Vol. XXV. No. 10.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
151 
^he p^optilap (§GlenGe ^6W§. 
BOSTOX, OCTOBER 1, 1891. 
AUSTIN P. NICHOLS, S.B EDITOR 
WILLIAM J. KOLFE, LiTT. D. . . ASSOCIATE EDITOR 
The past month has been a fruitful one in 
pseudo-scientific marvels as described in the col- 
umns of the daily newspapers. In the early part 
of the month the remarkable information was 
telegraplied all over the country that the astrono- 
mers at Mt. Hamilton had discovered "snow on 
the moon " by the aid of the great Lick telescope, 
the only basis for the story being, apparently, 
tliat some recent lunar photographs showed some 
markings which might possibly have been due to 
snow, but most probably were not, as no other 
indications of the presence of water or air on the 
moon have as yet been observed. The possession 
of the largest telescope in the world is in one way 
a disadvantage to the ilt. Hamilton astronomers, 
as it serves to render them a conspicuous mark 
for imaginative newspaper reporters in search of 
a sensation for their columns. 
Scarcely had the great "snow discovery" 
passed out of the public mind than a sure cure 
for drunkenness was announced, as the discovery 
of a physician in that conveniently indefinite re- 
gion of "out West." ITiis therapeutical wonder 
was said to consist of chloride of gold, adminis- 
tered hypodermically, and was warranted to to- 
tally destroy all desire for alcohol in the most 
confirmed inebriate. That drunkenness in some 
cases is a disease, and not a vice, must be admit- 
ted ; l)ut it is a mental rather than a bodily dis- 
ease, and the sufferers must be treated l)y psyclio- 
logical rather than physiological metliods. lu 
addition to this, as far as is known, the salts of 
gold have no medicinal value whatever, and, when 
administered in notable quantities, are distinctly 
poisonous. One might as reasonably expect to 
develop a philosopher by the administration of a 
solution of platinum, or a statesman l)y a hypo- 
dermic injection of a salt of silver, as to transform 
a confirmed inebriate into a son of temperance by 
the alleged power of chloride of gold. 
But of all the preposterous scientific absurdi- 
ties, the theories and experiments of the govern- 
ment rain-makers undoubtedly stand at the head. 
The party have recently removed their base of 
operations from Washington to Texas, and, by a 
fortunate coincidence, the first explosions — on the 
11th and 18th of August— were followed by rain. 
This was, apparently, a confirmation of the theory 
of the "rain doctors"; but an inspection of the 
weather maps for those dates shows that on the 
nth there was a natural rain which extended over 
the whole of Texas and the adjacent regions, and 
on the 18th the rain began to the north of Texas 
at least eleven hours before the explosions, and 
covered an area of over 800,000 square miles. The 
most enthusiastic supporter of the theory will 
hardly care to claim any direct connection be- 
tween these widespread storms and the fireworks 
of the party of experimenters in the town of Mid- 
land; and as the reports show that the experi- 
ments wliich were made later in the month were 
total failures, it is probable that the storm missed a 
connection somewhere and failed to arrive in time 
for the celel)ration. The production of rain by 
explosions in the air is in opposition to every 
known scientific principle or natural law, and the 
very utmost that could be expected of such an 
explosion would be the local precipitation of a 
few gallons of water from an atmosphere already 
saturated with moisture — and there is little proof 
that even this eflfect would be produced. Bom- 
barding the heavens to produce rain might appro- 
priately have been tried by a tribe of African sav- 
ages, but it is not very greatly to the credit of an 
enlightened country like the United States that 
such a proceeding should receive the benefit of 
governmental recognition and an appropriation 
from the public funds. 
The record for quick Atlantic passages has 
again been broken, the steamship Majestic having 
crossed from (iueenstown to New York in 5 days, 
18 hours, and 8 miuutes; while a fortnight later 
her sister ship, the Teutonic, made the passage in 
.5 days, 16 hours, and 31 minutes, the record of a 
single day on this passage being 517 miles — the 
longest distance ever traversed by a steamship in 
twenty-four hours. While these fast "record- 
breaking" trips are of interest as showing the 
perfection of modern machinery and engineering 
skill, the practice of ocean racing cannot be other- 
wise than a most dangerous one, and it is nothing 
but criminal recklessness to place the lives of 
hundreds of passengers in imminent jeopardy for 
the purpose of saving a few hours in a journey 
which must necessarily last for several days. 
Some of these swift steamers have escaped total 
destruction by the merest chance, and unless the 
attempt to break the record is abandoned, a terri- 
ble catastrophe is sure to occur. But until the 
lesson is learned, the great majority of European 
travellers will crowd on board the fastest boats, 
while the more sensible ones will content them- 
selves with the safer and more comfortable ves- 
sels, even at the cost of a slightly lengthened sea 
voyage. 
