SCIENCE. 



177 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Progress. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



Published at 



229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



P. O. Box 3838. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, iE 



Two or three weeks ago we complained of the 

 coldness of British writers in neglecting to recognize 

 and acknowledge the full scientific value of Bell's and 

 Edison's discoveries, and we condemned, more partic- 

 ularly, their omission from Gordon's illustrated cata- 

 logue of recent advances in electrical science, which 

 had then just appeared in London. To day, after 

 having read a four column pean of eulogy and encom- 

 ium on Prof. Bell and his Photophone, in the last 

 number of Engineering we make a candid confes- 

 sion, that, in order to arrive at the real estimate of an 

 American discovery in the average English mind, it is 

 indispensable that the ' mean' of English criticism 

 should first be drawn. 



The concluding paragraph of this article reads as 

 follows : " Who can say to what great fields of science 

 this one discovery of Prof. Bell may not lead, fields of 

 research not limited in locality to this earth, but 

 reaching to the planets, and to thejfarthest limits of 

 visible stellar space. It is by a beam of light that the 

 modern astronomer is able to analyse the chemical 

 constitution of the farthest stars and nebulae, and is 

 enabled to detect and to deal with metallic vapors 

 through distances of thousands of millions of miles as 

 surely as in his own laboratory, who, after Prof. Bell's 

 experiments will have the hardihood to affirm that 

 sounds taking place in the far off regions of the uni- 

 verse may not one day be heard on the earth, and 

 new fields of acoustical astronomy may not be opened 

 to the intelligence of man. When such a time arrives, 

 the thought of the poet will be clothed with the truth 

 of the fact, that " Light is the voice of the stars." 



In the same strain which excites Engifieering to this 

 transcendental flight of fancy, may we not also hope, 

 in the future, to catch the whisperings of Venus as 

 she waltzes among her heavenly companions, and if 

 we dare to reach so far in our aspirations for the per- 

 fection of the Photophone, may we not yet be able to 



hear the reflections of light, mixed with heat, which 

 Mars, an ardent admirer of old, throws to that splen- 

 did luminary as they near each other ? It is also 

 true that Mr. Edison has helped to begin that sort of 

 business; for did he not, long since, catch the 

 warmth of the coronal beams, when the sun with- 

 drew behind fair Luna's screen, and didn't Mr. 

 Lockyer (who was there) tell us all that hap- 

 pened? Let us not, however, go too far and admit 

 that the era has arrived which Gulliver predicted, 

 when he discribed the process of the philosopher of 

 Laputa who extracted sunbeams out of cucumbers. 



Engineering should know that the Photophone is 

 but a simple machine for registering heat waves that 

 have impinged upon a piece of hard rubber, and that 

 these waves, originally set in motion by the voice, 

 when made to act on any material expansible by 

 heat, will reproduce, more or less effectually, the origi- 

 nal motion which gave them birth. Such an instru- 

 ment is the Tasimeter, which Professor Bell has 

 stripped of its swaddling clothes and made to talk. 



Considerable alarm has been created among those 

 interested in horse flesh by certain reports circulated 

 regarding a new so-called epizootic among horses. 

 We have been at some pains to collect reliable data 

 concerning this matter, and have found, as we antici- 

 pated, that its importance is greatly exaggerated by 

 enterprising reporters of daily papers. We have be- 

 come satisfied of the fact that the distemper now pre- 

 vailing in New York, has nothing in common with the 

 epizootic which was such a memorable feature of the 

 year 1873, an d so severe a one that hardly a carriage 

 could be seen on our streets, while but few of the 

 horse-car lines were able to keep their conveyances 

 running with any regularity. 



Veterinarians are accustomed to expect a more or 

 less severe endemic of catarrhal troubles among horses 

 about the first of October of every year. The horse 

 is very liable to atmospheric influences, far more so 

 than the human species, and the changes in the weather 

 occurring about that time suffice to produce an appa- 

 rent epidemic of catarrhal troubles among them. In 

 some years few, in others many horses are affected; 

 the present year the number has been so large as to 

 temporarily interfere with business, but this is excep- 

 tional. 



The disease lasts but a few days, the main trouble 

 is a bronchitis associated with a slight catarrh of the 

 nasal mucus membrane ; for a period of from twelve 

 to forty-eight hours there is also a febrile disturbance. 

 The highest temperature recorded by a veterinarian, 

 from an observation of fully one thousand cases has been 



