20 



POPULAR SOiENOE NEWS. 



[Fei!1!UAry, i88y. 



Thev witnessed the following fact: A fakir was 

 willing to be entombed during lo montlis. He was 

 first put into a sack of cloth, after his eyes, nostrils, 

 and all natural apertures, save the mouth, had been 

 filled with wax to keep air from entering his body; 

 the tongue was folded backward to shut the posterior 

 mouth apertures, and the man fell into a state of leth- 

 argy. He was then shut up in the sack, sealed with 

 the Mahrajah's own seal, and the sack was put in a 

 wooden box. which was also shut up and sealed, 

 and then lowered into a tomb, and covered with earth. 

 Sentinels were placed around the tomb. Twice, 

 during the ten months the experiment lasted, tlie 

 Mahrajah caused the tomb to be opened to make 

 sure of the presence of the fakir : he was there, 

 seemingly dead. At the end of the ten months, the 

 body was disentombed. Life seemed quite absent. 

 The head only was warm ; no respiration nor heart 

 sounds were heard. The tongue was pulled out, 

 and during one or two hours, warm water was 

 abundantly thrown on the body, at the end of whicli 

 the pretended corpse arose and walked about, quite 

 well again, but very thin and weak. The fakir pre- 

 tended that during his long sleep, he had exceeding- 

 ly pleasant dreams, and lived in a fairy-land, which 

 rendered tiie awakening in our terrestrial world 

 a very unpleasant process. A similar experiment 

 was made with the same fakir, but its duration was 

 only of forty days. A strict watch was kept around 

 the precincts in which the experiment was carried, 

 and the man at the end of the forty days was 

 awakened by the same process as in the preceding 

 experiment, with the same result. There are, of 

 course, always reasons to doubt the sincerity of ex- 

 periments concerning so extraordinary matters, es- 

 pecially that of the subject, in the present case, as 

 that of the experimentators is indisputable. But 

 sincerity and the exact notion of the requirements of 

 a scientific experiment, do not always go together, 

 and a inan may be the very lionorable and sincere 

 witness of an experiment which fs utterly worthless 

 because he has allowed himself to be deceived, and 

 knows not exactly the conditions under which the ex. 

 periment should have been done, to be really satis- 

 factory from the critical point of view. 



The principal scientific event of late has been the 

 inauguration of the new chair created in the Sor- 

 bonne, for Prof. Giard, the well known zoologist, 

 the chair d' Evolution des Etres Organises, an evo- 

 lutionary and Darwinian professorship. Darwinism 

 has with difficulty taken its hold in F'rance, owing to 

 the refractory feelings of some of the "great guns " 



from Ciivier down to MM. X and Z . But 



it has now many adherents, and the inaugural 

 address of Professor Giard was a great success, 

 much to the discomfiture of some remnants of the 

 Cuvieran age. 



I cannot close this letter without noticing a very 

 important book which has just been issued in Paris. 

 It is the Atlas <?' Emhryologie of Professor Matthias 

 Duval, a splendid quarto atlas, comprising 600 col- 

 ored figures, exhibiting the complete development 

 of the chick. I would also signal M. Laye's La 

 Mart par Decnpitaiion, in which the author studies 

 the physiological phenomena of decapitation, and 

 concludes by saying that the method is the safest — 

 not for the criminal — and the must painless of all 

 known methods, although it is a barbarous one. But 

 is there any method of killing that is not barbarous, 

 save aniesthesia pushed to its most profound degree, 

 and killing only when consciousness lias deserted 

 the body. H. 



Paris, Dec. 22, 1888. 



Of the threads spun by the full-grown spider 

 10,000 are not equal in substance to the size of a 

 single hair. 



[Original in The Popuhir Science News.] 

 LIGNITE. 



BY \V. J. CHASE. 



The ultimate products of the decomposition of 

 vegetable matter in the air are carbonic acid and 

 water, both of which are absorbed by the atmos- 

 phere, so that practically nothing remains behind to 

 tell the tale. When, however, vegetable matter is 

 covered by water, only a partial decomposition re- 

 sults, and a variety of products are formed hy the 

 chemical changes which take place. This subaque- 

 ous decomposition with the chemical changes at- 

 tendant upon it has been the principal agency in the 

 formation of the several kinds of coal. 



In peat we have nature's initial product in the 

 process of coal manufacture. The partial decom- 

 position under water of the accumulated mass of 

 moss, swamp herbs, and shrubs, results in this sub- 

 stance, generally not at all resembling coal in ap- 

 pearance but, nevertheless, in composition, more 

 like coal than wood. 



The disparity between these two products is such, 

 however, that we naturally look for'some substance 

 in nature more nearly resembling the black anthra- 

 cite of commerce. The connecting link is fonnd in 

 Lignitt», known also as Brown Coal and Wood Coal, 

 a brownish-black substance of later origin than 

 true bituminous coal. By chemical analysis it is 

 found to consist of about 72.6 per cent, of carbon, 

 22.1 per cent, of oxygen, and 5.3 per cent, of hydro- 

 gen, and in composition differs from true coal main- 

 \y in having a little less carbon and much more 

 oxygen. Large beds or measures of this mineral 

 are found in many parts of this country, especially 

 in the West on both sides ol the Mississippi, on the 

 eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, in the terri- 

 tories of the Upper Missouri, and on the Pacific 

 bonier. The only lignite mine in New England is 

 at Brandon, Vt. The lignitic strata occur at differ- 

 ent depths between beds of tertiary clays and sands. 

 not conformable with the strata above them but dif- 

 fering and bending so that at one spot they crop 

 out at the surface, and at another are hundreds of 

 feet below and varying in thickness generally from 

 a few inches to thirty feet. 



