Vol. XXV. No. 9.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
139 
Inquirer. — The birds found dead beneath tele- 
graph wires were probably killed by flying against 
them. The current used for telegraphic purposes 
is not strong enough to injure a bird alighting 
upon the wires. 
B. O. F., Atlanta. — What is the best form of 
battery to use on an open circuit where it will 
only be called into action occasionally, as for 
ringing an electric bell ; and also for a closed cir- 
cuit where the current is constantly passing? 
Answer. — For an open circuit use a LeClanche, or 
some improved form of chloride of ammonium 
battery. For a closed circuit some form of the 
Daniels or the gravity battery is the best and 
cheapest. Batteries used on closed circuits should 
be carefully looked after and kept clean to give 
satisfactory results. 
i*> 
LITERARY XOTES. 
Practical Work in Organic Chemistry, by Fred'k 
Wm. Streatfeild, F. I. C. E. & F. N. Spon, Xew 
York. Price, .$1.25. 
The mechanical and practical work needed in 
the study of the organic chemical compounds is 
difBcult, and entirely different from that required 
in the manipulation of inorganic substances. This 
work gives full and clear directions for fractional 
distillation, determination of melting and boiling- 
points, purification of chemicals, and many other 
processes which the beginner in organic chemistry 
finds particularly new and difficult. As far as we 
know, this is the only work of its kind ever pub- 
lished, and it will be of great service to every stu 
dent of the important class of hydrocarbon com- 
pounds. 
Elements of Civil Government. 12mo., cloth, 218 
pages. Price for introduction, 60 cents. Amer- 
ican Book Company, New York, Cincinnati, and 
Chicago, publishers. 
Here is a book, simple, lucid in style, direct in 
statement, and based on correct pedagogical prin- 
ciples. It is compact rather than discursive, and 
from first to last proceeds from the known to the 
unknown. The pupil is lead from his home to the 
State in which he lives, and an intelligent view of 
all the intermediate governmental units are pre- 
sented in turn. Finally the government of the 
United States is taken up, and here the nature of 
the constitution, the several departments of civil 
government and the functions of each are clearly 
and simply set forth. Peterman's Civil Govern- 
ment is simple enough to be understood by pupils 
reading the Fourth Reader, and is sufficiently 
philosophical and orderly in its discussions to 
form the basis of more advanced study in higher 
institutions of learning. 
Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, of Xew York, an- 
nounce the near completion of their Neiu Standard 
Dictionary of the English Language, which will 
embody many new principles in lexicography. It 
will contain nearly 2,200 pages, and over 4,000 
illustrations made especially for this work, with 
200,000 words, or 70,000 more words than in any 
other single volume dictionary. A statt" of over 
one hundred editors, including some of the most 
eminent scholars in the world, has been at work 
upon this new dictionary for many months, and 
every possible effort has been made to make it the 
" Standard " in fact as well as in name. The plan 
and style of the work has met with the approval 
of the most eminent lexicographers, both in this 
country and abroad ; and when finished it will be 
indispensable to every complete library. It will 
be published at the moderate price of $12.00 when 
issued, and $7.00 to advance subscribers. The 
publishers will be happy to send a descriptive 
circular and sample pages free upon application. 
Pamphlets, etc., received : Reports on the Total 
Eclipse of the Sun of December 21 and 22, 1889, 
and the Total Eclipse of the Moon of July 22, 1888, 
vxith a Catalogue of the Observatory Library, pub- 
lished by the Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, 
California ; Hints on Summer Living, published by 
Fowler & Wells Co., New York, (25 cents) ; The 
Purification of Water by Metallic Iron, by Henry 
Leflmann, Ph. D. ; The Non-Alcoholic treatment 
of Pneumonia, by Willis Cummings, M. D., Bridge- 
port, Conn. ; and the Report of the New York State 
Analyst of Drugs, by Willis G. Tucker, M. D. 
flTediciRe and pharmaetj. 
[Original In Popular Science News.] 
HYSTERIA AND ITS ALLIES— GHOSTS AND 
SUPERSTITIONS. 
BY M. J. GORTON. 
Excited nerves are one of the most annoying 
and most productive agencies for the breeding of 
unnecessary misery in the world. Most of us, 
probably, have had periods when vitality is at its 
ebb, and found a load on our shoulders which 
weighed upon both mind and spirits, with a sense 
of worry, a horror of other people's meddling, a 
feeling of self-mistrust, or the doom of some great 
evil upon our horizon. We conjure up visions of 
long-forgotten blunders, and dwell upon them 
until they grow from mole-hills into mountains ; 
then the mistakes of yesterday, — the sentences 
said or left unsaid, the deeds done or left undone, 
— and there must be explanations and reversions 
immediately. Fortunately, with the bright cheer- 
fulness of the sunshine, with the busy activitj' of 
the occupied life, comes the calming memory that 
we are morbid, possibly dyspeptic; that for a 
short period our nerves have been painfully ex- 
cited, and, the predisposing cause being removed, 
the normal condition again prevails, and we are at 
peace. But there are people so constituted that 
their entire lives are passed in this febrile condi- 
tion ; and such a condition of mind may be classed 
as one of the misfortunes of life. It breaks up all 
the peace of domestic life, and jvrecks the happi- 
ness and fortunes of many. Very trying such 
people are ; they are not at peace themselves, and 
they are pre-determined not to let others enjoy 
any quiet which they have the power to destroy. 
