Vol. XXIV. No. 2.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEAVS. 
29 
month is about 2^ east of the star. Uranus is in the 
constellation Virgo, and is moving slowly westward. 
Neptune is in the constellation Taurus, and is in 
quadrature with the sun on the morning of Feb- 
ruary 20. 
Tin Consiellations. — The poiitiont given are for 
lo P. M. February 1,9?. M. February 15, and 8 P. 
M. Feb. 28. Gemini is near the zenith, the princi- 
pal stars, Castor and Pollux, being a little south and 
east. Canis Minor, with the first magnitude star 
Procyon, it on the meridian to the south ; and 
below that is Canis Major, with Sirius, the brightest 
of the fixed stars. Cancer is just east of Gemini, 
and Leo is about halfway from the eastern horizon 
to the zenith, while Virgo is just rising in the east. 
Ursa Major is high up in the northeast, and Bootes 
i» below it on the horizon. Ursa Minor and Draco 
lie principally to the east and below the pole star. 
Cassiopeia is in the northwest, about the same alti- 
tude as the pole star. Just west of the zenith is 
Auriga; below this and a little to the north of west 
is Perseus; and Andromeda is near the horizon, 
below Perseus. Taurus, with the groups of Pleiades 
and Hyades, is a little south of west, and below it 
are Aries and Pisces. Orion is about halfway be- 
tween Taurus and the southern meridian, the prin- 
cipal stars being at a little lower altitude than those 
of Taurus. M. 
L.\KE Forest, III., Jan. i, 1890. 
C^JESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
Letters of inquiry should enclose a two-cent 
stamp, as well as the name and address of the wri- 
ter, which will not be published. 
Questions regarding the treatment of diseases 
cannot be answered in this column. 
G. R. A.., Missouri. — If water is cooled it contracts 
till a temperature of 39.2° is reached, and then 
expand.s to the freezing-point. Now if the resulting 
ice is cooled, does it contract, or continue to expand? 
Anstver. — After water is once frozen, the ice acts 
like any other solid body, and contracts as the tem- 
perature diminishes. 
G. B. D,, Cambridge. — How can sulphur be 
detected in spring water.' 
Answer. — A regular analysis is the only means of 
detecting small amounts, but the odor of sul- 
phuretted h.ydrogen gas — the usual form in which it 
occurs — is the best test for any appreciable quantity. 
This gas has a very offensive odor, similar to that 
of rotten eggs. Or, you may add a few drops of 
solution of acetate of lead, and note if a dark dis- 
coloration or precipitate is produced, indicating the 
presence of sulphur. These tests should be made at 
the spring, as the gas rapidly escapes from the 
water when exposed to the air. 
A. P. H., Maine. — Next to the diamond, what is 
the purest form of carbon .' 
Answer. — A well-made lampblack is almost chem- 
ically pure carbon, containing only a small quantity 
of hydrocarbon compounds. 
G. D. N., Alabama. — Can you give a formula cf 
cliemicals to be dissolved in water, and kept in 
bottles for the purpose of extinguishing fires.' 
Answer. — Common water is the best of all sub- 
stances for extinguishing fire, and the addition of 
chemicals adds very little to its efficiency. You can 
use common salt or alum in the water, but they will 
not be of much use. 
D. L. P., Boston. — Hydrogen gas is occasionally 
formed in steam and hot water radiators, from the 
decomposition of the water by the iron. The 
inflammable gas, which was blown out of the air- 
valve of your radiator, was doubtless due to that 
cause. 
B. J. C, Chicago. — Hydrogen gas has been lique- 
fied, but it requires a pressure of 10,000 pounds to 
the square inch, and a temperature of 220° below 
zero. It forms a blue liquid, which,- by the cold 
produced by its own evaporation, may be frozen for 
an instant, to a solid with a metallic lustre, thus con- 
firming the theory that hydrogen is a fai»«ou« m«t«l, 
just as morcury is a liqufd ont. 
LITERARY NOTES. 
The National Medical Dictionary , by John S. Bil- 
lings, A. M., M. D. Two volumes. Published 
by Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia. 
This most comprehensive work furnishes to stu- 
dents and practitioners of medicine a clear and con- 
cise definition of every medical term in current use 
in English, French, German, and Italian medical 
literature, including the Latin medical terminology. 
Dr. Billings has had the collaboration of numerous 
specialists, and the result has been the most com- 
plete work of the kind ever published, and one that 
will be of the greatest service to all persons con- 
nected with the medical profession. Numerous 
tables of food values, expectation of life, weights 
and measures, and many others, add to the value of 
the work. 
A Text-Book of Assaying, by C. & J. J. Beringer. 
Published by J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. 
This text-book includes all the principal wet and 
dry methods of assaying, and also gives directions 
for the determination of many of the rarer elements, 
as well as those which have a commercial value. 
In drawing the line between "assaying" and 
"analysis," the authors have always given the 
benefit of the doubt, thus adding to the complete- 
ness and value of the work. 
Evolution, published by James H. West, 192 Sum- 
mer street, Boston, ($2.00), is a compilation of 
various popular lectures and discussions before the 
Brooklyn Ethical Association. It is a systematic, 
concise, and comprehensive presentation in popular 
form of the foundation and theory of evolution, and 
should be read by all interested in the subject, 
whether from a biological, sociological, or philo- 
sophical standpoint. 
