H4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



It was reported recently, in the Royal 

 Society of Tasmania, that a Mr. Vimpany 

 had captured a black snake four feet three 

 inches long, in which one hundred and nine 

 young ones were found. The greatest num- 

 ber said to have been before taken from a 

 single snake was seventy. 



M. Lewis has reported to the Berlin 

 Medical Society his observation of an af- 

 fection that seems to be peculiar to work- 

 ers in silver. It appears in the form of 

 round or oval bluish spots on the skin, 

 ■which in extreme cases may be as large as 

 a nickel five-cent piece, generally on the 

 back of the left hand. Workmen in metals 

 who do not use silver are free from it. The 

 nyinner in which the spots are produced is 

 not clear, for experiments with the direct 

 application of silver in various forms have 

 failed to generate them. The silver prob- 

 ably falls upon some scratch — for the spots 

 are usually developed where there has been 

 a lesion — in a solution, and afterward un- 

 dergoes some chemical change by the ac- 

 tion of the bodily fluids which induces the 

 peculiar color. 



Mr. W. II. Preece described, in the Brit- 

 i-h Association, how he hud extracted a piece 

 of needle from his daughter's hand by the 

 aid of a suspended magnetized needle. The 

 needle was strongly deflected, and invaria- 

 bly, when the hand was moved about, point- 

 ed to one position, which was marked with a 

 spot of ink. The needle was afterward ex- 

 tracted by cutting at this spot. 



Pertinently to the question whether 

 man in the palaeolithic age was acquainted 

 with the potter's art, M. Martel reports 

 that he found last year in the cave of Na- 

 brigas, in immediate contact with the re- 

 mains of specimens of the cave-bear, nine 

 fragments of human skulls, and a piece of 

 rough pottery, not turned in a lathe. In 

 connection with this discovery he adduces 

 the fact that, fifty years ago, M. Joly found 

 in this same cave a fragment of a large ves- 

 sel in contact with the skull of a fossil bear. 

 There is no trace of any disturbance, no 

 other neolithic objects are found, and the 

 skull is in its natural position ; therefore he 

 is persuaded that the question should be 

 answered in the affirmative. 



ToifMASl-CnUDELLl and Klebs published 

 the account of the discovery of the schizo- 

 mycete (bacillus malaria) as the causal agent 

 of malarious fevers, in 1879. Marchiafava 

 and Celli have announced, as the result of 

 their researches on an individual affected 

 with malaria, that within the red-blood glob- 

 ules arc constantly found plasmatic bodies 

 endowed with lively amneboid movements, 

 in which the hsemoglobine is transformed 

 into melanine ; and in a further memoir 

 they suggest that these plasmatic bodies 



may be the living organisms that produce 

 malaria. Thus they confirm in substance 

 Tommasi-Crudelli's opinion that a living or- 

 ganism is the cause of malaria, but they re- 

 gard its form as differing from a schizomy- 

 cete. 



Professor Windle has announced to 

 the British Association, as conclusions from 

 his researches on the subject, that man's 

 original dentition included six incisors in 

 either jaw ; that two from each jaw have 

 gradually disappeared ; that this loss is due 

 to the contraction of the anterior part of 

 the palate ; that this process of contraction 

 will probably go on and result in the loss of 

 two further incisors ; and that the conical 

 shape of many of the supernumerary teeth 

 indicates a reversion to the primitive type of 

 tooth. 



The operation of compulsory vaccination 

 was suspended in Zurich, Switzerland, in 

 obedience to popular clamor, in 1883. The 

 deaths from small-pox per 1,000 total deaths 

 for the two previous years and that year 

 had been, in 1881, 7; in 1882,0; in 1883,8. 

 They rose, after compulsion had ceased to 

 be used, in 1884, to 11-15; in 18S5, to 52, 

 and in the first eight months of 1886, to 85, 

 per 1,000. 



Mr. James W. Wells relates that while 

 exploring the stream connections between 

 the head-waters of the Brazilian Rios Tocan- 

 tins and San Francisco, in 1875, the natives, 

 unaccustomed to the sight of white men, 

 attached a mystery to the presence and per- 

 sonality of one who was neither a trader, 

 planter, priest, nor soldier. They finally de- 

 cided that he was anti-Christ entering the 

 country with the object of making slaves of 

 the people and heathenizing them ; and they 

 were afterward discovered most fervently 

 offering up prayers for deliverance from the 

 machinations of the evil-one. 



A very severe earthquake occurred in 

 Greece, the Ionian Islands, and other lands 

 of the Mediterranean Sea, on the 29th of 

 August. In the southwestern Peloponnesus, 

 four considerable towns and a large num- 

 ber of prosperous villages, with about sixty 

 thousand houses, were destroyed, and hun- 

 dred* of persons were killed. An eruption 

 of Vesuvius was reported at about the same 

 time. The close approach to coincidence in 

 time — making allowance for the distance — 

 of this earthquake with that at Charleston 

 is noticeable ; but it is not supposed that a 

 coincidence exists in any other respect. 



Artesian wells are of great antiquity in 

 China. Abbe Hue describes the method in 

 which they were bored. It is by tubulation, 

 and drilling with a rammer regulated by a 

 rattan cord — a rude suggestion of the more 

 perfect apparatus which is now used among 

 us. 



