634 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



not occur with any other kind of sewing. 

 The case having now come under the notice 

 of M. Bouchut, he gave the girl a button- 

 hole to sew. She had hardly sewn three 

 stitches when she sank from her chair on 

 the ground, and fell fast asleep. M. Bouchut 

 raised her up, and noted catalepsy of the 

 arms and legs, dilatation of the pupil, slow- 

 ness of pulse, and complete insensibility. 

 She slept for three hours. Next day he made 

 a similar experiment, when the girl slept 

 only one hour. While no other kind of sew- 

 ing could affect the girl in this way, M. 

 Bouchut found that he could produce hyp- 

 notism by causing her to look intently on a 

 silver pencil held at the distance of ten cen- 

 timetres from the root of her nose. The 

 case evidently was one of Braid's hypno- 

 tism, only occurring spontaneously, and not 

 brought on by way of experiment. 



Periodic Movements of the Foliage of 

 Plants. The Abies Nordmanniana, a conif- 

 erous tree now widely diffused on account of 

 the elegant coloration of its leaves, appears 

 to bear uniformly whitish foliage, when ob- 

 served in the morning or toward evening, but 

 when observed in the middle of the day the 

 green tint seems general. The reason of this 

 difference is found in the fact that the posi- 

 tion of the leaves on the branch is different 

 in the daytime from what it is at night; in 

 the former case the leaves are spread out 

 upon the branch and present their upper 

 surface, producing the greenish aspect of 

 the foliage ; during the latter period, on the 

 contrary, it is the lower or whitish surface 

 that is presented to the observer. Thus 

 there is a diurnal and a nocturnal position. 

 As the day declines, the leaves, which at 

 noon were horizontal, are seen gradually 

 to erect themselves upon the branch, often 

 becoming nearly perpendicular to it, and 

 this movement of erection is accompanied 

 by a movement of torsion in the basal part 

 of the leaf, often traversing an arc of 90. 



Treatment of Lunatics by Colored Light. 

 Medical journals give an account of ex- 

 periments recently made by Dr. Ponza, di- 

 rector of the lunatic asylum at Alessandria, 

 Piedmont, to determine the influence of the 

 solar rays on brain-diseases. Dr. Ponza, 

 having communicated his views to Father 



Secchi, was encouraged to study the subject. 

 In his letter to Dr. Ponza, the Roman as- 

 tronomer expressed the opinion that the 

 violet rays are of special importance. " Vio- 

 let," he writes, " has something melancholy 

 and depressive about it ; perhaps violet light 

 may calm the nervous excitement of mani- 

 acs." He then advises Dr. Ponza to per- 

 form his experiments in rooms with stained- 

 glass windows, and with the walls painted of 

 the same color as the glass panes. One 

 patient, who had been affected with morbid 

 taciturnity, became gay and affable after 

 spending three hours in a red chamber; 

 another, a maniac who refused all food, 

 asked for breakfast after having staid 

 twenty-four hours in the same red chamber. 

 In a blue chamber a highly-excited madman 

 became calm in one hour. A patient was 

 made to pass the night in a violet chamber ; 

 on the following day he felt himself cured, 

 and has been very well ever since. 



Unhealthy Trades. Among the lectures 

 delivered by Dr. Richardson before the Lon- 

 don Society of Arts, on " Unhealthy Trades," 

 is one devoted to the " Industrial Diseases of 

 Workers in Earthenware." He shows from 

 the official statistics that potters are among 

 the three sections of the population of Eng- 

 land who represent the lowest vitality. The 

 males of fifteen years and upward die at the 

 rate of 38 per cent, above the males of all 

 ages ; and the commencement of this in- 

 creased mortality is at the period when the 

 men are approaching their prime of life, 

 namely, at thirty-five years, and it extends 

 onward to the end of life. Thus where in 

 the general population 100 males of thirty- 

 five years die, a proportion equal to 154 pot- 

 ters dies. For the four subsequent incre- 

 ments, namely, forty -five, fifty-five, sixty- 

 five, and seventy-five years, for 100 deaths 

 in the general male population, the deaths 

 among male potters are proportionately 182, 

 181, 192, 141. The wages of the potters 

 are good, and the labor not physically se- 

 vere on healthy, fully-developed persons. 

 The special diseases incident to this kind 

 of employment are bronchitis with "pot- 

 ter's asthma," pulmonary consumption, and 

 lead paralysis. Subsidiary to these are 

 rheumatic affections and affections of the 

 stomach. The special causes of disease 



