742 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



lethargized, the subject between the hands of the magnetizer becomes simply a 

 puppet. It is the reah"zation of Descartes' automatism \ the individual receives a 

 glass, and is told to drink what one wishes; the glass induces the sensation which 

 determines the act; then water becomes wine, milk, coffee, potatoes, or apples. 

 It is not the will of the operator which here is in play, but the tendency to imita- 

 tion on the part of the lethargic. 



In an incidental discussion on solar spots, M. Faye reiterated his explana- 

 tion of the cause and that for him, time only confirms, viz : that the principle of 

 the spots is in the rotary movement of the star itself, and the coolness is pro- 

 duced by that movement even. The evolution of the spots, from one border to 

 the other of the polar and equatorial bands, is due to a tendency to an equilib- 

 rium of temperature on the surface of the sun in the end to secure an equal dis- 

 tribution of heat. 



Wheat is subject to a malady known as rust or smut; it attacks the grain in 

 the ear, transforming it into a shapeless mass, of a morbid tissue, and destitute of 

 all nutritive quaHties. ^ M. Davaine traces the cause of the malady to an eel- 

 shaped worm, which pricks the tissue of the flower, and hence the development 

 of the grain becomes abnormal. M. Braun admits the existence of the worm, 

 but locates its action in the pistil of the flower, thus arresting development. M. 

 Priedieu, last summer, having saved wheat so diseased when the plant came into 

 flower, saw by the microscope the worms pricking the stamina of the flower, at 

 the point of the ovary; the tissue became distorted into a tube which formed the 

 kernel of the blasted grain. Preserved in the grain, the worm regenerates itself 

 in the soil where the diseased grain is sown, and can retain its vitality for twenty- 

 five years. 



ASTRONOMY. 



SCIENTIFIC CHARLATANISM. 



by professor h. s. pritchett. 



Observatory of Washington University, 



St. Louis, Mo., March ii, 1882. 



Your note* requesting my opinion of an article published in the Kansas City 

 Journal^ and written by Mr. A. M. Blake, of Cleveland, was received yesterday. 

 The five columns devoted to Mr. Blake contain the most incoherent mass of non- 



* For the purpose of laying before our readers an authoritative and reliable denial of Mr. Blake's ab- 

 surd statements regarding a change in the earth's position, which aroused some inquiry at the time of their 

 publication, we requested Professor H. S. Ptitchett to reply to them. It will be seen that such sensationaP 

 tuff meets with very little mercy at the hands of a thoroughly educated and skilled astronomer. — [Ed. Review, 



