286 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



passengers and three hundred and twenty- 

 seven million mile-tons of goods and grain, 

 and paid 697 per cent upon its capital. 



Six Hundred Shots a Minute.— The Max- 

 im machine-gun has a capacity for firing six 

 hundred rounds a minute, or at least three 

 times greater than that of any other ma- 

 chine-gun. It has only a single barrel, 

 which, when the shot is fired, recoils a dis- 

 tance of three quarters of an inch on the 

 other parts of the gun. This recoil sets 

 moving the machinery wliich automatically 

 keeps up a continuous firing at the extraor- 

 dinary rate of ten rounds a second. Eacli 

 recoil of the barrel has therefore to perform 

 the necessary functions of extracting and 

 ejecting the empty cartridge, of bringing up 

 the next full one and placing it in its proper 

 position in the barrel, of cocking the ham- 

 mer, and pulling the trigger. The barrel is 

 cooled with a water-jacket, is adjustable in 

 every direction, and has a maximum range 

 of eighteen hundred yards. The gun weighs 

 only one hundred and six pounds ; it can be 

 taken apart, folded up, and put together 

 again, the latter operation being possible in 

 ten seconds. 



NOTES. 



How timber can be intelligently culti- 

 vated on farm-lots of from sixteen (o twenty 

 acres was explained by Mr. Benjamin Hatha- 

 way at the Michigan Forestry Convention. 

 Wliile the timber is young the ground can 

 be used for pasture, and even for wheat 

 and oats. After the shade has grown 

 dense, the temporary value of the land is 

 reduced ; but in eight or ten years afterward 

 the timber becomes marketable. Trees 

 planted in border screens, ten feet apart, 

 will support a wire fence, afford a supply 

 of fire-wood from their trimmings, and add 

 positively to the attractiveness, value, and 

 profitable cultivation of the farm. 



The French Association met this year in 

 Jlarch, at Oran, in Algeria. M. Laussedat 

 was chosen president, and delivered an ad- 

 dress on the civilizing influence of science. 

 The meeting was held in the spring instead 

 of the summer, on account of climatical con- 

 siderations. One previous meeting of the 

 Association — that of 1881 — was held in Al- 

 geria, 



The great Bressa prize of 1 2,000 francs, 

 or $2,400, has been awarded to M. Pasteur 

 by the Academy of Sciences at Turin. 



Mr. Vincent Jackson, senior surgeon 

 of the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire 

 General Hospital, who is also Mayor of 

 Wolverhampton, presided recently at a 

 " Burial Reform " meeting, and defined the 

 reforms required to be : coffins of the most 

 perishable and lightest material, all lasting 

 substances being rejected ; interments as 

 early as possible ; the pall to be discarded 

 as an unnecessary and baneful covering, 

 and burial in plain earth with total disuse 

 of vaults and bricked graves. Vaults were 

 condemned by Dr. Malet, medical health- 

 officer for the borough, as tending to the 

 spread of disease, and injury to the health 

 of persons attending burials. 



A COLLECTION of objccts relating to re- 

 ligion — altars, priests' robes, and kindred 

 objects — made in the course of several years 

 by M. Guimet, was some time ago presented 

 by him to the municipality of Paris on condi- 

 tion that a building should be specially de- 

 voted to them. The building, which is close 

 to the Trccad^ro Palace, has just been fin- 

 ished, and will shortly be occupied as a mu- 

 seum of religions. 



" Eailway-buain " is a term applied by 

 Dr. Thomsen to a neurosis or general de- 

 rangement of the nerves produced by a 

 shock received by the head on a railway- 

 car. In the particular case described, no 

 wound was received, and consciousness was 

 preserved at the time of the injury. After- 

 ward the patient became melancholic, and 

 complained of insomnia, headache, spinal 

 pain, weariness, and failure of appetite. 

 A hygienic and palliative treatment was 

 given. 



An interesting experiment was recently 

 made by a Dr. Durand, in reference to the 

 relative power of imagination in the two 

 sexes. lie gave to one hundred of his hos- 

 pital patients a dose of sweetened water, 

 and shortly afterward entered the room, ap- 

 parently greatly agitated, saying he had by 

 mistake administered a powerful emetic. 

 In a few minutes four fifths of the subjects 

 were affected by the supposed emetic, and 

 were mainly men, while every one of those 

 not affected were women. 



M. BoNNETOUD, a French engineer, em- 

 ploys the explosive force of dynamite to 

 drive out, for a brief period, the water from 

 portions of wet ground in which foundations 

 are to be made. A hole is bored in the 

 wet ground, ten or twelve feet deep, and 

 about an inch and a half wide. By explod- 

 ing cartridges of dynamite in this hole the 

 water is driven far out beyond the sides of 

 the yard-wide cavity which is produced, and 

 does not reappear till after half an hour at 

 least. The workmen thus have time to clear 

 the cavity and introduce quickly-setting con- 

 crete. 