TTiese spells of morbid fancies and unhid de- 
pressions visit men and women alike, so far as we 
can judge; but in all literatures and times past, 
when it comes to pure, unreasoning worrying, 
active suffering, selfish teasing, women have been 
given the preeminence. Not that all women, or 
any considerable number of women, suft'er in this 
manner, but a certain hysterical temperament is 
subject to such fits. Considering the predisposing 
causes, it would seem that the controlling power, 
which could check such a state in its earlier stages, 
at least, is more at fault than the active agent. 
A yielding and uxorious husband is commonly 
the foil for breeding this sort of tyranny. Tlie 
nervous fancies should be controlled, and, when 
beyond the patient's power, to have someone who 
should be master, but is not, allows the disorders 
to grow to undue proportions. As an instance. 
Queen Constance, who, by her great griefs, and 
without controlling power of any kind, became 
heroic in her selfish agony, has made herself the 
type of this form of hysteria. Self was the center 
of all her waitings, not Arthur's unhappiness. 
It is to nerves so painfully excited and imagina- 
tion so diseased that the outgrowth of ghosts and 
superstitious visitations is, undoubtedly, often 
due. In this state of mind, and after some severe 
nervous shock, — as the loss of some near friend, — 
the latent ideas entertained by the individual as 
to spiritual agencies, ghosts, and visions have 
much to do with such phenomena. To a believer 
in ghosts, any apparition, sound, or startling co- 
incidence will be accredited with a supernatural 
origin in the mind of the observer, and he usually 
accepts the data as a fact, and makes no inquiries 
which might enlighten him on the purely natural 
cause for the phenomenon. 
Tliere was an instance which seemed to be at- 
tested by so many persons that it was difficult to 
believe so many could be subject to a delusion in 
the matter. An artist was sketching on one of 
the bold promontories of the many fantastically 
shaped mounds in southeastern Kansas, and late 
in the evening descended to the valley to find sev- 
eral families in a state of nervous excitement, 
each person testifying to the warning given by 
the appearance of a ghost. It appeared and dis- 
appeared above the outline of the ridge of the 
high mound where the artist had been working 
for hours. A great billowy object, resembling the 
distended skirts of a woman, had been seen to' rise 
above the horizon, and then to sink down and dis- 
appear, only to show itself at some other point, 
— now higher up nearer the summit of the mound, 
and then away down the side. The fact that the 
object sank down clear out of sight and then re- 
appeared, only caused the greater excitement. It 
was thought to be the ghost of an early settler, 
who had been murdered during the border troub- 
les of the early settling of the State; and, as her 
grave was on the highest point on tlie mound, it 
was prophesied that she had visited the scene of 
her earthly suffering to give warning to those 
now living near the site of some pending disaster. 
Under the conditions, excitement ran high; and 
it was noticeable that most of those present were 
prepared to be deceived, and more than one was 
vibrating in nervous tremors, and occupied the 
time in relating stories of second sight, goblins, 
and ghosts. One of the company, the unmarried 
sister of the hostess, who was quite ill, had an 
attack of hysteria, and the prolonged shrieks 
sounded lugubrious and added to the predisposi- 
tion to expect something horrible. Tlie house 
stilled down, however, and when the cheerful 
sunshine of a brilliant July day awakened all to a 
state of healthy, happy activity, it seemed quite 
improbable that anytliing supernatural would 
show itself. But the early breeze, which usually 
begins to blow soon after sunrise and increases in 
intensity as the day grows warmer, seemed to stir 
the ghost from its haunts. Peter, the ploughman, 
who, after breakfast, had gone happily to his 
work, forgetful of the tremors of yesterday, came 
to the house with a blanched face, bringing his 
team, protesting against being in the field when 
"that thar ghost war on the rise." The poor 
liysterical patient was again in agony, and the 
artist, finding no one else ecjual to the task of 
investigation, started for the mound. Her white 
canvass umbrella, which had been staked on the 
top of the bluff" for some days, had escaped its 
fastenings, but was held by the cord tied at the 
outer edge and secured to a stake to steady it in 
tlie high winds. It had been swept to and fro by 
the breeze, and its gyrations could be seen from 
the valley. So the ghost was laid, but not the 
hysteria. 
In the mining regions of Missouri there was at 
one time an epidemic of fits, originating in a reli- 
gious excitement where many converts were vio- 
lently agitated, and, after hours of violent excita- 
tion, became stiff and stark, lying in a trance 
state. The report grew that a certain large oak 
tree, standing at the fountain-head of Roaring 
River, was burning, although no fiame was to be 
seen, but great columns of smoke ascended from 
the green boughs during certain hours of the day. 
Soon many invalids were attracted, and, as there 
was no visible cause for fire, great wonder fell 
upon them. And the excitement grew and the 
frenzy prevailed until one bold investigator 
climbed to the topmost branch. The enigma 
was solved. Innumerable myriads of gnats were 
swarming, and, as they disported tliemselves in 
the sunshine, the great spirals and clouds of 
smoke, black and rushing, seemed to issue from 
