. The cakes, on being withdrawn from the press, are stripped
of the bagging and cut to size in a specially arranged paring machine,
which is placed off the bed-plate behind the kettle, and is driven by
the pulley shown on the main shaft. The paring machine is also fitted
with an arrangement for reducing the parings to meal, which is
returned to the kettle, and again made up into cakes. The presses
shown have corrugated press plates of Messrs. Rose, Downs & Thompson's
latest type, but the cakes produced by this process can have any
desired name or brand in block letters put upon them. The edges on the
upper plate, it may be added, are found of great use in crushing some
classes of green or moist seed. The plant, of which we give
illustrations opposite, is constructed to crush about four tons of
seed per day of eleven hours, and the manual labor has been so reduced
to a minimum that it is intended to be worked by one man, who moulds
and puts the twenty-four cakes into the presses, and while they are
under pressure is engaged paring the cakes that have been previously
pressed. In crushing castor-oil seed, a decorticating machine or
separator can be combined with the mill, but in such a case the engine
and boiler would require to be made larger.--_The Engineer_.

[Illustration: AN ENGLISH ADAPTATION OF THE AMERICAN OIL MILL.]

       *       *       *       *       *




APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING SUBSTANCES CONTAINED IN THE WASTE WATERS OF
PAPER MILLS, ETC.


For extracting such useful materials as are contained in the waste
waters of paper mills, cloth manufactories, etc., and, at the same
time, for purifying such waters, Mr. Schuricht, of Siebenlehn, employs
a sort of filter like that shown in the annexed Figs. 1 and 2, and
underneath which he effects a vacuum.

[Illustration: SCHURICHTS FILTERING APPARATUS. Fig. 1.]

The apparatus, A, is divided into two compartments, which are
separated by a longitudinal partition. Above the stationary bottom, a,
there is arranged a lattice-work grating or a strong wire cloth, b,
upon which rests the filtering material, c, properly so called. The
reservoir is divided transversely by several partitions, d, of
different heights. The liquor entering through the leader, f,
traverses the apparatus slowly, as a consequence of the somewhat wide
section of the layer. But, in order that it may traverse the filtering
material, it is necessary that, in addition to this horizontal motion,
it shall have a downward one. As far as to the top of the partitions,
d, there form in front of the latter certain layers which do not
participate in the horizontal motion, but which can only move
downward, as a consequence of the permeability of the bottom. It
results from this that the heaviest solid particles deposit in the
first compartment, while the others run over the first partition, d,
and fall into one of the succeeding compartments, according to their
degree of fineness, while the clarified water makes its exit through
the spout, g. When the filtering layer, c, has become gradually
impermeable, the cock, i, of a jet apparatus, k, is opened, in order
to suck out the clarified water through the pipe, r.--_Dingler's
Polytech. Journ., after Bull. Musee de l'Industrie_.

[Illustration: SCHURICHTS FILTERING APPARATUS. Fig. 2.]

       *       *       *       *       *




LARGE BLUE PRINTS.

By W.B. PARSONS, JR., C.E.


I send you a description of a device that I got up for the N.Y., L.E.,
and W.R.R. division office at Port Jervis, by which I overcame the
difficulties incident to large glasses. The glass was 58 inches long,
84 inches wide, and 3/8 inch thick. It was heavily framed with ash. In
order to keep the back from warping out of shape, I had it made of
thoroughly seasoned ash strips 1" x 1". Each strip was carefully
planed, and then they were glued and screwed together, while across
the ends were fastened strips with their grain running transversely.
This back was then covered on side next to the glass with four
thicknesses of common gray blanketing. Instead of applying the holding
pressure by thumb cleats at the periphery, it was effected by two long
pressure strips running across the back placed at about one quarter
the length of the frame from the ends, and held by a screw at the
center. The ends of these strips were made so as to fit in slots in
the frame at a slight angle, so that as the pressure strips were
turned it gave them a binding pressure at the same time. In other
words, it is the same principle as is commonly used to keep backs in
small picture frames. This arrangement, instead of holding the back at
the edges only, and so allowing the center to fall away from the
glass, distributed it evenly over the whole surface and always kept it
in position. The frame was run in and out of the printing room on a
little railway on which it rested on four grooved brass sheaves, one
pair being at one end, while the other was just beyond the center, so
the frame could be revolved in direction of its length without
trouble. In order to raise the heavy back, I had a pulley-wheel
fastened to the ceiling, through which a rope passed, with a ring that
could be attached to a corresponding hook at the side of the back, in
order to hoist it or lower it. Although that is an extremely large
apparatus, yet by means of the above device it was worked easily and
rapidly, and gave every satisfaction.

The solution used was of the same proportions as had been adopted in
the other engineering offices of the road:

  Citrate iron and ammonium      1-7/8 oz.
  Red prussiate potash (C.P.)    1-1/4 oz.

Dissolve separately in 4 oz. distilled water each, and mix when ready
to use. But by putting mixture in dark bottle, and that in a tight box
impervious to light, it can be kept two or three weeks.

In some frames used at the School of Mines for making large blue
prints a similar device has been in use for several years. Instead,
however, of the heavy and cumbrous back used by Mr. Parsons, a light,
somewhat flexible back of one-quarter inch pine is employed, covered
with heavy Canton flannel and several thicknesses of newspaper. The
pressure is applied by light pressure strips of ash somewhat thicker
at the middle than at the ends, which give a fairly uniform pressure
across the width of the frame sufficient to hold the back firmly
against the glass at all points. This system has been used with
success for frames twenty-seven by forty-two inches, about half as
large as the one described by Mr. Parsons. A frame of this size can be
easily handled without mechanical aids. Care should be taken to avoid
too great thickness and too much spring in the pressure strips, or the
plate glass may be broken by excessive pressure. The strips used are
about five-eighths of an inch thick at the middle, and taper to about
three-eighths of an inch at the ends.

The formulae for the solution given by Whittaker, Laudy, and Parsons
are practically identical so far as the proportions of citrate of iron
and ammonia and of red prussiate of potash, 3 of the former to 2 of
the latter, but differ in the amount of water. Laudy's formula calls
for about 5 parts of water to 1 of the salts, Whittaker's for 4 parts,
and Parson's for a little more than 2 parts. The stronger the solution
the longer the exposure required. With very strong solutions a large
portion of the Prussian blue formed comes off in the washwater, and
when printing from glass negatives the fine lines and lighter tints
are apt to suffer. The blue color, however, will be deep and the
whites clear. With weak solutions the blues will be fainter and the
whites bluish. Heavily sized paper gives the best results. The
addition of a little mucilage to the solution is sometimes an
advantage, producing the same results as strength of solution, by
increasing the amount adhering to the paper. With paper deficient in
sizing the mucilage also makes the whites clearer.--_H.S.M., Sch. of
M. Quarterly._

       *       *       *       *       *




HOUSE DRAINAGE AND REFUSE.


A course of lectures on sanitary engineering has been delivered during
the past few weeks before the officers of the Royal Engineers
stationed at Chatham, by Captain Douglas Galton, C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S.

The refuse which has to be dealt with, observed Captain Galton,
whether in towns or in barracks or in camp, falls under the following
five heads: 1, ashes; 2, kitchen refuse; 3, stable manure; 4, solid or
liquid ejections; and 5, rainwater and domestic waste water, including
water from personal ablutions, kitchen washing up, washings of
passages, stables, yards, and pavements. In a camp you have the
simplest form of dealing with these matters. The water supply is
limited. Waste water and liquid ejection are absorbed by the ground;
but a camp unprovided with latrines would always be in a state of
danger from epidemic disease. One of the most frequent causes of an
unhealthy condition of the air of a camp in former times has been
either neglecting to provide latrines, so that the ground outside the
camp becomes covered with filth, or constructing the latrines too
shallow, and exposing too large a surface to rain, sun, and air. The
Quartermaster-General's regulations provide against these
contingencies; but I may as well here recapitulate the general
principles which govern camp latrines. Latrines should be so managed
that no smell from them should ever reach the men's tents. To insure
this very simple precautions only are required:

1. The latrines should be placed to leeward with respect to prevailing
winds, and at as great a distance from the tents as is compatible with
convenience. 2. They should be dug narrow and deep, and their contents
covered over every evening with at least a foot of fresh earth. A
certain bulk and thickness of earth are required to absorb the
putrescent gas, otherwise it will disperse itself and pollute the air
to a considerable distance round. 3. When the latrine is filled to
within 2 ft. 6 in. or 3 ft. of the surface, earth should be thrown
into it, and heaped over it like a grave to mark its site. 4. Great
care should be taken not to place latrines near existing wells, nor to
dig wells near where latrines have been placed. The necessity of these
precautions to prevent wells becoming polluted is obvious. Screens
made out of any available material are, of course, required for
latrines. This arrangement applies to a temporary camp, and is only
admissible under such conditions.

A deep trench saves labor, and places the refuse in the most
immediately safe position, but a buried mass of refuse will take a
long time to decay; it should not be disturbed, and will taint the
adjacent soil for a long time. This is of less consequence in a merely
temporary encampment, while it might entail serious evils in
localities continuously inhabited. The following plan of trench has
been adopted as a more permanent arrangement in Indian villages, with
the object of checking the frightful evil of surface pollution of the
whole country, from the people habitually fouling the fields, roads,
streets, and watercourses. Long trenches are dug, at about one foot or
less in depth, at a spot set apart, about 200 or 300 yards from
dwellings. Matting screens are placed round for decency. Each day the
trench, which has received the excreta of the preceding day, is filled
up, the excreta being covered with fresh earth obtained by digging a
new trench adjoining, which, when it has been used, is treated in the
same manner. Thus the trenches are gradually extended, until
sufficient ground has been utilized, when they are plowed up and the
site used for cultivation. The Indian plow does not penetrate more
than eight inches; consequently, if the trench is too deep, the lower
stratum is left unmixed with earth, forming a permanent cesspool, and
becomes a source of future trouble. It is to be observed, however,
that in the wet season these trenches cannot be used, and in sandy
soil they do not answer. This system, although it is preferable to
what formerly prevailed--viz., the surface defilement of the ground
all round villages and of the adjacent water courses--is fraught with
danger unless subsequent cultivation of the site be strictly enforced,
because it would otherwise retain large and increasing masses of
putrefying matter in the soil, in a condition somewhat unfavorable to
rapid absorption. These arrangements are applicable only to very rough
life or very poor communities.

The question of the removal of kitchen refuse, manure, etc., from
barracks next calls for notice. The great principle to be observed in
removing the solid refuse from barracks is that every decomposable
substance should be taken away at once. This principle applies
especially in warm climates. Even the daily removal of refuse entails
the necessity of places for the deposit of the refuse, and therefore
this principle must be applied in various ways to suit local
convenience. In open situations, exposed to cool winds, there is less
danger of injury to health from decomposing matters than there would
be in hot, moist, or close positions. In the country generally there
is less risk of injury than in close parts of towns. These
considerations show that the same stringency is not necessarily
required everywhere. Position by itself affords a certain degree of
protection from nuisance. The amount of decomposing matter usually
produced is also another point to be considered. A small daily product
is not, of course, so injurious as a large product. Even the manner of
accumulating decomposing substances influences their effect on health.
There is less risk from a dung heap to the leeward than to the
windward of a barrack. The receptacles in which refuse is temporarily
placed, such as ash pits and manure pits, should never be below the
level of the ground. If a deep pit is dug in the ground, into which
the refuse is thrown in the intervals between times of removal, rain
and surface water will mix with the refuse and hasten its
decomposition, and generally the lowest part of the filth will not be
removed, but will be left to fester and produce malaria. In all places
where the occupation is permanent the following conditions should be
attended to:

1. That the places of deposit be sufficiently removed from inhabited
buildings to prevent any smell being perceived by the occupants. 2.
That the places of deposit be above the level of the ground--never dug
out of the ground. The floor of the ash pit or dung pit should be at
least six inches above the surface level. 3. That the floor be paved
with square sets, or flagged and drained. 4. That ash pits be covered.
5. That a space should be paved in front, so as to provide that the
traffic which takes place in depositing the refuse or in removing it
shall not produce a polluted surface.

In towns those parts of the refuse which cannot be utilized for manure
or otherwise are burned. But this is an operation which, if done
unskillfully, without a properly constructed kiln, may give rise to
nuisance. One of the best forms of kiln is one now in operation at
Ealing, which could be easily visited from London.

_The removal of excreta from houses._--The chief object of a perfect
system of house drainage is the immediate and complete removal from
the house of all foul and effete matter directly it is produced. The
first object--viz., removal of foul matter, can be attained either by
the water closet system, when carried out in this integrity; but it
could, of course, be attained without drains if there was labor enough
always available; and the earth closet or the pail system are
modifications of immediate removal which are safe. Cesspools in a
house do not fulfill this condition of immediate removal. They serve
for the retention of excremental and other matters. In a porous soil
it endangers the purity of the wells. The Indian cities afford
numerous examples of subsoil pollution. The Delhi ulcer was traced to
the pollution of the wells from the contaminated subsoil; and the soil
in many cities and villages is loaded with niter and salt, the
chemical results of animal and vegetable refuse left to decay for many
generations, from the presence of which the well water is impure.
There are many factories of saltpeter in India whose supplies are
derived from this source; and during the great French wars, when
England blockaded all the seaports of Europe, the First Napoleon
obtained saltpeter for gunpowder from the cesspits in Paris. Cesspools
are inadmissible where complete removal can be effected. Cesspits may,
however, be a necessity in some special cases, as, for instance, in
detached houses or a small detached barrack. Where they cannot be
avoided, the following conditions as to their use should be enforced:

1st. A cesspit should never be located under a dwelling. It should be
placed outside, and as far removed from the immediate neighborhood of
the dwelling as circumstances will allow. There should be a ventilated
trap placed on the pipe leading from the watercloset to the cesspit.
2d. It should be formed of impervious material so as to permit of no
leakage. 3d. It should be ventilated. 4th. No overflow should be
permitted from it. 5th. When full it should be thoroughly emptied and
cleaned out; for the matter left at the bottom of a cesspit is liable
to be in a highly putrescible condition.

