Vol. XXV. No. 12.] 
POPULAR SCIEl:^OE NEWS. 
183 
©he populai" Science I^ew§. 
BOSTON, DECEMBER 1, 1891. 
AUSTIN P. NICHOLS, S.B EDITOR 
WILLIAM J. BOLFE, LlTT. D. ". . ASSOCIATE EDITOK 
At the close of the twenty-fifth volume of the 
Popular Scien'ce News, the editors would ex- 
tend their thanks to the subscribers and adver- 
tisers who have contributed to the success of the 
paper during the past, and express the hope that 
their kind patronage may be extended through 
the succeeding year. The News was never more 
prosperous than at the present time, and its con- 
stantly increasing circulation and influence are a 
source of gratification to all connected with it. 
The policy of previous years will be continued, 
and every efibrt will be made to improve the paper 
in all its departments. Articles may be expected 
during the coming year from the contributors 
with whom our readers are already familiar, as 
well as other distinguished writers who have not 
as yet contributed to its columns; and it is in- 
tended that in every way the News shall con- 
tinue to bear out its reputation as the leading low- 
priced journal of popular science in the world. 
tioners. It is one of the rules of medical ethics 
that all discoveries shall be freely given to the 
public ; and many go so far as not to take out a 
patent on a new or improved form of surgical in- 
strument. While this generous custom is charac- 
teristic of a noble and self-sacrificing profession, 
and far more sensible than many other rules of 
the code of medical ethics, we see no reason why 
a contrary course should be subject to severe criti- 
cism, or indicate any great moral delinquency. A 
physician is entitled to the products of his brain 
as much as a writer, and has as much right to 
patent or keep secret his inventions as an author 
has to copyright his works. Nevertheless, it is an 
almost invariable rule that secret remedies are un- 
reliable or worthless. If Dr. Keeley can prepare 
a medicine which will really cure drunkenness, he 
has an undoubted right to do what he pleases with 
it, even to the extent of calling it bichloride of 
gold, whether it contains any gold or not. It only 
remains for him to prove that it will do what he 
claims. That it will do so is extremely improba- 
ble on theoretical grounds, and facts like that 
stated in the preceding paragraph will go far to 
confirm this belief. 
observed. Unlike the total solar eclipses, this 
lunar eclipse was of little or no astronomical con- 
sequence, but was scarcely less beautiful and in- 
teresting as a celestial spectacle. A special and 
careful search was made at the Harvard Univer- 
sity Observatory for a lunar satellite, but no indi- 
cation of such a body was found ; so the question 
whether our moon has a moon of its own may be 
considered as settled in the negative. 
In connection with the above, we would also 
remark that the publishers hope for an early re- 
turn of the annual subscription bills inclosed in 
this number. A single dollar is a small amount, 
and very liable to be overlooked, but several thou- 
sands of them make up a sum which is absolutely 
necessary to the publication of the paper. If 
every subscriber will make a point of remitting 
the amount due, it will aid in th« solution of one 
of the most perplexing of the problems which 
confront every newspaper publisher. 
At West Medford, Mass., there has recently 
been erected a handsome stone depot, into the 
walls of which have been built numerous miueral- 
ogical and geological specimens, including quartz 
crystals, geodes, feldspai, mica, corals, fossils, 
and many similar objects, some of which are 
really fine specimens. The effect is both novel 
and pretty, and the West Sledford building is 
probably the only existing combination of rail- 
road depot and mineralogical cabinet in the 
world. 
<♦> 
A DISTINGUISHED patient of the Keeley Chlo- 
ride-of-Gold Institute, who, only a month or two 
ago, wrote an enthusiastic article for the North 
American Ileview, commending the treatment, and 
stating that by its means he had been cured of all 
desire for alcoholic liquors, recently died in a 
drunken fit in a New York hospital. We have be- 
fore this given our reasons for disbelieving in this 
alleged cure for drunkenness, and this case seems 
to be a striking example of its unreliability. It is 
absurd to suppose that a hypodermic injection of 
l)ichloride of gold, or any other substance, could 
accomplish such a change in a man's moral and 
mental nature as is necessitated by the cure of a 
confirmed inebriate ; and the undeserved attention 
that has been paid to the matter illustrates the 
unscientific habits of thought and the childish 
faith in the powers of "medicine" which so 
widely prevail. 
