566 



SCIENTIFIC NEV^S. 



[June 15, l8£S. 



to be served by any one collection. The idea at least of 

 such collections, and the more obvious of their lessons, 

 must be brought home to the many who do not commonly 

 visit London. 



It is coming down to a very homely topic when we 

 pass from great national collections, and geographical 

 schools, such as those of Leyden and Amsterdam, to the 

 school museum of geography. But the school museum 

 which should be ever at hand, and can be interpreted 

 by the teacher to a very young mind, is an educational 

 resource of no mean value. True it is that the teacher 

 may talk sensibly about indigo and cochineal without 

 producing specimens, but his teaching will be all the 

 better if he is able to show the leafy indigo-plant, and 

 the dried bodies of the cochineal insect, and thus fix 

 permanently in the niinds of his pupils that the one is a 

 vegetable, and the other an animal dye. The habit of 

 going down to the bottom of a question, and never taking 

 the word for the completely understood fact, nor the so- 

 called fact for the thing, where any possibility of getting 

 nearer to the tangible phenomenon exists, is yet more 

 valuable. A collection in which visible and tangible 

 impressions can be looked up, just as meanings of words 

 are looked up in a dictionary, would give new thorough- 

 ness to those branches of geography, such as commercial 

 and historical geography, which are depreciated, and 

 not altogether without justice, as essentially non- 

 disciplinary. 



To carry out our own maxim that teaching without 

 example profits little, we go on to suggest certain groups 

 of objects which might be really useful in a geographical 

 museum. 



Geographical Museum. 



A. Physical Geography . — Moving models to illustrate 

 day and night, seasons, etc. ; relief maps of the district ; 

 specimens of lava, granite, gneiss, marble, sandstone, 

 limestone, chalk, shale. (N.B. the rock collection may 

 easily be made too large.) Models of river-delta, volcanic 

 cone (section), etc. 



B. Ethnology. — Photographs of houses, useful arts, 

 etc., photographs of various races of men; flint imple- 

 ments, polished stone implements, rude pottery, etc. ; 

 model of Swiss lake-dwellings ; model of Sumatran 

 house ; querns, rice-mortar, sago-crusher, strainer, etc. ; 

 stick plough, primitive spades, etc. ; photographs of 

 ornament, carved work, architecture of India, Burmah, 

 etc. ; stamped Egyptian brick, objects from mummy 

 cases. 



C. Commercial Geography. — Food-plants, especially 

 cereals (ears and grain), tea, coffee, cocoa, etc. ; dye- 

 plants (indigo, sumach, etc.) ; animal dyes (cochineal, 

 lac, kermes) ; timber, specimens of a few important 

 timber trees, with leaves, bark, and wood ; shellac, stick- 

 lac, lacquered objects, insect-wax of China ; useful ores 

 (hsematite, copper pyrites, cinnabar, etc.); vegetable 

 textile fibres, and the plants which yield them (hemp, 

 flax, jute, cotton, etc.) ; animal textile fibres (wool, 

 mohair, etc.) ; important drugs, and the plants which 

 yield them. 



D. Historical Geography. — Photographs of historic 

 sites, interesting buildings, etc. ; relief maps of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Rome, Athens, Syracuse, etc. ; maps of 

 Roman Britain, etc. 



It will of course be understood that these are mere 

 hints. A complete catalogue of useful objects would 

 take up far more space than we can afford. 



What we have dignified with the rather too important 



name of museum may well be lodged in one or more 

 cupboards with glass doors. The vegetable and animal 

 products, and all else that admits of it, should be kept in 

 wide-mouthed glass bottles of uniform size and style. 

 The photographs should on no account be mounted, as 

 they then become perishable, owing to fermentation in the 

 paste or size. It is far better to stretch them behind 

 glass, back them with dry mounts, and then bind the 

 edges. A' rack will hold great numbers of such frames 

 with economy of space, and if the visible edge of each is 

 lettered, there is no trouble in picking out any one that 

 is required. 



ON DEATH BY THE ELECTRIC 

 CURRENT. 



EJ. HOUSTON, in the Proceedings of the American 

 Philosophical Society, remarks that several cases of 

 death have resulted from incautious or accidental touch- 

 ing or handling of the wires employed in carrying the 

 currents used in electric fighting. It becomes, therefore, 

 a matter of great importance to inquire into some of the 

 peculiarities of such accidents. 



In the case of the direct current, death results some- 

 times from shock, but generally from an electrolytic 

 effect on the blood or other tissues of the body. The 

 gaseous products arising from the decomposition possibly 

 may be carried by the blood to the heart and thus stop 

 its action, or death may result from electrolytic changes 

 produced in the blood itself or in other tissues. Death 

 by the alternating current probably results from shock 

 only. Resuscitation in cases of apparent death are more 

 frequent with the alternating current than with the 

 direct, most probably from the absence of actual decom- 

 position of the tissues. 



Considerable surprise has often been manifested 

 because certain currents that, in some instances, have been 

 handled with impunity, in other cases have caused death. 



The explanation would appear to be found in the por- 

 tions of the body at which the current enters and passes 

 out, which would, of course, necessarily be influenced by 

 the position of the person receiving the discharge. 

 Nearly all fatal or severe shocks occur from the lines 

 bemg accidentally grounded at some point. The person 

 then either deliberately touches, or is accidentally 

 brought into contact with the line at some other point. 

 Under these conditions, the electricity either passes into 

 or out of the body at the feet. The greater or less pro- 

 babifity of serious results will depend on the parts of the 

 body through which the current passes. When any part 

 of the body is placed in the path of an electric discharge, 

 more of the discharge will pass through the better con- 

 ductors, which perhaps will be the great nerve trunks 

 and the muscles. Reference must, therefore, be had to 

 the position of such nerve centres, as well as to the 

 heart, the lungs and the viscera, and other vital organs. 

 The following contacts are among the most common : — 



(i) At the head. This contact is apt to be among the 

 most dangerous, as the discharge in all probability takes 

 place through some of the vital organs, such as the 

 brain, the upper part of the spinal cord, or through some 

 of the organs in the abdominal cavity or their principal 

 nerves. 



(2) At the shoulders. This is probably somewhat less 

 dangerous than the preceding, as the brain is not in the 

 path of the direct discharge. The vicinity of the upper 

 part of the spinal cord is, however, very dangerous. 



