August 18, 189^. 



SCIENCE. 



93 



the attention of plumers, througli whose depreciations it 

 became wholly depopulated in this single season, none 

 breeding here in 1887 nor 1888, as I learned through a 

 letter from Mr. Eackliff. 



AN ANAiCITE COPPER BOWLDER FROM THE 

 KEWEENAW RANGE, MICHIGAN. 



BY E. O. HOVEY, PH. D., NEW HAVEN. 



In the Michigan exhibit in the mining building at the 

 Columbian exposition there is a curious bowlder, or round- 

 ed mass, which deserves more than a passing glance from 

 the visiting mineralogist. The bowlder was originally 

 about four feet in diameter and approximately spherical 

 in shape. It came from the Central Mine, Keweenaw 

 County, and occurred near the contact between the ore 

 body and the country rock. Possibly it was one of the 

 contact phenomena of the region, and there may be other 

 masses like it. 



The bov/lder is composed for the greater part of gran- 

 ular pink analcite with granular calcite and quartz quite 

 evenly disseminated through it. It shows a tendency to 

 spherical parting throughout the mass, which causes it to 

 separate into concentric shells from one ' to two inches 

 thick when broken into. Permeating the granular mass 

 and holding it together, is an intrieit net-work of arbor- 

 escent native cop)per radiating outward from the centre of 

 the bowlder. The action of dilute hydrochloric acid dis- 

 solves out the analcite and calcite, leaving the net-work of 

 wire copper intact, with small grains of c[uartz caught 

 here and there in it. The wires making up the arbor- 

 escent growth are about 0.01 inch in diameter, but 

 means for accurate measurement were not at hand. Un- 

 der the microscojie the net-work is seen to be made up of 

 minute crystalline growtlis develojjed along axes inclined 

 60° to the direction of growth. The planes recognized 

 were only the most common of those occurring on native 

 coppier; viz., the cubic, octahedral and dodecahedral. The 

 terminations of the little branches are usually acute, and 

 formed by the acute solid angle of the dodecahedron; but 

 an occasional blunt point occurs made up of what seem to 

 be cubic j)lanes. The vertical axes of the crystals are ap- 

 proximately the radii of the sjjherioal mass, and the ex- 

 tremities of the little branches all point outward. A low 

 estimate places the amount of native copper in the 

 bowlder at from 35 to 40 per cent. The crevices in the 

 mass are stained green by the decomposition products of 

 the copper. 



The chief component of the bowlder and the one which 

 gives it its color is pink analcite, recognized by its faint 

 cubic cleavage, its vitreous lustre, inclining a little to pear- 

 ly, and its gelatinizing with dilute HCl. The granular 

 structure is so pronounced that the mass would crumble to 

 pieces between the fingers, if it were not for the retaining 

 net-work of copper. Disseminated through the analcite 

 are small aggregations of granialar white quartz, while 

 associated with both analcite and quartz are minute, par- 

 ticles of calcite, which occur in sufficient quantity to pro- 

 duce marked effervescence when the rock is jjlaced in acid. 

 The copper penetrates all comf)Onents of the rock alike. 



The j)eculiar structvire of this mass was noted by jMr. 

 Samuel Brady, M. E., of Detroit, superintendent of the 

 Michigan mineral exhibit, and the bowlder secured for 

 the disjalay at the exposition. A more detailed account of 

 the mass and its occurrence will ajjpear in ]\Ii'. Brady's 

 report on the exhibit, but he kindly gave me permission 

 to prepare this jjreliminary notice for the readers of 

 Science. 



LOEW'S NATURAL SYSTEM OF THE ACTIONS OP 

 POISONS. 



BY J. CHKISTIAN BAY, MISSOUEI BOTANICAL GARDEN, ST. LOUIS, MO. 



Hitherto, the actions of poisonous substances were re- 

 garded mainly in connection with medical science or, 

 when submitted to a general view, M'ere mainly consid- 

 ered in their relation to certain j)hysiological conditions of 

 the mammals, or with reference to pathology. A review 

 of poisonous actions was extended only as far as we could 

 go with regard to the chemical comjsosition of the matter 

 acting, and with the pathological state of the whole or- 

 ganization upion which it exerted its influence. Thus, in 

 1862, Taylor established a classification of poisonous sub- 

 stances into mineral, vegetable, neurotic, spinal, and cere- 

 bro-sp)inal poisons. But this division did not, in the first 

 place, cover all instances of which we had a record. Fur- 

 ther, it was not, for logical reasons, really satisfactory. 



The grand development of bacteriology, and much in- 

 genious work in investigating the structure and physi- 

 ological jJroperties of the living matter, have extended our 

 j)ositive knowledge as well as our views, and special at- 

 tention has been paid to the physiological unit of the 

 cell. In this journal the writer ^ called attention to 

 Sachs' 2 theory of the energids, in the Botanical. Gasette s he 

 called attention to Wiesner's magnificent work-* in 

 similar direction, and Detmer's s recent contribution, 

 which, though they go in diiierent directions, can very 

 well extend and be supported by each other. 



Through many special papers and occasional notes, our 

 knowledge of the actions of poisons has been extended, 

 since the old school of physiologists saw other systems of 

 knowledge come forth. In this connection, attention 

 should be called to the work of Pereira and Buchheim fi. 

 Now, however, the facts are arranged in a totally new, 

 very logical and natural way, by Dr. O. Loew, 7 of 

 Munich, who has established a natural system of the ac- 

 tions of poisons, corresponding with our present knowl- 

 edge and views of the elementary units of the animal and 

 vegetable body. 



Loew arranges poisonous actions according to their 

 way of action upon the organization, thus establishing a 

 physiological system. This is to be preferred to any 

 other, because many of these actions open views into the 

 chemical and physiological properties of the protoplasm 

 and its constituents. The su^Jj^ort of this system is 

 Pfliiger's theoiy from 1875 8 that the properties of living 

 and dead matter (or matter in the living and dead state) 

 are intimately connected with the p)roperties of the 

 organic piroteid combinations in the protoiDlasm. This 

 question was, in 1882 and later, subject to exceeding- 

 ly careful and important experimental studies by Loew and 

 Bokorny, 9 the result of which being that the albuminoid 

 matter of the jarotopjlasm of plant cells in the living state 

 differs greatlj"^ from that in the dead state. Much oppo- 

 sition against the conclusions from the many important 

 facts herewith connected results mainly from lack of 

 understanding of these questions, while, on the other 

 hand, there are good reasons for opposing. The facts, 

 however, cannot be rejected. 



1 Science, XXI., p. 162, 1892. 



2 Flora, Regensburg, 1892, pp. 57-64. 

 3Bot. Gaz., XVII., 1802. 



4 Die Elementarstruktur und das Wachsthum der lebenden Substanz. 

 Wien, 1892. 



5 Berichte der Deutschen Bot. Gesellschaft, X., p. 433-441, 1892. 



6 Pereira: Handbuch der Heilmittellehre, ubersetzt von R. Buchheim. 

 Vol. I-II. 



7 Loew, Dr. Oscar: Ein naturliches System der Giftwirkungen, Munchen, 

 1893. The work is dedicated to Professor von Pettenkofer on his 50 years' 

 doctor-jubilee. 



8 Pfluger's Archiv f. d. ges. Physiol, des Menschen und der Thiere, Vol. X,, 

 187s, p. 300. See also Detmer; Pringsh. Jahrb. XII., and his Pflanzen- 

 phvsiologie, 1883, p. 149-153. 



9'Die chemische Kraftquelle des lebenden Protoplasmas, 18S2. See also Biol. 

 Centralbl. 



