214 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 8. 



vestigations on various subjects have been car- 

 ried on, the results of which have been in part 

 published in the French scientific journals. 

 Of the work published in Portuguese, that of 

 Dr. Lacerda, on the nature and phj'siological 

 effects of snake and other poisons, and the 

 successful application of permanganate of pot- 

 ash as an antidote to snake-poisons, is the 

 most striking and important. The laboratory 

 being open to investigators outside of the 

 establishment, several have availed themselves 

 of the opportunities thus afforded ; and Messrs. 

 Guimeraes and Raposo have investigated the 

 physiological effects of coffee, Paraguaj'an tea, 

 and other alimentarj' substances ; and Dr. 

 Araujo Goes is now engaged in studying the 

 microscopic organisms of pulmonary diseases. 



The school of mines also has its annals, of 

 which one volume has been published, con- 

 taining important papers from the pen of the 

 director. Professor Gorceix, on the mode of 

 occurrence of the topaz, diamond, and other 

 precious stones, and on the geology of the re- 

 gions where thej occur, as well as papers from 

 the students of the school, which prove that it 

 is training an able corps of investigators, from 

 which much maj' be expected in the future. 

 The second volume, now in preparation, will 

 contain translations of the little-known papers 

 of Lund on the bone-caverns of Lagoa Santa. 



The past year has witnessed an almost com- 

 plete reorganization of the medical school of 

 Rio de Janeiro, with the establishment, on a 

 liberal scale, of manj' new laboratories for in- 

 struction and research, from which much good 

 work is naturally' to be expected. Up to the 

 present time the studies of Dr. Domingos 

 Freire in organic chemistry, and on the micro- 

 scopic organisms of yellow-fever, and the 

 nature, cause, and treatment of that disease, 

 are the most important -that have appeared 

 from that institution. 



In the polytechnic school the era of investi- 

 gation has been too recently introduced, and 

 on too small a scale, to have yet produced &x\j 

 material results. Dr. Saldanha da Gama, in 

 the botanical department, is studying the flora 

 of the vicinit}' of Rio, and training his stu- 

 dents in the methods of research ; and impor- 

 tant _ geological and mineralogical investiga- 

 tions are being carried on b}' Dr. Ennes da 

 Souza, who has had the advantage of a thor- 

 ough scientific training at Freiberg. The 

 chemical department has just received as 

 guests Professor Michler of the university of 

 Zurich, now on a scientific visit to Brazil, and 

 Dr. Sampao, a Brazilian graduate of the same 

 universitv, who are conducting elaborate in- 



vestigations on the chemistry of Brazilian 

 vegetable products. 



Brazil not having as j-et reached that stage 

 of scientific and material development in wliich 

 scientific men can hope to gain a livelihood, 

 and find means and time for investigation out- 

 side of the government schools and other es- 

 tablishments, little can be expected among 

 private workers. Notwithstanding this fact, 

 the development of what maj- be called the 

 official science has been too slight to place it 

 in advance of the non-oflficial. Fritz Miiller, 

 a farmer in a German colony of southern Bra- 

 zil, finds time for the zoological investigations 

 that have given him a world-wide reputation ; 

 Glaziou, director of the public gardens of Rio, 

 has contributed largely to the Flora brazilien- 

 sis, and is probably unsurpassed in his knowl- 

 edge of Brazilian botanj' ; Rodrigues Peixoto, 

 a practising physician, has been associated 

 with Lacerda in important studies on Brazil- 

 ian craniology ; and Barbosa Rodrigues has 

 worked extensivelj' on the palms and orchids 

 in botanj-, and in the fertile field of Amazonian 

 ethnology. 



Though the showing for Brazilian science is 

 so small, and some of the work above men- 

 tioned may, on close scrutiny', prove to be 

 somewhat crude and non-scientific in its meth- 

 ods and deductions, enough has been done to 

 mark the dawning of a new era full of promise 

 for the future, and characterized by the study 

 of nature rather than the study of books. The 

 small nucleus of investigators cannot fail to 

 train disciples, to draw others around them, 

 and to educate the government and people to 

 the point of distinguishing true research from 

 mere emptj^ show and glitter. When once 

 trulj' scientific methods come to be fairly nat- 

 uralized in the country, the Brazilians will not 

 be found lacking in the mental qualities that 

 make able and original investigators. If sci- 

 entific progress be slow, it will not be, as hith- 

 erto, from indifference, or ignorance of the true 

 nature of science, but because the material 

 development of the empire does not permit 

 the facilities of research enjoj'ed in older and 

 richer countries. 



HISTORY OF THE AP PLICA TION OF THE 

 ELECTRIC LIGHT TO LIGHTING THE. 

 COASTS OF FRANCE.^ 



IV. 

 In the English lighthouses, for which the 

 de Meritens machine has also been adopted, 

 another style of commutator is used, as shown 



t (JoaUnued from No. 7. 



