May 29, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



299 



■without those habits of instinctive obedience and reverence which 

 characterized the previous civilization, and the capable teachers 

 are all young and comparatively untried men. The question how 

 to preserve sound morality and discipline in the schools is causing 

 grave concern at headquarters. There is a conservative move- 

 ment at full flow just now, the demand for foreigners as teachers 

 is at ebb, the schools in most cases preferring Japanese who can 

 help them translate. Foreign modes have never been so unpopu- 

 lar since the great revolution. There is a troublesome class in 

 the capital known as soshi, a word which it is difficult to translate 

 so as to convey an adequate meaning. They are not students, 

 though so described sometimes, but rather political unattached 

 meddlers, who would right all wrongs by the use of sword-sticks 

 and bombs. They profess to be intense patriots, and are certainly 

 in many cases reckless of their lives, and most deliberate in carry- 

 ing out their plans. The only school in which anything of the 

 ^oshi spirit has appeared is the Higher Middle School of Tokyo, 

 some of the students in which have once or twice disgraced them- 

 selves. 



— In the new number of the Joui-nal of the Bombay Natural 

 History Society, says Nature, Lieut. H. E. Barnes continues his 

 interesting papers on nesting in western India. Speaking of 

 house-sparrows, he says that no amount of persecution seems to 

 deter them from building in a place when they have once made up 

 their minds to it. At Deesa he found that a pair had built a large 

 nest in the antlers of a sambur in the veranda. Another pair 

 made a nest in the soap-box in the -bath-room, and, although the 

 nest was destroyed several times, they would not desist, and at 

 last, "from sheer pity," he had to leave them alone. The most 

 peculiar case was when a pair had a nest in a bird-cage hanging 

 against the wall, just above where the durzi sat all day working, 

 and close to a door through which people were passing in and out 

 continually. The door of the cage had been left open, the previ- 

 ous occupant having been transferred elsewhere. Not only were 

 four eggs laid, but the nestlings were reared, although the cage 

 was frequently taken down to be shown to visitors. Once the 

 eggs were nearly lost, a boy having taken them out. The fuss 

 made by the birds led to the recovery of the eggs. The author 

 has a curious note on another peculiarity of sparrows. " I have 

 often," he says, "had to turn the face of a looking-glass to the 

 wall to prevent them from injuring themselves, for immediately 

 one of them catches a glimpse of himself in it, he commences a 

 furious onslaught on what he imagines must be a rival, and, if 

 not prevented, will continue fighting the whole day, only 

 leaving off when darkness sets in, recommencing the battle at 

 dawn the next day. I once tried to see how long it would be 

 before the bird gave in, but after two days, seeing no likelihood 

 of his retiring from the unequal contest, I took pity on him and 

 had the glass covered up. The bird did not seem in any way ex- 

 hausted, although I do not think that he had a morsel of food for 

 two days." 



— From a report of Professor A. E. Dolbear, the electrician of 

 the Portelectric Company, we learn that during the past year ex- 

 periments have been carried on at the New England Portelectric 

 Station in Dorchester, with the view of determining the best con- 

 ■ditions for building and operating a commercial line employing 

 the method known as the " Portelectric," to which we have before 

 referred in Science. As the whole scheme was a new one, every 

 step was a tentative one. The oval track is 3,784 feet long, and 

 the curves are much too short to attain the high speeds attainable 

 on a straight line. When the car was first sent round the track, 

 it made the circuit in about two minutes ; now it has made it in 

 fifty-one seconds. The hindrances to stiU swifter travel are only 

 the mechanical ones of proper track and alignment. That this is 

 so is evident from the fact that an acceleration of six feet per sec- 

 ond has been observed upon the iron car, which weighs about 500 

 pounds ; an acceleration which if maintained for thirty seconds 

 would give it a speed of 180 feet per second — a little more than 

 two miles a minute. The friction of the present structure is there- 

 fore the only impediment ; and it is equally obvious that the strap 

 rails used, the lack of stiffness in the beam carrying the upper 

 sail, and the severe wedging of the wheels as they go round the 



sharp curves are the factors. These, of course, cau be entirely 

 remedied. The experimental car is hollow, and has an interior 

 capacity of about five cubic feet, and is therefore capable of hold- 

 ing about 10,000 letters, which would weigh 180 pounds; or the 

 space could be filled with other packages needing transportation. 

