COMPRESSED-AIR LOCOMOTIVE. 473 



was the prevalence and the power of the belief in animal magnetism. 

 This delusion may well he regarded as the witchcraft of the nine- 

 teenth century ; its hand is everywhere on the press and the pulpit, 

 on all our literature, on science itself, even on physiology, to which 

 its phenomena rightly belong, and by which they can be and are 

 fully explained. It is a tyrant that rules over the whole realm of the 

 seemingly mysterious ; the success of the orator on the platform, and 

 of the physician at the bedside, is attributed to its aid, as of old supe- 

 rior learning and skill were attributed to the occult forces of magic. 

 It may be doubted whether any other false belief of our time has had 

 a more serious influence in retarding the progress of right reasoning 

 than this, since it blocks the doors of investigation and prejudges the 

 case when investigations are made, stimulates the too common habit 

 of making the emotions do the work of the intellect, and becomes a 

 sort of foster-mother to other and allied delusions. 



It was the universality of this belief in animal magnetism that 

 made mind-reading popular, since it furnished a basis as broad as the 

 wildest theorizer could wish, on which could be erected a limitless 

 variety of hypotheses ; and many who rejected intuitively the claim 

 of direct supernatural aid were made happy by the equally false and 

 untenable claim of literal conveyance of thought from subject to 

 operator through the agency of a supposed magnetic fluid. 



-*- 



COMPRESSED-AIB LOCOMOTIVE IN ST. GOTHAED 



TUNNEL. 1 



By C. M. GAEIEL. 



THE boring of a tunnel of any importance presents difficulties 

 of various kinds, among which may be mentioned the clearing 

 away of the rubbish arising from the excavation of the gallery, when- 

 ever that reaches any considerable length, and the w r ork is carried on 

 with activity. Such were the conditions under which the boring of 

 the Mont Cenis Tunnel was carried on, and M. Fabre, the able con- 

 tractor, has met with similar difficulties in the boring of the St. 

 Gothard Tunnel, now being carried out. 



The work was begun from two points, Airolo and Goeschenen, the 

 two extremities of the future tunnel. The advance of the gallery, 

 which is pushed on with activity, produces about 400 cubic metres of 

 rubbish a day at each of the two faces of attack. To carry away this 

 mass of rubbish, which is thrown regularly into trucks running on 

 rails, it is impossible to employ locomotives, as the cul-de-sac nature 



1 Translated from La Nature. 