A. S. Barnes & Co., Of New York and Chicago, 
publish a revised edition of Wood's Lessons in the 
Structure, Life, and Growth of Plants, edited by 
Oliver R. Willis. ($1.00.) Dr. Wood's works on 
botany have always ranked with the best, and the 
present edition, fully revised and brought down to 
date, will be found a valuable text-book for classes, 
and also suited for botanical amateurs taking up the 
study by themselves. 
P. Blakiston, Son & Co., Philadelphia, announce 
Ostrom's Massage and Swedish Movements, Bevan on 
Mental Diseases, and [fumphry's Manual for Nurses. 
They will also continue to publish the Ophthalmic 
Review, under the new editorship of Dr. Edward 
Jackson, of Philadelphia, assisted by a large number 
of eminent English and American ophthalmologists. 
*<H 
Herbaceous Grafting. — Annuals, or herba- 
ceous plants, belonging to the same genus or natu- 
ral family, says the American Agriculturist, will 
adhere and grow on each other as readily as do 
woody plants. Thus, a cauliflower will grow on a 
cabbage, a tomato on a potato, or vice versa. The 
garden cucumber will grow on the wild vines of the 
same family which are sometimes used for covering 
arbors. And these grow to an extraordinary length, 
while the garden cucumber seldom exceeds six or 
eight feet. This knowledge of grafting annuals 
may be utilized and made profitable, especially when 
the potato is forced to ripen seed by engrafting or 
inarching on the tomato. Cucumbers may be 
grown on a high trellis, or around the upper-story 
windows of any building, by training one of the 
wild cucumber vines — either Sicyos angulatus, the 
single-seeded or star cucumber vine, or the Echino- 
cystes or wild balsam apple, either of which grows 
fifty or sixty feet in a single season — up to the de- 
sired height. This is easily done by sowing cucum- 
ber seed of any of the'garden varieties in a flower 
pot, and, when the plant is six or eight inches high, 
joining it to one of these wild vines when it has 
reached the desired height. Merely scraping the 
bark of each and tying them firmly together with 
any soft material is sufficient. They will unite in 
about ten or twelve days, or sooner, and produce 
fruits at a height to which the garden cucumber 
oould never attain. I 
n^edicirje arjd Pljaripacy. 
[Original in I'oputar Science Xeu!».'\ 
WARTS. 
It seems highly proper to devote a few moments 
to the consideration of these exceedingly common, 
decidedly unsightly, and often very obstinate, 
growths; and they more especially appeal for path- 
ological and surgical consideration, since the various 
methods of treatment suggested b^' housewives and 
others, frequently fail to produce any effect upon 
the offending growths, or, by appearing to remove 
them, establish a suitable nidus for the growth of 
superstition in the minds of the credulous; while in 
not a few instances means are employed for their 
removal which, while accomplishing this end, pro- 
duce scars quite as unsightly as the warts themselves. 
Warts, or technically speaking, verruca, are pa- 
pillary excrescences of the true skin, due to hyper- 
trophy and elongation of its papilla", together with 
hypertrophy of the epidermis, or scarf-skin. They 
occur on nearly all parts of the body, though the 
fingers and the hands are their favorite seats. When 
the papilla; are prominent and their dermal cover- 
ing so arranged as to render them distinct to the 
naked eye, the wart presents a split or lobulated 
appearance, and receives the name of "seed-wart," 
or verruca lobosa. 
The cause of these growths is unknown. A warty 
state of the skin is often produced in those who 
continually expose their hands to irritating fluids, 
or hot surfaces, or even to long continued friction, 
but this condition of the skin so plainly caused by 
one's occupation gives no clue whatsoever to the 
cause of the spontaneous growths so frequently 
found on hands, as well as other portions of the 
body, not thus exposed. Common warts are well 
known to form much more frequently in children 
and young subjects than in old persons. That they 
are contagious is exceedingly doubtful. • 
Various means are employed for the removal of 
these offenders. Many need no treatment whatever, 
undergoing spontaneous involution and disappear- 
ing as mysteriously as they came. These are the 
warts which yield so readily to the ridiculous 
methods of treatment which have originated in 
superstition and ignorance; That "charms" acting 
through the mind have no effect upon the excres- 
cences, we are not prepared to say. Carpenter be- 
lieved that they did thus in some instances produce 
their disappearance, and cited a case in one of his 
physiological works ; and although we have met 
with persons who have told us that their warts dis- 
appeared in a week, after they had counted them 
and buried in the garden as many pieces of meat as 
there were warts, and others who were relieved of 
their warts by touching each one with a piece of 
brown paper which they afterwards threw over their 
lefl shoulder at sunset, we have also met with in- 
finitely more with whom all charms have failed, and 
we are inclined to be quite as skeptical as Dr. John 
Mason Good, who in his Study of Medicine savs, 
"they (warts) often disappear spontaneously, and 
hence are sometimes supposed to be charmed away." 
What, then, are the means by which these growths 
can be destroyed.' These are the ligature, the 
knife, caustics, and the cautery. Of these methods, 
the first two are probably the best, but even they 
are not to be recommended in most cases. The 
application of a ligature can only be effected when 
the wart is pedunculated, and the slow tightening of 
the loop is at the best a painful process, while warts 
thus removed are quite apt to recur. However, if 
the pedicle is narrow, and especially if the growth 
be upon the face or neck, il may be "advisable ti> 
attempt its removal by means of a silk ligature. 
