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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ment, ophibolus throws himself suddenly 

 upon him and chokes him to death, pulls his 

 body apart, and devours him. In captivity 

 the king-snake is very gentle, and it requires 

 very severe provocation to induce it to bite. 

 Several specimens which were kept in a 

 large box could not be induced to eat either 

 mice, frogs, or toads ; but as several fine 

 specimens of Ophiosaurus ventralis, kept in 

 the same box, quickly disappeared, it was 

 easy to account for the apparent want of 

 appetite. 



The "Tses" of Paim—The question is 

 often asked, " What is the use of pain ? It 

 is scarcely conceivable that the infliction has 

 no object." There are obviously two aspects 

 of this question : in one Science has an im- 

 mediate interest; with the other it has a sec- 

 ondary but not unimportant concern. The 

 first is essentially physical. What useful 

 purpose does pain subserve in the animal 

 economy ? The answer is thrust upon us 

 by daily observation and experience. There 

 are two sentinels posted, so to say, about 

 the organism to protect it alike from the 

 assaults of enemies without and exact- 

 ing friends within. The first of these guar- 

 dians is the sense of fatigue. When this 

 speaks, there is need of rest for repair. If 

 the monitor be unheeded, exhaustion may 

 supervene ; or, before that point of injury is 

 reached, the second guardian will perhaps 

 interpose for the vital protection — namely, 

 pain. The sense of pain, however, is more 

 directly significant of injury to structure, 

 active or threatened, than an excessive strain 

 on function, although in the case of the vi- 

 tal organs pain occurs whenever the press- 

 ure is great. Speaking generally, it may 

 be set down as an axiom that, whatever col- 

 lateral uses pain may subserve, its chief and 

 most obvious service to humanity is as a 

 deterrent and warning sensation to ward off 

 danger. It is worthy of note, though suffi- 

 ciently familiar to medical observers, that 

 the absence of this subjective symptom in 

 cases of severe injury is too often indicative 

 of an injury beyond repair. The extinction 

 of pain is not the highest, although it may 

 be a generous, impulse. If there were no 

 guardian sensibility of this nature, it would 

 be impossible to live long in the world with- 

 out self-inflicting the most formidable inju- 



ries. That pain, in the second place, has 

 an educational value, as regards the mind 

 and temper, no one can doubt. Some forms 

 of pain would seem to be chiefly intended 

 for this purpose ; but even in this view pain 

 has a practical interest, because the higher 

 development of the mind which controls the 

 body, and of which the brain is the forma- 

 tive organ, is a process of physico-mental in- 

 terest governed by natural laws of which 

 Science is perfectly competent to take cog- 

 nizance. The subject as a whole is one with 

 which the physician and physiologist have 

 much concern. — Lancet. 



Discovery of <i ]V'ew Salt -Deposit in 

 Central New York. — Mr. James McFarlan 

 announces the discovery of a bed of rock- 

 salt in the Onondaga salt-group at a locality 

 thirty-seven miles south of Rochester. The 

 boring which resulted in this discovery 

 passed first through 660 feet of shales, then 

 110 feet of hard rock — sandstone or lime- 

 stone — then 80 feet of hard limestone, when 

 salt-water was found. Below this was 380 

 feet of limestone and shale belonging in part 

 to the limestones and shales of the upper 

 part of the Onondaga salt-group ; next, 1,240 

 feet down, soft shales, 20 or 30 feet thick, 

 were passed through ; and, finally, the bed 

 of rock-salt was struck at the depth of 

 1,279 feet. It had a thickness of 70 feet, 

 of which 40 or 50 was pure salt. The bor- 

 ing was continued to the depth of 1,530 

 feet, down to the Niagara limestone, which 

 was met at 1,562 feet. Borings are to be 

 made on the south side of the Syracuse 

 Valley, in the expectation of striking the 

 same bed, which there would be found, if 

 at all, at the depth of only a few hundred 

 feet. 



Distribntion of Spiders. — In classifying 

 the collection of spiders in the museum of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, the Rev. H. C. McCook discovered 

 specimens of Sarotes venatorius, a large 

 spider coming from various localities — 

 from Santa Cruz (Virgin Islands) to Cuba, 

 to Florida ; across Central America, Yuca- 

 tan, and Mexico ; across the Pacific Ocean 

 by way of the Sandwich Islands, Japan, and 

 the Loo-Choo Islands, and thence across 

 the continents of Asia and Africa to Li- 