Where a cesspit is unavoidable, perhaps the best and least offensive
system for emptying it is the pneumatic system. This is applicable to
the water closet refuse alone. The pneumatic system acts as follows: A
large air-tight cylinder on wheels, or, what answers equally, a series
of air-tight barrels connected together by tubes about 3 in. diameter,
placed on a cart, brought as near to the cesspit as is convenient; a
tube of about the same diameter is led from them to the cesspit; the
air is then exhausted in the barrels or cylinder either by means of an
air pump or by means of steam injected into it, which, on
condensation, forms a vacuum; and the contents of the cesspit are
drawn through the tube by the atmospheric pressure into the cylinder
or barrels. A plan which is practically an extension of this system
has been introduced by Captain Liernur in Holland. He removes the
faecal matter from water closets and the sedimentary production of
kitchen sinks by pneumatic agency. He places large air-tight tanks in
a suitable part of the town, to which he leads pipes from all houses.
He creates a vacuum in the tanks, and thus sucks into one center the
faecal matter from all the houses. Various substitutes have been tried
for the cesspit, which retain the principle of the hand removal of
excreta. The first was the combination of the privy with an ashpit
above the surface of the ground, the ashes and excreta being mixed
together, and both being removed periodically. The next improvement
was the provision of a movable receptacle. Of this type the simplest
arrangement is a box placed under the seat, which is taken out, the
contents emptied into the scavenger's cart, and the box replaced. The
difficulty of cleansing the angles of the boxes led to the adoption of
oval or round pails. The pail is placed under the seat, and removed at
stated intervals, or when full, and replaced by a clean pail. In
Marseilles and Nice a somewhat similar system is in use. They employ
cylindrical metal vessels furnished with a lid which closes
hermetically, each capable of holding 11 gallons. The household is
furnished with three or four of these vessels, and when one is full
the lid is closed hermetically, the vessel thus remaining in a
harmless condition in the house till taken away by the authorities and
replaced by a clean one. The contents are converted into manure. In
consequence of the offensiveness of the open pail, the next
improvement was to throw in some form of deodorizing material daily.
In the north of England the arrangement generally is that the ashes
shall be passed through a shoot, on which they are sifted--the finer
fall into the pail to deodorize it, the coarser pass into a box,
whence they can be taken to be again burned--while a separate shoot is
provided for kitchen refuse, which falls into another pail adjacent.

Probably the best known contrivance for deodorizing the excreta is the
dry earth system as applied in the earth closet, in which advantage is
taken of the deodorizing properties of earth. Dry earth is a good
deodorizer; 11/2 lb. of dry earth of good garden ground or clay will
deodorize such excretion. A larger quantity is required of sand or
gravel. If the earth after use is dried, it can be applied again, and
it is stated that the deodorizing powers of earth are not destroyed
until it has been used ten or twelve times. This system requires close
attention, or the dry earth closet will get out of order; as compared
with water closets, it is cheaper in first construction, and is not
liable to injury by frost; and it has this advantage over any form of
cesspit--that it necessitates the daily removal of refuse. The cost of
the dry earth system per 1,000 persons may be assumed as follows: Cost
of closet, say, L500; expense of ovens, carts, horses, etc., L250;
total capital, L750, at 6 per cent. L37 10_s._ interest. Wages of two
men and a boy per week, L1 12_s._; keep of horses, stables, etc., 18_s._;
fuel for drying earth, 1_s._ 6_d._ per ton dried daily, L1 10_s._; cost of
earth and repairs, etc., 14_s._; weekly expenses, L4 14_s._ Yearly
expenses, L247 (equal to 4_s._ 11_d._ per ton per annum); interest, L37
10_s._--total, L284 10_s._, against which should be put the value of the
manure. But the value of the manure is simply a question of carriage.
If the manure is highly concentrated, like guano, it can stand a high
carriage. If the manuring elements are diffused through a large bulk
of passive substances, the cost of the carriage of the extra, or
non-manuring, elements absorbs all profit. If a town, therefore, by
adding deodorants to the contents of pails produces a large quantity
of manure, containing much besides the actual manuring elements--such
as is generally the case with dry earth--as soon as the districts
immediately around have been fully supplied, a point is soon reached
at which it is impossible to continue to find purchasers. The dry
earth system is applicable to separate houses, or to institutions
where much attention can be given to it, but it is inapplicable to
large towns from the practical difficulties connected with procuring,
carting, and storing the dry earth.

With the idea that if the solid part of the excreta could be separated
from the liquid and kept comparatively dry the offensiveness would be
much diminished, and deodorization be unnecessary, a method for
getting rid of the liquid portion by what is termed the Goux system
has been in use at Halifax. This system consists in lining the pail
with a composition formed from the ashes and all the dry refuse which
can be conveniently collected, together with some clay to give it
adhesion. The lining is adjusted and kept in position by a means of a
core or mould, which is allowed to remain in the pails until just
before they are about to be placed under the seat; the core is then
withdrawn, and the pail is left ready for use. The liquid which passes
into the pail soaks into this lining, which thus forms the deodorizing
medium. The proportion of absorbents in a lining 3 in. thick to the
central space in a tub of the above dimensions would be about two to
one; but unless the absorbents are dry, this proportion would be
insufficient to produce a dry mass in the tubs when used for a week,
and experience has shown that after being in use for several days the
absorbing power of the lining is already exceeded, and the whole
contents have remained liquid. There would appear to be little gain by
the use of the Goux lining as regards freedom from nuisance, and
though it removes the risk of splashing and does away with much of the
unsightliness of the contents, the absorbent, inasmuch as it adds
extra weight which has to be carried to and from the houses, is rather
a disadvantage than otherwise from the manurial point of view.

The simple pail system, which is in use in various ways in the
northern towns of England, and in the permanent camps to some extent
at least, and of which the French "tinette" is an improved form, is
more economically convenient than the dry earth system or the Goux or
other deodorizing system, where a large amount of removal of refuse
has to be accomplished, because by the pail system the liquid and
solid ejections may be collected with a very small, or even without
any, admixture of foreign substances; and, according to theory, the
manurial value of dejections per head per annum ought to be from 8_s._
to 10_s._ The great superiority, in a sanitary point of view, of all the
pail or pan systems over the best forms over the old cesspits or even
the middens is due to the fact that the interval of collection is
reduced to a minimum, the changing or emptying of the receptacles
being sometimes effected daily, and the period never exceeding a week.
The excrementitious matter is removed without soaking in the ground or
putrefying in the midst of a population.

These plans for the removal of excreta do not deal with the equally
important refuse liquid--viz., the waste water from washing and
stables, etc. As it is necessary to have drains for the purpose of
removing the waste water, it is more economical to allow this waste
water to carry away the excreta. In any case, you must have drains for
removing the fouled water. Down these drains it is evident that much
of the liquid excreta will be poured, and thus you must take
precautions to prevent the gases of decomposition which the drains are
liable to contain from passing into your houses.

There is a method which you might find useful on a small scale to
which I will now draw your attention, as it is applicable to detached
houses or small barracks--viz., the plan of applying the domestic
water to land through underground drains, or what is called subsoil
irrigation. This system affords peculiar facilities for disposing of
sewage matter without nuisance. There are many cases where open
irrigation in close contiguity to mansions or dwellings might be
exceedingly objectionable, and in such cases subsoil irrigation
supplies a means of dealing with a very difficult question. This
system was applied some years ago by Mr. Waring in Newport, in the
United States. It has recently been introduced into this country.

The system is briefly as follows: The water from the house is carried
through a water-tight drain to the ground where the irrigation is to
be applied. It is there passed through ordinary drain pipes, placed 1
ft. below the surface, with open joints, by means of which it
percolates into the soil. Land drains, 4 ft. deep, should be laid
intermediately between the subsoil drains to remove the water from the
soil. The difficulty of subsoil irrigation is to prevent deposit,
which chokes the drains; and if the foul domestic water is allowed to
trickle through the drains as it passes away from the house it soon
chokes the drains. It is, therefore, necessary to pass it in flushes
through the drains, and this can be best managed by running the water
from the house into one of Field's automatic flush tanks, which runs
off in a body when full.

When you have water closet and drainage, the great object to be
attained in house drainage is to prevent the sewer gas from passing
from the main sewer into the house drain. It was the custom to place a
flap at the junction of the house drain with the sewer; but this flap
is useless for preventing sewer gas from passing up the house drain.
The plan was therefore adopted of placing a water trap under the water
closet basin or the sink, etc., in direct communication with the
drain. The capacity of water to absorb sewer gas is very great,
consequently the water in the trap would absorb this gas. When the
water became warm from increase of temperature, it would give out the
gas into the house; when it cooled down at night, it would again
absorb more gas from the soil pipe, and frequent change of temperature
would cause it to give out and reabsorb the gas continually.

These objections have led to the present recognized system--viz., 1st,
to place a water trap on the drain to cut off the sewer gases from the
foot of the soil pipe; and, next, to place an opening to the outer air
on the soil pipe between the trap and the house to secure efficient
disconnection between the sewer and the house. It is, moreover,
necessary to produce a movement of air and ventilation in the house
drain pipes to aerate the pipe and to oxidize any putrescible products
which may be in it. To do this, we must insure that a current of air
shall be continually passing through the drains; both an inlet and an
outlet for fresh air must be provided in the portions of the house
drain which are cut off from the main sewer, for without an inlet and
outlet there can be no efficient ventilation. This outlet and inlet
can be obtained in the following manner: In the first place, an outlet
may be formed by prolonging the soil pipe at its full diameter, and
with an open top to above the roof, in a position away from the
windows, skylights, or chimneys. And, secondly, an inlet may be
obtained by an opening into the house drain, on the dwelling side of
and close to the trap, by means of the disconnecting manhole or
branch-pipe before mentioned, or where necessary by carrying up the
inlet by means of a ventilating pipe to above the roof. The inlet
should be equal in area to the drain pipe, and not in any case less
than 4 in. in diameter. If it were not for appearance and the
difficulty of conveying the excreta without lodgments, an open gutter
would be preferable to a closed pipe in the house. This arrangement is
based on the principle that there should be no deposit in the house
drains. Therefore the utmost care should be taken to lay the house
drains in straight lines, both in plan and gradient, and to give the
adequate inclination.

The following are desirable conditions to observe in house drains: 1.
As to material of pipes. House drains should be made either of glazed
stoneware pipes or fireclay pipes with cement joints, or preferably of
cast iron pipes jointed with carefully-made lead joints, or with
turned joints and bored sockets. I say preferably of cast iron. In New
York the iron soilpipe, with joints made with lead, is now required by
the municipal regulations. It is a stronger pipe than a rainwater
pipe. The latter will often be found to have holes. A lead joint
cannot be made properly in a weak pipe, therefore the lead joint is to
some extent a guarantee of soundness. Lead pipes will be eaten away by
water containing free oxygen without carbonic acid, therefore pure
rainwater injures lead pipes. An excess of carbonic acid in water will
also eat away lead. You will find that in many cases pinholes appear
in a soilpipe, and when inside a house that allows sewer gas to pass
into the house. Moreover, lead is a soft material; it is subject to
indentations, to injury from nails, to sagging. A cast-iron pipe, when
coated with sewage matter, does not appear to be subject to decay; and
if of sufficient substance it is not liable to injury. When once well
fixed, it has no tendency to move. I would, therefore, advocate cast
iron in lieu of lead soilpipes. In fixing the soilpipe which is to
receive a water-closet, the trap should form part of the fixed pipe;
so that if there is any sinking the down pipe will not sink away from
the trap. It is, however, not sufficient to provide good material.
There is nothing which is more important in a sanitary point of view
than good workmanship in house drainage. In this matter, it is on
details that all depends. Just consider; the drain pipes under the
best conditions of aeration contain elements of danger, and those
pipes are composed of a number of parts, at the point of junction of
any one of which the poison may escape into the house. You thus
perceive how necessary it is first to reduce the poison to a minimum
by cutting off the sewer gas which might otherwise pass from the
street sewer to the house drain, and in the next place being most
careful in the workmanship of every part of your house drains and
soilpipes. Reduce your danger where you can by putting your pipes
outside. But you cannot always do that--for instance, at New York and
in Canada they would freeze.

All drain pipes should be proved to be watertight by plugging up the
lower end of the drain pipe and filling it with water. In no case
should a soilpipe be built inside a wall. It should be so placed as to
be always accessible. 2. The pipes should be generally 4 in. diameter.
In no instance need a drain pipe inside a house exceed 6 in. in
diameter. 3. Every drain of a house or building should be laid with
true gradients, in no case less than 1/100, but much steeper would be
preferable. When from circumstances the drain is laid at a smaller
inclination, a flush tank should be provided. They should be laid in
straight lines from point to point. At every change of direction there
should be reserved a means of access to the drain. 4. No drain should
be constructed so as to pass under a dwelling house, except in
particular cases when absolutely necessary. In such cases the pipe
should be of cast iron, and the length of drain laid under the house
should be laid perfectly straight--a means of access should be
provided at each end; it should have a free air current passing
through it from end to end, and a flush tank should be placed at the
upper end. 5. Every house drain should be arranged so as to be
flushed, and kept at all times free from deposit. 6. Every house drain
should be ventilated by at least two suitable openings, one at each
end, so as to afford a current of air through the drain, and no pipe
or opening should be used for ventilation unless the same be carried
upward without angles or horizontal lengths, and with tight joints.
The size of such pipes or openings should be fully equal to that of
the drain pipe ventilated. 7. The upper extremities of ventilating
pipes should be at a distance from any windows or openings, so that
there will be no danger of the escape of the foul air into the
interior of the house from such pipes. The soilpipe should terminate
at its lower end in a properly ventilating disconnecting trap, so that
a current of air would be constantly maintained through the pipe. 8.
No rainwater pipe and no overflow or waste pipe from any cistern or
rainwater tank, or from any sink (other than a slop sink for urine),
or from any bath or lavatory, should pass directly to the soilpipe;
but every such pipe should be disconnected therefrom by passing
through the wall to the outside of the house, and discharging with an
end open to the air. I may mention here that the drainage arrangements
of this Parkes Museum in which we are assembled were very defective
when the building was first taken. Mr. Rogers Field, one of the
committee, was requested to drain it properly, and it has been very
successfully accomplished.

I would now draw your attention to some points of detail in the
fittings for carrying away waste water.

