July 13, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



innervation feeling. Their opponents point out that with the loss of 

 sensibility goes the loss of power to move, making an innervation 

 feeling unnecessary. How can these two classes of facts be rec- 

 onciled and brought under one law? 



In answer to this query, M. Binet has a useful suggestion to offer. 

 It has been shown that among hysterical patients with aniestheti- 

 cal regions a physical or psychic stimulus increases motor power; 

 acts dynamogenetically, as Fere puts it. M^ay not the opening of 

 the eyes act in the same way with some patients, and this re-en- 

 forcement be unnecessary with others? In support of this view is 

 the observed fact that in a patient whose right arm was an;esthetic, 

 and who could not move this arm as desired with her eyes closed, this 

 closure of the eyes had a like effect upon the sound left arm. In 

 both cases the movements were slow, inexact, hesitating, more so 

 with the diseased arm. Intermediate cases occur in which the 

 withdrawal of the eye weakens the power of movement without 

 destroying it, thus showing the characteristic individual variations 

 of this re-enforcing power. Moreover, the movements of anaes- 

 thetic limbs have, according to M. Binet, been wrongly interpreted. 

 Although such patients are unaware of passive movements, yet 

 these are physiologically registered in their nervous system. This 

 is shown by the fact that a movement thus passively made by 

 guiding the patient's hand will be reproduced by her voluntarily. 

 She does not know what motions have been made with her hand, 

 but her brain-cells reproduce the same motions. We must admit 

 that movements can be voluntary without being conscious. In 

 conclusion, M. Binet gives the opinion that the supposition of a 

 feeling of innervation acting centrifugally is as yet an ungrounded 

 •one, and expects much light from future research. 



Memory of Movements. — In the Revue Philosophiqtie for 

 "May, Professor Beaunis describes an interesting series of experi- 

 ments upon the memory of muscular movements. The experi- 

 ments form part of a more extended research upon the mem- 

 ory of sense-impressions in general, and are concerned with 

 two questions. The first relates to the accuracy with which the 

 length of lines drawn without the aid of the eyes can be repro- 

 duced ; the second, to the reproduction of angles under similar 

 conditions. A line is drawn, and, after an interval of from five 

 to fifty seconds, the attempt is made to draw a second line equal 

 to the first, making it with a little stroke to distinguish it from the 

 first. Another method was to make a dot move over a distance 

 and make a second dot ; in the reproduction to make a small cross 

 move over an equal distance and make a second cross. In another 

 series two lines were drawn making an angle with one another 

 such as <, and the attempt made to draw another broken line with 

 the same angle. In this test right angles were avoided as being 

 too definite an impression. Care was taken not to have the sub- 

 ject know the results, as this would bring about a more or less un- 

 -conscious rectification of the errors committed. Professor Beaunis 

 <iescribes his memory as a good one, and mentions that the experi- 

 ments were made in the evening before going to bed, or when 

 awaking in the night or in the morning, when he was undisturbed 

 by outside noises. The strain of fixing the attention on so minute 

 an impression for more than a few seconds he found very consider- 

 able,«often inducing feelings of malaise. From his observations 

 ^to be published in detail later) he draws three general conclusions, 

 ■confessedly of a tentative character, i. The memory of the move- 

 ment does not lapse from consciousness gradually. The memory- 

 image does not fade out little by little, but vanishes more or less 

 suddenly. There is here an analogy with the reverse process, that 

 of recalling a forgotien impression. We have a word on the tip of 

 the tongue, when suddenly it looms into consciousness. 2. When 

 it is no longer possible to recall by a purposive effort the line drawn, 

 — when, for example, one does not even remember whether the 

 angle drawn was acute or obtuse, — the hand will none the less, 

 within a given interval, draw a line closely approximating the origi- 

 nal. There is an unconscious memory which in turn loses its ac- 

 curacy. There is thus a phase of conscious memor)', succeeded by 

 a period of unconscious (organic) memory, in turn giving way to a 

 more or less complete forgelfulness. 3. There are sudden varia- 

 tions in the accuracy of the reproductions from one moment to 

 another. These follow no definite law, but are doubtless influenced 

 tby variations in subjective conditions. 



ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 

 Some New Primary Batteries. 



Among the primary batteries that have lately appeared, two — 

 one an English and one a French invention — deserve special no- 

 tice. The first of these is an invention of M. Weymersch, and is of 

 the ordinary Bunsen type with zinc and carbon electrodes, the inti- 

 provement consisting in the employment of a new depolarizing 

 fluid, which greatly increases the constancy of the battery. The 

 Bunsen and bichromate cells give a high electro-motive force ; but 

 they are not constant under heavy discharge, the electro-motive 

 force falling considerably. The Weymersch battery, according to 

 some tests published in the London Electrical Review, has an al- 

 most constant electro-motive force for a heavy discharge extending 

 over a considerable period. For instance : from cells with two zinc 

 plates 6i by 6| inches, and one carbon plate of the same dimen- 

 sions, a current of over ten amperes (about 10.3) was taken for 

 thirty-one hours, and at the end of that time the electro-motive 

 force had only fallen a few per cent. The consumption of zinc was 

 only ten per cent more than the theoretical amount, showing that 

 the local action was slight. The inventor proposes to use the bat- 

 tery for the lighting of country houses on a small scale, for torpedo- 

 work, miners' lamps, etc., besides the ordinary uses to which 

 closed-circuit batteries are now put. He calculates that electric 

 lamps aggregating 45-candle power can be supplied for six hours 

 at a cost of eighteen cents per day. Whatever uses it may be put 

 to, it is certain that the tests make an excellent showing. 



The other cell, an invention of Mr. O'Keeiian of Paris, has been 

 lately described before the New York Electrical Society by Mr. Al- 

 fred Shedlock. It is a simple Daniell element, — zinc and copper 

 electrodes in contact with sulphate of zinc and copper respectively. 

 The invention consists in the means employed to keep the strength 

 of the two solutions constant, and a set of cells is arranged to con- 

 tinuously charge storage-batteries from which lamps are supplied. 

 As the electro-motive force of a Daniell cell is about one volt, while 

 that of the Weymersch cell is two volts, twice as much zinc will be 

 consumed in the former as in the latter for the same amount of en- 

 ergy obtained. Mr. Shedlock states that the cost of the zinc and 

 copper sulphate will be at the rate of about one cent per hour for a 

 i2-candle power lamp. If we add the cost of breakage of lamps, 

 interest on investment, depreciation, etc., it will be found that the 

 total cost is at least double this, and lighting in this way would be 

 expensive. 



These two batteries are fair types of the improvements that have 

 been recently made in primary cells. Both of them have a field for 

 usefulness, but neither of them can be economically used for light- 

 ing or for heavy motor-work. 



Incandescent-Lamp Experiments. — The following ab- 

 stract is from the London Electrician : " At a recent meeting of 

 the Societe Fran^aise de Physique, ^L Mascart described some in- 

 teresting experiments which he had carried out with a view of de- 

 termining how far incandescent lamps might be a source of danger 

 when in the immediate vicinity of inflammable materials. Some 

 32-candle power incandescent lamps were tightly enveloped in 

 cloth, others in wadding with the gummed surface removed, and 

 others again were placed in the folds of some old stage-scenery. 

 In no case was there any charring or undue heating. An extra 

 thick cotton hood placed over a 32-candle power lamp became 

 charred wherever it was in contact with the globe after ten minutes 

 had elapsed. A 32-candle power lamp which was surrounded by a 

 black silk hood, and then by a black velvet one. set the latter burn- 

 ing gradually in six minutes. In another experiment two lamps 

 were enveloped respectively in black and white wadding from which 

 the gummed surface had not been removed ; and in two minutes 

 charring commenced, both lamps burst, and the wrappings were 

 set alight. Finally a 300-candle power lamp was laid against some 

 old scenery : In a minute and a half the scenery began to char 

 where the globe touched it, and slowly burnt without flame." 



Electrical Resistance of Copper at Low Tempera- 

 tures. — The following note is from Engineering : " NL Wro- 

 blewski has undertaken to test the truth of Clausius' remark in 1856, 

 that the electrical resistance of chemically pure metals should be 



