EDITORIAL NOTES. 



381 



liouseholds, or other alkalies in a neutral form, 

 would cause instantaneous cessation of pain 

 from the severest burns or scalds, and that in 

 all cases of mere superficial burning the treat- 

 ment would effect a cure in the course of a few 

 hours. 



The Fourth of July was celebrated at Sum- 

 mit, Colorado, by a snow-ball party, on snow- 

 shoes, which afterward resolved itself into a 

 flower-gathering party, the situation admitting 

 of persons standing on the snow three feet 

 deep and picking a large variety of Alpine 

 flowers from the uncovered ground beyond the 

 snow. 



■ The Populae Science Monthly for Sept- 

 ember opens with another able original paper, 

 by Herbert Spencer, on the development of the 

 domestic relations. The next article, "Odd 

 Forms among Fishes," is by the late Professor 

 Sanborn Tenney, who gives a very interesting 

 account of sundry curious divergences from 

 the typical pattern in this division of animal 

 life. The Observatories of Italy are bi-iefly 

 described in the third article, with the work 

 that each is doing. " On Drops " is a short but 

 fully illustrated account of some remarkable 

 experiments, showing the curious shapes which 

 drops of fluid take on striking a hard surface. 

 " Civilization and Morals," by Mr. J. N. Lar- 

 ned, is an instructive discussion of man's va- 

 rious relationships. The eighth article, "In- 

 stinct and Intelligence," by W. K. Brooks, of 

 John Hopkins University, is of great interest, 

 as tending to show that the distinction hitherto 

 erected between men and animals in this regard 

 has no actual existence in Nature. Among the 

 five other papers that go to make up the body 

 of the magazine, all of which will fully repay 

 the" reader, there is a short but incisive article 

 on " The Labor-Question ; " and a sketch, with 

 portrait, of Prof. Simon Newcomb. The de- 

 partments including Correspondence and Edit- 

 or's' Table are, as usual, full of interesi and 

 instruction. They contain pointed discussions 

 of current scientific questions, notices of the 

 latest scientific books, and, in the Popular Mis- 

 cellany, brief but clearly-written abstracts of 

 recent papers, and descriptions of new discov- 

 eries from the principal centers of scientific 

 activity both at home and abroad. 



Our old friend and fellow-citizen. Gen. 

 Wm. H. Powell, has become general manager 

 of the Belleville Nail Works, at Belleville, 

 111., and has taken out a patent for a method 

 of converting old railroad iron into first-class 

 nails, which is described by the Mines, Metals 

 and Arts as follows: "The result of various 

 experimental tests show the following combi- 

 nation of materials to be the most desirable: 

 56,000 lbs. of old rails, 3,000 lbs. No. 2 pig 

 iron and 3,000 lbs. of wrought scrap, produc- 

 ing 26 300-2240 tons of muck bar, which is a 

 day's production, Gen. Powell's patent covers 

 the method of piling the faggot so as to secure 

 a homogeneous bloom, which results as fol- 

 lows : The faggot is piled to so secure a perfect 

 interspersion of the good heads, added to 

 muck bar and cindery scrap, with the shanks 

 and flanges as to realize in the next pile and 

 the plate rolled therefrom strong, tough and 

 smooth nail plates. In this process the waste 

 is less than six per cent., and good nails are 

 produced under the Powell process fifty cents 

 per keg below the cost of nails made by the 

 current system." 



De. Fleury, of Bordeaux, a French phy- 

 sician, finds good physiological grounds for 

 the habitual use of the right hand instead of 

 the left. He says that in human brains the 

 left anterior lobe is a little larger than the 

 right one. There is also an unequal supply 

 of blooi to the two sides of the body. The 

 brachio-cephalic trunk, which only exists on 

 the right of the arch of the aorta, produces, 

 by a difference in termination, an inequality 

 in the waves of red blood which travel from 

 right to left. Moreover, the diameters of the 

 subclavian arteries on each side are difierent, 

 that on the right being noticeably larger. The 

 left lobe of the brain, therefore, being more 

 richly hasmatosed than the right, becomes 

 stronger; and as, by the intersection of the 

 nervous fiber, it commands the right side of 

 the body, it is obvious that that side will be 

 more readily controlled. This furnishes one 

 reason for the natural preference for the right 

 hand, and another is found in the increased 

 supply of blood from the subclavian artery. 



Mk. Allan Bagot, consulting electrician, 

 of London, England, writes to the ColUeiT/ 