First, with regard to lavatories. As already mentioned, every waste
pipe from the sink should deliver in the open air, but it should have
an opening at its upper end as well as at its lower end, to permit a
current of air to pass through it; and it should be trapped close to
the sink, so as to prevent the air being drawn through it into the
house; otherwise you will have an offensive smell from it. I will give
you an instance: At the University College Hospital there are some
fire tanks on the several landings. The water flows in every day, and
some flows away through the waste pipes; these pipes, which carry away
nothing but fresh London water to empty in the yard, got most
offensive simply from the decomposition of the sediment left in them
by the London water passing through them day after day. A small waste
pipe from a bath or a basin is a great inconvenience. It should be of
a size to empty rapidly--for a bath 2 inches, a basin 11/2, inches.
There are other points connected with fittings to which I would call
your attention. The great inventive powers which have been applied to
the w.c. pan are an evidence of how unsatisfactory they all are. Many
kinds of water-closet apparatus and of so-called "traps" have a
tendency to retain foul matter in the house, and therefore, in
reality, partake more or less of the nature of small cesspools, and
nuisances are frequently attributed to the ingress of "sewer gas"
which have nothing whatever to do with the sewers, but arise from foul
air generated in the house drains and internal fittings. The old form
was always made with what is called a D-trap. Avoid the D-trap. It is
simply a small cesspool which cannot be cleaned out. Any trap in which
refuse remains is an objectionable cesspool. It is a receptacle for
putrescrible matter. In a lead pipe your trap should always be smooth
and without corners. The depth of dip of a trap should depend on the
frequency of use of the trap. It varies from 1/2 inch to 31/2 inches. When
a trap is rarely used, the dip should be deeper than when frequently
used, to allow of evaporation. In the section of a w.c. pan, the
object to be attained is to take that form in which all the parts of
the trap can be easily examined and cleaned, in which both the pan and
the trap will be washed clean by the water at each discharge, and in
which the lever movement of the handle will not allow of the passage
of sewer gas.

And now just a few personal remarks in conclusion. I have had much
pleasure in giving to my old brother officers in these lectures the
result of my experience in sanitary science. In doing so, I desired
especially to impress on you who are just entering your profession the
importance of giving effect to those principles of sanitary science
which were left very much in abeyance until after the Crimean war. I
have not desired to fetter you with dogmatic rules, but I have sought,
by general illustrations, to show you the principles on which sanitary
science rests. That science is embodied in the words, pure earth, pure
air, pure water. In nature that purity is insured by increasing
movement. Neither ought we to stagnate. In the application of these
principles your goal of to-day should be your starting-post for
to-morrow. If I have fulfilled my object, I shall have interested you
sufficiently to induce some of you at least to seize and carry forward
to a more advanced position the torch of sanitary science.

       *       *       *       *       *




PASTEUR'S NEW METHOD OF ATTENUATION.


The view that vaccinia is attenuated variola is well known, and has
been extensively adopted by English physicians. If the opinion means
anything, it signifies that the two diseases are in essence one and
the same, differing only in degree. M. Pasteur has recently found that
by passing the bacillus of "rouget" of pigs through rabbits, he can
effect a considerable attenuation of the "rouget" virus. He has shown
that rabbits inoculated with the bacillus of rouget become very ill
and die, but if the inoculations be carried through a series of
rabbits, a notable modification results in the bacillus. As regards
the rabbits themselves, no favorable change occurs--they are all made
very ill, or die. But if inoculation be made on pigs from those
rabbits, at the end of the series it is found that the pigs have the
disease in a mild form, and, moreover, that they enjoy immunity from
further attacks of "rouget." This simply means that the rabbits have
effected, or the bacillus has undergone while in them, an attenuation
of virulence. So the pigs may be "vaccinated" with the modified virus,
have the disease in a mild form, and thereafter be protected from the
disease. The analogy between this process and the accepted view of
vaccinia is very close. The variolous virus is believed to pass
through the cow, and there to become attenuated, so that inoculations
from the cow-pox no longer produce variola in the human subject, but
cow-pox (vaccinia). As an allied process, though of very different
result, mention may be made of some collateral experiments of Pasteur,
also performed recently. Briefly, it has been discovered that the
bacillus of the "rouget" of pigs undergoes an increase of virulence by
being cultivated through a series of pigeons. Inoculations from the
last of the series of pigeons give rise to a most intense form of the
disease. It will be remembered that the discovery of the bacillus of
"rouget" of pigs was due to the late Dr. Thuillier.--_Lancet._

       *       *       *       *       *


Very few persons realize the necessity of cultivating an equable
temper and of avoiding passion. Many persons have met with sudden
death, the result of a weak heart and passionate nature.

       *       *       *       *       *




CONVENIENT VAULTS.


This is a subject which will bear line upon line and precept upon
precept. Many persons have availed themselves of the cheap and easy
means which we have formerly recommended in the shape of the daily use
of absorbents, but a larger number strangely neglect these means, and
foul air and impure drainage are followed by disease and death. Sifted
coal ashes and road dust are the remedy, kept in barrels till needed
for use. A neat cask, filled with these absorbents, with a
long-handled dipper, is placed in the closet, and a conspicuous
placard directs every occupant to throw down a dipper full before
leaving. The vaults, made to open on the outside, are then as easily
cleaned twice a year as sand is shoveled from a pit. No drainage by
secret, underground seams in the soil can then poison the water of
wells; and no effluvia can arise to taint the air and create fevers.
On this account, this arrangement is safer and better than
water-closets. It is far cheaper and simpler, and need never get out
of order. There being no odor whatever, if properly attended to, it
may be contiguous to the dwelling. An illustration of the way in which
the latter is accomplished is shown by Fig. 1, which represents a neat
addition to a kitchen wing, with hip-roof, the entrance being either
from the kichen through an entry, or from the outside as shown by the
steps. Fig. 2 is a plan, showing the double walls with interposed
solid earth, to exclude any possible impurity from the cellar in case
of neglect. The vaults may be reached from the outside opening, for
removing the contents. In the whole arrangement there is not a vestige
of impure air, and it is as neat as a parlor; and the man who cleans
out the vaults say it is no more unpleasant than to shovel sand from a
pit.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

Those who prefer may place the closet at a short distance from the
house, provided the walk is flanked on both sides with evergreen
trees; for no person should be compelled to encounter drifting snows
to reach it--an exposure often resulting in colds and sickness. A few
dollars are the whole cost, and civilization and humanity demand as
much.--_Country Gentleman_.

[Illustration: Fig. 2.]

[Illustration: Fig. 3.]

       *       *       *       *       *




POISONOUS SERPENTS AND THEIR VENOM.

By Dr. G. ARCHIE STOCKWELL.


Chemistry has made astounding strides since the days of the sixteenth
century, when Italian malice and intrigue swayed all Europe, and
poisons and poisoners stalked forth unblushingly from cottage and
palace; when crowned and mitered heads, prelates, noblemen, beneficed
clergymen, courtiers, and burghers became Borgias and De Medicis in
hideous infamy in their greed for power and affluence; and when the
civilized world feared to retire to rest, partake of the daily repast,
inhale the odors of flower or perfume, light a wax taper, or even
approach the waters of the holy font. These horrors have been laid
bare, their cause and effect explained, and tests discovered whereby
they may be detected, providing the law with a shield that protects
even the humblest individual. Great as the science is, however, it is
yet far removed from perfection; and there are substances so
mysterious, subtle, and dangerous as to set the most delicate tests
and powerful lenses at naught, while carrying death most horrible in
their train; and chief of these are the products of Nature's
laboratory, that provides some sixty species of serpents with their
deadly venom, enabling them in spite of sluggish forms and retiring
habits to secure abundant prey and resent mischievous molestation. The
hideous _trigonocephalus_ has forced the introduction and acclimation
of the mongoose to the cane fields of the Western tropics; the tiger
snake (_Heplocephalus curtus_) is the terror of Australian plains; the
fer de lance (_Craspedocephalus lanceolatus_) renders the paradise of
Martinique almost uninhabitable; the tic paloonga (_Daboii russelli_)
is the scourge of Cinghalese coffee estates; the giant ehlouhlo of
Natal (unclassified) by its presence secures a forbidding waste for
miles about; the far famed cobra de capello (_Naja tripudians_)
ravages British India in a death ratio of one-seventh of one per cent.
of the dense population, annually, and is the more dangerous in that
an assumed sacred character secures it largely from molestation and
retributive justice; and in Europe and America we have vipers,
rattlesnakes, copperheads, and moccasins (_viperinae_ and _crotalidae_),
that if a less degree fatal, are still a source of dread and
annoyance. All these forms exhibit in general like ways and like
habits, and if the venom of all be not generically identical, the
physiological and toxicological phenomena arising therefrom render
them practically and specifically so. Indeed, their attributes appear
to be mere modifications arising from difference in age, size,
development, climate, latitude, seasons, and enforced habits, aided
perhaps by idiosyncrasies and the incidents and accidents of life.

In delicacy of organism and perfection in mechanism and precision, the
inoculatory apparatus of the venomous reptile excels the most
exquisite appliances devised by the surgical implement maker's art,
and it is doubtful whether it can ever be rivaled by the hand of man.
The mouth of the serpent is an object for the closest study,
presenting as it does a series of independent actions, whereby the
bones composing the upper jaw and palate are loosely articulated, or
rather attached, to one another by elastic and expansive ligaments,
whereby the aperture is made conformatory, or enlarged at will--any
one part being untrammeled and unimpeded in its action by its fellows.
The recurved, hook-like teeth are thus isolated in application, and
each venom fang independent of its rival when so desired, and it
becomes possible to reach points and recesses seemingly inaccessible.

The fangs proper, those formidable weapons whose threatening presence
quails the boldest opponent, inspires the fear of man, and puts to
flight the entire animal kingdom--lions, tigers, and leopards, all but
the restless and plucky mongoose--and whose slightest scratch is
attended with such dire results, are two in number, one in each upper
jaw, and placed anteriorly to all other teeth, which they exceed by
five or six times in point of size. Situated just within the lips,
recurved, slender, and exceeding in keenness even the finest of
cambric needles, they are penetrated in their longitudinal diameter by
a delicate, hair-like canal opening into a groove at the apex,
terminating on the anterior surface in an elongated fissure. As the
canal is straight, and the tooth falciform, a like groove or
longitudinal fissure is formed at the base, where it is inclosed by
the aperture of the duct that communicates with the poison apparatus.

At the base of each fang, and extending from a point just beneath the
nostril, backward two-thirds the distance to the commissure of the
mouth, is the poison gland, analogous to the salivary glands of man,
that secretes a pure, mucous saliva, and also a pale straw-colored,
half-oleaginous fluid, the venom proper. Within the gland, venom and
saliva are mingled in varying proportions coincidently with
circumstances; but the former slowly distills away and finds lodgment
in the central portion of the excretory duct, that along its middle is
dilated to form a bulb-like receptacle, and where only it may be
obtained in perfect purity.

When the reptile is passive, the fangs are arranged to lie backward
along the jaw, concealed by the membrane of the mouth, and thus offer
no impediment to deglutition. Close inspection, however, at once
reveals not only their presence, but also several rudimentary ones to
supply their place in case of injury or accident. The bulb of the
duct, too, is surrounded by a double aponeurotic capsule, of which the
outermost and strongest layer is in connection with a muscle by whose
action both duct and gland are compressed at will, conveying the
secretion into the basal aperture of the fang, at the same time
refilling the bulb.

When enraged and assuming the offensive and defensive, the reptile
draws the posterior portion of its body into a coil or spiral, whereby
the act of straightening, in which it hurls itself forward to nearly
its full length, lends force to the blow, and at the same instant the
fangs are erected, drawn forward in a reverse plane, permitting the
points to look outward beyond the lips. The action of the compressor
muscles is contemporaneous with the blow inflicted, the venom being
injected with considerable violence through the apical outlets of the
fangs, and into the bottom of the wound. If the object is not
attained, the venom may be thrown to considerable distances, falling
in drops; and Sir Arthur Cunynghame in a recent work on South Africa
relates that he was cautioned not to approach a huge cobra of six feet
or more in length in its death agony, lest it should hurl venom in his
eyes and create blindness; he afterward found that an officer of Her
Majesty's XV. Regiment had been thus injured at a distance of
_forty-five feet_, and did not recover his eyesight for more than a
week.[1]

  [Footnote 1: Presumably the Natal ombozi, or spitting cobra, _Naja
  haemachites_, who is fully equal to the feat described.]

With the infliction of the stroke and expression of its venom, the
creature usually attempts to reverse its fangs in the wound, thereby
dragging through and lacerating the flesh; an ingenious bit of
devilishness hardly to be expected from so low a form of organism; but
its frequent neglect proves it by no means mechanical, and it
frequently occurs that the animal bitten drags the reptile after it a
short distance, or causes it to leave its fangs in the wound. Some
serpents also, as the fer de lance, black mamba, and water moccasin,
are apparently actuated by most vindictive motives, and coil
themselves about the part bitten, clinging with leech-like tenacity
and resisting all attempts at removal. Two gentlemen of San Antonio,
Texas,[2] who were bitten by rattlesnakes, subsequently asserted that
after having inflicted all possible injury, the reptiles scampered
away with unmistakable manifestations of pleasure. "Snakes," remarked
one of the victims, "usually glide smoothly away with the entire body
prone to the ground; but the fellow I encountered traveled off with an
up and down wave-like motion, as if thrilled with delight, and then,
getting under a large rock where he was safe from pursuit, he turned,
and raising his head aloft waved it to and fro, as if saying. 'Don't
you feel good now?' It would require but a brief stretch of the
imagination to constitute that serpent a veritable descendant of the
old Devil himself."

  [Footnote 2: On the authority of N.A. Taylor and H.F. McDaniels.]

As the first blow commonly exhausts the receptacle of the duct, a
second (the venom being more or less mingled and diluted by the
salivary secretion) is comparatively less fatal in results; and each
successive repetition correspondingly inoffensive until finally
nothing but pure mucus is ejected. Nevertheless, when thoroughly
aroused, the reptile is enabled to constantly hurl a secretion, since
both rage and hunger swell the glands to enormous size, and stimulate
to extraordinary activity--a fortuitous circumstance to which many an
unfortunate is doubtless indebted for his life. The removal of a fang,
however, affects its gland to a degree that it becomes almost
inoperative, until such a time as a new tooth is grown, and again
calls it into action, which is commonly but a few weeks at most; and a
person purchasing a poisonous serpent under the supposition that it
has been rendered innocuous, will do well to keep watch of its mouth
lest he be some time taken unaware. It may be rendered permanently
harmless, however, by first removing the fang, and then cauterizing
the duct by means of a needle or wire, heated to redness; when for
experimental purposes the gland may be stimulated, and the virus drawn
off by means of a fine-pointed syringe.

