Vol. XXIV. No. S.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
121 
Sl^e Popular Scieijce I^ews. 
BOSTON, AUGUST i, 1890. 
AUSTIN p. NICHOLS, S.B., . 
WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D., 
.... Editor. 
Associate JCditor. 
The American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science will hold its meeting 
this year at Indianapolis, commencing on the 
19th of August. From its central location 
and the fine facilities placed at the service 
of the Association, this meeting promises to 
be one of the- most important ever held in the 
West. 
«^» 
Thioketone is the innocent name of a 
recently-discovered sub.stance which has the 
proud distinction of being the worst-smelling 
substance known. Naturally, it belongs to 
the class of sulphur compounds, and may be 
chemically considered as a niono-sulphuretted 
acetone (CaHeS). It was first prepared by 
two German chemists, but their investigations 
were brought to a premature end by the pro- 
tests of the residents in the vicinity of the 
laboratory. Even with the most perfect 
methods of condensation, it was impossible 
to distill a small quantity of this fragrant 
substance without infecting the whole neigh- 
borhood with an odor in comparison with 
which that of sulphuretted hydrogen or mer- 
captan must be considered as agreeable. It 
is a curious fact that sidphur, an inodorous 
substance in itself, should almost invariably 
confer a most atrocious fragrance upon any 
compound of which it forms a constituent 
part. 
>«» 
The superior photographic qualities of the 
great object-glass of the Lick Observatory 
are well illustrated by some recent experi- 
ments upon a photograph of the moon taken 
with its aid. The photographic image of the 
moon was enlarged two times without per- 
ceptibly losing its sharpness of definition, 
the whole enlargement being equal to a mag- 
nifying power of 1,100 diameters, which prac- 
tically brought the moon to within a distance 
of 217 miles of the observer. In this enlarge- 
ment the walls of the "rill" crossing the 
crater llyginus are plainly visible, although 
only 6,000 feet apart, while the bright tops 
of the walls, which are also very distinct, 
are only about 600 feet wide. This is a most 
remarkable test of the power of definition 
of the object-glass, and fully justifies the 
wisdom of the large expenditure of time 
and money required for its production. 
graph is simply a small mirror so mounted 
that a ray of sunlight may be flashed in any 
desired direction, long and short flashes cor- 
responding to the dashes and dots of the 
Morse alphabet. At night an artificial light 
is substituted. It has been found a valuable 
means of communication in the deserts of 
New Mexico and Arizona, where the expense 
of maintaining regular telegraph lines would 
l>e too great, to say nothing of their probable 
destruction by hostile Indians. 
On'e of the oldest persons in the country, 
Captain Nicholas Costello, recently died at 
Haverhill, Mass., at the probable age of 108 
years. He was a native of Ireland, but came 
to this country some sixt}- years ago. While 
his exact age may have been somewhat uncer- 
tain, there can be but little doubt that he was 
considerably over one hundred years old, to 
which age he preserved a fair measure 
of health and strength. It may be noted in 
this connection that on the tenth anniversary 
of the taking of the Bastile, Bonaparte, then 
first consul, received two invalid soldiers, 
one of 106, the other of 107 years ; and that, 
in 1822, Pietro Iluel, who was then 117 years 
old, arid the only Frenchman living who had 
seen Louis XIV., assisted at the inauguration 
of the statue of the grand monarch. 
Some curious electrical and magnetic phe- 
nomena have been observed at the Montsouris 
Observatory, at- Paris, due to the trains on 
two neighboring railroads. A registering 
bifilar magnet is so greatly disturbed when- 
ever a train passes near the observatory, that 
the photographic curve shows cle.irly the 
exact time of the passage of every train. 
This phenomenon is due to the fact that, as 
the line crosses the direction of the magnetic 
meridian, the wheel-tires of the carriages 
become magnetized by induction, and so pro- 
duce, in consequence of the laws of magnet- 
ism, a deviation of the bifilar magnet. It 
has also been noticed that whenever steam is 
allowed to escape from an engine, the electric 
potential of the air is considerably lowered, 
and the electrometer in the observatory is 
partially discharged. These phenomena have 
caused much annoyance to the director, and 
have led him to protest against the proposed 
extension of one of the lines. 
from inoculation with the venom of serpents, 
but in such cases the poisonous efiects occur 
almost immediately. Even more powerful 
are the poisons used by the natives of Africa 
to render fatal the wounds made by their 
arrows, as described by Mr. Stanley in his 
recent work on Africa. These, when fresh, 
are of most extraordinary power. Faintness, 
palpitation of the heart, nausea, pallor, and 
beads of perspiration break out over the body 
with extraordinary promptness, and death 
ensues. One man died within one minute' 
from a mere pin-hole puncture in the right 
arm and right breast. A headman died 
within an hour and a quarter after being 
shot ; ii woman died during the time that she 
was carried a distance of a hundred paces ; 
others in varying spaces of time up to a 
hundred hours. The activity of the poison 
seemed to depend on its freshness. The 
treatment adopted was to administer an 
emetic, to suck the wound, syringe it, and 
inject a strong solution of carbonate of ammo- 
nia. This carbonate of ammonia injection 
seems to have proved a wonderful antidote 
if it could be administered promptly enough. 
One of the poisons with which the weapons 
are smeared is a dark substance like pitch. 
According to the native women, it is prepared 
from a local species of arum. Its smell when 
fresh recalls the old blister plaster. It is 
strong enough to kill elephants. This poison 
is not permitted to be prepared in the village. 
It is manufactured and smeared on the arrows 
in the bush. All these phenomena are cer- 
tainly wonderful and unexplainable ; but, for 
that matter, there is hardly any action taking 
place in the living body of which we can 
form any satisfactory conception of the true 
nature. 
A MESSAGE was recently sent by the optical 
telegraph from Mt. Reno to Mt. Graham, a 
distance of 125 miles, which is the longest on 
record, and would scarcely be possible in an 
atmosphere less clear than that of the moun- 
tain regions of the West. This form of tele- 
One of the most mysterious of physiologi- 
cal phenomena is the influence of minute 
quantities of certain substances when intro- 
duced into the circulatory system. The 
wonderful eflect of vaccination is familiar to 
all, and even more remarkable are the terrible 
results produced by a mere trace of saliva 
from a hydrophobic animal — a poison which, 
apparently, remains dormant in the body for 
d.iys or weeks, and then suddenly springs 
into fatal activity. Similar efiects follow 
Another practical point, not entirely 
unknown before, but confirmed by Mr. 
Stanley's recent journey, is the protection 
against malaria aflbrded by trees, tall shrub- 
bery, or even a high wall or close screen, 
around a house, between it -and the wind- 
currents. Em in Pasha told him that he 
always took a mosquito-curtain with him, 
as he believed that it was an excellent pro- 
tector against miasmatic exhalations of the 
night ; and Stanley thereupon suggests a 
respirator, attached to a veil or face-screen 
of muslin, to assist in mitigating malarious 
effects, for travellers in open regions. These 
facts would tend to confirm the view that 
malarial afiections are really caused by a 
microbe living in the air, which is unable 
to pass by mechanical obstructions in its path. 
Another "electrical" humbug has re- 
cently been brought forward, and is worthy 
of notice from the ingenuity displayed by its 
originator. It is alleged to consist of a series 
of steam boilers coimccted with powerful 
dynamo machines in such a w.ay that the 
