MISCELLANY 



507 



In September, 1816, Morton, a former pu- 

 pil of Wells's, aware of his diseovery and 

 repeating his experiments, extracted a tooth 

 without pain, while the patient was under 

 the influence of sulphuric ether. 3. 111184*7 

 Simpson first introduced the practice of 

 anaesthesia in midwifery, thereby making 

 known more widely its value. He also dis- 

 covered the anaesthetic properties of chloro- 

 form, and by his writings and teachings 

 very largely contributed, to introducing the 

 practice of anaesthesia to the world. 4. 

 Others have since discovered the anaesthetic 

 properties of different vapors, which are 

 more or less used in practice. 



Loss of Self-Control in Battle. In his 



" History of the Civil War in America," the 

 Count de Paris gives some curious instances 

 of the loss of self-possession among soldiers 

 in the heat of battle. He states that, among 

 24,000 loaded muskets picked up at random 

 on the Gettysburg battle-field, one-fourth 

 only were properly loaded ; 12,000 con- 

 tained each a double charge, and the other 

 fourth from three to ten charges. In some 

 there were six balls to a single charge of 

 powder ; others contained six cartridges, 

 one on top of the other, without having been 

 opened. A few had twenty-three complete 

 charges regularly inserted. Finally, in the 

 barrel of a single musket there were found, 

 confusedly jumbled together, twenty-two 

 balls and sixty-two buckshot, with a propor- 

 tionate quantity of powder ! " But we should 

 not severly criticise the American soldier," 

 adds the author, " for it appears that an ex- 

 amination of the battle-fields of the Crimea 

 gave similar results." 



Pennsylvania Coal-Sap ply. The avail- 

 able coal of the Alleghany coal-field is es- 

 timated by Mr. Andrew Roy, in the Engi- 

 neering and Mining Journal, at 743,424,- 

 000,000 tons, an amount nearly ten times 

 greater than the estimates made by Edward 

 Hull and Warrington Smith of the coal 

 resources of the British Isle3. The same 

 writer states the aggregate thickness of 

 workable coal in the anthracite regions of 

 Pennsylvania as 200 feet in 2,175 feet of 

 coal-measures. In the bituminous regions 

 of Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg, he esti- 

 mates 60 or 70 feet of workable coal to 



2,000 feet of coal-measures. In West Vir- 

 ginia, where the Kanawha River cuts the 

 coal-measures to their base, 78 feet thick- 

 ness of coal in 16 seams is revealed; and 

 along the Ohio, from Bellaire to Pomeroy, 

 the proportion is 40 or 50 feet of coal in 

 1,200 to 1,400 of rock. The number of 

 workable seams and consequent thickness 

 of coal in every division of the coal-area 

 are in proportion to the thickness of the 

 carboniferous rocks. Beginning at the base 

 of the coal-measures, and reaching up to 

 the height of 400 feet, to the base of the 

 barren measures, there exist, in the bitu- 

 minous regions, 3 feet of coal for every 50 

 feet of strata. The next 400 feet are gen- 

 erally barren of workable coal ; but from 

 the Pittsburg seam, which is the lowest 

 bed of the upper series, to the outcrops or 

 top of the coal-strata, the same general 

 estimate of 3*feet of workable coal to every 

 50 feet of rock will hold good. 



The People of Eastern New Guinea. 



Signor dAlbertis agrees with Moresby in 

 describing the inhabitants of Eastern New 

 Guinea as of materially different race from 

 the true Papuans, who are found in the far 

 west of the island. The people of Yule 

 Island, and of the coasts east and west of 

 it, resemble those of the Polynesian region 

 in many respects. The indigenous Papu- 

 ans, physically and morally inferior to these 

 Polynesian invaders, have been driven from 

 the coast, where the land is comparatively 

 healthy and fertile, and have permitted the 

 intruders to establish themselves and mul- 

 tiply. The inhabitants of the interior are 

 darker in color, the hair is more frizzed, 

 and there is a difference in the form of the 

 face, the prognathous appearance being 

 more common than on the coast. From 

 what DAlbertis has seen of the interior, he 

 concludes that the land is very suitable for 

 colonization, being well watered, with abun- 

 dance of grass, and having a good climate 

 without excessive heat. The natives are 

 described as " intelligent, industrious, and 

 persevering." 



Body Temperatnre of the Drunkard. 



Observations made by Dr. Reincke, of Ham- 

 burg, on eighteen drunken men, leave no 

 doubt as to the great reduction of tempera- 



