A7ig. 3, 1876] 



NATURE 



289 



necessarily produce will not change. It will be that indicated 

 by the arrows, namely, B D A, The direct and ordinary move- 

 ment in the radiometer is thus explained in the simplest manner. 



Joseph Delsaulx, S. J. 

 II, rue des Recollets, Louvain, Belgium, July 22 



A Brilliant Meteor 



Last Tuesday evening, July 25, at three minutes past 10 p.m., 

 a magnificent meteor was observed here. Its first appearance 

 was hidden from me by a tree, but the rest of its long course 

 was open to view. It travelled straight from S. to N. between 

 the directions S.S.W. and W. Its apparent size was that of 

 Jupiter. When first seen it was of a brilliant violet colour. 

 This changed to bright green and red, and towards the end it 

 was, I think, green in front, red behind, and where a number of 

 globules which broke off seemed to follow it. The body of the 

 meteor was pear-shaped. No luminous train was left after its 

 disappearance. The motion was much slower than that of 

 common aerolites, and probably the phenomenon lasted about 

 two seconds. It would be interesting to know what was seen 

 of it in the West of England and in Ireland. 



Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, F. A. R. Russell 



July 28 



On Tuesday, the 25th, I was seated with my eyes looking 

 westward, when at 10.5 p.m. a most remarkable meteor passed 

 before my vision, which exceeded in brilliancy of colour and in 

 dimensions any phenomenon of the kind that I ever witnessed 

 in the whole course of my life. 



The main body of the meteor was a vivid emerald green, with 

 a large spherical head tapering away into a tail of fiery red 

 colour, followed up by a luminous track. 



Its trajectory was almost horizontal, emanating from the 

 constellation of Aquila, passing through that of Hercules, curv- 

 ing slightly downwards, and passing a few degrees beneath 

 Arcturiis ; a short distance northward of that great star the 

 meteor suddenly collapsed with a bright effulgency, and vanished 

 from sight. 



Its velocity appeared as being somewhat slower that what I 

 have observed on similar occasions. It was present to the ob- 

 server for more than five seconds of time, sufficient time to leave 

 on the mind of the observer a distinct impression of the meteor's 

 various aspects. 



Owing to the dry condition of the atmosphere, the apparent 

 proximity of the meteor was very striking ; the brilliant flash of 

 colour at first sight produced the effect that a large rocket had 

 been fired off in the vicinity, for it was very similar in colouring 

 and shape to many rockets displayed by pyrotechnists. 



Soon after the meteor had disappeared I observed three very 

 faint shooting-stars to fall from a high altitude downwards to the 

 track which the meteor had taken. 



I furnish you with these observations, which may interest your 

 readers, especially those who were fortunate enough to observe 

 this splendid phenomenon. Eras. Ommanney 



6, Talbot Square, W., July 29 



D-line Spectra 



Last March you were good enough to publish in Nature 

 (vol. xiii., p. 366) a request for some explanation of the ex- 

 tremely different, and indeed opposite, reactions afforded to 

 boric add by the yellow or D-line spectral flame emitted from 

 soda or its salts, and from platinum respectively, when treated 

 with the blowpipe. 



No explanation has been vouchsafed ; and it may be now 

 added to that fact that, among the millions of substances in 

 nature emitting this D-line producing-flame when heated before 

 a blowpipe, sodium salts are the only ones which give the reac- 

 tions of sodium ; all others affording extremely marked reactions 

 of an exactly opposite character. W. A. Ross 



July 24 



Pyroxidation 



Will any of your chemist contributors be so kind as to 

 afford in your columns an explanation of the following phe- 

 nomenon ? 



If we heat before a blowpipe on a piece of aluminium plate 

 (which has a side of four inches perpendicular to the blowpipe 

 flame) a fragment of pure antimony, we have three sublimates 

 deposited on the perpendicular side of the plate in the following 

 order : — 



{a) Sb^^Og (strongly reddening litmus paper) highest. 



(b) Sb^O^ (faintly „ „ „ intermediate. 



{c) A black sublimate (?) lowest. 



I want to know why a substance similar to another, except that 

 it contains two more atoms of oxygen, and has therefore a 

 higher specific gravity, travels perpendicularly up the plate to a 

 more elevated position ? W. A. Ross 



July 24 



ABSTRACT REPORT TO "NATURE" ON EX- 

 PERIMENTA TION ON ANIMALS FOR THE 

 ADVANCE OF PRACTICAL MEDICINE'- 

 V. 

 Results of Experiments on Resuscitation. 

 TN my last communication I described a method of 

 ■•■ practical study by experimentation which was in- 

 tended to demonstrate the best means of restoring to life 

 those human beings who by accident are thrown on the 

 confines of death. To thoughtful and feeling minds this 

 study is subUmely solemn, but I see that a writer in one 

 of the contemporaries of Nature has found it possible, in 

 his zeal against experimentation on animals, to make my 

 observations on the subject the matter of a jest at my 

 expense. In order to render his jest applicable, the 

 writer has also perverted my statement so as to make a 

 simple illustration of a discovered fact appear as if it 

 were presented in the light of the fact discovered. It will 

 be remembered by the readers of these articles that after 

 I had described, in my last essay, the observations 

 relating to the effect of galvanism on expiring muscular 

 power, I enforced the lesson by illustrating the difference 

 of effect that might be expected to occur from carrying 

 an exhausted animal to a place of succour and of making 

 it travel to the place. The writer I refer to states this 

 illustration as the fact which I have arrived at by experi- 

 ment, and thereupon founds his joke, which he borrows 

 from Gil Bias. The circumstance of this criticism has 

 an interest for which I am thankful. It has suggested to 

 my mind something which might not have occurred to 

 it, viz., that in my desire to be very brief in these 

 abstract reports I have neglected to introduce a few 

 detailed arguments of first importance, which ought not, 

 perhaps, to have been omitted in any case, but which I 

 am now compelled to supply. 



After the discovery of the process known as galvanism, 

 and the researches conducted by Galvani, Volta, and 

 Aldini on the influence of the galvanic current on animal 

 hfe, the application of the current for the purpose of 

 resuscitating persons who were apparently dead became 

 the common practice of medical men. The extraordinary 

 experiments conducted by Aldini at the College of Sur- 

 geons during the day of January 17, 1803, on the body of 

 a malefactor named Forster, made an impression on men 

 of science which was probably without parallel. The 

 malefactor, after being hanged and after being exposed 

 for a whole hour to a temperature two degrees below 

 freezing-point, was carried to a house near to Newgate, 

 and, in pursuance of the sentence, was delivered over to 

 the College of Surgeons. The master of the College, 

 Mr. Keate, here re-delivered the body over to Aldini, who 

 was the nephew and devoted follower of Galvani, and the 

 action of the galvanic current upon the dead man was 

 demonstrated. I need not describe minutely the strange 

 phenomena that were observed during the demonstration. 

 Carpue, the anatomist, took share with his pupil Hutchins 

 in the anatomical part ; Cuthbertson, an eminent mathe- 

 matical instrument-maker, the Browning of that day, 

 directed and arranged the galvanic apparatus, which con- 

 sisted of three troughs of forty elements each; Mr. 

 Keate took duty in observing, and Aldini directed the 

 operations. Fifteen experiments were carried out, and 

 such were the muscular movements excited in the dead 

 man by the current that the most sanguine expectations 



» Continued from p. 252. 