It is probable that the forests and swamps which 

 furnished the vegetation for these deposits, existed 

 in the Earlier Tertiary age of geologic history. In 

 this period the division of the earth's surface into 

 land and water was much different, from that of to- 

 day, and it is probable that, where the deposits of 

 Lignite are now found, there were then either 

 marshes or hollows in the bed of some basin, lake, 

 or bav. Into these basins and hollows the tributary 

 streams brought masses of drift wood and leaves 

 with silt and diluvial detritus of every kind. These 

 deposits continually increased by every flood and 

 freshet, with all air excluded except that held in so- 

 lution by the surrounding water, gradually under- 

 went a decomposition exactly analogous in kind to 

 that which ordinarily takes place in the air, but 

 much slower and less complete. 



Vegetable matter consists f^f 49. i per cent, car- 

 bon, 44.6 per cent, oxygen, and 6.3 per cent, hydro- 

 gen, and in this chemical change oxidation of a 

 part of the carbon and hydrogen took place, the 

 products of which, carbonic acid and water, disap- 

 peared. 



When by this process the vegetable matter had 

 lost about 2.7 per cent, of carbon, 30.5 per cent, of 

 oxygen, and 2.9 per cent, of hydrogen, or about 

 36 per cent, of its original substance, further decom- 

 position was prevented, probably by the deposition 

 upon this bed of Lignite of a stratum of silt, which, 

 as it gradually hardened into clay, eft'cctually ex- 

 cluded all air. It is probable that in the later stages 

 of the formation of true l)ituminous coal.Carburet- 



ted hydrogen was disengaged more copiously than 

 any other products of decomposition, and this 

 seemed to have been altogether wanting in the for- 

 mation of Lignite. 



Probably not all the beds of this substance wn, 

 formed from deposits of driftwood. Undoubted! \ 

 there were then, as now, marshes and peat swamps 

 in which the vegetation lav where it fell and slowlv 

 underwent the chemical change described. 



Much of the Lignite retains its woodv texture 

 and looks like nothing more than a brown charcoal. 

 In fact, it might be termed a mineral charcoal. 

 Some varieties, however, resemble in hardness and 

 general appearance common bituminous coal auci 

 even anthracite. The substance known as jet is a 

 compact Lignite, and though presenting to the evi- 

 no evidence of vegetable origin, nevertheless re- 

 veals its woody texture under the microscope. Am- 

 ber, too, though not a variety of Brown Coal. is. 

 however, a product of the same forests and is found 

 with other fossil resins in the lignitic strata. 



Indeed, with the fossils they contain, the lignite 

 beds are an open book of the flora and fauna of ilu 

 Tertiary Age. The Brandon beds have lieen espe- 

 cially rich in seeds and fruits now of a rich brown 

 color, but perfectly preserved as to form and struct- 

 ure. In the Western deposits have been fouii.l 

 leaves of the Plane tree, Oak, Poplar. Maple, Hick- 

 ory, Dogwood. Magnolia, Fig, Cinnamon, the Con- 

 ifers, etc., so it is our common hardwood trees and 

 evergreens which have been the main source of the 

 lignitic supply. Fossil fishes, and shells of both 

 fresh and salt water molluscs are found in the lignite 

 strata and in the clays surrounding them. 



As a fuel both for domestic use and for niannfai - 

 turing purposes it is but a' little if an^' inferior t(i 

 true coal. It burns with a bright red flame and with 

 the odor of burning wood, gives forth a good dei,nn' 

 of heat and leaves very little ash. The oulcropiii 

 strata yield up their treasure very readily and 

 many parts of the West the settler with no othn 

 tools than an axe and shovel can even more easily 

 supply himself with fuel than can the New England 

 farmer from his wood-lot. On this, account Lignite 

 has been a most important factor in the develop- 

 ment of the great treeless plains of the Northwest. 



n>* 



SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. 



A New U.se for the Electric Light. — The 

 Superintendent of the Madras Museum, has been 

 requested by the Board of Revenue to visit various 

 electrical establishments in Europe in order to se- 

 lect an electric globe light to shine in 20 fathoms .I 

 water, Such a light is wanted at the pearl fish, 

 ies, for, up to the present, the work of the fisher 

 has been confined to comparatively shallow ban' 



Prehistoric Relics in Gerimanv. — Tne Oil 

 zeitung reports the finding in the Lossow distri. 

 near Frankfort-on-the-Oder, of about thirty i-\a\ 

 vessels of various sizes and patterns, some urns, 

 some pots, deep saucers, flasks, &c. They were filled 

 with the ashes of liurnt corpses mixed with saiui. 

 The colour was a brownish-\'ellow; some were 

 broken, and the fractures showed that coal ashes 

 had been mixed with the chay of which they we 

 made. Some bronze needles were found with the 

 being finished at the top in a semicircular sha 

 The vessels seemed to have been formed on a lath 

 tolerably smooth, regular in shape, and only slightly 

 baked. The largest were about 30 centimetres in 

 diameter at the widest part, and 26 centimetres high. 

 The ornaments were either triangles or semicircles, 

 scratched on the surface with points impressed or 

 the surface. Possibly the site where they wen 

 found was a refuge and a place of sacrifice in ol 

 German times. 



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