• KNOWLEDGE • 



445 



^ MAGi^ZlNE oTSqENCE'"^ 



^ PlAlNLTlf ORDED -EXACTL^fDESCRIBED 



LONDON: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1882. 



Contents op No. 58. 



Science and Art Gossip ^ 



Dr. Henry Draper < 



Autumn fiads. By Grant Allen .4 

 The Amateur Electrician. — VI. 



(lUutlraled.) i 



tVas Rameses II. the Pharaoh of 



the Oppression? By Miss Amelia 



) Get Strong., 

 mosphere of 6 

 s of Tenas. 

 By K. A. Proctor . 



The Comet 'a Path. {lUuHraleil.) 

 Dr. Siemens' Sun Theory. By M. 



Him 



Death Warning 



LibraJ ion of Sensation 



REyiKW : " Farm in the Karoo " ... 



COSEESPOXDENCE 



t Correspondenta 



■ Mathematical Column 



Oar Chess Column . 



^ri'enrr mxtt art 6o£(6ip. 



A FRAGMENT of the gi'cat comet was seen by 3Ir. W. R. 

 Brooks, of New York, which after a few days faded out of 

 view. Prof. Schmidt's small comet, another fragment, 

 apparently, of the great comet, has also disappeared, as 

 well as other cometary masses seemingly thrown off from 

 the great comet, or perhaps driven away during peri- 

 helion passage. 



Speaking of invention, the Operator says : — " Above all, 

 patience is needed. There are probably one hundred dis- 

 appointments to one success, and the things that are 

 valuable seem very hard to do. ' When I was at Menlo 

 Park,' says Mr. Edison, ' I was once working with my 

 assistants a long time trying to connect a piece of carbon 

 to a wire ; every time it would break. 'Then we would 

 spend several hours in making another, and that would 

 break. After working a day and two nights in this waj', 

 we finally accomplished our purpose. One of my assistants 

 wearily got up and said: — 'Well, I think Job got too 

 much reputation on a small capital 1 ' " 



It is noteworthy that some of the most brilliant recent 

 practical applications of electricity have been simply the 

 development, by experiment and study, of familiar and ap- 

 parently insignificant effects. Every telegraph operator has 

 been familiar, ever since there has been a telegraph, with 

 the phenomenon of the electric spark, and with the fact 

 that a strong current will heat a conductor of high resis- 

 tance ; yet the electric-arc lamp is simply a development of 

 the former and the incandescent lamp of the latter pheno- 

 menon. In the same way, the " polarisation " of batteries 

 was known to telegraphists for years, and wa.s regarded liy 

 them simply as an impediment to be got rid of ; but the 

 Plante and Faure accumulators are only developments of 

 the same principle of "polarisation." 



An animated correspondence is proceeding in the liail- 

 rond (id-.i'tlH (New York, Nov. .'!) as to the comparative 

 consumption of coal in American and English locomotives. 

 The general result seems to be that tlio consumption in the 



former is much larger. One correspondent reckons it at 

 double the amount, and accounts for it by three considera- 

 tions : — 1. That the loss by friction on curve.^ is greater in 

 America ; 2, that inclines are more frequent ; 3, that the 

 entire heating surface of an American engine i.s of iron, 

 the conductivity of which is greatly inferior to that of the 

 copper or brass used in England. 



The same paper contains the official report of the fourth 

 meeting of the Association of American Ilailroad Superin- 

 tendents, at which a uniform code of train signals — by 

 engine whistle, gong, and lamp, hat, or hand — was adopted, 

 and recommended to the members. 



Amonc; the numerous substitutes for cod-liver oil which 

 have from time to time been brought before the notice of 

 the profession, dugong oil, which is an extract obtained 

 from the dugong, an herbivorous cetacean inhabiting the 

 warm seas of the coasts of Australia and the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, has met with a most favourable reception. Dugong 

 oil is free from the unpleasant odour and taste which cha- 

 racterise cod-liver oil, and is much less liable to change in 

 keeping. At ordinary temperatures it is opaque from the 

 separation of its more crystalline constituents, but becomes 

 clear aiid almost colourless when slightly warmed. The 

 dose is the same as of cod-liver oil. 



Dr. McColganan, in the Southern Prartilwwr, extols 

 the value of the ether or rhigolene spray for the instan- 

 taneous relief principally of facial neuralgia. He first had 

 occasion to observe its good effects upon his own person, 

 he having suffered greatly from facial neuralgia. Since 

 curing himself, he has had occasion to test its efficacy in 

 about twenty cases. The result was invariably a most 

 gratifying success. In many instances a permanent cure 

 was established. He attempts to" explain its action by 

 supposing a complete change to take place in the nutrition 

 of the affected nerve in consequence of the intense cold 

 actin" as a revulsive. 



The Iron Age (New York, November 9) says that Dr. 

 FritzgUrtner, geologist and mineralogist to the Government 

 of Honduras, reports that whole mountains of fine mag- 

 netic iron exist in Honduras, both near the coast and in 

 the interior. The natives use clean fine ore directly in the 

 forges ; the iron produced is of superior quality, greatly 

 resemljling steel in all its characteristics. Semi-bituminous 

 coal is very abundant along the Atlantic coast, and will 

 before long become a valuable article of commerce along the 

 Caribbean coast It is said that the Government is so 

 anxious to encourage the development of the industry that 

 it will do all in its power to facilitate the transport of 

 machinery, and will admit it free of duty. 



The IJoard of Trade have issued a new or revised scale 

 for the wire gauges, and plainly intimate that unless very 

 great opposition is offered, the Board will advise its 

 adoption. The new scale is a compromise ; it makes con- 

 cessions to the thick-wire manufacturers, and takes an 

 average of the Birmingham and Yorkshire gauges for the 

 thinner sizes. 



Cheap brandy and absinthe are the cause of a large pro- 

 portion of cases of insanity in parts of France. The 

 United States Consul at La Boclielle, in his report on 

 French brandies, points out the fact that no pure brandy 

 is now made in Cognac and the district adjacent. He says 



