258 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Mar. i6, iS 



of ^aper$, iLtttim$, etc* 



THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 

 The evening discourse, on the 2nd inst., was given by 

 Dr. M. Tidy on poisons and poisonings. The meaning 

 of our word toxicology was first referred to. From the 

 Greek, a bow, the word came to be transferred to that 

 shot from a bow — the arrow — and then that which was 

 put on the tip of the arrow to ensure the death of a foe. 

 The poison from the fang of a serpent was probably the 

 first used. The early mythological, and what we call 

 classical allusions, seem to point to this. Dioscorides 

 was the first to use the word for an effect on the body, 

 so far as ancient writings have come down to us, and he 

 used it in reference to the knowledge of how to smear 

 arrows so as to secure death. The whole subject of 

 toxicology was one of great historic interest. We may 

 grow wiser and yet more wicked. So far as any historic 

 records helped us, poisons were first used in open and 

 declared wurfare, as we use our torpedo-boats and other 

 recognised implements of death in our nineteenth century 

 civilisation. The more subtle use of curari belonged to 

 a late period of poisoning. The rough early man 

 poisoned his recognised fighting weapons ; it remained 

 for a more refined age to mix the chemical drug in the 

 cup of so-called amity. Several bottles on the table were 

 referred to as containing sufficient in an ounce to clear 

 off a village or a town. The early classic allusions to 

 poisons and their emblems in Greek mythology were 

 referred to, and also the many mid-age and English 

 mediaeval notions, such as that to taste the blood of a 

 red-haired woman was sure death. Even so late as 

 Blumenbach, in the last centurj', the question of blood 

 being poison was unsettled. He induced a pupil to take 

 7 ozS. of bullock's blood while his symptoms were 

 watched. What a grand field for the historic tosicologist 

 did the history of Italy open up, from Nero to the Borgias 

 and later worthy heroes. But there was a very serious 

 legal side to the question. The law had never defined 

 what a poison was. In every law case it was left to the 

 expert to say what was a poison. The popular notion 

 was an utterly false one. The real point was to decide 

 what was not a poison. So much depended on condi- 

 tions. This was illustrated by many experiments, and 

 the lecturer then proceeded to point out that a poison 

 might cause local death which did not cause death of the 

 whole bodjr. Or a local death might in time lead to a want 

 of " health " — " wholeness " — which caused death. Con- 

 siderable time was given to the question of the effect of 

 chemical action on the haemoglobin, and the , effects of 

 various re-agents on it were shown. In the course of the 

 lecture a part of the hat of Mr. Briggs, who was mur- 

 dered by Miiller, vi-as subjected to the spectroscopic test, 

 showing blood-staining in the midst of all the dirt. The 

 hat had been in the lecturer's possession since the trial. 



ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 

 Mr. Robert Goreon, C.E., read a paper on the 

 27th ult. on " The Ruby Mines of Burmah," stating 

 that he survej'ed the ruby mining district north 

 of Mandalay when the concessionaires, Messrs. Streeter, 

 were requested to send representatives to the mines. 

 The country was described, and a railway, which was 



stated to have already brought about economic changes 

 of the highest importance, was pointed out as possessing 

 great interest as the first instalment of the great iron 

 highway for British commerce to South- Western China. 

 He described in detail the country from Mandalay to the 

 ruby mines, noticing its flora, fauna, diversity of race 

 among its peoples, and its general features, speaking ol 

 it as representing hill and vale, the ranges ot hills vary- 

 ing from 6,000 ft. to 8,000 ft. in height. The principal 

 villages of the mining district were Mogok, Kathay, and 

 Kyatpyen. No permanent mining works of any value 

 existed, but numerous artificial water-channels were 

 carried with easy slopes on the hillsides, the ravines 

 being crossed by temporary aqueducts on bamboo fram- 

 ing. The mines were of three kinds — the first, which 

 was of the least importance at present, but which might 

 be the most valuable in the future, consisted of workings 

 in fissure veins of soft material found embedded in the 

 crevices of the hard rock, caused by shrinkage in long 

 past ages. It was probable that volcanic action accom- 

 panied the upheaval of these mountain ranges, and that 

 the already formed rubies were thrown up with a matrix 

 of complex structure, since disintegrated by long 

 weathering, together with the metamorphic rocks cloth- 

 ing the skeleton of the old mountain limestone, whose 

 ribs still protrude. There was no sign of any recent 

 volcanic action in the neighbourhood ; and the corundum 

 was now found distributed through the clay formed from 

 the breaking down of the gneissic rocks, and also in 

 layers or beds in the valley bottoms near the rivev, 

 apparently discriminated and arranged bj' water action. 

 The crevices in the older rocks gave origin to cave mines, 

 which were called " loss," where the soft earth was 

 excavated in a primitive fashion and on a small scale. 

 The second class of mine was called " mj'aw," or wash« 

 ing, and corresponded, but on an insignificant scale, with 

 the hydraulic mining in California. The water was con- 

 ducted by the channels to the lower hillsides, which coi - 

 sisted usually of the softer remains of the secondary 

 rocks in reddish or lighter coloured clays, containing 

 rubies and sapphires, though few and far between. The 

 clay was cut into thin slices with a gardener's spade, 

 and washed from the funnel-shaped excavations through 

 flumes or open timber channels, where the clay was dis- 

 solved away or carefully examined for the stones. No 

 attempt had been made to wash the hillsides by watc-r 

 under pressure. The third and, at present, the mos; 

 important class of mines was found in the flatter lands 

 of the valleys, where, whatever be the absolute height of 

 the ground, or whether in the neighbourhood of Mogok, 

 or Yaj'-Boo, or Kathay, or Kyatpyen, at depths varying 

 from 10 ft. to 30 ft., there was found a layer of corundum 

 from a few inches to a few feet in thickness. It was 

 difficult to account for the existence of this layer of 

 nearly pure corundum lying on a bed of earth in which 

 no stones were found, and covered by a similar layer of 

 porous earth. 



GLASGOW PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting held on February 22nd, Mr. Thos. Gray, 

 F.R.S E., exhibited and described an improved form of 

 seismograph. He also read a paper on "The Use of 

 Seismometric Measurement in Earthquake Investigation." 

 This was an apparatus, he said, suitable either for 

 observatories or private use. It gave a record of the 

 motion of the earth in the form of the vertical and two 



