5i° 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Nov. 16, 1888. 



driving machinery increase with increased bulk ! 

 Although the elephant's skull must be unusually ex- 

 tensive externally, its internal cavity is only of moderate 

 size, far below the proportion obtaining in small quad- 

 rupeds. This disparity between the external and internal 

 surfaces of the skull is reconciled in an interesting way. 

 Were the intermediate space to be filled with ordinary 

 bone, the elephant's skull, which (exclusive of the 

 tusks and teeth) already weighs something like 200 lbs., 

 would become, at a guess, nearly as heavy again. In 

 place of solid bone, a number of large air-cells, separated 

 by slender walls of bone, occupy the interval between 

 the inner and outer tables of the skull. It is interesting 

 to notice in a divided skull how the direction of the thin 

 partitions is varied, so as to offer the most effective 

 resistance to pressure at every point, without an atom of 

 needless substance. 



A number of observers with good opportunities, and 

 presumably competent, such as Sir Emerson Tennent, 

 Gordon Cumming, and others, have described the power 

 which the elephant possesses of ejecting large quantities 

 of water from the trunk. Sir E. Tennant represents that 

 this is accomplished by placing the proboscis in the 

 mouth, and thence withdrawing gallons of water. Where 

 the water comes from, and how it is regurgitated, are 

 questions upon which anatomy throws hardly any light. 

 The cardiac end of the stomach, it is true, exhibits a 

 number of transverse folds, which have been supposed 

 to act as valves, shutting off a special water-chamber, 

 and the late Dr. Harrison, of Dublin, many years ago 

 described a special muscular apparatus, which he thought 

 might aid the stomach in regurgitating a portion of its 

 contents into the aesophagus. But more recent observers, 

 such as Professor Morrison Watson {Journal of Anatomy, 

 1 871), and Miall and Greenwood (" Anatomy of Indian 

 Elephant "), find nothing which can be called a cardiac 

 water-chamber, nor yet any special muscles for emptying 

 it. There is, indeed, at the back of the mouth, a pouch 

 capable of holding a small quantity of water, perhaps a 

 quart or two. All the rest must (it would seem) he 

 sucked up directly from -the stomach into the trunk, 

 which is probably sufficiently capacious, when distended, 

 to lodge several gallons of fluid. It is much to be desired 

 that naturalists who have access to elephants living under 

 tolerably natural conditions would clear up the difficulties 

 of this curious subject. Can it be ascertained how much 

 water the trunk alone is capable of lodging ? Is certain 

 proof to be had that water is returned from the stomach ? 

 There are still unsolved questions of great interest con- 

 nected with the physiology and habits of the elephants, 

 and there is room for fear that these visibly declining 

 species may become extinct before science has completely 

 satisfied her curiosity respecting them. 



International Patent Agency. — We have pleasure 

 in calling our readers' attention to the International 

 Patent Agency, 28, Martin's-lane, Cannon-street, E.C. 

 This agency has been established many years, and deals 

 in all kinds of patents and inventions. Of the many 

 hundreds of inventions yearly taken out, only a com- 

 paratively small percentage are brought before the public, 

 owing to the difficulty which inventors experience in 

 getting their inventions taken up, and it will be readily 

 understood that an agency of this kind, which is a medium 

 between the inventor and the capitalist and manufacturer, 

 is appreciated by all inventors. 



POISONS IN THE WORKSHOP. 



(Concluded from p. no.) 



A N exceedingly deadly substance largely employed 

 -t\- by electro-platers, and used also to a considerable 

 extent in photography, is the cyanide of potassium. This 

 substance is a solid body of a white or whitish colour, 

 very easily soluble in water, and giving off a powerful 

 and very peculiar odour, which is decidedly poisonous, 

 and produces headaches and other disturbances of the 

 nervous system. Hence all workrooms where it is used 

 or stored in quantity should be well ventilated. In the 

 state of solution it gives off its noxious vapours more 

 freely. Those who have to deal with such solutions 

 should allow them to come in contact with the hands 

 as little as possible, especially if there is any cut or 

 abrasion of the skin. Solutions of cyanide on exposure 

 to the air quickly turn of a brownish colour. We have 

 it on good authority that a workman in an electro- 

 plating establishment at Sheffield had on the table 

 before him two jugs, one containing a solution of cyanide 

 of potassium and the other partly full of beer. Feeling 

 thirsty he took up the wrong jug and swallowed a hearty 

 draught of the deadly fluid before he found out his 

 mistake. In spite of the almost instant attention of 

 three medical men, he was dead in less than twenty 

 minutes. This case emphasizes the rule that no article 

 of food or drink should ever be kept or consumed in 

 any room where poisons are manufactured or used. 



Such instantaneously fatal cases are of course rare. 

 But the health of workmen who continually inhale the 

 fumes of this cyanide is always more or less affected. 



We must now turn to the coal-tar colours and inquire 

 whether these dyes are found to produce effects upon 

 their producers and users similar to those which are 

 sometimes found to result from wearing garments dyed 

 with such colours ? Our own experience, by no means 

 trifling, gives a decidedly negative reply. We have never 

 seen a case of illness which could, with even the re- 

 motest probability, be suspected as being due to the 

 manufacture, the dissolving, mixing, etc., or to d3 r eing 

 and printing with them. We are happy, however, to 

 reinforce our observations with the much wider obser- 

 vations of Dr. Grandhomme. This gentleman has for 

 some years acted as inspecting physician of the cele- 

 brated coal-tar colour manufactory belonging to Messrs. 

 Meister, Lucius, and Bruning, at Hoechst. This esta- 

 blishment presents opportuities for studying the subject 

 not, perhaps, to be met with elsewhere. There are a 

 thousand workmen emplo3 r ed in addition to forty fore- 

 men and managers, twenty-five chemists, one engineer, 

 and thirty clerks. Each class of colours is prepared in 

 a distinct workroom, and a stringent rule provides that 

 no man shall enter any department save his own. Hence 

 the risk of error in assigning any illness to a wrong cause 

 is practically eliminated. The ventilation is admirable, 

 and every apparatus giving off hurtful gases is placed 

 in connection with the chimney. Rooms containing 

 combustible or explosive substance are illuminated 

 solely by the electric light. 



A capital point is the exclusion of arsenic. The 

 magenta employed is made on the Coupier process, and 

 consequently both this colour and all that are further 

 prepared from it are absolutely non-arsenical. Thus 

 their physiological action, whatever it might prove, could 

 not be complicated by the effects of arsenic. 



Some of the primary materials from which colours are- 



