METERS FOR POWER AND ELECTRICITY. 3 6 5 



brain, as the mercury would rise and fall in a barometer, under like 

 conditions ; and Dr. Barker considers it the result of the sudden 

 changes in the relations of the fluids and solids in the body. 



Whether or not the individual is to be sick, and the duration and 

 extent of his sickness, seem to depend to a certain extent on the gen- 

 eral condition of the system, and also somewhat upon wholly un- 

 known conditions, in many cases the most robust yielding the first. 

 In this connection it is an interesting fact that children under three 

 or four years are almost invariably exempt from sea-sickness, although 

 ordinarily they vomit so much more readily than adults. 



This is no place for the discussion of remedies. Bromide of sodium 

 is the prominent one just at present, and probably does lessen the nerv- 

 ous susceptibility somewhat ; but let its advocates read the glowing 

 testimonials in favor of Chapman's ice-bags for the spine, nitrite of 

 amyl, champagne, chloral, and all the rest. The belt to support the 

 abdomen seems a rational remedy, but it was first proposed for that 

 use in 1814, and but few to-day have even heard of it, and it seems 

 fair to assume that suffering mankind would not have discarded a 

 really efficient remedy. 



In conclusion, what I have tried to show is, that the stomach is not 

 the cause of the disorder, although generally the seat of it ; that the 

 organs irritated seem to be the semicircular canals of the eai', or the 

 abdominal viscera, or both, which become full of blood and cause 

 vomiting, which seems rather an effort of Nature to equalize the cir- 

 culation than any desire on the part of the stomach to rid itself of its 

 contents. 



METERS FOR POWER AND ELECTRICITY* 



By C. VERNON BOYS, Esq. 



THE subject of this evening's discourse, "Meters for Power and 

 Electricity," is unfortunately, from a lecturer's point of view, 

 one of extreme difficulty ; for it is impossible to fully describe any 

 single instrument of the class without diving into technical and 

 mathematical niceties which this audience might well consider more 

 scientific than entertaining. If, then, in my endeavor to explain these 

 instruments and the purposes which they are intended to fulfill, in 

 language as simple and as untechnical as possible, I am not so success- 

 ful as you have a right to expect, I must ask you to lay some of the 

 blame on my subject and not all on myself. 



I shall at once explain what I mean by the term " meter," and I 

 shall take the flow of water in a trough as an illustration of my mean- 



* Address at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, delivered Friday, March 2, 1883. 



