576 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



asked his teacher to look at a molding board 

 he had made. " The old spirit seemed to be 

 gone as he showed me the result of his handi- 

 work ; unconsciously he had found the secret 

 of power." Another boy, regarded as hard- 

 ly more than an idiot, had been gaining in 

 his shop work, with his eye taking new 

 bi'ightness and his face clearing; and his 

 school work showed the effect of the shop 

 training. Another boy, a persistent offender 

 in shop and school, expressed a desire, when 

 decorating was introduced, to do work of that 

 kind. The request was granted, and " his 

 first effort showed his ability, and a new 

 manhood asserted itself within him." 



Beginnings of Mountain Climbing. The 



glaciers of the Alps began to attract the at- 

 tention of scientific men toward the end of 

 the seventeenth century, but travelers mak- 

 ing the grand tour considered mountains 

 hideous. It was not, says Mr. W. M. Con- 

 way, till the dawn of romanticism, a hun- 

 dred years later, that the beauty of moun- 

 tains began to be recognized. The first 

 snow mountains to be climbed were the 

 Titlis in 1739. Pococke and Windham's 

 visit to the Chamounix followed in 17-11, 

 and with that the modern epoch of Alpine 

 exploration may be said to have begun. In 

 1775 an attempt was made to reach the 

 summit of Mont Blanc. This was repeated 

 in several subsequent years, till in 1786 

 Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard were 

 successful. De Saussure's famous ascent 

 was made in 1787. During the next half 

 century the prejudice against mountains and 

 dread of them were gradually dissolved. The 

 Jungfrau was climbed in 1811, the Finster- 

 aarhorn in 1812, and other peaks followed. 

 It was not till after 1850 that systematic 

 Alpine climbing could be said to have been 

 introduced. The present Mr. Justice Wil- 

 lis's ascent of the Wetterhorn in 1854 was 

 usually recognized as the first important 

 " sporting " climb. Prom that time for- 

 ward the exploration of the Alps advanced 

 rapidly. Monte Rosa was climbed in 1855, 

 Mont Blanc without guides and by a new 

 road in 1856. In 1859 the Alpine Club 

 was founded in London, and the ex- 

 ample thus set was shortly afterward fol- 

 lowed by foreign mountaineers. Thencefor- 

 ward the exploration of the Aljie advanced 



rapidly, and it might now be regarded as 

 fairly complete, so far as the main groups 

 are concerned. 



NOTES. 



The summer meeting of the Northwest- 

 ern Electrical Association was to be held in 

 St. Paul, Minn., July 18th, 19th, and 20th. 

 A larger number of attendants was expected 

 than were present at the last meeting, in- 

 cluding representatives from Illinois, Iowa, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and North and South 

 Dakota. An excellent programme was pre- 

 pared, and speakers were invited from among 

 the most expert representatives of the pro- 

 fession. 



The essential oils were held in high es- 

 teem by the ancients, but lately seem to have 

 been forgotten in the multitude of new dis- 

 coveries. The power of many of them to 

 destroy bacteria has, however, been demon- 

 strated anew by M. Chamberland, M. Cadeac, 

 and M. Meunier, and M. Blaizot and M. 

 Caldagues have found in them bactericidal 

 powers even greater than they had been sup- 

 posed to possess. The essences found by 

 these gentlemen to be most active are those 

 of cinnamon, lavender, marjoram, cloves, 

 geranium, vervain, and tuberose. The sim- 

 ple exposition of their vapors is sufficient to 

 destroy in an hour such microbes as those 

 of pus and cholera, and six minutes' exposure 

 effects a manifest attenuation of their activity. 



The method of purification by distilla- 

 tion in a vacuum, which has hitherto been 

 little employed, except with mercury, has 

 been applied by Prof. G. W. Kahlbaum, of 

 Basle, with great success to potassium, so- 

 dium, selenium, tellurium, cadmium, mag- 

 nesium, bismuth, and thallium, while the 

 experiments with zinc and manganese have 

 so far been unsatisfactory. Judging by 

 spectrum analysis, an extreme degree of 

 purity was obtained. Thus, thirty-five ines 

 disappeared from the spectrum of tellurium, 

 showing, the author believes, the absence of 

 substances which modify the spectrum of the 

 purest metal obtainable by other processes. 



Two living German princes have distin- 

 guished themselves by becoming practicing 

 physicians Duke Karl Theodor, of the 

 royal house of Bavaria, having completed ii 

 course of study, has made a specialty of eye 

 diseases as they occur among the poor, and 

 in April, 1893, successfully performed his 

 two thousandth operation for cataract. 

 Prince Louis Ferdinand, his cousin, besides 

 being engaged in practice, works in the 

 laboratory, and has recently made the etiol- 

 ogy and pathology of pleurisy objects of 

 special clinical and bacteriological studies. 

 He has lately published a monograph con- 

 cerning twenty-three patients suffering from 

 pleuritis who came under his observation. 



