MISCELLANY. 



6 39 



he became intoxicated every day, but, once 

 the drunkenness had disappeared, he re- 

 sumed his usual habits ; the other four, on 

 the contrary, exhibited a very remarkable 

 nervous susceptibility. They became rest- 

 less listened; the slightest noise caused 

 them to start, whenever the door opened they 

 hastened to cower in the most obscure cor-, 

 ner of the hall, leaving in their way a trail 

 of urine ; they paid no attention to pet- 

 ting ; when one came near them, they bit ; 

 if one threatened to strike them, they ut- 

 tered piercing cries. A short time after- 

 ward, hallucinations occurred in two of 

 them. As if pursued by an enemy, they 

 barked violently, they ran wildly in every 

 direction, the head turned back, and biting 

 in the air. Whenever one entered, they 

 crowded against the wall, moaning, crying, 

 trembling in all their limbs. In the middle 

 of the night they began sometimes to howl 

 loudly, to utter doleful cries, and stopped 

 only when one went in with the light. 



These attacks of delirium were tran- 

 sient, and occurred regularly toward the 

 eud of the state of drunkenness. One of 

 the dogs had hallucinations of a cheerful 

 character, under the immediate influence of 

 alcohol ; he appeared affectionate whenever 

 he began to stumble ; later, on the contrary, 

 he was indifferent or, rather, he growled 

 and bit. 



These hallucinations, of frequent occur- 

 rence during two months of the experi- 

 ment, became afterward rarer, probably on 

 account of the ingestion of less alcohol. 



The author gives the following indica- 

 tions of the stages of hallucination in cases 

 of delirium tremens among men: In the 

 first degree the patient believes he hears 

 abusive language, provocations; he sees 

 thieves, armed persons, animals, or else he 

 hears the voice of his parents, of his friends 

 who call him, who warn him of a danger, 

 who appeal for his help, etc. Stimulated 

 by these incitements, the patient answers, 

 injures, quarrels, runs, rushes off, becomes 

 furious, etc., all which acts tend to develop 

 in him a boisterous condition, a state of 

 mania. 



In other circumstances he believes him- 

 self to be in prison, before a court of jus- 

 tice ; he is accused of various crimes ; he 

 believes that he has committed them ; he 

 believes that his wife is unfaithful to him, 

 that he is deceived by his friends ; he is 

 present at the funeral of his parents, etc. 

 Under the weight of these distressing im- 

 pressions, he is dull, restless, suspicious ; 

 he laments, he becomes terrified, he at- 



tempts to escape, sometimes even he medi- 

 tates homicide or suicide ; he presents, in a 

 word, the aspect of a melancholic. Final- 

 ly, in the most intense form, he believes 

 himself chained at the foot of a scaffold, he 

 has before him the bleeding corpses of his 

 children, every thing is on fire, he is about 

 to be swallowed up, etc. These appear- 

 ances have astounded, appalled him, he re- 

 mains motionless, in a complete state of 

 stupor. 



Tfoe OJSce of Lightning-Bods. In his 



valuable little work on " Lightning-Eods, 

 and how to construct them," Prof. John 

 Phin thus states what the lightning-rod 

 should do : 



The function or office of the lightning- 

 rod is twofold. In the first place, it acts as 

 a means whereby the accumulated electricity 

 existing in the atmosphere is silently drawn 

 off, and allowed to pass into the earth, and 

 thus prevent an explosion ; and in the second, 

 it acts as a path by which explosions, light- 

 ning-flashes, or disruptive discharges (as 

 they are more properly called), may find 

 their way to the earth freely, and thus be 

 carried off without any danger of their act- 

 ing with mechanical violence, as they are 

 certain to do when made to pass through 

 what are called non-conductors. Experience 

 teaches us that, so long as a discharge of 

 electricity passes off through a wire that 

 is large enough to carry it safely, it does 

 not cause any damage, or give rise to 

 the exhibition of mechanical violence. A 

 spark from the prime conductor of an elec- 

 trical machine, if passed through a moder- 

 ately fine wire, does not injure it ; if passed 

 through a thick card, it will pierce it ; and, 

 if passed through a small block of wood, it 

 will rend it asunder. On the occasion of 

 every thunder-storm, there is a large quantity 

 of electricity to be conveyed from the clouds 

 to the earth, through the air, which is in 

 general a very poor conductor. This elec- 

 tricity always tends to pass by the easiest 

 path, or, as electricians say, the line of least 

 resistance. The resistance of any line may 

 be lessened by various circumstances, such 

 as the presence of hot vapors, as from chim- 

 neys, heated hay-stacks in the open field, or 

 heated hay-mows in the barn ; the existence 

 of a line of carbonaceous matter, such as 

 exists in a column of smoke ; the presence 

 of a tree with its leaves and sap, or of a 

 house with its chimneys ; or the fact that 

 the air has been rendered moist by the 

 passage of a shower of rain. So difficult is 

 it, however, to detect the circumstances 

 which render any particular path more easy 

 than others, for the electricity to follow, 



