74 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No 444 



incurred would be the purchase of the pail or other attachment 

 for the kitchen range, which would be less in a term of five years 

 than the present cost of receptacles for storing the garbage. It is 

 a mistake to throw this material upon the fire, for then the com- 

 bustion is imperfect, and very offensive odors are given off. It 

 should always be placed in a receptacle specially and conveniently 

 arranged for the purpose, in some part of the stove. The ordinary 

 heat of the stove will dry out all moisture and leave charcoal, to 

 be burned like other fuel. There are several patented devices 

 already in the market for this jDurpose. One of them is obtained 

 only in the construction of the stove, and consists of a receptacle 

 in the side of the stove in which the garbage is put, completely 

 desiccated, and then dumped into the tire. Another consists of a 

 small pail arranged for the purpose, can be applied to any stove, 

 and is said to answer the needs well." 



— At a recent meeting of the Chicago Medical Society, says the 

 Medical Record, Dr. J. Frank reported a case where a man every 

 July shed his skin. He was taken with feverish tremors, increas- 

 ing almost to paroxysms. He undressed, lay down, and within a 

 few minutes the skin of the chest began to turn red. The redness 

 rapidly extended over the entire skin, and the feverish tremors 

 continued uninterrupted for about twelve hours. Then he arose, 

 dressed, and walked about in perfect health. The skin now com- 

 menced to peel, and ten hours later it began to come off in great 

 patches. From the arms and legs it could be pulled off exactly 

 like gloves or stockings As the old skin came away a new epi- 

 dermis, as soft and pink as a baby's, was revealed. This new skin 

 was very sensitive ; the patient has to wear softened gloves and 

 moccasins for about a week. After the old cuticle had been en- 

 tirely removed the finger and toe nails began to drop off — new 

 nails literally crowding them out. Finally the change was com- 

 plete, the man had a new skin and a new outfit of nails, and was 

 ready to return to the mines. The shedding began in his first 

 year and recurred every July thereafter. 



— It is worthy of remark that the idea of university extension 

 has taken root in other than English-speaking countries. A Danish 

 correspondent writes to the Oxford Gazette in regard to work in 

 Denmark : '• About five years ago the undergraduates of the Uni- 

 versity of Copenhagen undertook to give free instruction to the 

 working classes and others who were in need of such instruction. 

 Courses were given in languages, natm-al science, and all subjects 

 commonly taught in high schools. The rooms in which the in- 

 struction was given were lent free by thj schools and other insti- 

 tutions. The movement succeeded, and after three years ihe 

 organizing committee applied for and got State aid, to which, 

 however, no conditions were attached. It was only an encourage- 

 ment given to the brave efforts of the students. The undergrad- 

 uates now give free legal advice through competent men, and the 

 movement is extending in every direction. Branches of the cen- 

 tral society in Copenhagen have already been established in the 

 chief towns of Denmark, and it is only a question of time when 

 the whole country will be covered by a network of similar in- 

 struction." 



— Some time ago, says Engineering, Mr. Bryan Donkin made a 

 number of experiments on the flow of heat through the walls of 

 a steam engine cylinder, using for the purpose delicate thermome- 

 ters. At a recent meeting of the American Institute of Electrical 

 Engineers Professor E. H. Hall gave the results of some pre- 

 liminary experiments on the same subject, made with a thermo- 

 pile, consisting of a plug of iron, which was screwed into a |-inch 

 hole in the cylinder, and had a small hole bored through its centre. 

 Down this hole was passed a nickel plug attached at one end to a 

 thin iron plate, which was also attached to the iron plug. The 

 outer ends of the iron and nickel plugs were connected to a deli- 

 cate galvanometer in the usual way, and the nickel was of course 

 insulated from all contact with the iron save by the thin plate 

 already mentioned. Three thermopiles constructed on this system 

 were used. In the first the plate connecting the two elements 

 was one-half a millimetre thick, in the second one millimetre 

 thick, and in the third two millimetres thick. The engine cut off 

 at about ^ stroke, and ran at sixty revolutions per minute. It was 

 found that using the plug with the one-half millimetre plate, the 



temperature at cut-off was below the maximum, and fell rapidly 

 during exhaustion. The ebb and flow of heat in the cylinder walls 

 was very evident. Heat rushes into these walls at admission, but 

 at cut-off, begins to travel hack into the cylinder again, and con- 

 tinues during exhaust to flow from the walls and to boil off any 

 water that may be in the cylinder. Professor Hall thinks that 

 there is evidence to show that in the case of the engine on which 

 he was exiDerimenting a layer of water remained in the cylinder 

 walls from the previous stroke, thus increasing condensation. 