In what the venom consists more than has already been described, we
are not permitted to know. It dries under exposure to air in small
scales, is soluble in water but not in alcohol, slightly reddens
litmus paper, and long retains its noxious properties. It has no acrid
or burning taste, and but little if any odor; the tongue pronounces it
inoffensive, and the mucous surface of the alimentary track is proof
against it, and it has been swallowed in considerable quantities
without deleterious result--all the poison that could be extracted
from a half dozen of the largest and most virile reptiles was
powerless in any way to affect an unfledged bird when poured into its
open beak. Chemistry is not only powerless to solve the enigma of its
action, and the microscope to detect its presence, but pathology is at
fault to explain the reason of its deadly effect; and all that we know
is that when introduced even in most minute quantities into an open
wound, the blood is dissolved, so to speak, and the stream of life
paralyzed with an almost incredible rapidity. Without test or
antidote, terror has led to blind, fanatical empiricism, necessarily
attended with no little injury in the search for specifics, and it may
be reasonably asserted that no substance can be named so inert and
worthless as not to have been recommended, or so disgusting as not to
have been employed; nor is any practice too absurd to find favor and
adherents even among the most enlightened of the medical profession,
who have rung all the changes of the therapeutical gamut from
serpentaria[3] and boneset to guaco, cimicifugia, and _Aristolochia
India_ to curare, alum, chalk, and mercury to arsenic; and in the way
of surgical dressings and appliances everything from poultices of
human faeces,[4] burying the part bitten in fresh earth,[5] or
thrusting the member or entire person into the entrails of living
animals, to cupping, ligatures, escharotics, and the moxa.

  [Footnote 3: Serpentaria derives its name from its supposed
  antidotal properties, and guaco and _Aristolochia India_ enjoyed
  widely heralded but rapidly fleeting popularity in the two Indias
  for a season. Tanjore pill (black pepper and arsenic) is still
  extensively lauded in districts whose serpents possess little
  vitality, but is every way inferior to iodine.]

  [Footnote 4: A Chinese remedy--as might be imagined.]

  [Footnote 5: Still extensively practiced, the first in Michigan,
  the latter in Missouri and Arkansas, and inasmuch as one is
  cooling and soothing, and the other slightly provocative of
  perspiration in the part, are not altogether devoid of
  plausibility.]

Although the wounds of venomous serpents are frequently attended with
fatal results, such are not necessarily invariable. There are times
and seasons when all reptiles are sluggish and inactive, and when they
inflict comparatively trifling injuries; and the poison is much less
virulent at certain periods than others--during chilling weather for
instance, or when exhausted by repeated bites in securing sustenance.
Young and small serpents, too, are less virile than large and more
aged specimens, and it has likewise been observed that death is more
apt to follow when the poison is received at the beginning or during
the continuance of the heated term.

The action of the venom is commonly so swift that its effects are
manifested almost immediately after inoculation, being at once
conveyed by the circulatory system to the great nervous centers of the
body, resulting in rapid paralysis of such organs as are supplied with
motive power from these sources; its physiological and toxicological
realizations being more or less speedy accordingly as it is applied
near or remote from these centers, or infused into the capillary or
the venous circulation. Usually, too, an unfortunate experiences,
perhaps instantaneously, an intense burning pain in the member
lacerated, which is succeeded by vertigo, nausea, retching, fainting,
coldness, and collapse; the part bitten swells, becomes discolored, or
spotted over its surface with livid blotches, that may, ultimately,
extend to the greater portion of the body, while the poison appears to
effect a greater or less disorganization of the blood, not by
coagulating its fibrine as Fontana surmised, but in dissolving,
attenuating, and altering the form of its corpuscles, whose integrity
is so essential to life, causing them to adhere to one another, and to
the walls of the vessels by which they are conveyed; being no longer
able to traverse the capillaries, oedema is produced, followed by the
peculiar livid blush. Shakespeare would appear to have had intuitive
perception of the nature of such subtle poison, when he caused the
ghost to describe to Hamlet

  "The leprous distillment whose effect
   Bears such an enmity to the blood of man
   That swift as quicksilver, it courses through
   The natural gates and alleys of the body
   And with sudden vigor it doth posset
   And curd like eager droppings into milk,
   The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine
   And a most instant tetter marked about
   Most lazar like, with vile and loathsome crust
   All my smooth body."

It is not to be supposed, however, that all or even a major portion of
the blood disks require to be changed or destroyed to produce a fatal
result, since death may supervene long before such a consummation can
be realized. It is the capillary circulation that suffers chiefly,
since the very size and caliber of the heart cavities and trunk
vessels afford them comparative immunity. But of the greatly dissolved
and disorganized condition of the blood that may occur secondarily, we
have evidences in the passive haemorrhages that attack those that have
recovered from the immediate effects of serpent poisoning, following
or coincident with subsidence of swelling and induration; and, as with
scurvy, bleeding may occur from the mouth, throat, lungs, nose, and
bowels, or from ulcerated surfaces and superficial wounds, or all
together, defying all styptics and haemastatics. In a case occurring
under the care of Dr. David Brainerd in the Illinois General
Hospital,[6] blood flowed from the gums in great profusion, and on
examination was found destitute, even under the microscope, of the
faintest indications of fibrine--the principle upon which coagulation
depends. The breath, moreover, gave most sickening exhalations,
indicative of decomposition, producing serious illness in those
exposed for any length of time to its influence. We may add, among
other sequelae, aside from death produced through primary and secondary
effects, paralysis, loss of nerve power, impotence, haemorrhage, even
mortification or gangrene.

  [Footnote 6: _Medical Independent_, 1855.]

The failure in myotic power of the heart and in the muscles of
respiration through reflex influence of par vagum and great
sympathetic nerves, whereby pulmonary circulation is impeded, are
among the earliest of phenomena. Breathing becoming retarded and
laborious, the necessary supply of oxygen is no longer received, and
blood still venous, in that it is not relieved of its carbon, is
returned through the arteries, whereby the capillaries of the brain
are gorged with a doubly poisoned circulation, poisoned by both venom
and carbon. In this we have ample cause for the attending train of
symptoms that, beginning with drowsiness, rapidly passes into stupor
followed by profound coma and ultimate dissolution--marked evidence of
the fact that a chemical agent or poison may produce a mechanical
disease; and autopsical research reveals absolutely nothing save the
general disorganization of blood corpuscles, as already noted.

Taking circumstantial and pathological evidences into consideration,
the hope of the person thus poisoned rests solely upon lack of
vitality in the serpent and its venom, and in his personal
idiosyncrasies, habits of life, condition of health, etc., and the
varied chapters of accidents. _To look for a specific, in any sense of
the word, is the utmost folly!_ The action of the poison and its train
of results follow inoculation in too swift succession to be overtaken
and counteracted by any antidote, supposing such to be a possible
product, even if administered hypodermically. We have evidence of this
in iodic preparations, iodine being the nearest approach to a perfect
antidote that can be secured by mortal skill, inasmuch, if quickly
injected into the circulation, it retards and restrains the
disorganizing process whereby the continuity of the blood corpuscles
is lost; moreover, it is a marked antiseptic, favors the production of
adhesive inflammation, whereby lymph is effused and coagulated about
the bitten part, and absorption checked, and the poison rendered less
diffusible. But when a remedy is demanded that shall restore the
pristine form, functions, and energy of the disorganized globules, man
arrogates to himself supernal attributes whereby it becomes possible
not only to save and renew, _but to create life_; and we can scarce
expect science or even accident (as some expect) to even rival Nature
and set at defiance her most secret and subtle laws. Such, however, is
the natural outcropping of an ignorant teaching and vulgar prejudice
that feeds and clothes the charlatan and ascribes to savage and
uncultured races an occult familiarity with pathological,
physiological, and remedial effect unattainable by the most advanced
sciences; and whereby the Negro, Malay, Hindoo, South Sea Islander,
and red man are granted an innate knowledge of poisons and their
antidotes more than miraculous. A reward of more than a quarter of a
century's standing, and amounting to several thousand pounds, is
offered by the East India Government for the discovery of a specific
for the bite of the cobra, and for which no claims have ever been
advanced; and the "snake charmers" or jugglers in whom this superior
knowledge is supposed to center are so well aware of the futility of
specifics, and the risk to which they are subjected, that few venture
to ply their calling without a broad-bladed, keen-edged knife
concealed about the person as a means of instant amputation in case of
accident. Medical and scientific associations of various classes, in
Europe, Australia, America, even Africa, and the East and West Indies,
have repeatedly held out the most tempting lures, and indulged in
exhaustive and costly experimentation in search of specifics for the
wounds of vipers, cobras, rattlesnakes, and the general horde of
venomous reptiles; and all in vain. Even the saliva of man, as well as
certain other secretions, is at times so modified by anger as to rival
the venom of the serpent in fatality, and it has no specific; and a
careful analysis of the pathological relations of such poison proves
that further experimentation and expectation is as irrational as the
pursuit of the "philosopher's stone."

It is an indisputable fact, however, that there are individuals whose
natural or acquired idiosyncrasies permit them to be inoculated by the
most venomous of reptiles without deleterious or unpleasant results,
and Colonel Matthews Taylor[7] knew several persons of this character
in India, and who regarded the bite of the cobra or tic paloonga with
nearly as much indifference as the sting of a gnat or mosquito. Again,
in 1868, Mr. Drummond, a prominent magistrate of Melbourne,
Australia,[8] met with untimely death under circumstances that
attracted no little attention. An itinerant vender of nostrums had on
exhibition a number of venomous reptiles, by which he caused himself
to be successively bitten, professing to secure immunity by reason of
a secret compound which he offered for sale at a round figure.
Convinced that the fellow was an imposter, and his wares valuable only
as a means of depleting the pockets of the credulous, Mr. Drummond
loudly asserted the inefficacy of the nostrum, as well as the
innocuousness of the reptiles, which he assumed to be either naturally
harmless, or rendered so by being deprived of their fangs; and in
proof thereof insisted upon being himself bitten. To this experiment
the charlatan was extremely averse, offering strenuous objections, and
finally conveyed a point blank refusal. But Mr. Drummond's demands
becoming more imperative, and observing that his hesitancy impressed
the audience as a tacit acknowledgment of the allegations, he finally
consented, and placed in the hands of the magistrate a tiger snake,
which he deemed least dangerous, and which instantly struck the
gentleman in the wrist. The usual symptoms of serpent poisoning
rapidly manifested themselves, followed by swelling and lividity of
the part, obstructed circulation and respiration, and coma; and in
spite of the use of the vaunted remedy and the attentions of
physicians the result was most fatal. The vender subsequently conceded
the worthless character of his nostrum, declaring that be enjoyed
exemption from the effects of of serpent poison by virtue of recovery
from a severe inoculation in early life; and he further added he knew
"some people who were born so," who put him "up to this dodge" as a
means of gaining a livelihood.

  [Footnote 7: _Vide_ report to Prof. J. Henry Bennett.]

  [Footnote 8: London _Times_.]

It is a general supposition that such immunity, when congenital, is
acquired _in utero_ by the inoculation of the parent, and Oliver
Wendell Holmes' fascinating tale of "Elsie Venner" embodies many
interesting features in this connection. Admitting such inoculation
may secure immunity, recent experiments in the action of this as well
as kindred poisons give no grounds for believing it at all universal
or even common, but as depending upon occult physiological or
accidental phenomena. For instance, the writer and his father are
equally proof against the contagion and inoculation of vaccination and
variola, in spite of repeated attempts to secure both, while their
respective mothers suffered terribly with smallpox at periods
subsequent to the birth of their children; and it is well understood
that there are striking analogies between the poisons of certain
contagious fevers and those of venomous serpents, inasmuch as one
attack conveys exemption from future ones of like character. In other
words, many animal poisons, as well as the pathological ones of
smallpox, measles, scarlatina, whooping cough, etc., have the power of
so modifying the animal economy, when it does not succumb to their
primary influence, as to ever after render it all but proof against
them. Witness, for instance, the ravages of the mosquito, that in
certain districts punishes most terribly all new comers, and who after
a brief residence suffer little, the bite no longer producing pain or
swelling.

Regarding the supposed correlation of serpent poison and the septic
ferments of certain tropical and infectious fevers, they are not
necessarily always contagious. It may be interesting to note that one
Doctor Humboldt in 1852,[9] in an essay read before the Royal Academy
of Medical Sciences at Havana, assumed their proximate identity, and
advocated the inoculation of the poison of one as a prophylactic of
the other. He claimed to have personally inoculated numberless persons
in New Orleans, Vera Cruz, and Cuba with exceedingly dilute venom,
thereby securing them perfect immunity from yellow fever. Aside from
the extraordinary nature of the statement, the fact that the doctor
affirmed, he had never used the virus to an extent sufficient to
produce any of its toxic symptoms, cast discredit over the whole, and
proofs were demanded and promised. This was the last of the subject,
however, which soon passed into oblivion, though whether from failure
on the part of the medico to substantiate his assertions, or from the
inanition of his colleagues, it is difficult to determine, though the
presumption is largely in favor of the former. Nevertheless, it is
worthy of consideration and exhaustive experimentation, since it is no
less plausible than the theory which rendered the name of Jenner
famous.

  [Footnote 9: London _Lancet_.]

Outside of the transfusion of blood, for which there are strong
reasons for believing would be attended with happy results, the sole
remedies available in serpent poisoning are measures looking to the
prompt cutting off of the circulation of the affected part, and the
direct stimulation of the heart's action and the respiratory organs,
until such a time as Nature shall have eliminated all toxical
evidences; and these must necessarily be mechanical. Alcoholic
stimulants are available only as they act mechanically in sustaining
cardiac and pulmonary activity, and where their free use is prolonged
efficacy is quickly exhausted, and they tend rather to hasten a fatal
result. They are devoid of the slightest antidotal properties, and in
no way modify the activity of the venom; and an intoxicated person, so
far from enjoying the immunity with which he is popularly credited, is
far more apt to succumb to the virus than him of unfuddled intellect.
The reasons are obvious. Theoretically, for purely physiological and
therapeutic reasons _amyl nitrite_ should be of incalculable value,
though I have no knowledge of its use in this connection, since its
vapor when inhaled is a most powerful stimulator of cardiac action,
and when administered by the mouth it is unapproached in its control
of spasmodically contracted vessels and muscles. The relief its vapor
affords in the collapse of chloroform anaesthesia, in which dissolution
is imminent from paralyzed heart's action, is instantaneous, and its
effect upon the spasmodic and suffocative sensations of hydrophobia
are equally prompt. Moreover, without further discussing its
physiological functions, it is the nearest approach to an antidote to
certain zymotic poisons, and especially valuable in warding off and
aborting the action of the ferment that gives rise to pertussis, or
whooping cough. _Iodide of ethyl_ is another therapeutical measure
that is worthy of consideration; and _iodoform_ in the treatment of
the sequelae incident to recovery.

