4o8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



was decided to extract the tooth, but, as 

 the animal was at times very vicious, it was 

 thought that chloroform would have to be 

 employed. He showed fight on being taken 

 out of his cage, and struggled hard against 

 being put into a sack, snapping and scream- 

 ing at the attendants. But so soon as the 

 dentist managed to get his hand on the ab- 

 scess, and so gave a little relief, the mon- 

 key's demeanor changed entirely : he laid 

 his head down quietly for examination, and 

 quietly submitted to the removal of a stump 

 and a tooth. 



In a series of experiments undertaken 

 with a view to discover an efiective method 

 of preserving animal substances, Dr. B. W. 

 Richardson discovered that flesh which is 

 alive in the body of an animal possesses a 

 neutral reaction, being neither acid nor al- 

 kaline ; but that after an animal is killed, 

 and the flesh is exposed to the air, there is 

 quickly set up an acid reaction which lasts 

 as long as the dead structui'e remains 

 " fresh." As the structure begins to change, 

 the acid reaction becomes neutral, and from 

 that it soon passes to become alkaline. 

 This alkaline reaction may be considered as 

 an evidence of putrefaction. 



A SELECT committee of the National 

 Academy of Sciences, appointed to consider 

 what changes are needed in the conduct of 

 the surveys of our Western States and Ter- 

 ritories, has made a report in which they 

 recommend a radical change. They favor 

 the abohtion of the present surveys under 

 Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler, respectively, 

 and the transfer of the work to the Interior 

 Department. It is proposed to make the 

 Coast Survey the nucleus of a grand system 

 of scientific exploration and survey. 



The efforts of the Fish Commissioners 

 of Maryland to stock the waters of that 

 State with California salmon are proving 

 eminently successful. At Havre de Grace 

 and other points on the Susquehanna, sal- 

 mon are beginning to make their appear- 

 ance, and many of good size have been 

 taken. During the season of 1878 three 

 hundred thousand salmon have been dis- 

 tributed in Maryland waters. 



A LUDICROUS miscarriage of justice has 

 occurred in England. Judgment having 

 been entered against a shopkeeper for sell- 

 ing watered milk to a food-inspector, appeal 

 was made to the Lord Chief Justice, who 

 reversed the original judgment. An appeal 

 in Scotland has had a like result. The 

 ground of this judgment of the higher 

 courts is the fact that, in order to make the 

 seller of an adulterated article liable, the 

 sale must have been made " to the prejudice 

 of the purchaser." But as the inspector is 

 not " prejudiced," the seller must go free ! 



It is firmly believed by the people wTio 

 inhabit the region around Mount Ararat 

 that no man has ever ascended to its sum- 

 mit — indeed, that the feat is impossible. 

 But precisely this impossible feat has been 

 performed by an Englishman — Mr. Bryce. 

 But the popular belief persists all the same. 

 W^hen Mr. Bryce told the archimandrite of 

 the district that he had made the ascent, 

 the old man merely smiled, and reaffirmed 

 the impossibility of reaching the summit. 



The best quality of lime-juice for anti- 

 scorbutic purposes is produced in the island 

 of Montserrat, West Indies, where three 

 hundred acres of orchard-ground are de- 

 voted to this culture, the number of lime- 

 trees being about a hundred and twenty 

 thousand. 



In advocating the projected astronomico- 

 meteorological observatory of Mount Etna, 

 Mr. G. F. Kodwell takes occasion to mention 

 the extraordinary brilliancy of the midnight 

 sky as observed by him during an ascen- 

 sion of Etna in August, ISVV. Myriads of 

 stars which he had never seen before were 

 visible, and the whole sky was studded 

 with stars of every magnitude, color, and 

 brightness. The meteors were " too numer- 

 ous to count ; " the stars themselves shone 

 with extraordinary scintillations. One effect 

 in particular was noticed, for which it is not 

 easy to account, viz., the apparent lowness 

 of the sky, which " appeared to be almost 

 pressing down upon one's head, while the 

 larger stars seemed to be suspended below 

 the sky. A good telescope," he adds, 

 " brought to bear on such a sky would reap 

 a harvest of results." 



In the root of the strawberry-plant 

 {Fragaria vcsca) Dr. T. L. Phipson has dis- 

 covered certain substances closely allied to 

 those obtained from cinchona-bark. There 

 exists in this root a sort of tannin of a very 

 pale-yellow color, soluble in water and in 

 alcohol, and which strikes a green color 

 with iron salts. It is soluble in water slight- 

 ly acidulated with hydrochloric acid ; but 

 with more hydrochloric acid it combines to 

 an insoluble compound. This substance, 

 called by Phipson Fragarianine, is really a 

 sort of tannin, closely allied to quinotannic 

 acid, but instead of yielding cinchona red 

 like the latter, it yields a somewhat similar 

 substance, which Phipson calls Fragarinc. 

 The process by which this substance is ob- 

 tained is fully described by Phipson in a 

 paper read before the British Association. 



Iridescent glass is made by burning 

 chloride of tin in the furnace. Fumes are 

 thus produced for which warm glass has 

 great afiBnity, and which immediately pro- 

 duce an iridescent ' surface upon it. To 

 heighten the effect, a small quantity of the 

 nitrates of baryta and strontia may be used. 