— Captain Cowell of the British ship "Drumeltan" reports as 

 follows to the Hydrographic OfBce on the use of oil in stormy 

 weather at sea: "I have for eighteen or twenty years used oil- 

 bags in heavy running, especially in running down the easting on 

 Australian and New Zealand voyages from England; they have 

 always acted well, the ship running considerably drier, with less 

 sea on board. I have always used canvas bags, first filled with 

 oakum and then the oil poured in. The hags are hung at each 

 cathead with a rather long lanyard, so that it will sometimes dip 

 in the water as the ship rises and falls. In my last voyage in this 

 ship, in the Pacific, off Patagonia, I lay-to for seventy-two hours 

 in a furious gale from westsouth-vvest, but did not ship any heavy 

 water; had one oil-bag at the weather cathead and another at the 

 mizzen rigging, with long lanyards (4-masted ship). Nothing but 

 spray came on board. I learned afterwards that a good many 

 vessels were damaged in that gale, or rather hurricane. Two days 

 afterwards (April 15, 1890), I myself passed the "Adamant," of 

 Hamburg, dismasted and abaiidoned. I always keep two oil-bags 

 filled with oakum, ready for oU at short notice, and I invariably 

 destroy the old bags, as they are liable to dry hard and become 

 useless." 



— Referring to a statement which has been publicly made that 

 the adoption of electric lighting in place of gas at the oflSce of the 

 Savings Bank Department of the General Post Office. London, has 

 been followed by a marked reduction in the amount of sick leave, 

 the Lancet says it has good authority for believing that the state- 

 ment in question is substantially correct. Although the time 

 which has as yet elapsed — two years — since the introduction of 

 the new illuminant has been insufficient for the collection of trust- 

 worthy statistics, the paper named thinks there is every reason to 

 believe that electric lighting will prove to be much more whole- 

 some than ordinary gas flames. An electric lamp does not com- 

 pete for the oxygen of the apartment in which it is placed, and 

 tbis circumstance gives it a marked advantage over any open 

 flame. It cannot, like some forms of gas-burner, be used to pro- 

 mote ventilation; but in ordinary situations its harmlessness is a 

 much more important property. 



— An antiquarian flnd which will excite interest all over Eu- 

 rope, says the Academy, has lately been made in Roevemose 

 peat bog, near Hobro in Jutland. Aalborg Amt. The objects are 

 all of silver, the principal piece being a very large basin, on which 

 have been fastened plates of silver hammered out with figures of 

 men, women, and animals. The basin is twenty-six Danish inches 

 in diameter, but scarcely eight inhes high. One or two pieces are 

 apparently wanting; but it is hoped they will turn up when the 

 moss is minutely examined. The eye-holes of the figures are now 

 empty, but had evidently been filled with colored glass. One of 

 the plates, which is nearly seventeen inches long, shows warriors, 

 with helmets and other ornaments. One figure is a god with a 

 wheel at his side, and on another are two elephants. A third 

 shows a horned god in a sitting posture with his legs crossed ori- 

 ental wise. All these have apparently nothing to do with Northern 

 mythology, as was at first supposed. The whole find has now 

 reached the Danish National Museum, and we see that these pieces 

 belong to the god-lore of the Gallic peoples. The god with the 

 wheel, for instance, is the Gallic sun god. The whole is the work 

 of a Gallic artist at that early period when the Roman and Gallic 

 peoples first came in contact. Allowing time for these things to 

 wander so far north, the date would seem to be, as regards Den- 

 mark, the first century before Christ. Other things belonging to 

 this Gallic group have been found previously in this country. The 

 total weight of precious metal hitherto exhumed is about twenty 

 Danish pounds. 



