Vol. XXIII. No. 13.] 



POPULAE SCIENCE ISTEWS. 



183 



Slje Popular Science Qews. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER i, 1889. 



AUSTIN P. NICHOLS, S.B Editor. 



WILLIAM J. ROLFE, LiTT.D., . Assodaie Editor. 



Please note that subscriptions for 1890 

 are now due, and that bills for the same are 

 enclosed in this number. 



A RATHER sensational article has been 

 going the rounds of the medical press con- 

 cerning the danger of contracting consump- 

 tion in sleeping-cars where the berths have 

 previously been occupied by those afflicted 

 with the disease, and making several absurdly 

 impracticable suggestions in regard to the pre- 

 vention of the infection. It might be going 

 too far to say tliat there is no danger at all 

 from such a source, but it is a very small one. 

 There is little proof that the bacillus tuber- 

 culosis retains its vitality outside of the body 

 long enough to infect another person, under 

 such circumstances. While consumption is 

 probably a cotmnunicable disease, we can 

 by no means consider it a contagious one 

 in the same sense that the term is applied to 

 small-pox, scarlet-fever, or similar diseases. 

 *♦« — '■ 



A RECENT journey of nearly ten thousand 

 miles in these sleeping-cars, has impressed us 

 not only with their general convenience and 

 luxury, but with the great care taken by the 

 management to keep them in a clean, fresh, 

 and wholesome condition. The principal 

 objection that can be urged against them is 

 the lack of ventilation, especially at night, 

 but this is a matter not easily regulated, and 

 in part, at least, is due to the passengers 

 themselves, many of whom seem to consider 

 fresh air a slow poison. Another minor evil 

 which could be easily suppressed is the con- 

 stant demand of the employes for fees. It 

 is very little to the credit of the managers of 

 the sleeping-car companies that they permit, 

 or even tolerate, this petty, but exasperating 

 swindle upon their patrons. 



The designs for a railroad bridge across 

 the English Channel, about thirty miles in 

 length, have been published, and show that if 

 it is ever completed it will be the greatest 

 engineering work of modern times. It is 

 probably practical, but its enormous cose might 

 prevent it becoming a profitable enterprise. 

 We cannot see that the proposed bridge 

 possesses any advantages over the scheme for 

 a tunnel underneath the surface. It may not 

 be generally known that an English company 

 stands ready to complete this tunnel, which 

 has already been commenced, but is prohib- 

 ited from doing so by the British government 

 for the absurd and puerile reason that the 

 tunnel would enable European armies to in- 

 vade the country in time of war. We fail to 



see how the proposed bridge can be regarded 

 as preferable to the tunnel in this respect, but 

 the motives and actions of legislative bodies 

 on both sides of the Atlantic are past all find- 

 ing out. 



<♦► 



A MOST remarkable archaiological relic was 

 recently discovered at Nampa, Idaho, while 

 boring for an artesian well. It was a small 

 female, figure about an inch and a half in 

 length, and cai-ved out of a light pumice stone. 

 It was found at the depth of about 330 feet, 

 underneath several different strata, including 

 one of lava. The genuineness of the image is 

 confirmed by its being coated with a cement 

 of red oxide of iron, in which a few grains of 

 sand still remained embedded. It is im- 

 possible to form any estimate of the age of 

 this relic until more can be learned about the 

 geological characteristics of the country wh'ere 

 it was found, but if genuine it is undoubtedly 

 of great antiquity, and recalls to mind the 

 famous Calaveras skull of California, which 

 was found in a gold bearing gravel overlaid 

 by an extensive deposit of lava. Mr. S. F. 

 Emmons, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, expresses it as his opinion that the 

 beds from which the image is supposed to 

 have been derived are probably of far greater 

 antiquity than any deposits in which human 

 implements have heretofore been discovered. 

 Further particulars in regard to this dis- 

 covery will be awaited with interest. 