The native population of India, in spite of the contrary accepted
opinion, are remarkably free from resort to nostrums that lay claim to
being antidotes. The person inoculated by the cobra is at once seized
by his friends, and constant and violent exercise enforced, if
necessary at the point of stick, and severe and cruel (but
nevertheless truly merciful) beatings are often a result. In this we
see a direct application, without in the least understanding them, of
the rules laid down to secure certain physiological results, as for
the relief of opium and morphia narcosis, which serpent poisoning
almost exactly resembles. The late Doctor Spillsbury (Physician-General
of Calcutta),[10] while stationed at Jubulpore, Central India, was
informed late one evening that his favorite horse keeper had just been
dangerously bitten by a cobra of unusual size, and therefore more than
ordinarily venomous. He at once ordered his gig, and in spite of the
wails and protestations of the sufferer and his friends, with whom a
fatal result was already a foregone conclusion, the doctor caused his
wrists to be bound firmly and inextricably to the back of the vehicle;
then assuring the man if he did not keep up he would most certainly be
dragged to death, he mounted to his seat and drove rapidly away. Three
hours later, or a little more, he returned, having covered nearly
thirty miles without cessation or once drawing rein. The horse keeper
was found bathed in profuse perspiration, and almost powerless from
excessive fatigue. _Eau de luce_, an aromatic preparation of ammonia,
was now administered at frequent and regular intervals as a diffusible
stimulant, and moderate though constant exercise enforced until near
dawn, when the sufferer was found to be completely recovered.

  [Footnote 10: London _Lancet_.]

The value of violent and profuse cutaneous transpiration, thereby
securing a rapidly eliminating channel for discharging poison from the
system, is well known; in no other way can action be had so thorough,
speedy, and prompt. Captain Maxwell[11] tells us it was formerly the
custom among the Irish peasantry of Connaught, when one manifested
unmistakable evidences of hydrophobia, to procure the death of the
unfortunate by smothering between two feather beds. In one instance,
after undergoing this treatment, the supposed corpse was seen, to the
horror and surprise of all who witnessed it, to crawl from between the
bolsters, when he was found to be entirely free from his disorder; the
beds, however, were saturated through and through with the
perspiration that escaped the body in the intensity of his mortal
agony. More recently a French physician,[12] recognizing the incubatory
stage of rabies in his own person, resolved upon suicide rather than
undergo its attendant horrors. The hot bath was selected for the
purpose, with a view of gradually increasing its temperature until
syncope should be induced, which he hoped would be succeeded by death.
To his surprise, however, as the temperature of the water rose, his
sensations of distress improved; and the very means chosen for
terminating life became instead his salvation, restoring to perfect
health. Again, Dr. Peter Hood[13] relates that a blacksmith residing in
the neighborhood of his country house was in high repute for miles
about by reason of his cures of rabies. His remedy consisted simply in
forcing the person bitten to accompany him in a rapid walk or trot for
twenty miles or more, after which he administered copious draughts of
a hot decoction of broom tops, as much for its moral effect as for its
value in sustaining and prolonging established diaphoresis.

  [Footnote 11: Wild Sports or the West.]

  [Footnote 12: _L'Union Medicale_--name withheld by request of the
  gentleman.]

  [Footnote 13: London _Lancet_.]

Though the pathological conditions of hydrophobia and serpent
poisoning are by no means parallel, the _rationale_ of the methods
employed in opening the emunctories of the skin are the same; and were
it not for its powerful protracting effect and depressing action upon
the heart, we might perhaps secure valuable aid from jaborandi
(_pilocarpus_), since it stimulates profusely all the secretions; as
it is, more is to be hoped for in the former disorder than in the
latter. It would be desirable also to know what influence the Turkish
bath might exert, and it would seem worthy at least of trial.

       *       *       *       *       *




TO FIND THE TIME OF TWILIGHT.


_To the Editor of the Scientific American_:

Given latitude N. 40 deg. 51', declination N. 20 deg. 25', sun 18 deg. below the
horizon. To find the time of twilight at that place. In the
accompanying diagram, E Q = equinoctial, D D = parallel of
declination, Z S N a vertical circle, H O = the horizon, P = North
pole, Z = zenith, and S = the sun, 18 deg. below the horizon, H O,
measured on a vertical circle. It is seen that we have here given us
the three sides of a spherical triangle, viz., the co-latitude 49 deg. 9',
the co declination 69 deg. 35', and the zenith distance 108 deg., with which
to compute the angle Z P S. This angle is found to be 139 deg. 16' 5.6".
Dividing this by 15 we have 9 h. 16 m. 24.4 s., from noon to the
beginning or termination of twilight. Now, in the given latitude and
declination, the sun's center coincides with the horizon at sunset
(allowance being made for refraction), at 7 h. 18 m. 29.3 s. from
apparent noon. Then if we subtract 7 h. 18 m. 29.3 s. from 9 h. 16 m.
24.4 s., we shall have 1 h. 57 m. 55.1 s. as the duration of twilight.
But the real time of sunset must be computed when the sun has
descended about 50' below the horizon, at which point the sun's upper
limb coincides with the line, H O, of the horizon. This takes place 7
h. 16 m. 30.8 s. mean time. It is hoped the above will be a sufficient
answer to L.N. (See SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of Dec. 1, 1883, p. 346.)

B.W. H.

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *




ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES.


The distinguished anthropologist M. De Quatrefages has recently spoken
before the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and we extract from his
discourse on "Fossil Man and Savages" some notes reported in the
_Journal d'Hygiene_: "It is in Oceanica and above all in Melanesia and
in Polynesia where I have looked for examples of savage races. I have
scarcely spoken of the Malays except to bring to the surface the
features which distinguish them among the ethnic groups which they at
times touch, and which in turn frequently mingle with them. I have
especially studied the Papuans and Negritos. The Papuans are an
exclusively Pelasgic race, that many anthropologists consider as
almost confined to New Guinea and the neighboring archipelago. But it
becomes more and more manifest that they have had also periods of
expansion and of dissemination.

"On one side they appear as conquerors in some islands of Micronesia;
on the other we have shown--M. Hamy and myself--that to them alone can
be assigned the skulls found in Easter Island and in New Zealand. They
have hence touched the east and south, the extremities of the maritime
world.

"The Negritos, scarcely known a few years ago, and to-day confounded
with the Papuans by some anthropologists, have spread to the west and
northwest.

"They have left unmistakable traces in Japan; we find them yet in the
Philippines and in many of the islands of the Malay archipelago; they
constitute the indigenous population of the Andaman Islands, in the
Gulf of Bengal. Indeed, they have formerly occupied a great part of
the two peninsulas of India, and I have elsewhere shown that we can
follow their steps to the foot of the Himalayas, and beyond the Indus
to Lake Zerah. I have only sketched here the history of this race,
whose representatives in the past have been the type of the Asiatic
pygmies of whom Pliny and Ctesias speak, and whose _creoles_ were
those Ethiopians, black and with smooth hair, who figured in the army
of Xerxes.

"I have devoted two long examinations to another black race much less
important in numbers and in the extent of their domain, but which
possess for the anthropologist a very peculiar interest and a sad one.
It exists no more; its last representative, a woman, died in 1877. I
refer to the Tasmanians.

"The documents gathered by various English writers, and above all by
Bouwick, give numerous facts upon the intellectual and moral character
of the Tasmanians. The complete destruction of the Tasmanians,
accomplished in at most 72 years over a territory measuring 4,400
square leagues, raises a sorrowful and difficult question. Their
extinction has been explained by the barbarity of the civilized
Europeans, and which, often conspicuous, has never been more
destructively present than in their dealings with the Tasmanians. But
I am convinced that this is an error. I certainly do not wish to
apologize for or extenuate the crimes of the convicts and colonists,
against which the most vigorous protests have been raised both in
England and in the colony itself, but neither war nor social disasters
have been the principal cause of the disappearance of the Tasmanians.
They have perished from that strange malady which Europeans have
everywhere transplanted in the maritime world, and which strikes down
the most flourishing populations.

"Consumption is certainly one of the elements of this evil. But if it
explains the increase of the death rate, it does not explain the
diminution of births. Both these phenomena are apparent. Captain Juan
has seen at the Marquesas, in the island of Taio-Hahe, the population
fall in three years from 400 souls to 250. To offset this death-rate,
we find only 3 or 4 births. It is evident that at this rate
populations rapidly disappear, and it is the principal cause of the
disappearance of the Tasmanians."

The lecturer, after alluding to his studies in Polynesia, speaks of
his interest in the western representatives of these races and his
special studies in New Zealand, and referring to the latter continues:

"One of the most important results of the labors in this direction has
been to establish the serious value of the historical songs preserved,
among the Maoris, by the _Tohungus_, or _wise men_, who represent the
_Aiepas_ of Tahiti. Thanks to these living archives, we have been able
to reconstruct a history of the natives, to fix almost the epoch of
the first arrival of the Polynesians in that land, so distant from
their other centers of population, and to determine their point of
departure."

Other studies refer to peoples far removed from the preceding. One is
devoted to the Todas, a very small tribe of the Nilgherie Hills, who
by their physical, intellectual, and social characteristics differ
from all the other races of India. "The Todas burn their dead, and we
possess none of their skulls. But thanks to M. Janssen, who has lived
among them, I have been able to fill up this gap."

The last subject referred to by the lecturer was the Finns of Finland,
whose study reveals the fact that they embrace two ethnic types, one
of which, the _Tavastlanda_, belongs without doubt to the great
Finnish family, spread over Asia as well as in Europe, and a second,
the Karelien, whose representatives possessed the poetic instinct,
which causes M. Quatrefages to ally them with the Aryan race, "to whom
we owe all our epics, from the Ramayana, Iliad, and Eneas to the poems
of to-day."

       *       *       *       *       *




GRECIAN ANTIQUITIES.


[Illustration: MONUMENT OF PHILOPAPPUS, ATHENS.]

Although so much has been written about Athens, there is one striking
feature which has been little noticed. This is the beautiful colors of
the Parthenon and Erectheum, the soft mellow yellow which is due to
age, and which gives these buildings when lighted by the setting sun,
and framed by the purple hills beyond, the appearance of temples of
gold.

[Illustration: TOMB FROM THE CERAMICUS, ATHENS.]

Until A.D. 1687 the Parthenon remained almost perfect, and then not
age but a shell from the Venetians falling upon Turkish powder, made a
rent which, when seen from below, makes it look like two temples.

[Illustration: TOWER OF THE WINDS, ATHENS.]

The Temple of Theseus is the best preserved and one of the oldest of
the buildings of ancient Athens. It was founded in B.C. 469, and is a
small, graceful, and perfect Doric temple. Having served as a
Christian church, dedicated to St. George, it escaped injury. It
contains the beautiful and celebrated tombstone of Aristion, the
warrior of Marathon.

[Illustration: THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS.]

All that remains of Hadrian's great Temple to Zeus (A.D. 132) are a
few standing columns in an open space, which are imposing from their
isolated position.

[Illustration: OLD CORINTH AND THE ACROCORINTHUS.]

The monument of Philopappus is thought to have been begun A.D. 110,
and for a king in Asia Minor.

[Illustration: TEMPLE OF JUPITER, ATHENS.]

The Tower of the Winds, erected by Andronicus Cyrrhestes about B.C.
100, contained a weathercock, a sun dial, and a water clock. It is an
octagonal building, with reliefs on the frieze, representing by
appropriate figures the eight winds into which the Athenian compass
was divided.

[Illustration: THE PANTHENON, ATHENS.]

In the Street of Tombs the monuments are lying or standing as they
were found; each year shows many changes in Athens, a tomb last year
in the Ceramicus may be this year in a museum. There is a great
similarity in all these tombstones; no doubt they were made
beforehand, as they seldom suggest the idea of a portrait. They
generally represent an almost heroic leave-taking. The friends
standing in the act of saying farewell are receiving presents from the
dead; often in the corner is a crouching slave, and frequently a dog.

[Illustration: ERECTEUM, ATHENS.]

Beyond the river Kephiesus, the hill of Colonus, and the groves of the
Academy, is the Pass of Daphne, which was the road to Eleusis, and
along which passed the annual sacred processions in the days of the
Mysteries. Cut there in the rock are the niches for the votive
offerings. This dark Daphne Pass seems still to possess an air of
mystery which is truly in keeping with the rites which were once
observed there.

[Illustration: NICHES FOR VOTIVE OFFERINGS ON THE SACRED WAY TO
ELEUSIS.]

[Illustration: TEMPLE OF CORINTH, FROM THE MONUMENT OF PHILOPAPPUS.]

From several points in Athens, on very clear days, may be seen the
great rock fort Acrocorinthus, which is directly above the site of
ancient Corinth. It is now a deserted fort; the Turkish drawbridge and
gate stand open and unused. There are on it remains of a Turkish town;
at one time it was one of the strongest and most important citadels in
Greece. In the middle of the almost deserted, wretched, straggling
village of Old Corinth stand seven enormous massive columns. These are
all that remain of the Temple, and indeed of ancient Corinth. The
pillars, of the Doric order, are of a brown limestone, not of the
country. The Turks and earthquakes have destroyed Old Corinth, and
driven the inhabitants to New Corinth, about one hour and a half's
drive from the Gulf.--_London Graphic_.

[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THESEUS, ATHENS.]

[Illustration: TOMBSTONE IN THE CERAMICUS, ATHENS.]

       *       *       *       *       *




SPANISH FISHERIES.


