Che Bojiular ^citnce Bm^ 



AND 



BOSTON JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY. 



Volume XXIII. 



BOSTON, SEPTEMBER, 1889. 



Number o.^ 



CONTENTS. 



Familiar Science. — A French Gold-Nugget 

 The Sounding Stones of Guildo .... 



The Paris Exhibition 



An Assyrian Library 



A Spider-Hunting Wasp 



Saturn's Rings as Viewed by Science Today 

 The Constitution of Celestial Space . 

 The Polarity of Certain Dike Rocks . 

 Conflict Between a Rotifer and Infusorian . 



Algebraic Puzzles 



Weather Predictions 



Scientific Brevities 



Practical Chemistry and the Arts. — 



Some Curious Time-Keepers 



Novel Wood-Joinery 



An Automatic Reading Lamp 



Industrial Memoranda 



Home, Farm, and Garden. — The Toilet 



Table 



Coco, Cacao, and Coca 



Two Curious Plants 



Confectioners' Colors 



Gleanings 



Ei)It<)ri.\l. — The Yellowstone Park .... 

 What is a Scientific Education? .... 



The Microscope Prize 



Meteorology for July, 18S9 



Astronomical Phenomena for September, 



1889 



C:JueRtions and Answers 



Literary Notes 



Medicine and Pharmacy. — Rudimentary Or- 

 gans 141 



The Physiology of Hanging 141 



Bacteria in Milk and Its Products .... 142 



The Poisonous Effect of Exhaled Air . . . 142 



Public Hot Baths in China 142 



Monthly Summary of Medical Progress . . 143 



Medical Memoranda 144 



Humors 144 



Publishers' Column 144 



129 

 129 

 130 

 130 

 '3' 

 '3' 

 132 

 132 

 132 

 132 



132 

 132 



'33 

 133 

 134 

 134 



•34 

 ^iS 

 136 

 136 

 136 



137 

 1.38 

 1,39 

 '39 



140 

 140 

 140 



Its shape has been described as resembling a 

 "crushed potato," and the ilhistiation shows 

 that the comparison is an apt one. 



Since the discovery of this nugget has been 

 made public, it has been learned that in past 

 years several other lumps of gold have been 

 picked up in the same region by the inhab- 

 itants, all of which, however, were much 

 smaller, and were not preserved, but sold to 

 the local jewellers and at once melted up. 

 The country in which the gold has been 



Banjiliar Science. 



A FRENCH .GOLD-NUGGET. 



Few of our readers are probably aware 

 that France is to be placed in the list of gold- 

 producing countries, for, although Ca;sar 

 speaks of it as Gallia aurifera, it has only 

 lately come into general notice that a regiofi 

 in the department of the Ardeche has pro- 

 duced several nuggets of gold of varying size. 

 The one represented in the engraving was 

 first picked up some time ago by a peasant, 

 who carelessly threw it away, without appre- 

 ciating its value. - It was lately rediscovered 

 by another peasant, Adrien Noel, who showed 

 it to a local jeweller, and by whom it was 

 finally sent to Paris for examination. 



The nugget consists of 98 per cent, pure 

 gold, is about 3.8 inches in length, and 

 weighs .something over one pound, which 

 would make its actual value about three 

 iiundred dollars, although as a mineralogical 

 curiosity it is doubtless worth much more. 



found is mountainous, and contains numerous 

 veins of pyrites, argentiferous galena, and 

 many other minerals. The principal forma- 

 tion appears to be a mica schist, called by the 

 natives bleste. The occurrence of such a 

 large nugget as the one described is quite 

 remarkable, and may lead to the discovery of 

 gold deposits which will place France among 

 such countries as California and Australia, 

 and add materially to the wealth of that 

 already exceedingly prosperous country. 



THE SOUNDING STONES OF 

 GUILDO. 



Not far fioiu the town of Dinan, in Brit- 

 tany, upon the banks of the river Arguenon, 

 are several large stones, which have the 

 remarkable property of giving out, when 

 struck, a clear, musical sound. These stones, 

 represented in the engraving (see next page) 

 from La Nature, are composed principally 

 of the mineral known as amphibole, and are 

 of a roughly prismatic shape, about twenty- 

 feet in length. They are not erratic boulders 

 brought by ancient glaciers, but have been 

 broken oil" from the neighboring strata, and 

 worn into their present shape, by the action 

 of the waters of the river and sea, as, at the 

 point where they are found, the waters of the 

 river enter into a small bay, and arc forced 

 back by the rising tide twice a day. 



The middle stone in the engraving, which 

 produces the phenomena most perfectly, is 

 terminated at one end by a sort of truncated 

 spur ; when this is struck with a hammer or 

 stone, a clear, silvery note (mi.^) is produced, 

 resembling that of a large bell, struck with a 

 mallet of soft wood. At other points upon 

 the stone the .sound varies in strength and 

 clearness, and, at certain points, — correspond- 

 ing, perhaps, to the nodes of a vibrating 

 cord, — no sound is produced. There are 

 numerous similar stones in the vicinity which 

 show the same phenomena, but none as per- 

 fectly as the ones described. Three of the 

 former have been found whicii give a very 

 perfect major chord, while many others, sim- 

 ilar in appearance, give no sound at all. 



The property of producing a musical note 

 is very diflerent from that of the "singing 

 sands" vvhich occur in various parts of the 

 world, and is, undoubtedly, simply due to 

 the hard, close-grained structure of tlie rocks, 

 as well as the position in which they are 

 placed, those giving the clearest notes being 

 lifted up from the ground and supported at a 

 few points only by other similar stones. A 

 species of feldspar known as phonolite, or 

 clinkstone, gives similar sounds when struck 

 by the hammer. 



The natives call these stones "the horses in 

 the stable," and have a curious legend con- 

 cerning them. A humpbacked tailor having 

 done the fairies a good turn, they allowed 

 him to strike the .stones, and at the same time 

 make a wish. At the call of the mysterious 

 bell they appeared in great numbers, and, in 

 compliance with his wishes, removed his 

 hump. A neighbor of the tailor, an unbe- 

 lieving miller, proceeded to the place and 

 derisively caused the stones to give forth their 

 note. The fairies, however, answered the 

 call, and, by way of punishment, fixed the 

 tailor's hump upon the back of the scoffing 

 grinder of grain, who, doubtless, ever after 

 treated the fairies with great respect. Even 

 without the added charm of the Breton legend, 

 the stones are a remarkable natural curiosity, 

 and of great scientific interest. 



Painless Extraction of Teeth. — Drs. Heno- 

 que and Fredel, in a communication made to the 

 Biological Society of Paris, state that the extraction 

 of a tooth may be rendered painless bv spraying the 

 neighborhood of the external ear with ether. The 

 ana'Sthesia of the trigeminirs so produced extends to 

 the dental nerves, and thus renders the production 

 of general ansesthesia needless. 