A RECENT unfortunate accident in New 

 York by which an employe of an electric 

 light company was killed by a powerful 

 current, has been the cause of a veritable 

 panic in that city, and the sensational state- 

 ments of the danger to the public from the 

 wires, which were published in the daily 

 press, would have been ridiculous if they had 

 not been so false and misleading. The great 

 extension of electric lighting systems is un- 

 doubtedly a source of danger, but it has been 

 very much exaggerated, and the citizens of 

 New York need have no fear of a death-deal- 

 ing current coming into their homes by way 

 of the water and drain-pipes, as Mr. Edison 

 is — probably incorrectly — reported to have 

 stated. It is worthy of notice that the same 

 people who raise such a cry against the dan- 

 ger of electric light wires, are the very ones 

 who claim that it is impossible to execute 

 criminals by the same means. More per- 

 sons are killed and injured every week on the 

 railroads of this country, than by electric 

 currents since their first introduction, and it 

 would be as sensible to demand the stoppage 

 of all trains, on this account, as to attempt to 

 suppress the electric lights. Great improve- 

 ments in the direction of safety and efficiency 

 will doubtless be made in the future, but even 

 at the present time there is no serious cause 

 for alarm. 



At a scientific congress held in Paris last 

 summer, one Dr. Schlemmer read a paper on 

 mineral springs, in which he claimed that the 

 therapeutical value of many mineral waters 

 was due to certain beneficent microbes which 

 they contained, and that "in certain springs 

 of Vichy, a micrococcus has been isolated, 

 possessing a most pronounced digestive 

 power on albuminoid alimentary substances, 

 which it transforms into peptones. No arti- 

 ficial chemical combination would be capable 

 of conferring on a water this micro-organic 

 life, any more than of conferring upon it the 

 electro-dynamism of telluric elaboration." 

 This is a fair sample of much of the bacter- 

 ial nonsense put forth in the name of science. 

 A somewhat extended scientific education 

 has left us entirely ignorant regarding the 

 "electro-dynamism of telluric elaboration," 

 but whatever that wonderful principle may 

 be, we have no doubt that it has just as much 

 influence upon the excellent water from the 

 Vichy springs, as do those remarkably mild- 

 mannered peptonic micrococci which it is 

 alleged to contain. 



Apropos of microbes, it may be noticed 

 that the bacterial origin of malaria was sus- 

 pected many years ago, even before the in- 

 vention of the microscojje. In a treatise by 

 Marcus Terentius Varro, De Re Riistica, 

 written about 114 B.C., the following pas- 

 sage occurs in a chapter giving directions for 

 the building of a house in the country : 

 "Attention must be also paid as to whether 

 there are marshy places, but for the same 

 reasons, and because when the}' come dry, 

 certain minute animals breed, which the eye 

 cannot discern, and which borne through the 

 air, penetrate into and within the body, bjr 

 the mouth and nostrils, and propagate obsti- 

 nate diseases. A situation on which the^ 

 sun shines all day is more salubrious, for if 

 any animalcules breed and are brought there,, 

 they are either blown away or they soon per- 

 ish from drought." The passage is certainly 

 a remarkable one, although it is impossible 

 that Varro could have possessed any of our 

 modern knowledge on the subject. 



The darkening of chloride of silver under 

 the action of light, is supposed to be due to 

 the partial alteration of the salt, either to the 

 form of a subchloride or an oxychloride, the 

 latter being considered the most probable. 

 Mr. Carey Lea holds that only a subchloride 

 is formed, and proves it by a most ingenious 

 and simple experiment. {Americaft Journal 

 of Science.^ He precipitated silver chloride 

 in a darkened room and fused it in a porcelain 

 crucible until the last traces of moisture had 

 been driven off". The fused salt was then 

 poured into naphtha, and the vessel contain- 

 ing it moved into the sunlight. The usual 

 darkening took place at once, although no oxy- 

 gen could possibly have been present, as 



