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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[May II, iS 



of energy after passing the meridian of 40° W. , followed 

 again by a marked increase upon reaching 25° W., east 

 of which very low barometer and force of wind 12 were 

 experienced. 



Action of Electric Currents upon the Human 

 Body. — D'Arsonval {Humboldt) maintains that con- 

 tinuous currents occasion permanent injury by chemical 

 decomposition and consequent disorganisation of the 

 tissues, whilst alternating currents might strike down the 

 victim, but without direct action upon the nervous system, 

 so that life could be restored by artificial respiration. 

 Prof, von Helmholtz declares that alternating currents 

 are the most destructive form of electric action, and gives 

 an instance where an assistant of Halske was thrown 

 into convulsions, and would have been killed but for the 

 breaking of the wire. Prof, von Oettingen insists that 

 strong currents should not be compared with an 

 electric shock, which was much less dangerous, as 

 followed from his own personal experience and that 

 of Tyndall. 



Utilisation of Natural Gas at Newcastle. — Last 

 June a " blower " of natural gas was struck in the 

 underground workings of the Hebburn Colliery, near 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne, and remained for fully six months 

 a source of annoyance and danger to all in the pit. At 

 the commencement of the present year — as the flow 

 seemed likely to be permanent — it was decided to utilise 

 it by running a 6 in. pipe from the " blower " to the sur- 

 face, and burning the gas in one or more boilers. On the 

 26th of February the gas was successfully lighted in a 

 large Lancashire boiler, which has continued to work 

 steadily ever since. It is believed that the flow is suffi- 

 cient to supply four boilers, and three others are accord- 

 ingly to be connected with the gas main. The gas is 

 introduced to the boiler flue by an annular burner, the 

 flame being afterwards broken up and spread by a brick 

 bridge placed about 7 ft. from the front end. The 

 evaporative power of the gas is great, and the arrange- 

 ment, when complete, is expected to result in a saving 

 for fuel and labour of about ;^3,ooo per annum. — 

 Industries. 



New Dynamite Gun. — We learn from the Army and 

 Navy Register that Mr. H. S. Maxim has devised a new 

 dynamite gun, in which he proposes to introduce a new 

 and interesting mode of expelling the projectile from the 

 weapon. Ke retains the pneumatic principle which has 

 been utihsed with so much success by Zalinski, but 

 instead of using compressed air alone, as Zalinski does, 

 he mixes with this compressed air a quantity of a volatile 

 hydrocarbon, such as the vapour of gasoline. This 

 compressed mixture is introduced behind the projectile, 

 and the pressure applied starts it forward in the chamber 

 of the gun. After it has moved a certain distance, the 

 projectile itself uncovers a detonating fuse, and an explo- 

 sion then occurs, the air furnishing the oxygen for the 

 explosion, and the pressure being increased about eight 

 times. He claims that by this method his initial pressure 

 does not need to be more than half as great as that used 

 by Kalinski. He does not have to use so much 

 compressed air, nor does he require that the barrel of his 

 gun shall be of such great length. His highest pressure 

 is about 4,000 lbs. to an inch, the first pressure being not 

 mo;e than cne-tenth of that, His detonator is a very in- 



genious affair, and is inserted through a small circular 

 opening from the interior of the gun. 



Relations between the Atomicity of the Elements 

 and their Biological Action. — Dr. J. Blake (Comptes 

 Rendus) finds that the monatomic elements act princi- 

 pally upon the pulmonary arteries, the biatomic elements 

 upon the voluntary and cardiac muscles and the centres 

 of vomiting. The only biatomic element which acts 

 upon other nerve centres is glucinium, a metal which in 

 its oxygen compounds occurs probably in a trivalent 

 form, a point upon which chemists are not unanimous. 

 The triatomic elements act upon the respiratory, vaso- 

 motor and inhibitory centres, upon the cardiac ganglia 

 and the pulmonary arteries. Lastly, the tetratomic 

 elements act upon the respiratory, vasomotor, and 

 inhibitory centres ; upon the brain, the spinal marrow, 

 the cardiac ganglia, and the pulmonary arteries. The 

 author has previously shown the important role of 

 isomorphism, and of atomic weight in the action of the 

 elements upon living tissues, and we may now regard 

 atomicity as another important factor. When Newlands 

 published the law of periodicity he remarked that all 

 the inorganic elements found in organised bodies have 

 atomic weights inferior to forty. We may now add 

 that all the electro-positive elements found in organised 

 bodies are monatomic or diatomic. 



Travellers on the Congo. — The Mouvement Geo- 

 graphiquc publishes a very interesting report of a voyage 

 of exploration undertaken by Captain Van Gele and Lieu- 

 tenant Lienart, both of the Belgian army, who went up 

 the River Ubangi in a small steamer capable of being 

 taken to pieces and carried overland when required. 

 The En-Avant, as this steamer was called, left the 

 Equator Station on the 26 th of October last year, and 

 reached on the 21st of November the Congo Rapids, a 

 point which had already been reached by the English mis- 

 sionary Grenfell in 1884 and by Captain Van G41e himselt 

 in 1886. It was at this point that the difficulties began, 

 for after leaving the Congo behind them the explorers had 

 to get through, or rather over, six rapids, divided from one 

 another by navigable basins. At the last of these rapids 

 the stream is nearly 3,000 ft. in width, and has an 

 average depth of about 18 ft. for nearly thirty miles, at 

 which point it follows a course due east for a distance 

 of 170 miles, which was the extreme point reached by 

 the En-Avant. The explorers describe the country 

 through which they travelled as beir.g very fertile and 

 picturesque, while the inhabitants treated them with 

 great kindness until they got as far as the tributary of 

 the Bangasso (21 deg. 23 min. east longitude Greenwich), 

 from which point the attitude of the natives became very 

 hostile. Upon the ist of January they had to repel their 

 first attack, losing two of their men, while five days later 

 they Were attacked by land and water. They were then 

 at 21 deg. 55 min. east longitude, or within one degree of 

 the point reached by Junker upon the Uelle, so that only 

 seventy miles had to be traversed to connect the two points 

 and elucidate the problem of the two rivers, tne Ubangi 

 and the Uelle. But the state of the steamer, the shallow- 

 ness of the water, the extraordinary density of the popu- 

 lation and its very hostile attitude made this appear too 

 great a risk to be worth running, and Captain Van Gele 

 and his companion accordingly returned down-stream, 

 reaching the Equator Station on the ist of February. 



