Vol. XXV. No. 11.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE KEWS. 
167 
©be l^opulap §Gience ^ewg. 
BOSTON, NOVEMBER 1, 1891. 
AUSTIN P. NICHOLS, S.B. EDITOR 
WILLIAM J. KOLFE. LlTT. D. . . ASSOCIATE EMTOK 
The local weather forecasts published for sev- 
eral years past by the Blue Hill meteorological 
observatory have been discontinued, owing to the 
inauguration of a similar service by the govern- 
ment weather bureau. As Mr. H. H. Clitytou, 
formerly of the Blue Hill observatory, has been 
placed in charge of this department of the signal 
service at Boston, the public will continue to 
receive the benefit of the accurate and useful 
"probabilities" which have so long been a popu- 
lar, though' by no means the most important, 
branch of the work conducted at Blue Hill. 
An amusing result of these experiments is the 
appearance of an unofficial class of rain-doctors, 
who claim the power to precipitate the atmos- 
pheric moisture by some occult means known 
only to themselves. An identical class of mentis 
found, in nearly every savage tribe ; and the fact 
that the claims of these charlatans have been seri- 
ously considered by civilized comnumities in the 
United States, is an additional proof of the nar- 
rowness of the line which separates civilization 
from barbarism. With all our boasted enlighten- 
ment, the rain-maker, the faith-healer, the fortune- 
teller, the astrologer, and the alchemist .all find 
plenty of dupes, and will probably continue to do 
so until human nature undergoes a radical change. 
A MARKED decrease in the price of platinum is 
reported in European journals, owing to the dis- 
covery of a substitute for this valuable metal in 
tlie construction of incandescent lamps and other 
electrical apparatus. The nature of the new 
metal or substance is not stated, but if the reduc- 
tion in price is a permanent one it will be very 
welcome to chemists, who are oliliged to m.ake use 
of platinum vessels and other apparatus in their 
work, no matter what the cost may be. Photog- 
rfiphers, .also, will be enabled to use the platinum 
process for making prints more extensively, and 
one firm has already reduced the price of plati- 
num sensitized p.aper fully twenty-five per cent. 
Platinum has long been distinguished as one 
of the "noble" metals, .and the term is in many 
ways an exceedingly appropriate one. No ele- 
ment is less changeable in its form, less acted 
upon by chemical or physical forces, or can be 
made to enter into combination with other ele- 
ments with greater difficulty. Even when in 
combination its tendency is to escape and revert 
back to its metallic condition, as if any "en- 
tangling alliance" was distasteful to this self- 
sufficient and aristocratic metallic monarch. 
Compared with fluorine, for instance,— an ele- 
ment which is never found in the elementary con- 
dition, and which only by the greatest care and 
skill can be made to temporarily staud alone by 
itself, and when released at once attacks and 
appropriates to itself every form of matter known 
to us except oxygen, — the first named metal seems 
to be of a distinctly higher and more advanced 
type. In our present state of knowledge it would 
be unwise to speak positively of a system of evo- 
lution of matter, but the signs of a close connec- 
tion between the different elements are so clear 
and striking that they cannot be disregarded; 
and if the hypothesis of the gradual development 
of the dift'erent elements from a single primeval 
fo m of matter is ever proved, it will undoubtedly 
be found that platinum occupies a place among 
inorganic forms of matter similar to that held by 
man in the great kingdom of animal life. 
Speaking of modern civilization, we wonder 
how many of our readers have ever realized that 
its existence depends entirely upon a single natu- 
ral product, of which if the supply should be sud- 
denly cut off, we should soon revert to a social 
and political condition resembling that of the 
Middle Ages. Our railroads, steamships, manu- 
factories, electrical stations, and, to some extent, 
our telegraph lines, could not be built and oper- 
ated without a cheap and abundant supply of 
force, or energy, which is provided in the almost 
unlimited deposits of coal, which are, id fact, mag- 
azines of solar energy stored up in past geological 
ages. The rapid development of the Western 
States would never have taken place without the 
help of coal; and without the rapid aiul cheap 
methods of transportation and communication 
supplied by our railroads and telegraphs, the po- 
litical integrity of the United States with its vast 
area and diversified interests would be impossible, 
and at the best the country would consist of only 
a collection of separate independent nations con- 
stantly quarreling among themselves. The formsi- 
tion of the German Empire from a collection of 
petty States is generally attributed to the states- 
manship of Bismarck, but it was the German rail- 
road and telegraph systems which first made it 
desirable and possible. The stability of the 
French republican form of government, and the 
radical political changes which have taken place 
of late in England, are primarily due to the 
same cause; and, in fact, almost everything 
which tends to increase the happiness and useful- 
ness of the man of the nineteenth century over 
him of the seventeenth, has for its basis the store 
of unoxidized carbon which lay hid in the earth 
for so many years. The environment of mankind 
has been greatly changed since the discovery and 
utiliz,ation of coal, and the conditions of society 
are not as yet perfectly harmonized with it. 
