90 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



APPLICATION OF POISON TO THE CAPTURE OF WHALES. 



Professor Christison, of Edinburgh, has recently published an account of 

 some remarkable experiments for the capture of whales by poison. The 

 agency employed was hydrocyanic, or prussic acid, inserted in glass tubes, 

 and in weight about two ounces. After various trials to overcome the diffi- 

 culty of discharging the poison from the tubes, a mode was arranged of 

 attaching one end of a strong copper wire to each side of the harpoon near 

 the blade, the other end of which passed obliquely over the tube, then through 

 an oblique hole in the shaft, and finally to a bight in the rope, where it was 

 firmly secured. When the harpoon struck the whale the tubes were crushed. 

 On one occasion, a fine whale was met with ; the harpoon was skilfully and 

 deeply buried in its bod} 7 ; the leviathan immediately sounded, or dived per- 

 pendicularly downwards, but in a short time the rope relaxed, and the whale 

 rose to the surface quite dead. The crew, however, were so appalled by the 

 terrific effect of the poisoned harpoon that they declined to use any more of 

 them; but Professor Christison is confident, from subsequent experiments, 

 that success will be fully attained in this mode of capture. 



NEW FIRE ALARUM. 



An instrument has just been introduced, by Messrs. Taylor and Grimshaw, 

 of London, which promises to be of great value as a fire alarm in ware- 

 houses, docks, vessels, and public establishments generally, as well as in 

 private houses. It consists simply of an air-tight cylinder, with an India- 

 rubber top, which, in proportion as the confined air becomes heated, ex- 

 pands and presses a spring, which, at any given elevation of temperature, 

 will set free a common alarum, or fire a pistol or cannon. It is likeAvise 

 capable of being adapted to furnaces, conservatories, and every place where 

 exact ventilation is requisite, since the spring, instead of sounding an 

 alarum, can be made to act upon an aperture for admitting air. It is port- 

 able and inexpensive, and the principle seems likely to be applied to a 

 number of important commercial uses. 



A NEW FORM OF BATH. 



M. Mathieu (de la Drome), a well-known French orator, has lately been 

 turning his attention to the subject of medicinal baths. A bath by immer- 

 sion requires from two to three hectolitres of water, which in the case of 

 mere river or spring water is of no consequence as regards expense. But 

 the case is far different when the water is to be impregnated with medicinal 

 substances, some of which are very costly; or when mineral waters are 

 prescribed, which cannot be had in large quantities without considerable 

 outlay, except at the spring from which they are derived. M. Mathieu (de 

 la Drome) has therefore endeavored to ascertain, both by calculation and 

 experiment, what is the real quantity of water which produces a uscfnl ef- 

 fect on a human body in a common bath, and has found that it cannot be 

 more than three or four litres in the course of an hour. To distribute this 

 quantity both equally and economically on the body was, therefore, the 

 question to be solved; and he has accordingly invented an apparatus, which 

 he calls bain Itydrofere. The patient is seated in a kind of box like that 

 used for fumigation, while a powerful ventilator outside transforms the 



