602 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Dec. 14, 1888. 



is held near the ends of the needles in alternation. It is 

 drawn toward both alike, and after a current has been 

 sent through the helices it will be found that the darn- 

 ing-needles are magnetic; but owing to the opposite 

 winding of the helices, corresponding ends will have 

 opposite polarity, as will be shown by again presenting 

 the suspended cambric needle to the ends of the darning- 

 needles. It will be attracted by one, and repelled by the 

 other. By placing a U-shaped piece of soft iron wire in the 

 helices, as shown in fig. 3, the construction of the first 

 electro-magnet (Sturgeon's) is clearly illustrated. In 

 fig. 4 is shown a device for projecting the incandescent 

 lamp. It is suspended from two conductors, and its 

 image is thrown upon the screen with a dull light, 

 which is just sufficient to clearly show the outline of the 

 lamp and the black carbon filament. A current is then 

 sent through the lamp, when the filament becomes in- 



Fig. 5.— Projection of the Arc. 



candescent, and shows as a brilliant arc on the screen, 

 while all of the parts of the lamp are distinctly visible. 

 In fig. 5 is shown a method of projecting the electric 

 arc, which has the advantage of showing the carbons 

 before the arc is formed, and also of rendering them 

 visible during the experiment. The lamp consists of 

 two wire carbon holders attached to a wooden standard, 

 and connected with the rods of the lantern, as in the 

 cases before described. The carbons are projected with 

 a dim light, showing the crater of the positive carbon 

 and the point of the negative carbon. Then the current 

 is turned on, the carbons are brought in contact and 

 separated, forming the arc, the points soon become in- 

 candescent, and the arc light in full operation is seen on 

 a large scale on the screen. These experiments are 

 very striking when seen upon a large screen, the pro- 

 jection of the arc and incandescent lights being particu- 

 larly interesting. — Scientific American. 



Porcelain Shot.— Under this name small white 

 globules of porcelain are made in Munich. They are 

 made to take the place ot ordinary lead shot used for 

 cleaning wine and medicine bottles, as porcelain is 

 entirely free from the objection of producing lead con- 

 tamination, which is often the result when ordinary shot 

 is used. Their hardness and rough surface producing 

 when shaken, greater friction, adapt the porcelain shot 

 well for quickly cleaning dirty and greasy bottles, and 

 as they are not acted upon by acids or alkalies, almost 

 any liquid can be used. — Rundschau; Am. Jour. Pharm. 



ANTIPYRINE IN SEA-SICKNESS. 



MANY references to the properties and uses of anti- 

 pyrine, a coal-tar product, and one of the recent 

 additions to the Pharmacopoeia, have been scattered 

 through the daily and weekly journals during the last 

 few months. It has been administered in subcutaneous 

 injections, and recommended as a febrifuge, as well as for 

 neuralgic headache and other ailments, but the most in- 

 teresting of its numerous applications to the majority is 

 probably its employment against sea-sickness. So many 

 circumstantial details of its virtues in this respect have been 

 circulated, apparently by medical men, that a consider- 

 able number of persons are by this time probably con- 

 vinced that a sea voyage is henceforth deprived of its 

 greatest terror. We even confess to have had a certain 

 amount of this misplaced faith ourselves. It is very grati- 

 fying, therefore, to be able to give the experiences of a 

 number of unprejudiced experimenters upon the sub- 

 ject. 



A discussion having arisen on the question at the 

 French Academy of Medicine, someone proposed that as 

 the members of the French Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science were about to cross the Mediterranean 

 to the meeting at Oran, they should test the assertions 

 made on of behalf antipyrine and other reputed remedies 

 for sea-sickness on their voyage. The suggestion, either 

 from a pure love of scientific experiment or perhaps 

 from the union of that and some small desire to escape 

 the well-known troubles of the voyager, was evidently 

 taken up in a commendable spirit of self-sacrifice, 

 which we regret to say failed to receive its fitting 

 reward. For M. Baudouin, in the Progres Medical, 

 in giving the results of this trial, describes them 

 as deplorable, and the failure as complete, even 

 among those passengers who, not possessing suffi- 

 cient courage to await the first attacks of sickness, had 

 taken the antipyrine two or three days before embarking. 

 On the steamer La Ville de Rome, for instance, out of 300 

 passengers, only four sat down at the table on leaving 

 Marseilles, although sixty persons at least had taken 

 from one to two grammes of antipyrine in the previous 

 two hours. Moreover, M. Rollet, one of the passengers, 

 asserts that several of his fellow-travellers accuse anti- 

 pyrine of actually causing sickness, and M. Laborde 

 affirms that the ingestion of this remedy (?) increases 

 very greatly the afflictions so familiar to those who are 

 subject to sea-sickness. The condemnation of antipyrine 

 seems complete when it is added that some of the 

 passengers from Marseilles to Oran, who suffered 

 severely after taking it, returned without discomfort over 

 a sea quite as rough as it had been on the outward 

 passage. 



The Poison of the Mosquito. — Professor Macloskie 

 {American Naturalist) shows that the mosquito, in addi- 

 tion to septic poisons which it may transfer from one 

 person to another, elaborates a specific poison which it 

 instils into the tissues at every bite. 



Action of Hydrogen Gas on the Animal Economy. 

 — Hydrogen gas, according to Dr. B. W. Richardson, if 

 inhaled by warm-blooded animals, does not act as an 

 anaesthetic, and quickly occasions death by asphyxia. 

 Upon cold-blooded animals its action is slower, but ulti- 

 mately fatal. Insects recover even after being confined 

 in this gas for twelve hours. 



