October 1, 1886.] 



SCIEJS'CE. 



301 



diameter, with some central condensation, and is 

 very faint. 



— A company in this city is endeavoring to 

 perfect a process for the desiccation of garbage, 

 with a view to utilizing the vast quantity of city 

 refuse now dumped in the sea from garbage- 

 scows. The matter to be treated is run through 

 a shoot into one end of a revolving cylindrical 

 oven about sixty feet long by ten or twelve feet 

 in diameter. The oven, which is strongly con- 

 structed of boiler iron, is enclosed in a brick fur- 

 nace, one end being higher than the other. A fire 

 in the furnace keeps an equable heat in the 

 oven, and the latter is slowly revolved by a steam- 

 engine. The garbage or refuse enters at the 

 elevated end, is thoroughly stirred and dried as it 

 slowlytravels from one end to the other of the 

 revolving oven, and emerges from its lower end 

 desiccated and inoffensive. 



— Though there is nothing novel in the propul- 

 sion of boats by means of electric motors, the 

 recent voyage of the electric launch Volta across 

 the English Channel, from Dover to Calais and 

 back, has attracted much attention. Many electri- 

 cally propelled boats, deriving then* motive power 

 from primary or secondary batteries, have been 

 experimented with by electricians ; but heretofore 

 these experiments have been confined to rivers or 

 other bodies of comparatively smooth water. The 

 honor of having made the first sea-voyage — brief 

 though that voyage was — must be accorded Mr. 

 A. Reckenzaun of London. Accompanied by nine 

 other gentlemen, Mr. Reckenzaun left Dover at 10.40 

 A.M., Monday, Sept. 13, in the Volta, and reached 

 Calais at 2.33 p.m. On the return trip, the party 

 left Calais at 3.14, and arrived at Dover at 7.27. 

 Taking into accoxint the drift due to the tide, the 

 total distance travelled was about fifty-fom' statute 

 miles, the total running time being a few minutes 

 over eight hours. The Volta is 37 feet long by 6 

 feet 10 inches beam, and is built of steel. The 

 secondary battery, of sixty-one cells, weighing 

 about four thousand pounds, was arranged along 

 the bottom of the boat. The propellor is three- 

 bladed, 20 inches in diameter, and 11 inches pitch, 

 and was driven at a maximum speed of one thou- 

 sand revolutions per minute by a duplex Recken- 

 zaun motor, or, more accurately, two motors carried 

 on one shaft. The motors weigh between seven 

 and eight hundred pounds, and develop a maxi- 

 mum of sixteen horse-power. 



— Large floating fields of pumice, thrown up 

 by the great volcanic eruption at Krakatoa, Java, 

 have been seen in the Indian Ocean, nearly seven 

 hundred miles from where they were seen a year 

 ago. 



— Dr. Miller of Austria has been making some 

 extremely valuable observations on the action of 

 the stomach upon fungi. Inasmuch as one of the 

 common methods by which zymotic diseases are 

 believed to be produced is by the introduction of 

 their germs into the alimentary canal, it can 

 readily be seen that this investigation is replete 

 with interest and importance. He finds that if 

 these fungi, as, for instance, bacilli and bacteria, 

 are introduced at the beginning of the meal, be- 

 fore the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice is 

 poured out by the stomach glands, they pass on 

 to the intestine uninjured. If, however,'they are 

 taken into the stomach at a later time, when the 

 reaction of the stomach is acid, they are de- 

 stroyed. It has been satisfactorily demonstrated 

 by numerous observations that persons were more 

 likely to contract cholera when the stomach was 

 diseased, or, as is commonly said, ' out of order.' 



— We give this week two more illustrations show- 

 ing the effects of the great earthquake. One is of 

 a ' sink ' at Ten-Mile Hill. These sinks were, in 

 general, after-effects, being formed, as Professor 

 McGee pointed out in the last number of Science, 

 after the subsidence of the floods of water which 

 came from the ' craterlets.' The other illustra- 

 tion shows a fallen house at Lincolnville. This is 

 chiefly of interest as showing how, by a probable 

 upward thrust of the earth, the base of the chim- 

 ney, which offered the most resistance, was com- 

 pletely crushed. 



— Dr. Charles L. Dana discusses in the Forum 

 the question, ' Is life worth saving?' He places 

 the value of an adult life to the state at at least 

 $750, and its annual productive power at $95. 

 One-half of all the deaths occur during the pro- 

 ductive age, so that the two hundred thousand 

 deaths at this period, which occur annually in the 

 United States, represent an enormous loss to the 

 country. It is also calculated that every death 

 represents about two years of sickness, and that 

 there are in this country about a million and a 

 half persons sick all the time. In England and 

 Wales it has been found that every workingman 

 averages a week and a half of sickness in the year. 

 It is estimated that the wage-loss from sickness m 

 France is $70,000,000 each year, and from death 

 $188,000,000. 



— Mr. Mackellar, chief surgeon to the London 

 police, has issued the following directions to the 

 surgeons of divisions, for their guidance in treat- 

 ing persons bitten by rabid dogs: "When possi- 

 ble, a ligature to be applied above the part bitten ; 

 prompt and thorough suction of the wound, freely 

 washing with water, and the application of abso- 

 lute phenol (pure carbolic acidj ; the individual 



