MISCELLANY. 



379 



was to put small fishes into vessels contain- 

 ing well-water, different amounts of gas- 

 water being added. In water to which one 

 per cent, of gas-water was added, the fish 

 became at once very restless, tried to jump 

 out, turned or. their backs after they had 

 been in the polluted water one minute, and 

 were dead after the lapse of six minutes. 

 With one-half per cent, gas-refuse, the fish 

 became at once restless, floated on their 

 backs after five minutes, and died after 

 thirty minutes. With one-quarter per cent, 

 gas-refuse they became restless after some 

 time, floated on their backs in one hour, and 

 were dead after ninety minutes. With one- 

 tenth per cent, refuse, they at first remained 

 quiet ; one of them showed no change after 

 three hours and a half, but died after the 

 lapse of six hours ; no change was observed 

 in another, a small pike, after seven hours, 

 but it was dead the next morning. 



Lightning in an Electric Ciocli. A writer 

 in Poc/yendorff^ s Annaloi describes some cu- 

 rious effects of lightning on the wires of an 

 electric clock on a steeple in Basle. The 

 wire, which was sheathed in gutta-percha 

 and cotton, was torn away and lay about iti 

 pieces from four to forty inches in length. 

 These pieces at first sight presented nothing 

 worthy of note, but they were found to have 

 quite lost their stiffness, and further exami- 

 nation showed that they consisted only of 

 the sheath ; the copper was entirely gone. 

 The interior of the sheath was smooth, and 

 the sheath itself was whole except in a few 

 places at variable intervals, where there were 

 minute ruptures. These were evidently the 

 holes at which the copper had escaped as 

 some remains of the metal sticking in them 

 showed. These remains distinctly proved, 

 too, that the copper had been driven out, 

 for the most part, in a molten state. This 

 melting of the wire must have been instan- 

 taneous, for the molten copper was expelled 

 before its heat could act upon the sheath. 

 Another striking fact is that, in a portion of 

 the wire which was inclosed for protection 

 in a lead pipe, the copper was quite un- 

 changed, while the gutta-percha had been 

 fused in several places. Here the lead acted 

 by retarding the electric current, and thus 

 the wire had time to give up its heat to the 

 sheath. 



Influence of Camplior on Plant-Growtli. 



Vogel, of Munich, who has studied very 

 closely the action of camphor on plants, 

 says that it acts like a kind of stimulant on 

 vegetative processes, which it accelerates 

 and intensifies. In one of his experiments 

 he placed a branch of flowering syringa 

 in ordinary water, and another branch in 

 camphor-water; in twelve hours the one 

 drooped, while the other stood upright and 

 even developed some of its buds. This 

 br.anch did not begin to wither till after 

 the third day. Another experiment con- 

 sisted in placing in camphor-water a flower- 

 ing branch of syringa which was nearly 

 dead. In this instance the plant revived, 

 living for some time. Similar results were 

 obtained from experiments with seeds. Oil 

 of turpentine was found to act like cam- 

 phor. It accelerated the germinative pro- 

 cess in seeds, but it exerted an injurious 

 action on the after - development of the 

 plants. Vogel remarks, in conclusion, that 

 the process of germinating, receiving of oxy- 

 gen, and giving out of carbonic acid, is iden- 

 tical with animal respiration. From the 

 agreement of the vegetable processes in the 

 early period of germination with the animal 

 processes, it would seem to follow that 

 stimulants would have similar effects in the 

 two cases. 



A New Deep-Sea Tliernionieter. Dr. 



Neumayer recently exhibited to the Berlin 

 Geographical Society a new apparatus for 

 the determination of the temperature and 

 of the currents at great depths in the ocean. 

 The apparatus consists of an hermetically- 

 sealed copper box, with an external append- 

 age resembling a rudder. In the interior are 

 a mercury thermometer and a compass, each 

 inclosed in a glass receptacle, in which are 

 admitted traces of nitrogen gas. A small 

 electric battery completes the apparatus. 

 When it is allowed to descend attached to a 

 sounding-line, the action of the current on 

 the rudder causes the apparatus to take an 

 horizontal direction, thus indicating the set 

 of the flow by the relative positions of com- 

 pass-needle and rudder, while the ther- 

 mometer indicates the temperature. To fix 

 tliese indications, a piece of photographic 

 paper is suitably disposed near the glass 

 cases containing the instruments. Then at 



