June 29, 1S88.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



619 



that the cases in which oil would be of service to life- 

 boats are not of such frequent occurrence as to justify the 

 recommendation that an oil tank should form part of the 

 necessary equipment of a lifeboat. In the pamphlet of 

 the U.S. Hydrographical Office we find the same testi- 

 mony, that the best results are found in deep water, 

 although some benefit may be expected in surf or 

 breakers. 



On the whole the utility of oil in calming water has 

 been satisfactorily settled, and as the ease of its applica- 

 tion is so great and the cost so small, there can be no 

 excuse for a vessel to go unprovided with the requisite 

 small supply. 



ASTRONOMICAL IDEAS OF THE NE- 

 GROES OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



T7 ATHER V YNCKE, a missionary from Algeria, gives, in 

 a letter written from Kibanza,and reproduced in the 

 Revue des Questions Scicntifiqucs, and in Ciel et Terre, 

 some details as to the astronomical knowledge of the 

 tribes on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. 

 Though the sun is vertical in their country twice yearly, 

 they care little for his movements, and have no notion 

 of a solar year, but the moon plays a great part in their 

 life. The appearance of the new moon is greeted with 

 the beating of drums, the discharge of guns, shouts of 

 joy, and general dances. To know the age of the moon 

 they keep twenty-eight or thirty little rods in a box and 

 take one away every day. All this agrees with the view of 

 Mr. Gerald Massey that in early ages moon-worship 

 must have preceded sun-worship, and that the attempt 

 to resolve primeval traditions into the " solar myth " is 

 delusive. 



To determine the seasons and to know the time for 

 agricultural operations, fishing, etc., they consult the 

 stars. The rising of the Pleiades shows seed-time, and 

 is celebrated with dances and festivals in honour of the 

 dead. They call this constellation Kili, that is, " seed- 

 time." The Milky Way is called Lotivounia ne uzamo ne 

 botisovo, the boundary between drought and rain, for when 

 it appears in the east at sunset, the rainy season sets in. 

 The rising of the belt of Orion, Lonsiwe, shows the time 

 for fishing for the Nouzi. Aldebaran is with them 

 Kalaina elm moimza, the diamond of the north; Sirius is 

 Kalama cha kiaina, the diamond of the south. The Cen- 

 taur, the Southern Cross, and Argo, including the splen- 

 did star Canopus, invisible in Europe, are called A/ir7s/7'rt and 

 Mironzo, that is, the '' paths " and the " tens," because 

 they show the way to the south pole, and are composed 

 of a great number of stars. 



The Future of Sailing Vessels. — Cosmos suggests 

 that sailing vessels, as opposed to steamers, may 

 regain something of their old importance by storing up 

 the superfluous energy of the wind in accumulators, and 

 emplo3ing it in case of calms or contrary winds. The 

 accumulators may serve as ballast. 



Plague of Caterpillers. — The oak-trees over a great 

 part of Epping Forest are almost entirely stripped of 

 their leaves by a prodigious swarm of small lepidopterous 

 larvse, evidently belonging to two or three species. Limes, 

 fruit trees, and rose-bushes are also being very severely 

 attacked. This fact shows that a hard winter, contrary 

 to the popular belief, has very little effect in ridding the 

 country of vermin. 



MESMERISM. 



(Ccnliiuici from p. 597.; 



A CERTAIN method employed tor producing the 

 hypnotic condition drew at one time much atten- 

 tion. Whether it is still employed we do not learn, but 

 it has bequeathed to the world a very misleading word. 

 A disc of copper and zinc was laid in the hand of the 

 subject, and he was told to gaze fixedly upon it for some 

 time. By this means certain susceptible persons were 

 thrown into the hypnotic state, the result being attri- 

 buted by persons as ignorant of physiology as of 

 electricity to the galvanic current supposed to be set up 

 by the disc and passing into the nervous system of the 

 patient. Hence this process was called — "in contempt 

 of Greek and of science," as the late G. H. Lewes put it 

 — electrobiology. Soon, however, it was found out that 

 a disc of a single metal, or of wood or horn acted just in 

 the same manner. Hence the first part of the term was 

 dropped, and the operation became known in certain 

 circles as " biology." This horrible misuse of language, 

 in spite of rigorous protests, has not yet been abandoned. 



It has been observed that in susceptible persons the 

 surface of the body often presents certain special points 

 named " hypnogenic zones." Pressure upon these tarings 

 on the hypnotic state. 



Professor Charcot divides the hypnotic phenomena 

 into three distinct kinds, to which he gives the names 

 catalepsy, lethargy, and soutnambuUsm. These three 

 states do not succeed each other in any fixed order, but 

 if a person is repeatedly hypnotised catalepsy is gene- 

 rally first produced. In this state the patient seems 

 indifferent to all objects around him. The pulse becomes 

 slower and the respiration feebler. The limbs remain 

 in whatever position they are placed by the operator. 

 The skin loses all sensibility, so that the prick of a needle 

 or the contact of a glowing cinder is not felt. The pro- 

 longation of this state is unsafe, as it involves great 

 exhaustion. 



In lethargy the patient is perfectly helpless — unable 

 even to stand. His condition is very similar to that 

 known as ccma — a state which may be brought on by 

 certain diseases or by the action of narcotic drugs. 



It must be remembered that both in catalepsy and in 

 lethargy the subject is completely at the disposal of ths 

 operator, and has no will of his own remaining. 



The third state is a kind of transformation of either of 

 the two former. When they are established somnambu- 

 lism may be produced by gentle friction applied to the 

 crown of the head. The patient then returns, not indeed 

 to full self-possession, but, at any rate, to a conscious- 

 ness of the outer world. The senses, instead of being 

 in abeyance, are intensified. In almost every case the 

 patient is " suggestible," that is, his brain lends itself at 

 once to the commands or the suggestions of the operator. 

 This phenomenon is both scientifically and practically 

 of such importance that it demands, and has received, 

 very close study. We often meet with persons who 

 have little will of their own, and who readily adopt the 

 opinions and follow the lead of others. We meet also 

 with others who have a remarkable power of controlling 

 the opinions and the actions of a majority of those around 

 them. To this latter class belong all the great mischief- 

 makers of the world. Now, the relation between the 

 hypnotic operator and his patients is merelj' an intensi- 

 fication of that which exists between the political agitator 

 and his followers, or between the founder of a sect and 

 his disciples. 



