144 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In a communication on injuries by light- 

 ning in Africa, Emin Pasha shows that in 

 the central regions (from latitude 2'' to 6° 

 north) they are of average frequency, while 

 further north, as at Fashoda, Khartoum, and 

 Berber, they are nearly unheard of. A belief 

 prevails among the Soudan Arabs that with 

 every flash of lightning a piece of meteoric 

 iron is thrown to the earth. They fancy that 

 whoever is able to secure such a piece of 

 iron has gained a great treasure, because 

 swords and knives made from it can not be 

 surpassed in quality, and their possession 

 gives immunity from danger in battle, and 

 protection against lightning-strokes. Sheik 

 Narr, chief of the Takkala Mountains, is 

 said to have resisted all Egyptian attacks, 

 and to have preserved his people's inde- 

 pendence, through the possession of such a 

 sword. 



Antiptrine, an artificial alkaloid obtained 

 from coal-tar, is recommended by M. E. Dupuy 

 and M. Ossian-Bonnet as a remedy for sea- 

 sickness. M. Dupuy as=^erts that, adminis- 

 tered for three days before embarking and 

 during the first three days of the voyage, in 

 doses of three grammes a day, it prevented 

 sea-sickness during the voyage across the 

 Atlantic. M. Ossian-Bonnet usually obtained 

 effects in ten minutes from a dose of one 

 and a half gramme, and in no case had to use 

 more than three grauimes in two doses. When 

 the stomach would not hold the medicine, a 

 subcutaneous injection was efficient. 



M. DE Chardonnet has artificially pro- 

 duced a substance having the apparent quali- 

 ties of silk. He treats the ethereal solution 

 of cellulose with a similar solution of per- 

 chloride of iron or perchloride of tin, and, 

 adding an alcoholic solution of tannic acid, 

 obtains a substance that can be drawn out 

 into a thread. These threads, which may be 

 spun into stronger cords, are supple, trans- 

 parent, and cylindrical or flattened ; silky to 

 the look and the touch ; break with a weight of 

 twenty-five kilogrammes per square milli- 

 metre ; burn without the fire extending ; are 

 slowly decomposed by heating ; are not acted 

 upon by acids and alkalies of moderate de- 

 grees of concentration, water, alcohol, or 

 ether; but arc dissolved in etherated alcohol 

 and acetic ether. 



The Belgian Government, after experi- 

 ments to ascertain the best methods of mak- 

 ing the clotliing of its soldiers water-proof, 

 has adopted that of bathing the goods in 

 acetate of alumina, and then drying them in 

 the air, without wringing. The doctors have 

 expressed the opinion that clothing thus pre- 

 pared ofPors no obstacle to perspiration, and 

 is therefore hygienically unobjectionable. 

 It appears also to be determined that the 

 goods are not depreciated either in quality 

 or color by the preparation. The only se- 

 rious objection to the process is its cost. 



While the question of the origin of the 

 Aryans is under discussion, Mr. G. Bertin 

 suggests that we may learn something of it 

 by looking further than we have yet done 

 into the roots of their languages. Even in 

 the oldest specimens they bear evidence of 

 being hybrids — in inconsistencies of syntax ; 

 in the promiscuous use of prepositions and 

 postpositions ; in having many words and 

 roots to express the same objects ; and in the 

 use of three genders. Hence the original 

 tongue may have been a fusion of two lan- 

 guages — say of Accadian or some closely re- 

 lated speech and some Semitic language. 

 The supposition is supported by the fact that 

 a great many resemblances have been ob- 

 served between Accadian and Sanskrit. 



A NEW view of fetichism is taken by 

 Major A. B. Ellis, in his book on the "Tshi- 

 speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast." He 

 does not think it characteristic of primitive 

 peoples, or of races low in the scale of civil- 

 ization, but belitves that it is arrived at only 

 after considerable progress has been made 

 in religious ideas, when the older form of 

 religions becomes secondary. And " it owes 

 its existence to the confusion of the tangible 

 with the intanp,ible, of the material with the 

 immaterial ; to the belief in tlie indwelHng 

 god being gradually lost sight of, until the 

 power, originally believed to belong to the 

 god, is finally attributed to the tangible and 

 inanimate object itself." 



Some recent comparative analyses, made 

 at Dundee, Scotland, of the air of sewers and 

 that of the close rooms of some of the well- 

 inhabited houses of the city, turned out to 

 the advantage of the sewers. That is, the 

 analysts found in small and ill-ventilated 

 houses more carbonic acid, more organic 

 matter, and far more micro-organisms than 

 in the sewer-air they examined ; so that, if 

 the experiments were to be taken as final 

 and conclusive, the inhabitants of a small 

 room would improve their position by living 

 in the atmosphere of a sewer ! The experi- 

 ments are, of course, not to be thus taken ; 

 but it is easy to conceive of cases in which 

 the inference would be correct. The lesson 

 to be drawn from it would be, not that sewer- 

 air is less dangerous than it is thought to 

 be, but an admonition of the necessity for 

 improving the sanitary condition of some 



The Zirknitzen Lake in central Carniola, 

 according to Herr Putik's description, ex- 

 hibits remarkable phenomena of periodical 

 emptying and filling. A gigantic cave, called 

 Gilovca or Karlovca by the natives, and sit- 

 uated at the northwest corner of the lake, 

 forms an outlet for the overflow. It lies at 

 the foot of perpendicular rocks, and leads 

 to a number of subterranean lakes, five of 

 which Herr Putik has crossed. 



