4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



skin sufficiently long to render the cuticle easily detachable from its 

 subjacent connections : if the body is dead, the parts beneath will pre- 

 sent a crisp, yellowish-white, horny appearance, unaffected by pressure ; 

 if alive, there will be readily perceptible a vital redness, distinguish- 

 able from all post-mortem discolorations by its repeated displacement 

 and reappearance under alternating pressure by tip of the finger or other- 

 wise. Exposing the part to a bright light, and examining it through 

 a magnify ing-glass, will render the different phenomena more evident. 

 Kindle a piece of paper soaked in any alcoholic liquor, put it in an 

 ordinary drinking-glass or goblet, and invert this over a part of the cu- 

 taneous surface where all its edge will come into accurate contact with 

 the skin : if there remains a minimum degree of vitality, a state of 

 superficial capillary congestion will be induced, with its unmistakably 

 recurrent characters ; whereas the absolute inability to excite such vital 

 reaction in any part of the trunk's surface, and the production of solely 

 physical effects by such potent agencies, are infallible evidence that all 

 vital correlations are irreparably destroyed. 



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SKETCH OF GENERAL ALBERT J. MYER. 



r^ ENERAL ALBERT J. MYER, extensively known as a meteo- 

 vIT rologist and the organizer of the United States and International 

 Storm-Signal Service, was born at Newburgh-upon-Hudson, on the 

 20th of September, 1828. While still very young, his father removed 

 to Buffalo. A maiden aunt took charge of the boy's education, and he 

 early became a telegraph operator. Later, he went to school, and 

 when sufficiently advanced entered Hobart College, Geneva. He grad- 

 uated in 1847, and, having decided to study medicine, he went through 

 the Buffalo Medical College, and obtained his degree of M. D. in 1851. 

 A predilection for military life impelled him to seek a field of use- 

 fulness for his surgical talents in the army, wljere he obtained a com- 

 mission. He was ordered out upon the Plains, and it is said that one 

 day, seeing some Comanche Indians waving their lances, the idea 

 struck him that such motions might be utilized for army-signals, simi- 

 lar to those in use in the navy. ' The subject soon occupied a great 

 deal of his attention, and, the more he thought about it, the more inter- 

 esting it became to him, until finally he had invented an ingenious 

 code of signals. The doctor's transformation into an inventor was 

 noised abroad upon his return to the East, and the authorities, becom- 

 ing interested in his idea, appointed a Signal Corps and placed him in 

 command of it, and from 1858 to 1860 he was engaged in special duty, 

 perfecting his system and educating his eighty-odd men in its use. In 

 July, 1860, he was commissioned major, and made chief signal-officer 



