498 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



cannot be heard as far as one located in the upper part of the cWy weighing 

 only 11,000 pounds. Bells of the higher keys can be heard farther than 

 those of lower k(;ys, but deep-toned bells are the more pleasant. Church 

 and alarm bells are expensive luxuries, or necessities, and a fragile kind of 

 property. They are frequently put to very hard use; and the metal of 

 which they are made, will not always bear with safety the severe pounding 

 they receive. A church bell while ringing, will receive about 1,000 blows 

 every hour, struck with a clapper or hammer weighing from 50 to 80 lbs., 

 and each blow striking in the same place, that part becomes heated, and in 

 cold weather that portion is expanded, and operates like a wedge upon 

 other parts of the bell. Improvements have been made of late, by which 

 a bell can be turned round, so that the clapper will strike a different place 

 at each blow. 



On motion it was decided to continue this discussion at the next meeting. 

 Adjourned. 



American Institute Polytechnic Assocr.\TioN 

 llarch 2d, 1865 



'■} 



Prof. S. D. Tillman, presiding. 



The Chairman introduced to the audience Mr. David Christy, who has 

 traveled extensively in the Middle and Western States and made many 

 observations which will be found of great interest. 



Serpent Fascination. 



The power of serpents to charm the smaller classes of animals, which 

 they capture for food, has long been held as an undoubted fact. It has 

 also been believed that they could fascifiate the larger orders of animals, 

 so as to bring them within range of their deadly fangs ; and that- even the 

 intellect of man is not exempt from their influence. The common theory 

 upon this subject gives to the serpent, having the power of fascination, an 

 ability to gain the attention of its victims, to paralyze them as if by an 

 electrical influence, and to attract them toward itself as if by magnetism. 



Birds, more generally, are supposed to be the victims of these charms. 

 They have been seen moving around serpents in such a manner as to indi- 

 cate, in the opinion of the observers, that they were under the power of 

 fascination. The testimony upon this point describes the bird as moving 

 in a circle, or a semicircle, around the serpent. If upon the ground, they 

 run with extended wings, gradually narrowing their circle of motion, but 

 never stopping for an instant, till within a foot or two of the serpent. 

 Then, as if conscious of their peril, and just at the moment they are about 

 to be seized, they fling themselves backward on the wing, so as to be out 

 of the reach of their terrible enemy. The birds, thus escaping for the 

 moment, stop and survey the foe from their distant position. This seems 

 to be a fatal dallying with danger. The serpent's eye, quick as the light- 

 ning's flash, again darts its mysterious magic into theirs ; and again and 

 again they advance and recede, as if drawn irresistibl}^ toward the ]ioint 

 which has become the all-absorbing centre of attraction. If the serpent is 



