6o 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 33^ 



SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES. 



47 Lafayette Place, New York. 



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NEW YORK. July 26, iSSg. 



No. 33S. 



The Brush Electric Company's 

 New Alternating - Current 

 System 



Arnold's Retardation Indicator. 



CONTENTS: 



TES AND Ne 



Electrical News. 



Incandescent Electric Lamp Fila- 

 ments 55 



Photographs of Lighting 55 



Permeability of Iron 56 



Automatic Electric Railway-Lamps 56 



Health Matters. 



Water-Supply of Paris 56 



The Naphtha Habit 56 



Topi< 



60 



Ho 



Quartz Fibres 6 



Cultivation of Sugar in Persia.. 

 Fruit-Candying Industry of LeG' 



62 



3ook-Reviews. 



Force and Energy 63 



Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles. ... 63 



^MONG the Publishers 64 



The two events of scientific interest in New York at this 

 time are the judicial investigation into the possibility of killing a 

 human being by electricity without inflicting torture, the death to 

 .be instantaneous, and the progress of the arrangements for the 

 ''world's fair to be held here in 1892. At the electrical hearing, all 

 ;'shades of opinion have been expressed by those called upon to 

 -testify. By some it is maintained that death is by no means sure 

 -to follow the application of currents of high potential, that the ac- 

 :tion of the electricity is liable to be erratic, and that the attempt to 

 sput to death by electricity the criminal now under sentence may 

 'lead to unlawful torture. By others, including Mr. Edison, it is 

 testified that death will be sure and painless on applying the strong 

 «lectric currents proposed. The exhibition plans have progressed 

 to the stage of a meeting of prominent citizens at the mayor's office, 

 .for a discussion of preliminaries. The daily papers of this city, as 

 •well as many of the more prominent ones of other cities, have taken 

 aip the subject energetically, and appear to be unanimously in favor 

 .of the project. One or two of the larger Western cities seem to 

 clhink that the proper place for such an exhibition would be at one 

 -of the great cities of the West, somev^ihere nearer the centre of the 

 continent than New York ; but the general consensus of opinion 

 seems to be that the metropolis of the continent is the place at 

 ■which to fitly celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of that 

 continent's discovery. 



ANTS. 



In the second bulletin issued by the Hatch Experiment Station 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, an account was given 

 of experiments made for the destruction of ants in lawns and walks, 

 but no methods were given for those that find their way into houses, 

 and become an intolerable nuisance because of their desire for 

 sugar and other sweets. These are more frequently the small 

 species, but what they lack in size they usually make up for in 

 numbers.. Mr. C. H. Fernald is inclined to the opinion that they 

 enter the houses and discover the coveted articles by chance ; that 

 their scouts, in exploring, find these articles, not by keen sight or 

 smell, but by mere accident. When one has found some choice 

 dainty, she (these wingless workers are undeveloped females, not 

 neuters as some have supposed) sips her fill, and at once starts for 

 home, where by some means she communicates the information of 

 the locality of untold treasures to others, which return with her ; 

 and they, in turn, appear to spread the information on their return 

 home ; and soon the throngs that come and go are sufficient to 

 disturb the most amiable of housekeepers. Various remedies have 

 been suggested, one of which is to draw a chalk-mark on the floor 

 around the sugar-barrels or other articles to be protected from 

 them. It is undoubtedly true that ants travel in a regular beaten 

 track, as it were, by the sense of smell ; and, if this be removed 

 from the ground over which they travel, they are at a loss, and 

 often wander around for some time before they find the trail again. 

 They may be thrown off the trail by drawing a chalk-mark or even 

 the finger across it. This is only a temporary protection, however ; 

 for sooner or later they will find their way across, and then travel 

 goes on as uninterruptedly as before. 



It has been recommended to sprinkle sugar into a sponge and 

 place it in their path, and, as it fills up with ants several times a 

 day, immerse it in hot water to kill those adhering to it. This will 

 undoubtedly prove successful if carefully followed up for some 

 time ; but, when we remember that the females are constantly 

 laying eggs to produce workers which will take the places of those 

 already destroyed, the task seems almost hopeless. 



There can be no doubt that a better method would be to follow 

 the ants carefully, and discover, if possible, where their nest is, and 

 then destroy the entire community by making one or more holes 

 down through the nest, and then pouring in a teaspoonful of bisul- 

 phide of carbon, carefully stamping down the ground afterwards 

 to close the holes. The fumes of this substance will penetrate the 

 nest in all directions, and destroy the entire community. 



COLIC OF HORSES. 



Bulletin No. 2, Vol. II.,, of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, is a comprehensive treatise on colic of horses, by Dr. H. J. 

 Detmers, the veterinarian of the station. 



It begins with a brief introduction, and a definition of what is 

 understood by the term " colic," showing that the same is applied, 

 not to a single disease, but to quite a number of morbid processes 

 which have their seat in the digestive canal, and produce violent 

 manifestations of pain. It then dwells at length on the various 

 causes, and not only explains their action, or their effect upon the 

 animal organism, but also draws attention to formerly overlooked 

 facts, which throw light upon the origin of many cases of colic and 

 the morbid processes of the same, which cannot be accounted for 

 in any other way. It fully and comprehensively describes the 

 symptoms, gives all the data necessary for the diagnosis and prog- 

 nosis, and finally, in plain language, maps out a rational treatment, 

 which is simple enough to be understood by everybody, and easy 

 enough of application to be executed by any intelligent person. 

 One plate illustrating the cause of certain morbid changes peculiar 

 to horses and mules, and predisposing the same to the most frequent 

 of these diseases, usually called colic, accompanies the treatise. 



In the " Fifth Annual Report of the Ohio Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station " for 1886 (pp. 296-303), Dr. Detmers published a 

 brief article on the causes of colic of horses. He then stated that 

 his observations had confirmed Professor Bollinger's assertion that 

 nearly every aged horse has an aneurism (a soft, pulsating tumor 

 in an artery) in the anterior mesenteric artery, that such an aneu- 

 rism is produced by the presence of a small worm {Sclerostomum 



