1856.] Singular Effects of Attraction. 51 



at an inspiration ; public singers, when they *' take breath," as it is 

 called, inhale from five to seven pints. Eighteen respirations take place 

 in a minute ; it takes, therefore, eighteen pints of air every minute, and 

 fifty-seven hogsheads every twenty-four hours to supply the lungs. 

 Seventy-two pulsations occur in one minute, and one hundred and three 

 thousand six hundred and eighty, in twenty-four hours. The dark venous 

 blood passed and repassed from^the veins through the heart, to be puri- 

 fied into vermilion-colored arterial blood, by contact with fresh air in 

 the lungs, amounts to twenty-four hogsheads in twenty-four hours. It 

 is then sent through the arteries to nourish the whole system, distribut- 

 ing its vitality, to be recovered again from fresh air in the lungs. From 

 the construction of some of our public buildings, it would seem that 

 the builders thought that pints of air were sufficient, in place of 

 hogsheads. 



SINGULAR EFFECTS OF ATTRACTION. 



The Edinburgh Journal of Science has a very interesting paper, by 

 Dr. Hancock, on the motions that result from merely mixing a few drops 

 of Alcohol with a small vial of Laurel Oil. To exhibit this singular 

 phenomenon, which seems to bear some analog}^ with the motions of the 

 planetary orbs, the drops of alcohol should be introduced at different 

 intervals of time. A revolving or circular motion instantly commences 

 in the oil, carrying the alcoholic globules through a series of mutual 

 attractions and repulsions, which will last for many days. The round 

 bodies seem to move with perfect freedom through iha fluid, turning 

 in a small eccentric curve at each extremity of their course, passing 

 each other rapidly without touching. In the course of his experiments 

 Dr. Hancock observed particles of the fluid to separate in large globular 

 portions ; these commence a similar revolution, and the smaller ones 

 quitted their course and revolved about the larger, while the larger still 

 pursued their gyrations after the manner of primary planets and their 

 secondaries. 



