190 



8CIEJSrGE. 



[Vol. IX., No.. 213 



tained that these refugees may spread the cholera 

 into Goyaz and possibly into the Amazon region 

 and to Para. 



— Following a period of apparent stagnation, 

 due to the final arrangements as to site, pro- 

 gramme, details of building, and the laying-out 

 of the grounds, advices from the headquarters of 

 the directors of the Paris jubilee of railways state 

 that activity now prevails on the grounds, and 

 that the palace and equipment will be ready for 

 the opening in May. 



— Messrs. Ticknor & Company announce for 

 publication, on Friday, Feb. 25, ' The life and 

 works of Giordano Bruno,' a new volume of the 

 English and foreign philosophical library ; ' The 

 course of empire,' being outlines of the chief po- 

 litical changes in the history of the world, ar- 

 ranged by centuries, with variorum illustrations, 

 by C. G. Wheeler, author of ' Familiar allusions,' 

 with twenty-five maps; and ' Familiar allusions,' 

 a handbook of miscellaneous information, includ- 

 ing the names of celebrated statues, paintings, 

 palaces, country-seats, ruins, churches, ships, 

 streets, clubs, natural curiosities, and the like, by 

 William A. Wheeler and Charles G. Wheeler. 



— At a late meeting of the New York academy 

 of medicine. Dr. J. H. Girdnerread a paper on the 

 methods of detecting and locating metallic masses 

 in the human body by the induction balance and 

 the telephonic probe. He referred to the appa- 

 ratus which had been constructed by Professor 

 Bell for the purpose of locating the bullet in the 

 case of President Garfield, and said that it had 

 failed because at the time the patient was lying 

 on a metallic mattress, which interfered with the 

 working of the instrument. Now we have an 

 apparatus which will detect and locate any piece 

 of metal, wherever situated in the human body. 

 In*the construction of the induction balance a 

 bichromic battery is used, with six cells, and an 

 ordinary interrupter, the interruptions being about 

 six hundred to a second. The exploring coils 

 were put in a framework of wood, which Profes- 

 sor Bell called the ' explorer,' while to the others 

 the name 'adjusting coils' was given, Thus in 

 the primary current were two coils, in the second- 

 ary current were also two coils, and in the circuit 

 was a telephonic receiver. When the exploring 

 coil was not in relation to a metallic substance, 

 there was silence in the telephonic receiver ; but, 

 as the explorer approached or receded from the 

 metallic mass, the balance was disturbed, produ- 

 cing a musical tone in the receiver. The sound is 

 distinct six inches from the metal, if located in 

 the human body. The telephonic probe consists 

 of a telephonic receiver and two wires, — one ter- 



minating in a long, slender steel probe ; and the 

 other with a steel plate laid over the surface of 

 the body in the neighborhood of the metallic 

 mass, as determined by the induction balance. 

 The steel probe being now plunged into the body, 

 as soon as it reaches the metal a distinct click 

 is heard. The practical working of the instru- 

 ment was shown by locating a bullet in the chest 

 of a soldier wounded during the civil war. A 

 piece of lead was also recognized in the centre of 

 a piece of beef. • 



— Sir J. William Dawson will prepare a volume 

 for the International scientific series on the sub- 

 ject of the development of plants in geological 

 time. 



— The article by Prof. N. S. Shaler of Har- 

 vard, on ' The stability of the earth,' in the March 

 Scribner's, will be accompanied by vei;y numerous 

 illustrations, which throw light upon the subject 

 of earthquakes and other movements of the earth s 

 crust. 



— The persistence with which surgeons con- 

 tinue to employ chloroform as an anaesthetic in 

 surgical operations, notwithstanding the over- 

 whelming evidence of its danger, is beyond com- 

 prehension. We have called attention to this 

 subject whenever deaths have resulted from this 

 cause, and the number of such events has been 

 considerable. Another has just occurred in Phil- 

 adelphia. A lion-tamer in the service of Fore- 

 paugh had one of his fingers bitten by a colored 

 man, and in the course of his treatment chloro- 

 form was administered. It is said that he died 

 upon the table while still under the anaesthetic. 



— Lieutenant Emory will sail early in March, 

 in command of the Thetis, one of the Gx'eely ex- 

 pedition relief-ships, for the Alaska coast. 



— The U. S. fish-commission steamer Albatross 

 is being fitted wiih new boilers, and will sail in 

 the spring for her work on the Pacific, where, 

 among other questions to be solved, will be that 

 of the fish-bearing properties of the huge Kiu 

 Sawa or Black Stream of Japan, which, crossing 

 the Pacific in a high latitude, modifies the tem- 

 perature and climate of Alaska and the Aleutian 

 Archipelago in very much the same way that the 

 Gulf Stream does the climate of England and the 

 Shetland Islands. 



— Dr. Gabriel E. Manigaultof Charleston, S.C, 

 has accepted the invitation of the geological sur- 

 vey to write a descriptive account of the incidents 

 and effects of the earthquake of Aug. 31, 1886, 

 for the forthcoming report on that subject. Dr. 

 Manigault is an accomplished naturalist, and is 

 curator of the museum in Charleston. He was in 



