July 6, 1 888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



General 0ott$. 



The Origin of Meteorites. — M. Faye seeks to revive 

 the hypothesis of Lawrence Smith, according to which 

 the meteorites are fragments hurled aloft by volcanoes 

 in the moon and in the planets. La Nature, criticising 

 this hypothesis, reminds its readers that meteorites very 

 rarely present a volcanic character. 



Baregine and Glairine. — These organised sulphur- 

 compounds exert upon the sulphates of mineral waters a 

 reductive action, the product of which is free sulphur. 

 According to a recent communication of M. Olivier to the 

 Academy of Sciences, these same organisms exhale ammo- 

 nium sulphocyanide. In them sulphur seems to fulfil the 

 ordinary chemical function of oxygen. 



The Manufacture of Explosives. — The inspectors 

 under the " Explosive Act " state in their annual report 

 for 1887 that the number of accidents by explosion, and 

 fires due to explosions in that year had been 130, causing 

 forty-three deaths, and injury, more or less severe, to 

 105 persons. They mention as a serious fact, that a nest 

 of young mice was found in a box of dynamite. 



New Method of Embalming. — A certain Angelo 

 Motta, of Cremona, invented, or thought he had in- 

 vented, a process for preserving human bodies by 

 gradually destroying the organic matter, and replacing 

 it by metals. No possible good could result from the 

 success of this process, and we may, therefore, rejoice 

 that the inventor has carried his secret with him to the 

 grave. 



Royal Agricultural Society's Experiments at 

 Woburn. — The annual excursion of members of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England to the Woburn Experi- 

 mental Farm took place on June 28th, when upwards of 

 100 gentlemen proceeded from Euston by a special 

 saloon train, among those present being Lord Egerton 

 of Tatton, the Earl of Macclesfield, Lord Middleton, Lord 

 Northbourne, Sir J. Lawes, Dr. Gilbert, Sir John Shelley, 

 Sir John Thorold, and Mr. Mark J. Stewart, M.P. At 

 Woburn the party were met by Dr. Voelcker and Mr. 

 Carruthers, who went over the various experiments and 

 explained them. 



Arsenic in Cretonne. — We publish in our corres- 

 pondence column a letter from a well-known chemist, 

 drawing attention to the use of arsenic in cretonnes and 

 muslins, and we regret to learn that a draper in London 

 has been compelled to return a large quantity of these 

 materials to the manufacturer on account of cases of 

 poisoning which have occurred. The use of arsenic in 

 such materials is even more dangerous than in wall 

 paper, and is strongly to be deprecated. We would 

 advise our lady readers to be chary of buying bargains 

 in these fabrics, unless a guarantee is given that they are 

 free from this poison. 



British Columbia. — The Rev. W. S. Green, who 

 formed one of the expedition party for the recent deep 

 sea explorations in the Atlantic, sailed on June 28th from 

 Queenstown in the City of Rome, accompanied by the 

 Rev. H. Swanzy, for New York. Their ultimate desti- 



nation is British Columbia, where they are commissioned 

 by the Royal Geographical Society to make a rough 

 survey of the unexplored glacier regions of the Selkirk 

 Range. The expedition will be assisted by the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway Company. The two gentlemen are also 

 commissioned by the Royal Dublin Society to collect 

 information in the United States on the fish trade and 

 fisheries, with a view to developing the home industry. 



The Gramophone. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Mr. Emile Berliner, of 

 Washington, read a paper on his lately invented appa- 

 ratus for recording and reproducing musical sounds and 

 speech, called the " gramophone." Mr. Berliner gave a 

 historical sketch of the progress of invention in this 

 field, and a detailed description of his own method and 

 apparatus. He demonstrated its capabilities by record- 

 ing on one of his prepared zinc plates several songs and 

 speeches, etching the plate, and reproducing the songs 

 and words then and there. Several etched record plates, 

 prepared previous to the meeting, were likewise pre- 

 sented, and the reproducing apparatus faithfully emitted 

 the songs and spoken words recorded upon them. The 

 reproduction was loud enough to be distinctly audible all 

 over the lecture-room. The music could be easily recog 

 nised. Speech, though not so clearly rendered, was for 

 the most part intelligible. 



Curious Cause of Action against a Medical Man. — 

 An old Breton peasant, having met with a slight acci- 

 dent, sent for his doctor, who assured him that there was 

 no serious injury and prescribed a draught, ordering at the 

 same time leeches to be applied. As leeches were not 

 easily procurable, the patient asked the doctor to get 

 them for him. This he promised to do, and the next 

 morning a bottle arrived containing half a dozen fine 

 leeches. The farmer's wife being in doubt herself, 

 applied to a neighbour for advice how to cook them. 

 The result was that they were fried. The patient dis- 

 liked the bitter taste of the first one so much that he 

 declined eating any more. However, his wife insisted 

 that as they had to pay for the " medicine," it ought to 

 be taken, and so the poor man actually ate the whole of 

 the fried leeches. He was afterwards seized with 

 severe and fatal illness, which was attributed to poison- 

 ing by the leeches. The widow brought an action against 

 the doctor, who, however, was exonerated from all blame 

 by the court. 



Compressed Gas. — It has been urged that the use of 

 compressed gas for lighting cars is attended with the 

 danger of the gas exploding in the event of a collision. 

 The imaginary nature of this danger was shown by the 

 recent accident on the Philadelphia and Reading, 

 where an escape of compressed gas from a leaky hose 

 simply burnt for a few moments without any explosion. 

 Experience in Germany has been of a similar nature, 

 and a recent collision near Birkenhead, England, between 

 two trains lit with compressed gas, was unaccompanied 

 by any explosion. At the time of the collision between 

 the Hoylake and Mersey tunnel trains, the gas in the 

 latter was alight. The gas cylinders- of the smashed 

 coaches were taken from the debris, and tested to a 

 pressure of 150 lbs. per square inch, and they were 

 found to be entirely uninjured beyond a few severe 

 dents. The gas fittings of the remaining portion of both 

 trains had not suffered in the least through the collision •, 