The Spanish Court at the late Fisheries Exhibition was large and well
furnished, there being several characteristic models of vessels. No
certain figures can be obtained of the results of the whole fishing
industry of Spain. It is, however, estimated that 14,202 boats, with a
tonnage of 51,397 tons, were employed during the year 1882. They gave
occupation to 59,974 men, and took about 78,000 tons of fish. The
Government interfere in the fishing industry only to the extent of
collecting and distributing information to the fishermen on subjects
that are most likely to be of use to them in their calling. In
consequence, principally no doubt of this wise policy, we find in
Spain a vigorous and self-reliant class of men engaged in the
fisheries. Some of the most interesting features in the Spanish Court
were the contributions sent by the different fishermen's associations,
and although the Naval Museum of Madrid supplied a collection of
articles that would have formed a good basis in itself for an
exhibition, yet in no other foreign court was the fishing industry of
the nation better illustrated by private enterprise than in that of
Spain. The fishing associations referred to are half benefit societies
and half trading communities. That of Lequeito has issued a small
pamphlet, from which we learn that this body consists of 600 members
divided into three classes, viz., owners of vessels, patrons or men in
charge, and ordinary fishermen. A board of directors, consisting of 22
owners, and 24 masters of boats or ordinary fishermen, has the sole
control of the affairs of the society. The meetings are presided over
by a majordomo elected triennially, and who must be the owner of a
boat over 40 ft. long. This functionary receives a stipend of 8,000
reales a year, a sum which sounds more modest when expressed as 80_l_.
He has two clerks, who are on the permanent staff, to help him. His
duties are to keep the books with the assistance of the two clerks, to
take charge of the sales of all fish, recover moneys, and make
necessary payments. In stormy weather he gets up in a watch tower and
guides boats entering the harbor. The _atalayero_ is an official of
the society, whose duty it is to station himself on the heights and
signal by means of smoke, to the boats at sea, the movements of
schools of sardines and anchovies or probable changes of weather. It
is also the duty of this officer to weigh all the bream caught from
the 1st November to the 31st of March, for which he receives a
"gratuity" of 100 pesetas, or say 4_l._, sterling. Two other seneros,
or signalmen, are told off to keep all boats in port during bad
weather, and to call together the crews when circumstances appear
favorable for sailing. Should there be a difference of opinion between
these experts as to the meteorological probabilities, the patrons, or
skippers of the fishing-boats, are summoned in council and their
opinion taken by "secret vote with black and white balls." The
decision so arrived at is irrevocable, and all are bound to sail
should it be so decided; those who do not do so paying a fine to the
funds of the association. The boats carrying the seneros fly a color
by means of which they signal orders for sailing to the other vessels.
These seneros appear to be the Spanish equivalent to the English
admiral of a trawling fleet.

The boats used by these fishermen are fine craft; one or two models of
them were shown in the Exhibition. A first-class boat will be of about
the following dimensions: Length over all, 45 ft. to 50 ft.; breadth
(extreme), 9 ft. to 10 ft. 3 in.; depth (inside), 3 ft. 10 in. to 4
ft. The keel is of oak 6 in. by 31/2 in. The stem and stern posts are
also of oak. The planking is generally of oak or walnut--the latter
preferred--and is 3 in. thick, the width of the planks being 41/2 in.
Many boats are now constructed of hard wood to the water line and
Norway pine above.

The fastenings are galvanized nails 41/2 in. long. The mast-partners and
all the thwarts are of oak 11/2 in. thick and 8 in. wide; the latter are
fastened in with iron knees. Lee-board and rudder are of oak, walnut,
or chestnut; the rudder extends 31/2 ft. to 4 ft. below the keel, and,
in giving lateral resistance, balances the lee-board, which is thrust
down forward under the lee-bow. The rig consists of two lags, the
smaller one forward right in the eyes of the boat; the mainmast being
amidships. The lug sails are set on long yards, the fair-weather rig
consisting of a fore lug with 120 square yards, and a main lug of 200
square yards. There are six shifts of sail, the main being substituted
for the fore lug in turn as the weather increases, in a manner similar
to that in which our own Mounts Bay boats reduce canvas. The fair
weather rig requires two masts 42 ft. and 36 ft. long, and yards 28
ft. and 30 ft. long, respectively. The oars are 16 ft. long, and are
pulled double-banked. Such a boat will cost 90_l._ to 100_l._ fitted for
sea, of which sum the hull will represent rather more than half. These
vessels generally remain at sea for twelve hours, from about three to
four in the morning until the same time in the evening. Tunny, merluza
(a species of cod), and bream are the principal fish taken. The
first-named are caught by hook and line operated by means of poles
rigged out from the boat much in the same way, apparently, as we drail
for mackerel on the southwest coast. A filament of maize straw is used
for bait. The boat sails to a distance of about 90 miles off the land
and run back before the prevailing wind, until they are about nine
miles from the shore or until they lose the fish. When the fisherman
gets a bite the wind is spilled out of the sail so as to deaden the
boat's way. The fish is then got alongside, promptly gaffed, and got
on board. Tunny sells for about three halfpence a pound in Lequeito.
The season extends from June to November. Bream are taken in the
winter and spring, 9 to 12 miles off the coast. They are caught by
hook and line in two ways. The first is worth describing. A line 50
fathoms long has bent to it snoods with hooks attached, 16 in. apart.
Each man handles three lines. On reaching the fishing ground the line,
to the end of which a stone is attached, is gradually paid out until
soundings are taken; then another stone is attached and the operation
repeated. If a bite is felt the line is slacked away freely, and this
goes on until about 500 fathoms are overboard. When, by the lively and
continuous jerking of the line, the fisherman concludes that he has a
good number of fish on the hooks, he will haul aboard and then prepare
to shoot again.

The second method of taking the bream is by long lining; fifty of the
lines we have just described being bent together and duly anchored and
buoyed. Spaniards do not much care for this way of fishing, as it is
costly in bait and the gear is often lost in bad weather. Bream sells
at about 31/2d. a pound. Cod are taken during the first six months of
the year, about 9 miles off shore, by hand lines. Sold fresh the price
is about 6_d._ per lb. A small quantity is preserved in tins. Anchovy or
cuttlefish is the bait used; sometimes the two are placed on one hook.

A smaller description of boat, called traineras, is built especially
for taking sardine and anchovy, although in fine weather they often
engage in the same fishery as the larger boats. The traineras are
light and shapely vessels, with a graceful sheer and curved stem and
stern posts. The keel is much cambered, and the bottom is flat and has
considerable hollow. The usual dimensions vary between: Length, 38
feet to 42 feet; beam, 7 feet to 7 feet 6 inches; depth, 2 feet 6
inches to 2 feet 10 inches. The sails and gear are much the same as in
the larger boats, excepting that there are only four shifts in place
of six. The largest main lug has an area of about 90 square yards and
the fore lug about 50 square yards. The other sails for heavier
weather are naturally smaller. The largest masts for fine weather are
respectively 36 feet and 22 feet, long. The average cost of one of
these boats and gear is about L122, made up as follows: Hull, L32;
sails, gear, and oars, L30; nets and gear attached, L60. The season
for anchovy fishing commences on the 1st of March and ends 30th of
June; it begins again on the 15th of September, and continues until
the end of the year. Most fish are taken at a distance of about 9
miles from the land, although they often come in much closer.
Anchovies are sold fresh, or are salted to be sent away, some are used
for bait, and in times of great plenty quantities are put on the land
for manure. The greater part are, however, preserved in barrels or
tins, and are exported to France or England.

The net used in the capture of anchovies is called _traina_ or _copo_.
It is in principle like the celebrated purse seine of the United
States, but in place of being 200 fathoms long, as are many of the
nets, which, in American waters, will inclose a whole school of
mackerel, it is but 32 to 40 fathoms long. The depth is 7 to 10
fathoms, and the mesh 3/4 inch. Sardine fishing commences on the 1st of
July and lasts until December. The principal ground is 2 to 10 miles
off shore. The price of sardines on the coast is about 21/2d. per pound.
When the sardines appear in shoals they are taken with the traina in
the same way as anchovies, a net of 1/2-inch mesh being used. Sardines
are also taken by gill nets about 200 feet long and 18 feet wide. When
used in the daytime the fish are tolled up by a bait consisting of the
liver of cod. When the sardines have been attracted to the
neighborhood of the net, bait is thrown on the other side of it. The
fish in their rush for the bait become entangled in the mesh. These
nets are sometimes anchored out all night, in which case no bait is
used.

A third class of boats of much the same character are of about the
following dimensions: Length, 28 feet to 35 feet; beam, 7 feet 6
inches to 8 feet; depth, 2 feet 6 inches to 2 feet 8 inches. The two
lugs will contain 16 and 30 square yards of canvas respectively. They
are used for sardine catching, when they will carry a crew of four
men, or for taking conger and cod, in which case they will be manned
by eight hands.

Their cost will average approximately as follows: Hull, L15; gear and
sail, L10; nets and lines, L13; about L40. The conger season extends
from March to June, and from October to November. The fish are taken
by hook and line; sardine and fish known as berdel (which in turn is
taken by a hook covered with a feather) are used as bait.

There are other smaller fishing boats, among which may be noticed the
_bateler_, a powerful little vessel, 13 feet to 16 ft. long, about 51/2
ft. wide, and 2 ft. deep. They are sailed by one man, set a good
spread of canvas, and are fast and handy. They are used for taking a
species of cuttlefish which supplies a bait, and is caught by hook and
line, the fishes being attracted by colored threads, at which they
rush, when the hook will catch in their tentacles. There is a small
well in the middle of the boat for keeping the fish alive. None of the
boats on the northern coast of Spain carry ballast. They have flat
hollow floors, and set a large area of of canvas on a shallow draught.
Lobster fishing is pursued in much the same manner as in England, but
often four or five miles from land, and in very deep water.

One of the most noticeable objects in the Spanish court was a
full-sized boat about 25 ft. long, which had a square hole cut in the
bottom amidships. Through this hole was let down a glass frame in
which was placed a powerful paraffine lamp. The object of this was to
attract the fish. It is said that tunny will be drawn from a distance
of over a hundred yards, and will follow the boat so that they may be
enticed into the nets. Sardines and other fish will follow the light
in shoals. It is claimed that the boat will be useful in diving
operations, for pearl or coral fishing, or for ascertaining the
direction of submarine currents, which can be seen at night by a lamp
to a depth to 25 to 30 fathoms.--_Engineering_.

       *       *       *       *       *




DUCK SHOOTING AT MONTAUK.


Montauk Point, Long Island, is the most isolated and desolate spot
imaginable during this weather. The frigid monotony of winter has
settled down upon that region, and now it is haunted only by sea fowl.
The bleak, barren promontory whereon stands the light is swept clean
of its summer dust by the violent raking of cold hurricanes across it,
and coated with ice from the wind-dashed spume of the great breakers
hurled against the narrow sand spit which makes the eastern terminus
of the island. The tall, white towered light and its black lantern,
now writhing in frosty northern blizzards, and again shivering in
easterly gales, now glistening with ice from the tempest tossed seas
all about it, and now varnished with wreaths of fog, is the only
habitation worthy of the name for many miles around. Keeper Clark and
his family and assistants are almost perpetually fenced in from the
outside world by the cold weather, and have to hug closely the roaring
fires that protect them in that desolation.

But for ducks and the duck hunter the lighthouse family would die of
inanition. With the cold weather comes the ducks, and they continue to
come till the warmer blasts of spring drive them to the northward.
Montauk Point is a favorite haunt for this sort of wild fowl. It is a
good feeding ground, is isolated, and there is nearly always a weather
shore for the flocks to gather under. But year by year the point is
being more and more frequented by sportsmen, and the reports of their
successes increase the applicants for lodgings at the light. Some 20
gunners were out there last week with the most improved paraphernalia
for the sport, and did telling work. Flight shooting is the favorite
method of taking them. The light stands very near the end of the
point, about a sixteenth of a mile to the west, and all migratory
birds in passing south seem to have it down in their log-book that
they must not only sight this structure, but must also fly over it as
nearly as possible. Hence the variety and extent of the flocks which
are continually passing is a matter of interest and wonder to a
student of natural history as well as to the sportsman. Coots,
whistlers, soft bills, old squaws, black ducks, cranes, belated wild
geese, and, in fact, all sorts of northern birds make up this long and
strange procession, and the air is frequently so densely packed with
them as to be actually darkened, while the keen, whistling music of
their whizzing wings makes a melody that comparatively few landsmen
ever hear. Millions of the birds never hesitate at this point in their
flight, although thousands of them do. These latter make the
neighboring waters their home for the rest of the winter. Great flocks
of ducks are continually sailing about the rugged shores, and the
frozen cranberry marshes of Fort Pond Bay, lying to the westward, are
their favorite feeding-grounds. The birds are always as fat as butter
when making their flight, and their piquant, spicy flavor leads to
their being barbecued by the wholesale at the seat of shooting
operations. One of the gunner's cabins has nailed up in it the heads
of 345 ducks that have been roasted on the Point this winter.

Early morning is the favorite time for shooting. At daybreak the
flights are heavy, and from that time until seven o'clock in the
morning they increase until it seems as though all the flocks which
had spent the night in the caves and ponds on the Connecticut shore
were on the wing and away for the south. By ten o'clock in the
forenoon the flights grow rarer, and the rest of the day only
stragglers come along. A good gunner can take five dozen of these
birds easily in a morning's work, provided he can and will withstand
the inclemency of the weather.

Keeper Clark never shoots ducks. Scarcely a morning has dawned for two
months but that several of the poor birds have been picked up at the
foot of the light house tower with the broken necks which have mutely
told the story of death, reached by plunging headlong against the
crystal walls of the dazzling lantern overhead the night before. There
is a tendency with such migratory birds as are on the wing at night to
fly very high. But the great, glaring, piercing, single eye of Montauk
light seems to draw into it by dozens, as a loadstone pulls a magnet,
its feathered victims, and they swerve in their course and make
straight for it. As they flash nearer and nearer, the light, of
course, grows brighter and brighter, and at length they dash into what
appears a sea of fire, to be crushed lifeless by the heavy glass, and
they fall to the ground below, ready to be plucked for the oven.
Inside the lantern the thud made by these birds when they strike is
readily felt. Although they are comparatively small, yet so great is
their velocity that the impact creates a perceptible jar, and the
lantern is disfigured with plashes of their blood. Upon stormy and
foggy nights the destruction of birds is found to be greatest. When
the weather is clear and fair many smaller birds, like robins,
sparrows, doves, cuckoos, rail, snipe, etc., will circle about the
light all night long, leaving only when the light is extinguished in
the morning. Large cranes show themselves to be almost dangerous
visitors. Recently one of these weighing 40 pounds struck the wrought
iron guard railing about the lantern with such force as to bend the
iron slats and to completely sever his long neck from his body.--_N.Y.
Times_.

       *       *       *       *       *

[THE GARDEN.]




THE HORNBEAMS.