 It is probable that a still greater capacity in the car could be had 

 with as great efiiciency in power and speed. On account of the 

 fact that the car closes its own circuit in the coil where it chances 

 to be, it happens that numbers of cars can be running upon the 

 same track at once, each one taking its supply of electrical energy 

 independent of the rest. Suppose, then, a line between Boston 

 and New York. If the speed be, say, two miles a minute, then, 

 if a car left, every five minutes, they would be ten miles apart. 

 If this rate of despatching a car be maintained for all-day service, 

 there would be 12 X 24 = 288 cars one way per day, and if each 

 one's load was, say, 250 pounds, they could transport thirty-six 

 tons per day. If the track were double, as it probably would be, 

 it could transport twice that amount. 



— On the 7th of April last, says The Missionary Herald, the 

 Hai'ris School of Science at Kyoto, Japan, was opened and the 

 Science Hall dedicated. The building is 110 by 65 feet, with a 

 wing for a laboratory, and has connected with it an astronomical 

 tower. The cost was about $15,000, which, with $85,000 for en- 

 dowment, was the gift of an American, who desires that scientific 

 instruction shall be conducted under Christian infiuences. 



— Some remai-kable electrical phenomena accompanying the 

 production upon the large scale of solid carbon dioxide are de- 

 scribed by Dr. Haussknecht of Berlin in a recent number of the 

 Berichte of the German Chemical Society, of which Nature of 

 May 14 gives a brief account. In order to obtain large quantities 

 of solid carbonic acid it is found most convenient in practice to 

 allow the liquid stored in the usual form of iron cylinder to escape 

 into a stout canvas bag, best constructed of sailcloth or some such 

 strong fabric, instead of the usual lecture-room receiving appa- 

 ratus, the cylinder being inclined from the vertical so as to permit 

 of a ready and uniform exit from the opened valve. The liquid 

 under these circumstances issues at pressures varying from sixty 

 to eighty atmospheres, and a compact snow-like mass of solid car- 

 bon dioxide is formed in the canvass receiver, owing, as is well- 

 known, to the extreme lowering of the temperature of the liquid 

 due to its sudden expansion and the accompanying absorption of 

 heat. When the experiment is performed in the dark, the canvas 

 receiver is seen to be illuminated within by a pale greenish-violet 

 light, and Dr. Haussknecht states that electric sparks ten to twenty 

 centimetres long dart out from the pores of the cloth. If the hand 

 is held in these sparks the usual pricking sensation is felt, similar 

 to that perceived on touching the conductor of an electric machine 

 at work. • Dr. Haussknecht further states that the phenomenon is 

 very noticeable in the dark whenever there is a leakage in any 

 portion of the compressing apparatus or the manometers connected 

 therewith. The reason assigned for this development of statical 

 electricity is similar in principle to that usually accepted in ex- 

 planation of the hydro-electric machine of Sir William Armstrong. 

 As the liquid carbonic acid is issuing from the valve it becomes 

 partly converted into gas, which is violently forced through every 

 pore of the canvas. Moreover, carried along with this stream of 

 gas are great quantities of minute globules of liquid, which are 

 brought in forcible contact with the solid particles already de- 

 posited. Dr. Haussknecht therefore considers that the electrical 

 excitation is due mainly to the violent friction between these 

 liquid globules and the solid snow. It is very essential for the suc- 

 cessful reproduction of these electrical phenomena that the carbon 

 dioxide should be absolutely free from admixed air ; that prepared 

 artificially yielding much finer results than that obtained from 

 natural waters, which latter contains considerable quantities of 

 air. The luminosity is not generally developed in the interior of 

 the receiver until a crust of solid carbonic acid from one-half to 

 one centimetre thick has been deposited, which renders the proba- 

 bility of the correctness of the above theory all the greater. Dr. 

 Haussknecht has constructed a special form of apparatus, with 

 which he is now experimenting, with the view of being able to de- 

 termine the sign, nature, and quantity of the generated electriciiy. 



