<62 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 261 



■ and the adverse opinion still expressed upon it by many, which 

 may be safely called the opinion of ignorance, will soon be heard 

 no more. 



Another class needs some knowledge of bacterial life. This in- 

 cludes all, — the father, the mother, the teacher, the citizen. Who- 

 ever has charge of human life should know something of the nature 

 of infection with its manifold ways, of the necessity of disinfection 

 -and the means within reach. Education in such subjects is the 

 only means of strengthening our present lax and indifferent spirit 

 with reference to the public health. For this third and largest 

 -class a brief course of lectures, with demonstrations that will im- 

 press firmly the reality of the vital force inherent in bacteria, would 

 be amply sufficient. What is needed is a certain attitude, an intel- 

 iligent receptivity of the younger generations which will be favorable 

 to all proper measures for the protection of public and private 

 health, and which will promote in every way the study of the laws 

 that underlie it. 



The teaching of hygiene is taking root rapidly and firmly in the 

 •continental universities, and bacteriology is intrusted to such 

 •chairs. Our own higher institutions are beginning to realize the 

 need of such instruction. As yet we have not gotten far beyond 

 muscle, but that is a very good beginning. Bacteriology, though 

 linked to hygiene as a branch of study, should, for the time being, 

 find its place without difficulty in the biological laboratory. 



Theob.\ld Smith. 



Washington, D.C., Jan. 23. 



Queries. 



25. Tree Temperatures. — In speaking with two farmers, 

 -each of more than ordinary intelligence, one last winter and another 



this, on the subject of temperature, they asserted that a thermome- 

 ter hung against the trunk of a living tree of any size would not 

 reo^ister as low as if suspended (as one made the observation) from 

 a wire clothes-line, and the other from a pine post. Is this a fact .' 



D. LiCHTY. 

 Rockford, III., Jan. 23. 



26. The Earth's Rotation as affecting Railway- 

 Trains. — In Maury's 'Physical Geography of the Sea,' edition 

 1855, p. 39, paragraph 43 reads as follows : " Take for illustration 

 a railroad that runs north and south. It is well known to engineers 

 that when the cars are running north on such a road, their tendency 

 IS to run off the east side ; but when the train is running south, 

 their tendency is to run off on the west side of the track, i.e., always 

 on the right-hand side. Whether the road be one mile or one 

 hundred miles in length, the effect of diurnal rotation is the same ; 

 and the tendency to run off as you cross a given parallel at a stated 

 rate of speed is the same, whether the road be long or short, the 

 tendency to fly the track being in proportion to the speed of the 

 trains, and not at all in proportion to the length of the road." Now, 

 this article is quoted by many scientific authorities. It goes the yearly 

 round of papers and periodicals. Is it true.' To prove or disprove 

 it, I have sent out a circular letter, to get from those familiar with 

 railroads the facts on the subject. If it is true on a single-track road 

 running north and south, with the same number of trains passing 

 each way, the rails, and flanges of cars, not turned, _would be 

 equally worn. On double-track, the east rail north-bound, and 

 west rail south-bound, would be most worn. Cars that were not 

 turned would have their wheels and flanges equally worn ; but 

 locomotives, if " the tendency is always to the right," would have 

 their right-hand fianges most worn. To facilitate the inquiry, I 

 ask a list of questions. The questions are not asked for any per- 

 sonal advantage, but as of general scientific interest. I. Do cars, 

 when running north, have a tendency toward the east ? 3. Do cars, 

 when running south, have a tendency toward the west ? 3. Have 

 any instances come under your observation that indicate, by any 

 wear of rails, of journals, of boxes, of flanges, or any part of a rail- 

 way equipment, that " a train going north has a tendency to run off 

 on the east side, but when the train is going south the tendency is 

 to run ofif on the west side of the track".' 4. General remarks, 

 with detailed description, — evidence pro or con from engines or 

 Tails. John C. Goodridge, Jr. 



New York, Jan. 28. 



AnsM^ers. 



