PROCEEDINGS OP THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 577 



The fact that nitro-benzole may remain in the human body a long time be- 

 fore manifesting any action, and that after exerting its fatal effect, it is so 

 changed as to leave but slight traces of its presence, should attract the 

 particular attention of the medical jurist and analytical chemist. 



The Weather and Weather Prophets. 



Sir John F, W. Herschel has an interesting article with this title in the 

 January number of Good Words, from which this single paragraph is ex- 

 tracted : "If we are ever to make any material progress in the prediction 

 of the weather beyond 'forecasts' of a few hours, or it may be a whole day 

 in advance, it can only be by the continued study of such of its phases as 

 recur periodically or of such as manifest a periodicity of events, as dis- 

 tinct from that of times and seasons, with a view to connecting them with 

 their eflScent physical cause. Of this latter description we have an exam- 

 ple of one, and of its successful reduction under the domain of philosophi- 

 cal reasoning,in the law of the rotation of the winds. That the winds in their 

 changes, in the general way 'follow the sun' — i. e., have a tendency to veer 

 in the same direction round the compass card with the sun's apparent diur- 

 nal course in the heavens (from east round by south, west, and north in 

 northern hemisphere, and reversedly in the southern) in continual success- 

 ion back to the orginal point — has been surmised from very early times, but 

 until lately, rather as a matter of occasional remark, agreeing on the whole 

 with the general impression of casual observers, than as a meteorological 

 law of universal applicability. 



"As such, however, it has now taken its place among ascertained facts, 

 verified by the registered movements of the wind-vane at every station 

 where continuous observation is made, and connected by the researches of 

 M. Dove with that great fact which underlies so many other phenomena 

 — the rotation of the earth on its axis." 



Electricity in Asthma. 



M. Poggioli reports to the French Academy that the true asthma a 

 nervous disorder of the respiratory organs, has been successfully treated 

 by electricity. • 



Typhoid Fever. 



Prof. Sigri in a memoir to the French Academy states that the infusoria, 

 Bacteriums, were found in the blood of a man who died of this disease at 

 the hospital of Sienna. 



A Parasitic Pestilence. 



Mr. Van Rudolf Leuchart states that one-sixth of the annual deaths 

 among the people of Iceland is solely owing to a little entozoon liviuf^- in 

 the dog, from which the larva is generated, which, if kept in an imperfectly 

 developed condition, grows to an immense size. These larvaj infest both 

 men and cattle. 



New Hydrate of Lime. 



Dr. John Davy has published some experiments on the slacking of quick 

 lime which seem to warrant the conclusion that water is capable of unitino* 

 [Am. Inst.] L* 