determined, although unsuccessful, effort was 
made to break up the performance. It was dis- 
covered that, in furtherance of this enlightened 
plan, certain persons in the audience had pro- 
vided themselves with thin glass bulbs filled with 
sulphide of ammonium, the idea being to deluge 
the stage and actors with fhis atrociously fragrant 
fluid. The applications of science would seem to 
be endless. Heretofore the overripe egg has been 
considered a sufficiently effective expression of 
disapproval at a dramatic performance or a politi- 
cal meeting; but in these latter days the art of 
the chemist is invoked, and the olfactory power of 
a hundred or more embryotic chickens is concen- 
trated in a small glass bulb which can be safely 
carried in the pocket. The most pronounced free 
trader could hardly object to a "prohibitory 
tariff'" on tliis latest product of French manu- 
facture. 
<♦» 
We feel that we are doing our readers who are 
not members of the Agassiz Association a service 
in calling their attention to the advantages of that 
institution as an aid to the study of science in all 
its branches. Members of this Association have 
no assessments to pay, no fixed duties to perform, 
and are allowed the fullest liberty of .action in 
every respect. They can devote all their time to 
it, or they can do nothing at all. By joining its 
ranks one becomes enrolled in an army of 20,000 
earnest workers and students in every branch of 
science, and obtains all the benefit of the aid and 
cooperation of the members as a whole, and the 
special and extremely valuable help of the Corre- 
sponding Chapters and the Association Council, 
which comprises some of the most eminent scien- 
tists in the country. The long winter evenings 
are close at hand, and the formation or extension 
of local Chapters cannot prove otherwise than a 
source of the highest pleasure and benefit. 
Nothing has been heard of the noble army of 
official rain-makers for some time, and the suspi- 
cion arises that they have probably "dried up and 
blown away." The late autumn .and early winter 
are peculiarly well adapted for such experiments, 
as a fall of rain m.ay be counted upon in almost 
any locality at intervals of a few days, and the 
"conditions" are extremely favorable for the 
success of any kind of rain-making experiments. 
Foktunately, the supply of coal in the earth 
is so great that the possibility of its exhaustion 
need not greatly disturb us. It is very different, 
however, with another and scarcely less important 
gift of Nature. The supply of wood and timber 
is constantly diminishing, and at the present in- 
creasing rate of consumption it cannot be long 
before all available sources of supply will be 
exh.austed. More timber is annually destroyed 
by fire and waste than is used in the arts, and it 
is a matter of the highest importance that the 
greatest possible care should be taken of our for- 
ests, and that the present supply of timber should 
be utilized with a care and economy commensurate 
with its real value. 
A recent performance of the opera of " Lohen- 
grin" in Paris excited much opposition among 
the more disorderly classes of that city, and a 
THE WOBK OF THE BAIN-DKOF. 
As every student of geology knows, the sur- 
face of the earth has undergone in past ages, and 
is even undergoing at present, the most radical 
changes in form and condition. From the time 
when the earth had sufficiently cooled to allow 
the aqueous vapor in the air to condense and 
cover its surface with oceans of boiling water, 
change has succeeded change without cessation, 
although so slowly that the period of human his- 
tory is too short to show any notable effect, and 
we are obliged to look to the records of past geo- 
logical ages in the rocks and minerals hid beneath 
the surface to fully appreciate the results of the 
forces which have acted in times gone by. Moun- 
tain ranges higher than any at present existing 
have been raised up only to be worn down into 
sand, gravel, and clay, and spread out over the 
bottoms of ancient oceans, which in their turn 
have been raised up into dry land. Volcanoes 
have appeared in various parts of the world, cov- 
ering large tracts of country with lava, igneous 
rock, and volcanic debris. Immense fresh-water 
swamps filled with luxuriant tropical vegetation 
have been transformed into the coal beds of the 
present day; beds of sedimentary deposits have 
been covered up by subsequent layers, and 
baked and translormed by the internal heat of 
the earth into rocks that can hardly be distin- 
guished from the primeval crust of the earth; 
while glaciers and ice-fields have now and again 
crept over the land, destroying all forms of life, 
and changing a country covered with luxuriant 
vegetation into an icy waste like that of Green- 
land at the present day. 
