Vol. XXm. No. 6.] 



POPULAR SCT'ENCE NEWS. 



91 



tions. Some of these pigeons have been trained, 

 by gradual education, to tly enormous distances, 

 such as 400 or 500 miles. Every pigeon belongs 

 to one or the other of the numerous carrier- 

 stations, and knows, of course, the wav only to the 

 special station he belongs to. Every one of them 

 has also its dossier — that is, a note on its age, de- 

 scription, capabilities, and on the circumstances 

 under which it renders the best services. The 

 despatches are written on very thin paper and tied 

 to the leathers of the tail by various contrivances. 

 Through micro-photography, one is enabled to 

 write the value of 1,500 lines of press on a piece of 

 paper whose weight does not surpass 15 grains. 



M. Kaufmann, of the Veterinary School of Alfort, 

 near Paris, has recently published a good memoir on 

 the question of the venom of the viper. His work 

 does not cover the whole ground of the subject, but 

 does a great deal towards the furtherance of the 

 question. I will recall here only his main conclu- 

 sions. The venom of the viper is an acid liquid, 

 which contains no cells of any sort; it is quite de- 

 void of any microbes or bacteria, and its efficiency 

 is due to the matters that are dissolved in it, solely. 

 When it is pure, it may be kept unaltered in sealed 

 glass tubes, but it certainly does lose some of its 

 physiological power. When it is mingled with 

 water it soon degenerates, owing to the develop- 

 ment of bacteria in the solution. Many chemical 

 reagents possess the property of separating it from 

 the solution; some enfeeble its action, such as 

 chromic acid, potash permanganate, etc. It keeps 

 well, when thoroughly dried, and loses none of its 

 power, even after several months. As is well known, 

 the venom of the viper is a violent poison. The 

 best way to study its effects consists in introducing 

 small quantities of it into the circulatory system of 

 animals. This gives much better results than in 

 getting a viper to bite an animal, for, in the latter 

 case, one cannot tell how much venom has been 

 introduced, and the method is irregular in its con- 

 sequences, through the differences in the absorption- 

 rate, according to the size, depth, etc., of the wound, 

 and the vascular richness of the bitten part. The 

 venom affects the nervous, respiratory, and circula- 

 torv systems in a very marked manner. The 

 nervous system is at first stimulated, but this does 

 not last long, and it is soon depressed. However, 

 the mental faculties remain long unimpaired, al- 

 though anaesthesia is present, and the reflex activity 

 is soon diminished or suppressed. Turning to the 

 circulatory system, M. Kaufmann has shown that 

 the venom of the viper induces a considerable dimi- 

 nution of arterial tension, acceleration of the pulse, 

 and weakness of the heart. The downfall of the 

 arterial tension is due to the enormous dilatation of 

 the abdominal vessels, and the other symptoms are 

 the result of the preceding. The post-mortem ex- 

 amination of animals killed through the action of 

 the viper-venom, shows many important disturb- 

 ances; numerous hemorrhages, especially in the 

 parts that arc contained in the abdominal cavity; 

 the blood, also, is altered, — it becomes more liquid, 

 and its red corpuscles are spherical, instead of re- 

 maining discoidal. Locally, the venom produces 

 hemorrhagia in the parts that have been in contact 

 with it. Its action is more dangerous when the bit- 

 ten (or infected) part is the' nose or the inner part 

 of the thigh. It would seem that the venom of the 

 viper is without action on the viper itself, which is 

 a very interesting fact, and that weak doses of 

 venom give some protection against larger quanti- 

 ties. M. Kaufmann recommends, on the ground of 

 his-experiments, potash permanganate, mercury bi- 

 chloride, and, especially, chromic acid, (in a i per 

 cent, solution), as the best local antidotes. Silver 

 nitrate exerts no useful action at all. M. Kaufmann's 



work is a good one, and has been awarded a prize 

 b^- the Academy of Medicine. 



The French Academy {Academic Francaise) has 

 awarded a prize to the translation of the Life and 

 Letters of Charles Darwin. This is a sign of the 

 times concerning the opinion entertained in France 

 about Darwinism. M. Renan and M. Tarrie were 

 both members of the jury, and they certainly con- 

 tributed much to the result. 



M. G. Espitallier has published an interesting 

 little work on military ballooning, {Les Ballnns et 

 leur emploi a la guerre: G. Masson), in which the 

 author gives a good account of the present state of 

 the question, and many pictures of the apparatus in 

 use at present. His book contains a very good bal- 

 loon-view of the town of Senlis. 



While speaking of recent works, I would call 

 attention to two little volumes recently issued by G. 

 Masson, under M. G. Tissandier's authorship. M. 

 Tissandier is the able editor of La Natnre, and his 

 two volumes contain, the one {Recettes et Proces des 

 utiles) nearly 400 pages of useful receipts in domes- 

 tic economy for e\ery-da\- use. in ajl departments of 

 applied science; the other (/,a Science Pratique) a 

 number of analogous formula', and advice as to 

 the manner of making one's self all sorts of instru- 

 ments and designs, etc. ; the latter is a natural se- 

 quel to the former. Amusing science is not ne- 

 glected in either of these books, and there is any 

 amount of amusement and of instruction to be 

 derived from the occasional perusal of these works. 

 Many a paper will certainly copy, now and then, 

 .some of these receipts, and afford pleasant as well 

 as useful reading-matter to its readers. Both vol- 

 umes contain many diagrams and illustrations. 