The genus Carpinis is widely distributed throughout the temperate
regions of the northern hemisphere. There are nine species known to
botanists, most of them being middle-sized trees. In addition to those
mentioned below, figures of which are herewith given, there are four
species from Japan and one from the Himalayan region which do not yet
seem to have found their way to this country; these five are therefore
omitted. All are deciduous trees, and every one is thoroughly
deserving of cultivation. The origin of the English name is quaintly
explained by Gerard in his "Herbal" as follows: "The wood," he says,
"in time, waxeth so hard, that the toughness and hardness of it may be
rather compared to horn than unto wood, and therefore it was called
horne-beam or hardbeam."

[Illustration: CARPINUS ORIENTALIS.]

_Carpinus Betulus_,[1] the common hornbeam, as is the case with so
many of our native or widely cultivated trees, exhibits considerable
variation in habit, and also in foliage characters. Some of the more
striking of these, those which have received names in nurseries, etc.,
and are propagated on account of their distinctive peculiarities, are
described below. In a wild state C. Betulus occurs in Europe from
Gothland southward, and extends also into West Asia. Although
apparently an undoubted native in the southern counties of England, it
appears to have no claim to be considered indigenous as far as the
northern counties are concerned; it has also been planted wherever it
occurs in Ireland.

  [Footnote 1: IDENTIFICATION.--Carpinus Betulus, L., Loudon,
  "Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum," vol. iii., p. 2004; Encycl.
  of Trees and Shrubs, 917. Boswell Syme, "English Botany," vol.
  viii., p. 176, tab. 1293; Koch, "Dendrologie," zweit. theil.
  zweit. abtheil., p. 2: Hooker, "Student's Flora of the British
  Islands," ed. 2, p. 365. C. Carpinizza, Host., "Flora Austriaca,"
  ii., p. 626. C. intermedia. Wierbitzsky in Reichb Ic. fl. Germ. et
  Helvet., xxii. fig. 1297.]

[Illustration: CARPINUS AMERICANA.]

Few trees bear cutting so well as the hornbeam, and for this reason,
during the reign of the topiarist, it was held in high repute for the
formation of the "close alleys," "covert alleys," or the
"thick-pleached alleys," frequently mentioned in Shakespeare and in
the works of other authors about three centuries ago. In the sixteenth
century the topiary art had reached its highest point of development,
and was looked upon as the perfection of gardening; the hornbeam--and
indeed almost every other tree--was cut and tortured into every
imaginable shape. The "picturesque style," however, soon drove the
topiarist and his art out of the field, yet even now places still
remain in England where the old and once much-belauded fashion still
exists on a large scale--a fact by no means to be deplored from an
archaeological point of view. Dense, quaintly-shaped hornbeam hedges
are not unfrequent in the gardens of many old English mansions, and in
some old country farmhouses the sixteenth century craze is still
perpetuated on a smaller scale.

[Illustration: CARPINUS BETULUS, LEAF, CATKINS, AND FRUIT.]

Sir J.E. Smith, in his "English Flora," after enumerating the virtues
of the hornbeam as a hedge plant, gives it as his opinion that "when
standing by itself and allowed to take its natural form, the hornbeam
makes a much more handsome tree than most people are aware of." Those
who are familiar with the fine specimens which exist at Studley Park
and elsewhere will have no hesitation in confirming Sir J.E. Smith's
statement. The Hornbeam Walk in Richmond Park, from Pembroke Lodge
toward the Ham Gate, will recur to many Southerners as a good instance
of the fitness of the hornbeam for avenues. In the walk in question
there are many fine trees, which afford a thorough and agreeable shade
during the summer months.

[Illustration: CARPINUS VIMINEA.]

In any soil or position the hornbeam will grow readily, except
exceedingly dry or too marshy spots. On chalky hillsides it does not
grow so freely as on clayey plains. Under the latter conditions,
however, the wood is not so good. In mountainous regions the hornbeam
occupies a zone lower than that appropriated by the beech, rarely
ascending more than 1,200 yards above sea level. It is not injured by
frost, and in Germany is often seen fringing the edges of the beech
forests along the bottom of the valleys where the beech would suffer.
Scarcely any tree coppices more vigorously or makes more useful
pollards on dry grass land.

[Illustration: BRANCH OF CARPINUS BETULUS.]

On account of its great toughness the wood of the hornbeam is employed
in engineering work for cogs in machinery. When subjected to vertical
pressure it cannot be completely destroyed; its fibers, instead of
breaking off short, double up like threads, a conclusive proof of its
flexibility and fitness for service in machinery (Laslett's "Timber
and Timber Trees"). According to the same recent authority, the
vertical or crushing strain on cubes of 2 inches average 14.844 tons,
while that on cubes of 1 inch is 3.711 tons.

[Illustration: LEAVES OF CARPINUS BETULUS QUERCOFOLIA.]

A few years ago an English firm required a large quantity of hornbeam
wood for the manufacture of lasts, but failed to procure it in
England. They succeeded, however, in obtaining a supply from France,
where large quantities of this timber are used for that purpose. It
may be interesting to state that in England at any rate lasts are no
longer made to any extent by hand, but are rapidly turned in enormous
numbers by machinery. In France _sabots_ are also made of hornbeam
wood, but the difficulty in working it and its weight render it less
valuable for _sabotage_ than beech. For turnery generally, cabinet
making, and also for agricultural implements, etc., this wood is
highly valued; in some of the French winegrowing districts, viz., Cote
d'Or and Yonne, hoops for the wine barrels are largely made from this
tree. It makes the best fuel and it is preferred to every other for
apartments, as it lights easily, makes a bright flame, which burns
equally, continues a long time, and gives out an abundance of heat.
"Its charcoal is highly esteemed, and in France and Switzerland it is
preferred to most others, not only for forges and for cooking by, but
for making gunpowder, the workmen at the great gunpowder manufactory
at Berne rarely using any other. The inner bark, according to Linnaeus,
is used for dyeing yellow. The leaves, when dried in the sun, are used
in France as fodder; and when wanted for use in water, the young
branches are cut off in the middle of summer, between the first and
second growth, and strewed or spread out in some place which is
completely sheltered from the rain to dry without the tree being in
the slightest degree injured by the operation." (Dict. des Eaux et
Forets, art. Charme, as quoted by London).

[Illustration: LEAVES OF CARPINUS BETULUS INCISA.]

It hardly seems necessary to dwell upon the value of the hornbeam as a
hedge or shelter plant. In many nurseries it is largely used for these
purposes, the russet-brown leaves remaining on the twigs until
displaced by the new growths in spring.

_Var. incisa_ (Aiton, "Hortus Kewensis," v., 301; C. asplenifolia,
Hort.; C. laciniata, Hort.).--These three names represent two forms,
which are, however, so near each other, that for all practical
purposes they are identical. A glance at the accompanying figure will
show how distinct and ornamental this variety is.

[Illustration: HORNBEAMS (ONE WITH INOSCULATED TRUNK).]

_Var. quercifolia_ (Desf. tabl. de l'ecol. de bot. du Mus. d'hist.
nat., 213; Ostrya quercifolia, Hort.; Carpinus heterophylla,
Hort.)--This form, as will be seen by the figure, is thoroughly
distinct from the common hornbeam; it has very much smaller leaves
than the type, their outline, as implied by the varietal name,
resembling that of the foliage of the oak. It frequently reverts to
the type, and, as far as my experience goes, appears to be much less
fixed than the variety incisa.

_Var. purpurea_ (Hort.).--The young leaves of this are brownish red;
it is well worth growing for the pleasing color effect produced by the
young growths in spring. Apart from color it does not differ from the
type.

_Var. fastigiata_ (Hort.).--In this variety the branches are more
ascending and the habit altogether more erect; indeed, among the
hornbeams this is a counterpart of the fastigiate varieties of the
common oak.

_Var. variegata_, aureo-variegata, albo-variegata
(albo-marmorata).--These names represent forms differing so slightly
from each other, that it is not worth while to notice them separately,
or even to treat them as distinct. In no case that I have seen is the
variegation at all striking, and, except in tree collections,
variegated hornbeams are hardly worth growing.

[Illustration: FULL GROWN HORNBEAM IN WINTER. CARPINUS BETULUS (Full
grown tree at Chiswick, 45 ft. high in 1844).]

_Carpinus orientalis_[2] (the Oriental hornbeam) principally differs
from our native species in its smaller size, the lesser leaves with
downy petioles, and the green, much-lacerated bractlets. It is a
native of the south of Europe, whence it extends to the Caucasus, and
probably also to China; the Carpinus Turczaninovi of Hance scarcely
seems to differ, in any material point at any rate, from western
examples of C. orientalis. According to Loudon, it was introduced to
this country by Philip Miller in 1739, and there is no doubt that it
is far from common even now. It is, however, well worth growing; the
short twiggy branches, densely clothed with dark green leaves, form a
thoroughly efficient screen. The plant bears cutting quite as well as
the common hornbeam, and wherever the latter will grow this will also
succeed. In that very interesting compilation, "Hortus Collinsonianus,"
the following memorandum occurs: "The Eastern hornbeam was raised from
seed sent me from Persia, procured by Dr. Mounsey, physician to the
Czarina. Received it August 2, 1751, and sowed it directly; next year
(1752) the hornbeam came up, which was the original of all in England.
Mr. Gordon soon increased it, and so it came into the gardens of the
curious. At the same time, from the same source, were raised a new
acacia, a quince, and a bermudiana, the former very different from any
in our gardens." This memorandum was probably written from recollection
long afterward, with an error in the dates, and the species was first
entered in the catalogue as follows: "Azad, arbor persica carpinus
folio, Persian hornbeam, raised from seed, anno 1747; not in England
before." It appears, however, from Rand's "Index" that there was a
plant of it in the Chelsea Garden in 1739. The name duinensis was given
by Scopoli, because of his having first found it wild at Duino. As,
however, Miller had previously described it under the name orientalis,
that one is adopted in accordance with the rule of priority, by which
must be decided all such questions in nomenclature.

  [Footnote 2: IDENTIFICATION.--Carpinus orientalis. Miller,
  "Gardener's Dictionary," ed. 6 1771; La Marck, Dict, i., 107;
  Watson, "Dendrologia Britannica," ii., tab. 98; Reich. Ic. fl.
  Germ. et Helvet., xxii., fig, 1298; Tenore, "Flora Neapolitana,"
  v., 264; Loudon, Arb. et Fruticet. Brit., iii., 2014, Encycl.
  Trees and Shrubs, p. 918; Koch, "Dendrologie." zweit, theil zweit,
  abtheil, p. 4. C. duinensis, Scopoli, "Flora Carniolica," 2 ed.,
  ii., 243, tab. 60; Bertoloni, "Flora Italica," x., 233; Alph. De
  Candolle in Prodr., xvi. (ii.), 126.]

_The American Hornbeam_ [3] also known under the names of blue beech,
water beech, and iron wood, although a less tree than our native
species, which it resembles a good deal in size of foliage and general
aspect, is nevertheless a most desirable one for the park or pleasure
ground, on account of the gorgeous tint assumed by the decaying leaves
in autumn. Emerson, in his "Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts," pays a
just tribute to this tree from a decorative standpoint. He says: "The
crimson, scarlet, and orange of its autumnal colors, mingling into a
rich purplish red, as seen at a distance, make it rank in splendor
almost with the tupelo and the scarlet oak. It is easily cultivated,
and should have a corner in every collection of trees." It has
pointed, ovate oblong, sharply double serrate, nearly smooth leaves.
The acute bractlets are three-lobed, halberd-shaped, sparingly
cut-toothed on one side. Professor C.S. Sargent, in his catalogue of
the "Forest Trees-of North America," gives the distribution, etc., of
the American hornbeam as follows: "Northern Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, through the valley of St. Lawrence and Lower Ottawa Rivers,
along the northern shores of Lake Huron to Northern Wisconsin and
Minnesota; south to Florida and Eastern Texas. Wood resembling that of
ostrya (hop hornbeam). At the north generally a shrub or small tree,
but becoming, in the Southern Alleghany Mountains, a tree sometimes 50
feet in height, with a trunk 2 feet to 3 feet in diameter." It will
almost grow in any soil or exposition in this country.

  [Footnote 3: IDENTIFICATION.--Carpinius caroliniana, Walter,
  "Flora Caroliniana," 236; C. americana, Michx. fl. bor. Amer.,
  ii., 201; Mich. f. Hist. des. Arbres Forestiers de l'Amerique
  Septentrionale, iii., 57, tab. 8; Watson, "Dendrologia
  Britannica," ii., 157; Gray, "Manual of the Botany of the Northern
  United States," p. 457.]

_Carpinus viminea_[4] is a rather striking species with long-pointed
leaves; the accompanying figure scarcely gives a sufficiently clear
representation of their long, tail-like prolongations. Judging from
the height at which it grows, it would probably prove hardy in this
country, and, if so, the distinct aspect and graceful habit of the
tree would render it a decided acquisition. It is a moderate-sized
tree, with thin gray bark, and slender, drooping warted branches. The
blade of the smooth leave measures from 3 inches to 4 inches in
length, the hairy leaf-stalk being about half an inch long. It is a
native of Himalaya, where it occurs at elevations of from 5000 to 7000
feet above sea-level. As in our common hornbeam, the male catkins
appear before the leaves, and the female flowers develop in spring at
the same time as the leaves. The hard, yellowish white wood--a cubic
foot of which weighs 50 lb.--is used for ordinary building purposes by
the natives of Nepaul.

  [Footnote 4: IDENTIFICATION.--Carpinus viminea, Lindl. in Wall.
  Plant. Asiat. Rar., ii., p. 4, t. 106; D.C. Prodr., xvi., ii.,
  127. Loudon, "Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum," iii., p. 2014;
  Encycl. of Trees and Shrubs, p. 919. Brandis, "Forest Flora,"
  492.]

GEORGE NICHOLSON.
Royal Gardens, Kew.

       *       *       *       *       *




FRUIT OF CAMELLIA JAPONICA.


The fruiting of the camellia in this country being rather uncommon, we
have taken the opportunity of illustrating one of three sent to us a
fortnight ago by Mr. J. Menzies, South Lytchett, who says: "The fruits
are from a large plant of the single red, grown out of doors against a
wall with an east aspect, and protected by a glazed coping 4 feet
wide. The double, semi-double, and single varieties have from time to
time borne fruit out of doors here, from which I have raised
seedlings, but have hitherto failed to get any variety worth sending
out or naming."

