574 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ties of pines of the Landes, twelve years ; 

 prepared with sulphate of copper, from 

 eight to twelve years. While, as between 

 wood and the substitution of metal for it, 

 M. Mathieu favors sticking to wood, he ad- 

 mits that the substitution of steel for iron 

 is an important matter, and that one of the 

 principal inconveniences of the metallic 

 ties want of solidity in the joints may 

 be obviated by careful attention during the 

 first two years, which will make the rails 

 and the sleepers solid. Metallic ties should 

 be made heavier than they are, if they are 

 to succeed. They had been laid, at the be- 

 ginning of 18S4, on 5,708 kilometres of 

 lines in Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgi- 

 um, and Switzerland. 



Some Ancient Philosophy. A book 

 called " Speculum Mundi, or a Glass repre- 

 senting the Face of the World," published 

 in 1G70, gives a curious picture of what 

 passed for science before the great modern 

 discoveries were made. It consists of a 

 chapter on each of the six days of creation. 

 It says that the world was at first an un- 

 fashioned lump. Having disposed of the 

 question of the firmament as best it could, 

 it says of the air that the highest region is 

 said to be " exceeding hot," because of the 

 stars. Meteors and comets, it informs us, 

 are "composed of Vapours or Fumes a 

 kinde of Smoak." Some of these vapors 

 " transcend " very high, " even to the Starry 

 Heaven itself ; which is witnessed by our 

 best Modern Astronomers, who have ob- 

 served many Comets above the Moon." 

 Great events are connected with comets, be- 

 cause those bodies consist of "many hot 

 and dry Exhalations " and "distemper the 

 Air," which "the Bellows of the Body suck 

 in and receive; insomuch that there can- 

 not but be Sickness, Plague, and much mor- 

 tality." Moreover, these " poysonous breath- 

 ings " are " very apt so to disorder and dry 

 up the Blood in Humane Bodies, that there- 

 by great store of red and a dust choler may 

 be purchased ; and this stirreth up to anger 

 with the thought of many furious and vio- 

 lent actions, and so by consequence to war." 

 Thunder is caused " by reason of Hot and 

 Dry Exhalations shut within the cloud, 

 which, seeking to get out, with great Vio- 

 lence do knock and rend the cloud." The 



hot and dry exhalation in escaping is set on 

 fire by the violence, and becomes lightning, 

 when it often continues burning until it falls 

 to the ground. " And oftentimes a great 

 stone is blown out of the cloud with it; 

 whose cause is also natural." For, when 

 the exhalation is drawn up from the eartlL, 

 it sometimes takes earthy matter " like 

 unto the finest sand " with it, and this, 

 "through the moisture which it gctteth in 

 the Air," "clottereth together," and, "by 

 the excessive heat which it findeth in the 

 general matter of the exhalation," becomes 

 hard like a brick. Sometimes the exhala- 

 tions carry up also frogs, fishes, and grain, 

 or the vehement heat of the sun draws 

 milk, and we are treated to curious showers 

 of corresponding nature. We are also in- 

 formed that the long, streaming threads 

 seen floating in the air, and vulgarly sup- 

 posed to be spiders' webs, are nothing of 

 the kind, but meteors, which " may rightly 

 be supposed to proceed out of a through- 

 boyled or digested vapour, being mixed 

 with earthy and slimy Exhalations." 



Tourist and Alpine Clnbs. A manual 

 of the Tourist Unions of the world under 

 which designation are included Mountain 

 and Alpine clubs and the like published 

 by Herr R. Koehler at Eisenach, shows that 

 these associations, which are really of re- 

 cent origin, have thriven greatly. The cen- 

 sus of them gives a total of 78 clubs or 

 unions, with 775 sections and 79,955 mem- 

 bers. Of these, 73 clubs, with 770 sections 

 and 79,365 members, are in Europe ; four 

 clubs, with 590 members, in America ; and 

 one club in Asia. The largest of them all 

 is the German and Austrian Alpine Union, 

 which has 109 sections and 12,274 mem- 

 bers. Their special organizations and ob- 

 jects vary according to the characteristics 

 of the nation in which they severally exist, 

 but the common object of them all is the 

 study, exploration, and enjoyment of nat- 

 ural scenery, with a prominent place given 

 to mountain-climbing. 



Artificial Rubles. Mr. George F. Kunz 

 recently read a paper before the New York 

 Academy of Sciences on some artificial rubies 

 that have been offered in the market of 

 Paris as genuine rubies from a new locality. 



