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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The London publisher, Murray, an- 

 nounces a new work by Mr. Darwin, entitled 

 "The Results of Cross and Self Fertiliza- 

 tion in the Vegetable Kingdom." 



Br subcutaneously injecting into ani- 

 mals concentrated solutions ot sodic lac- 

 tate, Preyer produces in them a state ap- 

 parently identical with normal sleep. This 

 confirms the theory which attributes the 

 drowsiness caused by fatigue to the pres- 

 ence in the blood of certain compounds (as 

 luetic acid) produced by the disintegration 

 of nervous and muscular tissue. 



Some curious statistics illustrating the 

 liability of the eye to injury have been 

 compiled by Drs. Zander and Geissler. 

 They assume that the mean superficies of 

 the human body is about fifteen square 

 feet, and that the mean superficies of the 

 orbital opening is about 180 square lines, 

 from which it should follow, if all parts 

 were equally exposed to injury, that lesions 

 of the eye would bear to lesions of other 

 parts of the body the proportion of about 

 one in 600. As a matter of fact, the actual 

 proportion is more than twenty times as 

 great, or about 36 in 1,000. 



It has been shown by experiment that 

 Prussian blue in oil is the most stable of 

 pigment colors. Aniline colors, on the con- 

 trary, are the most fleeting ; indeed, they 

 are unsuitable for use by the painter. 

 Photographs tinted with aniline colors soon 

 lose their tints, and the colors are often 

 seen fading while the pictures are yet ex- 

 posed for sale. 



M. Lecoq de Boisbacdran, the discov- 

 erer of gallium, has succeeded in reducing 

 to the metallic state about ten centigrammes 

 of the new metal. When pure, gallium 

 iiu its at the very low temperature of 85 

 Fahr. It adheres readily to glass, forming 

 a whiter mirror than mercury, but its low 

 fusion temperature makes it practically use- 

 less for this purpose. It oxidizes very 

 slightly when heated to redness, but does 

 not volatilize. 



A patient in the Royal Infirmary, Edin- 

 burgh, who suffered from cancer of the 

 tongue, bad the organ amputated, except 

 about half ail inch. The operation was suc- 

 cessful and the patient now speaks quite 

 distinctly; in doing so he seems to tilt up- 

 ward and forward both the hyoid bone and 

 the larynx. 



At the National Glass Company's works, 

 Bellaire, Ohio, lamp-chimneys air made by 

 a process resembling that of De la Bastie. 

 A local newspaper writer mentions having 

 seen an eightpenny-nai] driven through a 

 board an inch and a half thick with one of 

 these chimneys of hardened glass. 



The nickel-mine near Lancaster, Penn- 

 sylvania, yields about 6,000 tons of ore per 

 year. Eleven shafts have now been sunk, 

 ranging from 110 to 140 feet in der*n, and 

 connected by tunnels underneath. ' .e num- 

 ber of men employed at the mine 200. 



Carbon occurs in the heavenly nodies in 

 three forms, according to Prof. J. Lawrence 

 Smith, viz. : the gaseous form, as detected 

 by the spectroscope in the attenuated mat- 

 ter of comets; the solid form, impalpable 

 in its nature and diffused in small quanti- 

 ties through pulverulent masses of mineral 

 matter that come to the earth from celestial 

 regions ; and the solid form, compact and 

 hard, resembling graphite, and this is im- 

 bedded in metallic matter that comes from 

 regions in space. It is not necessary to as- 

 sume that this cosmical carbon has an or- 

 ganic origin. 



A prize of five hundred francs has been 

 offered by M. Paul Bert for the best means 

 of protecting the lives of aeronauts and 

 mountain-climbers in circumstances where 

 cold and rarefied air become dangerous. 

 His prize is open to competiticn till the 

 last day of the present year. 



A fireman's suit, invented by a Swede 

 named Oestberg, is made in two layers, the 

 inner one of India-rubber, the outer one of 

 leather, the head being protected by a hel- 

 met resembling that worn by divers. At 

 the girdle is fixed a piece of hose, which 

 serves both for air and water. The air-pipe, 

 fed from two blowers, is placed inside the 

 water-pipe, and brings the air, after being 

 cooled by the surrounding water, into the 

 inner part of the dress. The air inflates 

 the costume, passing away through the two 

 small openings made for eye-pieces. The 

 current of air not only keeps the inclosed 

 body cool, but drives smoke and flame away 

 from the eyes. At the back the water-pipe 

 divides, one branch serving as an extin- 

 guisher, the other passing into the outer 

 coating of the dress, the stream being dis- 

 tributed over the whole outer surface. 

 With the apparatus on, the inventor stood 

 in the middle of a pile of burning shavings 

 and logs without taking the least harm. 



An epidemic resembling cholera ap- 

 peared among the cats in Delhi last year. 

 The disease was not known to extend be- 

 yond the walls of the city, uor was it con- 

 fined to any quarter. It gradually de- 

 clined, and fully disappeared about Septem- 

 ber 20th, although the cholera did not cease 

 till near the end of November. The num- 

 ber of cats carried off by the disease was 

 estimated at 500. The symptoms were in 

 almost every respect identical with those of 

 cholera. Experiments were made with 

 cholera-virus, which was found to commu- 

 nicate an analogous disease to the cats. 