In the annexed woodcut the fruit is represented natural size. Its
appearance is somewhat singular. It is very hard, and has a glazed
appearance like that of porcelain. The color is pale green, except on
the exposed side, which is dull red. It is furrowed like a tomato, and
on the day after we received it the furrows opened and exposed three
or four large mahogany-brown seeds embedded in hard pulp.--_The
Garden._

[Illustration: FRUIT OF CAMELLILA JAPONICA.]

       *       *       *       *       *

[SCIENCE.]




A NEW RULE FOR DIVISION IN ARITHMETIC.


The ordinary process of long division is rather difficult, owing to
the necessity of guessing at the successive figures which form the
divisor. In case the repeating decimal expressing the _exact_ quotient
is required, the following method will be found convenient:

_Rule for division_.

_First._ Treat the divisor as follows:

  If its last figure is a 0, strike this off, and treat what is left
  as the divisor.

  If its last figure is a 5, multiply the whole by 2, and treat the
  product as the divisor.

  If its last figure is an even number, multiply the whole by 5, and
  treat the product as a divisor.

Repeat this treatment until these precepts cease to be applicable.
Call the result the _prepared divisor_.

_Second._ From the prepared divisor cut off the last figure: and, if
this be a 9, change it to a 1, or if it be a 1, change it to a 9;
otherwise keep it unchanged. Call this figure the _extraneous
multiplier_.

Multiply the extraneous multiplier into the divisor thus truncated,
and increase the product by 1, unless the extraneous multiplier be 7,
when increase the product by 5. Call the result the _current
multiplier_.

_Third._ Multiply together the extraneous multiplier and all the
multipliers used in the process of obtaining the prepared divisor. Use
the product to multiply the dividend, calling the result the _prepared
dividend_.

_Fourth._ From the prepared dividend cut off the last figure, multiply
this by the current multiplier, and add the product to the truncated
dividend. Call the sum the _modified dividend_, and treat this in the
same way. Continue this process until a modified dividend is reached
which equals the original prepared dividend or some previous modified
dividend; so that, were the process continued, the same figures would
recur.

_Fifth._ Consider the series of last figures which have been
successively cut off from the prepared dividend and from the modified
dividends as constituting a number, the figure first cut off being in
the units' place, the next in the tens' place, and so on. Call this
the _first infinite number_, because its left-hand portion consists of
a series of figures repeating itself indefinitely toward the left.
Imagine another infinite number, identical with the first in the
repeating part of the latter, but differing from this in that the same
series is repeated uninterruptedly and indefinitely toward the right
into the decimal places.

Subtract the first infinite number from the second, and shift the
decimal point as many places to the left as there were zeros dropped
in the process of obtaining the prepared divisor.

The result is the quotient sought.

_Examples._

1. The following is taken at random. Divide 1883 by 365.

_First._ The divisor, since it ends in 5, must be multiplied by 2,
giving 730. Dropping the O, we have 73 for the prepared divisor.

_Second._ The last figure of the prepared divisor being 3, this is the
extraneous multiplier. Multiplying the truncated divisor, 7, by the
extraneous multiplier, 3, and adding 1, we have 22 for the current
multiplier.

_Third._ The dividend, 1883, has now to be multiplied by the product
of 3, the extraneous multiplier, and 2, the multiplier used in
preparing the divisor. The product, 11298, is the prepared dividend.

_Fourth._ From the prepared dividend, 11298, we cut off the last
figure 8, and multiply this by the current multiplier, 22. The
product, 176, is added to the truncated dividend, 1129, and gives 1305
for the first modified divisor. The whole operation is shown thus:

                   1 8 8 3
                         6
                   -------
                 1 1 2 9|8
                   1 7 6 -
                   -----
                 1 3 0|5
                 1 1 0 -
                 -----
                 2|4 0
               8 8 ---
               ---
              |9 0
           -----
           1 9|8
         1 7 6 -
         -----
         1 9|5
       1 1 0 -
       -----
       1 2|9
     1 9 8 -
     -----
     2|1 0
   2 2 ---
   2 4

We stop at this point because 24 was a previous modified dividend,
written under the form 240 above. Our two infinite numbers (which need
not in practice be written down) are, with their difference:

          .        .
          10,958,904,058      .      .
          10,958,904,109.5890410958904
          ----------------------------
                              .      .
                      51.5890410958904
                                .      .
Hence the quotient sought is 5.158904109.

_Example 2._ Find the reciprocal of 333667.

The whole work is here given:

      3 3 3 6 6|7                    |7
    2 3 3 5 6 7 -         1 6 3 4 9 6|9
                        2 1 0 2 1 0 3 -
                        -------------
                        2 2 6 5 5 9|9
                      2 1 0 2 1 0 3 -
                      -------------
                      2 3 2 8 6 6|2
                      4 6 7 1 3 4 -
                      -----------
                      7 0 0 0 0 0

            .       .
_Answer_, 0.000002997.

_Example 3._ Find the reciprocal of 41.

_Solution._--

                    4|1                 |9
                    -----              -----
                    3 7|9              3 3|3
                        -            1 1 1 -
                                     -----
                                     1 4|4
                                   1 4 8 -
                                   -----
                                   1 6|2
                                   7 4 -
                                   ---
                                   9 0
            .   .
_Answer_, 0.02439.

C.S. PEIRCE.

       *       *       *       *       *

[SCIENCE.]




EXPERIMENTS IN BINARY ARITHMETIC.


Those who can perform in that most necessary of all mathematical
operations, simple addition, any great number of successive examples
or any single extensive example without consciousness of a severe
mental strain, followed by corresponding mental fatigue, are
exceptions to a general rule. These troubles are due to the quantity
and complexity of the matter with which the mind has to be occupied at
the same time that the figures are recognized. The sums of pairs of
numbers from zero up to nine form fifty-five distinct propositions
that must be borne in memory, and the "carrying" is a further
complication. The strain and consequent weariness are not only felt,
but seen, in the mistakes in addition that they cause. They are, in
great part, the tax exacted of us by our decimal system of arithmetic.
Were only quantities of the same value, in any one column, to be
added, our memory would be burdened with nothing more than the
succession of numbers in simple counting, or that of multiples of two,
three, or four, if the counting is by groups.

It is easy to prove that the most economical way of reducing addition
to counting similar quantities is by the binary arithmetic of
Leibnitz, which appears in an altered dress, with most of the zero
signs suppressed, in the example below. Opposite each number in the
usual figures is here set the same according to a scheme in which the
signs of powers of two repeat themselves in periods of four; a very
small circle, like a degree mark, being used to express any fourth
power in the series; a long loop, like a narrow 0, any square not a
fourth power; a curve upward and to the right, like a phonographic
_l_, any double fourth power; and a curve to the right and downward,
like a phonographic _r_, any half of a fourth power; with a vertical
bar to denote the absence of three successive powers not fourth
powers. Thus the equivalent for one million, shown in the example
slightly below the middle, is 2^{16} (represented by a degree-mark in
the fifth row of these marks, counting from the right) plus 2^{17} +
2^{9} (two _l_-curves in the fifth and third places of _l_-curves)
plus 2^{18} + 2^{14} + 2^{6} (three loops) plus 2^{19} (the _r_-curve
at the extreme left); while the absence of 2^{3}, 2^{2}, and 2^{1} is
shown by the vertical stroke at the right. This equivalent expression
may be verified, if desired, either by adding the designated powers of
two from 524,288 down to 64, or by successive multiplications by two,
adding one when necessary. The form of characters here exhibited was
thought to be the best of nearly three hundred that were devised and
considered and in about sixty cases tested for economic value by
actual additions.

In order to add them, the object for which these forty numbers are
here presented in two notations, it is not necessary to know just
_why_ the figures on the right are equal to those on the left, or to
know anything more than the order in which the different forms are to
be taken, and the fact that any one has twice the value of one in the
column next succeeding it on the right. The addition may be made from
the printed page, first covering over the answer with a paper held
fast by a weight, to have a place for the figures of the new answer as
successively obtained. The fingers will be found a great assistance,
especially if one of each hand be used, to point off similar marks in
twos, or threes, or fours--as many together as can be certainly
comprehended in a glance of the eye. Counting by fours, if it can be
done safely, is preferable because most rapid. The eye can catch the
marks for even powers more easily in going up and those for odd powers
(the _l_ and _r_ curves) in going down the columns. Beginning at the
lower right hand corner, we count the right hand column of small
circles, or degree marks, upward; they are twenty-three in number.
Half of twenty-three is eleven and one over; one of these marks has
therefore to be entered as part of the answer, and eleven carried to
the next column, the first one of _l_-curves. But since the curves are
most advantageously added downward, it is best, when the first column
is finished, simply to remember the remainder from it, and not to set
down anything until the bottom is reached in the addition of the
second column, when the remainders, if any, from both columns can be
set down together. In this case, starting with the eleven carried and
counting the number of the _l_-curves, we find ourselves at the bottom
with twenty-four--twelve to carry, and nothing to set down except the
degree mark from the first column. With the twelve we go up the
adjoining loop column, and the sum must be even, as this place is
vacant in the answer; the _r_-curve column next, downward, and then
another row of degree marks. The succession must be obvious by this
time. When the last column, the one in loops to the extreme left, is
added, the sum has to be reduced to unity by successive halvings. Here
we seem to have eleven; hence we enter one loop, and carry five to the
next place, which, it must be remembered, is of _r_-curves. Halving
five we express the remainder by entering one of these curves, and
carry the quotient, two, to the degree mark place. Halving again gives
one in the next place, that of _l_-curves; and the work is complete.

It is recommended that this work be gone over several times for
practice, until the appearance and order of the characters and the
details of the method become familiar; that, when the work can be done
mechanically and without hesitation, the time occupied in a complete
addition of the example, and the mistakes made in it, be carefully
noted; that this be done several times, with an interval of some days
between the trials, and the result of each trial kept separate; that
the time and mistakes by the ordinary figures in the same example, in
several trials, be observed for comparison. Please pay particular
attention to the difference in the kind of work required by the two
methods in its bearing on two questions--which of them would be easier
to work by for hours together, supposing both equally well learned?
and in which of them could a reasonable degree of skill be more
readily acquired by a beginner? The answer to these questions, if the
comparison be a fair one, is as little to be doubted as is their high
importance.

_Example in addition by two notations_

   77,823,876
   14,348,907
    8,654,912
    5,764,801
    4,635,857
    1,594,323
    6,417,728
    4,782,969
   83,886,075
   34,012,224
    2,903,111
   48,828,125
    1,724,826
    7,529,536
   43,344,817
   10,000,000
    8,334,712
    1,953,125
   11,308,417
      759,375
   21,180,840
    9,765,625
   18,643,788
    1,000,000
   44,739,243
    1,889,568
    2,517,471
   40,353,607
    4,438,414
    1,679,616
   23,708,715
   11,890,625
      945,754
      823,543
   15,308,805
   60,466,176
   30,685,377
   10,077,696
   19,416,381
   43,046,721
  ===========
  740,685,681

[Illustration]

Eight volunteer observers to whom this example has already been
submitted showed wide difference in arithmetical skill. One of them
took but a few seconds over two minutes, in the best of six trials, to
add by the usual figures, and set down the sum, but one figure in all
the six additions being wrong; another added once in ten minutes
fifty-seven seconds, and once in eleven minutes seven seconds, with
half the figures wrong each time. The last-mentioned observer had had
very little training in arithmetical work, but perhaps that gave a
fairer comparison. In the binary figures she made three additions in
between seven and eight minutes, with but one place wrong in the
three. With four of the observers the binary notation required nearly
double the time. These observers were all well practiced in
computation. Their best record, five minutes eighteen seconds, was
made by one whose best record was two minutes forty seconds in
ordinary figures. The author's own best results were two minutes
thirty-eight seconds binary, and three minutes twenty-three seconds
usual. He thus proved himself inferior to the last observer, as an
adder, by a system in which both were equally well trained; but a
greater familiarity (extending over a few weeks instead of a few
hours) with methods in binary addition enabled him to work twice as
fast with them. Of the author's nine additions by the usual figures,
four were wrong in one figure each; of his thirty-two additions by
different forms of binary notation, five were wrong, one of them in
two places. One observer found that he required one minute
thirty-three seconds to add a single column (average of five tried) by
the usual figures, and fifteen seconds to count the characters in one
(average of six tried) by the binary. Though these additions were
rather slow, the results are interesting. They show, making allowance
for the greater number of columns (three and a third times as many)
required by the binary plan, a saving of nearly half; but they also
illustrate the necessity of practice. This observer succeeded with the
binary arithmetic by avoiding the sources of delay that particularly
embarrass the beginner, by contenting himself with counting only, and
not stopping to divide by two, to set down an unfamiliar character, or
to recognize the mark by which he must distinguish his next column.
One well-known member of the Washington Philosophical Society and of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who declined
the actual trial as too severe a task, estimated his probable time
with ordinary figures at twenty minutes, with strong chances of a
wrong result, after all.

These statistics prove the existence of a class of persons who can do
faster and more reliable work by the binary reckoning. But too much
should not be made of them. Let them serve as specimens of facts of
which a great many more are to be desired, bearing on a question of
grave importance. Is it not worth our while to know, if we can, by
impartial tests, whether the tax imposed on our working brains by the
system of arithmetic in daily use is the necessary price of a blessing
enjoyed, or an oppression? If the strain produced by greater
complexity and intensity of mental labor is compensated by a
correspondingly greater rapidity in dealing with figures, the former
may be the case. If, on the contrary, a little practice suffices to
turn the balance of rapidity, for all but a small body of highly
drilled experts, in favor of an easier system, the latter must be.
This is the question that the readers of _Science_ are invited to help
in deciding. The difficulties attending a complete revolution in the
prevalent system of reckoning are confessedly stupendous; but they do
not render undesirable the knowledge that experiment alone can give,
whether or not the cost of that system is unreasonably high; nor
should they prevent those who accord them the fullest recognition from
assisting to furnish the necessary facts.

Those who are willing to undertake the addition on the plan proposed
or on any better plan, or who will submit it to such acquaintances,
skilled or unskilled, as may be persuaded to take the trouble to learn
the mechanism of binary adding, will confer a great favor by informing
the writer of the time occupied, and number of mistakes made, in each
addition. All observations and suggestions relating to the subject
will be most gratefully received.

Henry Farquhar.

Office of U.S. Coast Survey, Washington, D.C.

       *       *       *       *       *

A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific
papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at
this office.

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