A PKii.MANKXT meteorological observatory is to 
be erected on the summit of Mont Blanc, provided 
the difficulties in the way can be surmounted, the 
principal one being that the observatory must be 
built on the solid rock, and the top of Mont Blanc 
is covered with glacier ice of an unknown thick- 
ness. As the house must be above ground, and 
cannot be of more than a moderate height, it is 
certain that should the glacial cap be 150 or 160 
feet in depth, the project will have to be aban- 
doned. There has been for several years a signal 
station on the summit of Pike's Peak, which is 
l)ut slightly lower than Mont Blanc ; but the cli- 
matic conditions of Colorado and Savoy are so 
different that there can be no comparison between 
the two stations. A series of winter observations 
at the summit of Mont Blanc would be of the 
greatest meteorological interest and value, aud it 
is to be hoped that the enterprise will be carried 
to a successful conclusion. 
Thk mechanical equivalent of heat has been re- 
determined by C. MiCULESCO, by an improved 
modification of Joule's original method. The 
result obtained was 777.7 foot-pounds, comparing 
quite closely with Joule's original figures (772 
foot-pounds). In other words, the quantity of 
heat by which a pound of water is raised in tem- 
perature through one Fahrenheit degree is gener- 
ated by the same amount of work which would 
raise 777.7 pounds one foot high, or one pound 
777.7 feet high. The determination is an impor- 
tant one, and confirms the accuracy of the first 
experiments. 
Some large fragments of meteoric iron discov- 
ered near Canon Diablo, Arizona, by Prof. A. E. 
Foote, have been found to contain numerous 
small diamonds. A similar find of a single dia- 
mond was reported in 1887 by two Russian miner- 
alogists, and is confirmed by this recent discovery, 
which is beyond dispute. The discovery is an ex- 
tremely important one, inasmuch as it indicates 
the probable existence of organized matter, and 
possibly of life, upon the body from whence the 
meteors were derived, at some past time. The 
existence of organic matter in some meteorites is 
also confirmed by the analysis of one which fell 
in Russia in 1889 and was found to contain about 
five per cent, of a hydrocarbon resembling resin. 
While it is quite possible that organic compounds 
may have been formed in these cases by the direct 
combination of hydrogen and carbon without the 
intervention of a living organism, it is by no 
means an untenable theory that the principle of 
vitality may have been in existence in some past 
time upon the celestial body from which the me- 
teors came, or were formed. 
[Original In Popular Science News.] 
THE RECENT SCIENTIFIC CONVENTIONS 
IX WASHINGTON. 
BY katherine b. claypole. 
The city of Washington has been called the 
"Mecca of American Scientists," and this last 
August well did it deserve the name. To it were 
gathered hundreds of men and women more or 
less scientifically inclined, and at least eight sepa- 
rate and distinct congresses were held in the 
Columbian University. Of these the Society of 
Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, 
the Official Agricultural Chemists, the American 
Chemists, the Association of Economic Entomolo- 
gists, and the American Microscopical Associa- 
tion first had possession of the buildings. Their 
proceedings, as well as those of the larger socie- 
ties following them, were from day to day re- 
ported in detail by the Associated Press. This 
article will, therefore, deal only with features of 
general interest, and will endeavor to show that 
people of scientific tastes and little technical 
knowledge may yet gain much by attendance at 
these yearly scientific gatherings. 
The microscopists, to be sure, were at times far 
too deeply learned for any but close workers. At 
other times the comparison of the cells in the 
mouth linings of a land and a water lizard, or a 
discussion on the light-giving apparatus of the 
fire-fly, would excite the interest of everyone 
ready to be led into new channels of thought. 
Moreover, everyone could follow the presidential 
address of Prof. F. L. James, of St. Louis, who, in 
a clear and logical manner, related his recent mi- 
croscopic investigation of scorches and burns on 
the threefold material of the pocket of a man's 
overcoat, in which a pistol had been discharged 
either accidentally or of intent. The owner of 
the pocket was under trial for murder, and cir- 
cumstantial evidence had been made to tell so 
strongly against him that there seemtd no ques- 
tion of his guilt. Nevertheless, a series of care- 
ful experiments devised by Dr. James, the results 
of which were shown under the microscope in 
court, demonstrated to the complete satisfaction 
of judge, attorneys, and eleven of the jurymen — 
the twelfth utterly refusing to regard the evi- 
dence — that the condition of the threads of the 
pocket, lining of coat, etc., had been, and could 
only have been, produced by the discharge of the 
pistol in such a position that the man's own agency 
was impossible. 
