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THE POPULAR SCIE2^^CE MONTHLY 



fering pain when the brain is dead." In 

 doing this " no pain whatever was inflicted, 

 except, in some, the slight smarting due to 

 hypodermic injection of morphine. Two ex- 

 periments were performed under curare, a 

 drug the power of which to destroy conscious- 

 ness is still in doubt. . . . The reason for 

 making these was that chloroform, ether, 

 and morphine, act themselves on the heart ; 

 and, finally, to clinch the question as to the 

 influence of hot blood on that organ, it was 

 necessary to experiment on a heart which 

 had not been exposed to possible alteration 

 by the action of any one of them. In these 

 cases pain was stopped as soon as possible 

 by tying the carotids, and this took three 

 or four minutes. . . . If," Professor Martin 

 adds, " the precise truth concerning every 

 physiological experiment made in this coun- 

 try be brought before the public imme- 

 diately after its misrepresentation in any 

 anti-vivisection journal, our science is safe. 

 Truth can not hurt it. Publicity will swell 

 the ranks of its students. Legislation im- 

 peding our work need not be feared. Hu- 

 man and animal disease and suffering will 

 be diminished, life prolonged, and the world 

 made better as well as happier, through our 

 researches. If we fail to use every effort 

 to protect and promote those researches, 

 are we not guilty toward our fellow-men 

 and the lower animals dependent on us ? " 



Who shall try the Dynamiters ?— In an 

 article on " Dynamiting and Extra-Tcrrito- 

 rial Crime," Mr. Francis Wharton, LL. D., 

 has aimed to show that the prosecution of 

 persons sending dynamite abroad for crimi- 

 nal purposes belongs to the states from whose 

 Boil the dynamite is sent. Authorities on the 

 law of nations agree in maintaining that 

 when, in one sovereignty, overt acts are 

 taken toward the commission of a crime in 

 a foreign land, jurisdiction exists both in the 

 place of preparation and in the place of exe- 

 cution. A similar doctrine has been repeat- 

 edly held in England, as growing out of the 

 common law ; and British courts have en- 

 forced the obligation to punish persons, 

 whether British subjects or foreigners so- 

 journing in the country, who prepare in 

 the United Kingdom attacks to be made in 

 other countries. The same principle has 

 been observed in the United States. The 



particular question Mr. Wharton discusses 

 is, whether, in such crimes as dynamiting, 

 the jurisdiction should lie in the Federal 

 courts or in those of individual Slates. The 

 foreign country sees only the nation ; but, 

 within the nation, what entity should an- 

 swer the responsibility? The General Gov- 

 ernment has already taken cognizance of 

 offenses of this class where sovereigns are 

 concerned, as it might well do, by virtue of 

 its functions in maintaining diplomatic in- 

 tercourse with their courts. But to hold 

 the same attitude with respect to common 

 crimes against common persons, or the gen- 

 eral public, would be to trespass upon the 

 duties and prerogatives of the States. It 

 would, moreover, tend to give those offenses 

 and the measures taken against them a po- 

 litical aspect, and to call in all the compli- 

 cations of political feelings and prejudices. 

 The question should be made to appear as 

 a matter of social order, affecting the homes 

 and lives of the whole community from which 

 the jury to decide upon it is drawn. To make 

 it a matter of national concern would at once 

 divide the jury according to their national 

 sympathies. " It would be otherwise, how- 

 ever, when the question is, whether the law 

 permits dynamiting, or whether it will stop 

 dynamiting at the place where it is start- 

 ed, which is the only place where it can be 

 stopped." 



Hindoo Cosmogony and Physics. — The 



Rev. Sumangala, chief-priest at Adam's 

 Peak, in Ceylon, has recently published an 

 account of the opinions of Hindoo astrono- 

 mers on the form and attraction of the 

 earth. Bhaskara, who flourished in the 

 twelfth century, thought that the terrestrial 

 globe, composed of land, air, water, space, 

 and fire, had a spherical fonn, and, sur- 

 rounded by the planets and the orbits of 

 the stars, maintained itself in ."^pace by its 

 own power. This, he says, is in fact dem- 

 onstrated. Lands, mountains, gardens, and 

 houses cover the earth as jjollen covers the 

 flower of Kadamba, and serve as the homes 

 of men, Raksasas, Devas, and Asuras. lie 

 rejected the idea that the earth rested on 

 anything else, for the obvious reason that, 

 if another support were needed, there would 

 be no end to the supplementary supports. 

 Therefore we shall have to admit a final 