Most readers are well aware that at present a 

 method is much practiced, through which deaf- 

 mutes are easily enough taught to speak in a passa- 

 ble manner, but it is not always known how this 

 result may be obtained. M. Goguillot, a professor 

 in the deaf-mutes' institution in Paris, gives a good 

 account of the process, which consists, in its essen- 

 tial features, — details can not be given here at 

 full length, — in this: The professor emits any 

 given sound, — that of o or n, for instance, — and 

 obliges the pupil to look at him, — at his mouth, — 

 and, at the same time, to put his hand on his face or 

 chest, to feel the vibrations of these parts. The 

 pupil then adopts the same facial expression, tries 

 to do with his mouth what he has seen the master 

 do, and puts his hand to his »wn chest or face, to 

 feel the vibrations, and tries to reproduce those he 

 has felt. In this manner, young <leaf-nuites ma^' be 

 trained to speak in a sutficiently intelligible lashion. 

 They never can be taught to hear, of course, but 

 many get to understand what is said to them, 

 through the eye-sight. They look at the mouth of 

 the person who is speaking, and understand the 

 conversation in this manner. However, one must 

 speak slowly, and exaggerate somewhat the real 

 movements of the lips, to ensure thorough compre- 

 hension. 



To zoologists I take pleasure in signalling a good 

 treatise on comparative osteology, by Professor 

 Pouchet, of the Natural History Museum. It is 

 well illustrated, and will prove useful to zoologists. 

 Apropos of the Museum, our readers know that M. 

 Chevreul, the centenarian, is dead. He died, aged 

 103, on April 9th. His funeral was a very fine one, 

 and largely attended ; but, when the papers say that 

 the venerable old man died having retained his 

 mental faculties to the last, they are utterly mis- 

 taken. In fact, M. Chevreul was quite an infant, 

 and entirely incapable of the slightest mental effort. 

 It is remarkable enough that he had attained his 

 centenary in the state he did, but since two or three 

 years he has failed very rapidly and completely. 



His most probable successor in the Academy of 

 Sciences is Armand Gautier, professor of chemistry 

 in the Medical School, and a very able man, who 

 has contributed much to the study of ptomaines, on 

 which subject one of his pupils, M. de Thierry, has 

 recently contributed a very good pamphlet, which 

 embodies the latest results of investigation. The 

 title is Alcaloi des Microbieus et Physiolofjirjues, (G-. 

 Masson, Paris.) H. 



P.\Ris, April 21, 1889. 



fOrijrinal in Ttie ropular Science News. I 

 SOME NORTH CAROLINA BUTTERFLIES. 



BY L. N. JOHNSON. 



In the corner of my room stands a worn and 

 tattered butterfly net, and, as often as it catches my 

 eye, it calls back to my mind some half-forgotten 

 scene. It was a constant companion during a 

 month's tramp in the mountains of western North 

 Carolina. Hardly an hour was passed without the 

 net within reach. It is my purpose here to speak of 

 a few of the beauties which found it too much for 

 them. Of the country, I shall say nothing, save 

 that it is^gi'and, and a delightful place for a sum- 

 mer's trip. The butterflies we took were simply 

 those which were most common during the month 

 of July in that region — ^Jackson, Macon, and Swain 

 counties. 



Probably the most abundant species was one 

 resembling in form and habits our small yellow 

 butterflies. Like them, these were continually flit- 

 ting across the road, or hovering along just ahead 

 of us. They are far more showy than their northern 

 relatives, for their wings are of a brilliant orange, 

 with a jet-black band across the tip. The female 

 has much less black on the wings than the male, 

 and has, on the under side of the hlfid wings, a 

 whitish patch, surrounded by brown spots. Occa- 

 sionally we noticed among these showly fellows, 

 one smaller than the rest, and paler. This proved 

 to be a different species — a dainty little thing, with 

 wings hardly an inch across, but of a clear, beautiful 

 yellow, with the same black border as the larger 

 ones. These were not as abundant as the others, 

 but still were not uncommon. They are both mem- 

 bers of the genus Terioe, tiie larger being known as 

 T. nicippe, and the other as 3". lisa. 



There is a near relative of these, of whit;h we 

 took several specimens, and which was one of the 

 handsomest butterflies we saw. They were very 

 restless, and I remember once working for an hour, 

 trying to get within reach of one, hovering around 

 a brook which crossed the road. Every few minutes 

 he would dart away out of sight, only to return soon 

 and continue his tantalizing movements, till I gave 

 it up in disgust. At last, one day on Soco Creek, 

 I succeeded in catching two, after a tiresome chase 

 through the meadows. Close examination showed 

 them to be even more beautiful than when seen 

 from a distance. Their wings spread about two 

 inches and a half, and were of a beautiful lemon- 

 yellow, showing, at first sight, hardly a spot, while 

 the under side was almost greenish-yellow. Look- 

 ing closer at the upper surface of my specimens, 

 whicli were both males, I noticed a peculiar thing : 

 when held in a certain light, the wings seemed uni- 

 form in color, but, on changing the direction of the 

 light, there appeared a number of pale triangles, 

 running in from the outer edge between the veins 

 of the wing. This seemed strange, but proved to 

 be caused by the position of the scales. While most 

 of them lie flat, those covering the triangular spaces 

 are raised, so that, when the light falls on the edges 

 of them, they look paler than the rest of the wing. 

 There is a white or silvery spot, bordered with 

 brown, on the under side of the hind wings. We 