The fact that Dr. Keeley refuses to divulge the 
composition of his alleged " cure," places him out- 
side the ranks of the "regular" medical practi 
The recent fall exhibition of chrysanthemums 
in this city, while beautiful in itself, was a very 
good object lesson in the variation of forms of 
vegetable life, and furnished a very strong hint as 
to the "origin of species." The innumerable 
magnificent variations of the original flower, 
which have been obtained by careful cultivation 
and selection, show what can be accomplished in 
this line ; and it surely is not a very unreasonable 
supposition that, in thousands of years, the forces 
of nature can produce to a much greater extent 
and permanency of type, changes of form similar 
to those which mankind has produced in a com- 
paratively short space of time. If a flower like 
the Mrs. Alpheus Hardy chrysanthemum, for 
instance, can be developed from the small, com- 
monplace, original variety, it does not seem un- 
reasonable that a rose and an apple blossom 
should have been developed from some common 
ancestral form. 
We have been shown an interesting series of 
photographs of this eclipse, taken by an am.ateur 
with an ordinary camera on a single plate. The 
camera was focussed and placed in position so 
that the image of the moon fell on one side of the 
plate. The smallest stop (F. 100) was used, and 
exposures of about two seconds were made at 
intervals of five minutes during the time of ob- 
scuration. As the image of the moon passed over 
the plate, a line of photographs was obtained, 
showing the gradual advance of the shadow from 
the full moon to a tiny crescent. No moving or 
adjustment of the camera was necessary, as the 
rotation of the earth brought the camera into the 
proper position to receive the successive images. 
Only the disk of the moon was impressed upon 
the plate, the dark sky forming a perfect non-ac- 
tinic background, like those described in previous 
numbers of the News. Altogether the picture 
forms an interesting and valuable record of an 
event which is not likelj^ to occur under such fav- 
orable conditions for many years. 
Nevertheless, the tendency to variation, 
which seems innate in organized life, as yet re- 
mains unexplained. We cannot produce a new- 
variety of plant or animal, but can only select 
those which have varied naturally, and preserve 
and intensify those variations by care and cultiva- 
tion. The forms of life fittest to survive will un- 
doubtedly do so, but what force caused those 
forms to first appear is an unexplained mystery, 
as much so as is that of the nature of life itself. It 
is not probable that we shall ever understand the 
mystery of vitality, but we may reasonal)ly hope 
to learn more of the laws and methods of its ac- 
tion ; and the cause of the arrival of the fittest 
may yet become as clear to us as the survival of 
the fittest is now. 
The total lunar eclipse of the evening of No- 
vember 15 was observed in New England under 
remarkably favorable conditions. The sky was' 
entirely free from clouds and the air was remarka- 
bly clear, so that the whole phenomenon was 
completely visible from the moment that the 
moon entered into the earth's shadow till its final 
emergence. The coppery color of the moon dur- 
ing totality, due to the refraction of the sun's 
rays into the shadow by the terestrial atmosphere, 
was well marked, and the early hour at which 
the eclipse occurred caused it to be very generally 
[Original In Populak Science News.] 
THE BARBERRY BUSH AND ITS VISITORS. 
BY FRED'K LEROY SARGENT. 
Everyone at all observant of our common 
plants must have been impressed by the singular 
beauty of the barberry. In June its gracefully 
arching branches are hung with abundant clusters 
of yellow flowers, in strong contrast with the 
fresh green of its ample foliage. Scarcely less at- 
tractive is it when the flowers have been replaced 
by the brilliant scarlet fruit. Such a bush, in the 
exposed situations where it likes best to grow, 
must form a particularly inviting object to many 
sorts of animals in its vicinity. 
