574 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tic asylums with most excellent effects in 

 soothing and curing mania and the attend- 

 ant diseases. Dr. Loekhart Robertson, of 

 the Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, not only 

 recommends it in those cases, but says that 

 he has had several examples of its curative 

 power in the early stages of consumption, 

 and believes that, if used at a sufficiently 

 high temperature, the results would aston- 

 ish us all. Mr. Urquhart observes that a 

 high temperature is more endurable when 

 the heat is radiant than when it is brought 

 in hot air-currents. 



Association of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians. The fifty-fourth meeting of 

 the Association of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians was held at Salzburg, Septem- 

 ber 18th to 24th. The first secretary of 

 the association, Dr. Giinther, of Salzburg, 

 in his address of welcome, mentioned the 

 fact that Salzburg was the last place of re- 

 tirement of Paracelsus ; and that great phy- 

 sician and naturalist was the subject of a 

 special address by Dr. Kirschensteiner, of 

 Munich, at the closing session. The meet- 

 ing was divided into twenty-three sections, 

 eleven of which were medical, and seven 

 pertained to natural science. Besides Pro- 

 fessor Pettenkofer's paper on the sanitary 

 relations of the soil, which we publish, Pro- 

 fessor Weisman read a paper maintaining 

 that in general the duration of life of an 

 individual represents the minimum of time 

 necessary to insure the existence of the spe- 

 cies, and is governed by adaptation and 

 heredity. Professor Meyners, of Vienna, 

 in an address on the laws which govern 

 human thoughts and actions, expressed the 

 opinion that the phenomena of bodies do 

 not disclose to us their essence, and that 

 there is only a phenomenon of freedom of 

 will. At the third general meeting, Pro- 

 fessor Oppolzer, of Vienna, disputed the 

 sufficiency of the theories of the moon, Mer- 

 cury, and Encke's comet, based upon New- 

 ton's law of gravitation in its present form, 

 and postulated the hypothesis of a cosmic 

 matter surrounding the sun as necessary to 

 complement them and make them sufficient. 



Animals and the Telegraph. M. Niel- 

 sen, director of the Norwegian telegraph 

 lines, has just published a curious note upon 

 the impressions that are produced upon ani- 



mals by the vibrations of telegraphic wires. 

 The posts in the neighborhood of the Nor- 

 wegian pine-woods, even those which have 

 been freshly impregnated with sulphate of 

 copper, are frequently found to have been 

 perforated by woodpeckers, which, it seems, 

 mistake the humming of the wires for the 

 buzzing of insects. The holes arc generally 

 made near the insulators, and a post shown 

 at the Paris Electrical Exhibition had a hole 

 clear through it large enough to insert the 

 whole arm. Bears imagine the humming to 

 be that of bees, and, not finding any sign of 

 a colony above, paw at the heaps of stones 

 at the base of the poles; and, when they 

 can find nothing, vent their spite in a vig- 

 orous blow on the ground, to kill the bees 

 that persist in staying hid. The scattering 

 of the heaps of stones around the posts, 

 which is not rare, could not be explained, 

 till some one perceived the marks of the 

 bears' claws where these desperate blows 

 had been given. Wolves are believed to 

 have been frightened away by the lines. 

 While a vote was pending on a grant to a 

 telegraphic line, a member of the Storthing 

 remarked that, while his constituents had 

 no direct interest in the line, they would 

 support the grant, because the wires would 

 drive away the wolves. It is said that, how- 

 ever hungry a wolf may be, he will never 

 go into a spot that is inclosed by ropes 

 stretched on posts. It is a remarkable fact 

 that since the first telegraphic line was 

 established, twenty years ago, wolves have 

 never appeared in its neighborhood. 



NOTES. 



Professor W. J. Beal, of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, in a lecture on "The 

 New Botany," gives a description of the old 

 method of teaching that science that reads 

 much like a burlesque but which we know 

 is too sadly accurate, for persons living have 

 not forgotten how they " studied botany " 

 when they were young and then sketches 

 the new way in a most attractive style. In 

 the latter, " we study objects before books ; 

 a few short talks are given; the pupil is 

 directed and set to thinking, investigating, 

 and experimenting for himself . . . . Before 

 the first lesson each pupil is furnished or told 

 where to procure some specimen for study. 

 . . . For the first recitation each is to tell 

 what he has discovered. The specimens 