21. Globular Lightning. — Governor Talmadge of Wisconsin 

 lived in a two-story log-house on a level prairie near Fond du Lac, 

 a short distance from a ridge of limestone that rose abruptly from 

 the prairie. The upper story of the house had two rooms, with 

 windows and doors forming a straight line through the house, and 

 also an entry or hall between the rooms. One afternoon, when 

 the windows and doors were open to allow a draught of air through 

 the rooms, a ball, apparently a foot in diameter, floated slowly in 

 one window, past Miss Talmadge, through the hall, and probably 

 out of the other window, as the servant-girl ran screaming from 

 that room. About the same time a barn near the house was struck 

 and consumed. I could learn nothing further that was definite 

 from those who saw the ball, when I reached the house. 



T. McDONOUGH. 



Montclair, N.J., Jan. 24. 



22. Wasp-Stings. — I have read with interest the items recently 

 published in Science on this topic. Forty years ago, when a lad at 

 school in Killingly, Conn, (in that part of the town at present 

 known as Putnam Heights), I learned from schoolmates that any 

 wasps could be handled without danger if one held his breath. I 

 saw the experiment successfully made by many of my fellows, and 

 ventured to make it myself with like results. Since that time 

 scarcely a year has passed without my repeating the trial on wasps 

 that have come in my way. I have never been stung except when 

 I have forgotten myself, and allowed myself to inspire or expire the 

 breath. Sometimes, after throwing the wasp violently away, I 

 have been stung, because it had clung to my finger, and, not 

 observing it, I had breathed. Ordinarily I notice after an experi- 

 ment a slight feeling of numbness on the part of my hand where 

 the wasp has attempted to sting me. I am accustomed to judge 

 by this feeling whether the wasp was one of the stinging kind. As 

 to the cause, I do not know of any. But many scientific persons 

 have unscientifically refused to believe my statements, or to test 

 them by experiment, because I could not answer their question, 

 ' How do you account for it ? ' Whether the forced suspension of 

 breathing paralyzes the nerves near the surface of the skin, — 

 whether it stops the capillary circulation near the surface, — or 

 whether its effect is something altogether different, I do not know. 

 Nor do I see exactly how a paralysis of the superficial nerves, or 

 an influence on the surface circulation, would prevent the poison 

 from giving pain after commencing respiration again, provided that 

 the wasp has succeeded in piercing the outer layer of the skin : for 

 if the poison is exuded from the stinger, as I have sometimes seen 

 it, it would act effectively upon removal of the paralysis when 

 breathing is resumed. But my experience seems to lead to the 

 conclusion that the poison does not penetrate at all during the sus- 

 pension of the breath, but is left on the surface of the skin, and 

 produces only the effect of a faint numbness after its effects beg^n 

 to be felt through the outer coating. I do not take up this subject 

 as one who has conducted any careful scientific experiments on it. 

 My account of the matter may, however, help, like former articles 

 in Science, in interesting experts in physiology to make genuine 

 scientific experiments. One may hope that something important 

 will be discovered in regard to the effect of forced suspension of 

 the breath upon the nerves of feeling, the capillary circulation, or 

 the resistance of the skin to penetration. W. T. Harris. 



Concord, Mass., Jan. 29. 



23. Drops of W.4TER. — In answer to E. J. Pond's query in 

 Science for Jan. 20, it seems to me that the phenomenon is explain- 

 able in the same way as the related phenomenon of drops of water 

 on a hot stove; viz., rapid evaporation causes a layer of vapor to 

 surround the drop, and this, by its repulsive expansion, keeps the 

 globule of liquid from touching the hot metal in the one case, and 

 the surface of the water in the other. The small drops that fall 

 from the oar-blade will float a short time before calescing, even 

 when no wind is blowing; the fall through the air apparently set- 

 ting up evaporation enough to bear up the tiny globule. I have 

 seen them at night, when the air was perfectly still, gleaming like 

 seed-pearls in the moonlight. When the wind is strong, much 

 larger drops will be supported because of the rapid evaporation. 



C. M. WiRICK. 

 Metropolis, 111., Jan. 24. 



