38 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 



time to time with spirits of turpentine, all painted surfaces were 

 repainted, and Dr. Marfan recommended that the floor should he 

 swept in the evening after the departure of the employees, and 

 that the windows should be left open all night. 



Dr. Vallin recommends in place of these measures a mixture of 

 equal parts of coal-tar and spirits of turpentine, or of paraflftne 

 dissolved in warm petroleum, and, in place of the sweeping, the 

 removal of the dust by sponges, or cloths moistened with an anti- 

 septic solution. 



Tissue Metabolism in Cancer. 



Dr. F. Miiller has made some careful comparative observations 

 upon the urine in cases of cancer and other wasting diseases, and 

 in simple starvation. He finds, according to the London Lancet, 

 that in the cancerous the excretion of nitrogen far exceeds the 

 amount ingested, and infers that this excess must in consequence 

 be derived from the disintegration of the albuminoids of the body. 

 However, in two out of seven cases this loss was not greater than 

 occurred in other individuals similarly insufficiently novuished. 

 The chlorides were, on the other hand, notably diminished, — a 

 fact, he thinks, pointing to the source of the excreted nitrogen; 

 viz., from the organ albumen, and not from the circulating 

 albumen. Obviously, however, many diseases share, with car- 

 cinoma, in this disintegrating process, as Miiller showed to be the 

 case in chronic febrile affections, especially severe forms of 

 malaria, in leukaamia, and pernicious anaemia. Previous ob- 

 servers do not coincide in their statements on this head as regards 

 leukaemia. Voit and Pettenkofer found no marked evidence of 

 increased metabolism in this affection, and Fleischer and Penzoldt 

 concurred in this so far as regards mild cases. But in severe 

 cases the last-named find the urea to be increased both absolutely 

 and relatively. Sticker and Klemperer arrived at the same con- 

 clusion. Respecting pernicious anaemia, there is a concurrence 

 of testimony in support of increased nitrogenous excretion. Re- 

 verting to cancer, this evidence, Miiller thinks, goes to prove that 

 malignant disease excites the formation of metabolic ijrcducts 

 which are poisonous to the organism. He points out that cachexia 

 develops in the cases of malignant growths, no matter how lim- 

 ited, and without their involving any important organ; whereas 

 a non-malignant tumor may attain great dimensions without 

 affecting the excretion of urea. At the same time no such poison 

 or ferment destructive of albumen can be isolated from cancerous 

 tumors, although the fact pointed out by Feltz, that the urine of 

 the cancerous is more toxic to animals than that of healthy indi- 

 viduals, is, with other facts, highly suggestive of that view. 



Kola-Nut for Seasickness. 



Dr. C. W. Hamilton of the British Navy writes to the British 

 Medical Journal of May 10, 1890, that he has found the seed of 

 the kola {Sterculia acuminata) a most successful remedy in sea- 

 sickness. From half to one dram of the seed was slowly chewed, 

 and in about half an hour the distressing symptoms of the malady 

 gradually disappeared. The writer had never found any drug to 

 act as well as this, and believes that further trials will prove it to 

 be an effectual remedy for seasickness. 



ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 



Electric Welding and Ice-Machines. 



The ice-famine is proving a bonanza for the Thomson Electric 

 Welding Company, says the Boston Advertiser. There is a great 

 demand at present for pipe-welding machines, with which to 

 make the long coils of pipe for artificial- ice machines, for brewery 

 coils, for sugar-refinery and general refrigerating purposes. The 

 pipes originally come in lengths of from eighteen to twenty feet. 

 The coUs are frequently six hundred to seven hundred feet long. 

 By old systems the pipe is welded together by a slow and labori- 

 ous process, requiring fifteen minutes for each weld, two black- 

 smiths and a dozen helpers, and a large space, each pipe being 

 lifted from the forge to the anvil, and a mandril inserted. There 

 is often a serious loss of ammonia as a consequence of imperfect 

 welding. By the electric process the welds can be made so ho- 



mogeneous that there is no chance for ammonia to escape. The 

 length of time required is two minutes for each weld, and all the 

 help required is a man and a boy. The cost of the old process is 

 fifteen cents each; by the new, two cents. As the coil is bent 

 after each weld, the work can be done in a very small space. 

 The managers of the Welding Company consider this, next to 

 shell- welding, the most important industry which has sprung up 

 as a result of the welding invention. 



Atmospheric Electricity in the Tropics. 



In order to investigate the relations of atmospheric electricity 

 to the moisture of the air within certain limits, Herr F. Exner 

 has made observations of the fall of atmospheric potential in 

 countries with high relative moisture, particularly in the Indian 

 Ocean between Aden and Bombay, in Bombay itself, and in Cey- 

 lon, both on the coast and in the interior. According to The 

 Electrical Engineer of July 9, the measurements were made with 

 transportable apparatus invented by Herr Exner. All the values 

 of the fall of potential were positive. Near the coast the finely 

 divided spray arising from the breaking of the waves exerted an 

 increased action on the fall of potential. On the other hand, 

 measurements made in Cairo and the vicinity showed that 

 there the dust of the air exerted a lessening influence on the fall 

 of potential, which, with a strong wind, was so marked that the 

 sign of the fall of potential became negative. 



Storms and Electric Wires. '^ 



It has for some years been the practice at the Berlin post-office, 

 says the London Electrical Review, for the employees to make a 

 note of storms and magnetic disturbances, direction of storms, 

 length, etc.; and the result has demonstrated that under- 

 ground wires, without being entirely free from the influence of 

 magnetic storms, are much less liable to disturbance than over- 

 head ones, and, on the other hand, that accidents from lightning 

 are much less serious in those towns where the overhead system 

 is in vogue. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer^B name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Tlie editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



On request, twenty copies of the number containing his communication will 

 be furnished free to any correspondent. 



A Stony Meteorite from Washington County, Kan. 



Having seen press despatches from Washington, the county 

 seat of Washington County, Kan., announcing the fall of an 

 aerolite near that town on Wednesday, June 25, I visited that 

 county at the earliest possible opportunity, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining the facts. I found them to be as follows, and veri- 

 fied by a multitude of witnesses: At about ten minutes before one 

 o'clock on the afternoon of June 35, the sky being free from clouds, a 

 strange noise was heard by thousands of people residing in the 

 counties of Washington, Republic, Cloud, Clay, Riley, Pottawato- 

 mie, and Marshall, in Kansas, and in the counties of Thayer, 

 Jefferson, and Gage, in Nebraska. The same noise was heard by 

 hundreds of people in counties more distant than those men- 

 tioned. 



The descriptions given me of the character of this strange sound 

 were exceedingly various. Mr. E. F. Woodruff of Clifton, fully 

 twenty-five miles from the place where the meteor struck the 

 ground, stated to me, that while standing on the front porch of 

 his hotel after dinner, a few minutes before one o'clock, his at- 

 tention was attracted by a rumbling sound like thunder, which 

 began gently, and increased in power to a maximum, rising even 

 above the din of a Missouri Pacific Railroad train which passed 

 within a few rods during the continuance of the phenomenon. 

 The sound appeared to him to come from the zenith, and to con- 

 tinue for two or three minutes, gradually fading away, and being 

 at no time of an explosive character. 



Mr. John Yates of Grant Township, more than fifty miles from 

 Washington, on the contrary, heard the sound of the flying me- 



