1 6 



SCIENCE. 



EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON THE FUSION 

 POINT. • 



Dr. Camelly recently read a paper before the Chemical 

 Society of London, in which he thus explains the device 

 which he has adopted in order to secure and maintain a 

 vacuum in a case of ice. For the success of the experi- 

 ment the tension must be below 5 millimetres. The ap- 

 paratus consists of a wide glass tube |^ inch in diame- 

 ter, and about 5 to 6 feet high. This is placed in a ver- 

 tical position, and is connected at its upper end with a 

 strong glass flask placed horizontally, and surrounded 

 with a freezing mixture. The apparatus having been in- 

 verted and filled with mercury, the lower end of the tube 

 is closed with the thumb, and placed under the surface 

 of a layer of mercury about 10 inches deep. On with- 

 drawing the thumb the mercury sinks in the tube to the 

 barometric height, and a large Torricellian vacuum is 

 obtained, which is surrounded, as far as the flask is con- 

 cerned, with a freezing-mixture. A small quantity of 

 boiled water is now introduced, which rises to the top of 

 the mercurial column, and surrounds the bulb of a ther- 

 mometer suspended inside of the tube. The water is 

 then frozen, and the depth of the layer of mercury in 

 which the tube stands reduced to about 3 ins. ; in conse- 

 quence the mercury in the tube sinks, and leaves a de- 

 tached column of ice with the thermometer bulb in its 

 centre. This column acts as a cork, shutting off the 

 large vacuous space above from the small vacuum below. 

 By carefully heating the tube the ice is melted round the 

 circumference of the plug, and a fine annular opening is 

 made between the ice and the inside of the glass tube. 

 This restores the communication between the upper and 

 lower portion of the vacuum. As soon as this is effected, 

 any aqueous vapor which is formed is at once condensed 

 .by the freezing-mixture, and the vacuum is kept intact. 

 Under these circumstances the author has made the ice 

 so hot that the thermometer in the centre of the cylinder 

 stood at 180" C. before the ice melted. In the experi- 

 ment shown to the Society the thermometer only rose to 

 30' C. when the cylinder (which was too large and there- 

 fore too heavy) dropped off the thermometer. To prove 

 that the ice was really hot Dr. Camelly has contrived and 

 carried out some experiments, in which the cylinder of 

 hot ice was dropped into a small calorimeter filled with 

 water; the temperature rose when the ice was intro- 

 duced, whereas if ordinary ice it would of course have 

 been lowered. He then showed two experiments 

 with camphor and mercuric chloride, which were per- 

 fectly successful. The camphor was contained in a glass 

 tube closed at one end and connected at the other with 

 a Sprengel pump. On heating the tube the camphor 

 melted, but on starting the Sprengel pump the camphor, 

 as the pressure decreased, solidified, though the heating 

 was continuous. The mercuric chloride was similarly 

 raised many degrees above its ordinary melting-point, 

 when kept under diminished pressure, without liquefying ; 

 but on allowing the atmospheric pressure to enter, by 

 cutting the tube, the solid mass immediately melted and 

 began to boil. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASH- 

 INGTON. 



We are informed by Professor Cleveland Abbe that 

 the following are the newly elected officers of the Philo- 

 sophical Society of Washington : President, Dr. J. J. 

 Woodward ; Vice-Presidents, Dr. G. K. Barnes, J. E. 

 Hilgard, J. C. Welling, William Taylor; Secretaries, J. 

 N. Gill, C. E. Duttou ; Treasurer, Cleveland Abbe. 



HYPNOTISM. 



A writer in the Medical Record sums up the result of 

 his experiences of Hypnotism and its phenomena as 



follows : 



First. Impressions cannot be communicated to indi- 

 viduals in the hypnotic condition, except through the ex- 

 ternal senses. The mind of the operator cannot influ- 

 ence that of the subject by a purely mental effort. He 

 must either speak, write, or gesticulate to convey his 

 ideas. 



Second. Remembrance of what has passed, during the 

 hypnotic state, in the mind of the subject, is very slight, 

 but if he is told to remember any particular thing while 

 so affected, he will recollect it when he awakens. 



Third. Although I pursued the method used by others, 

 I am satisfied that the employment of any means that 

 will induce a temporary abstraction of the mind is all 

 that is required to induce the peculiar condition. 



Fourth. Although the subjects seem to be entirely- 

 oblivious to all that is going on, they are not perfectly 

 so. In the case of a young lady, who was told that she 

 ! was a bird, and thereupon cemmenced to hop, her dress 

 became disarranged, and, although continuing to hop like 

 a bird, she was careful to keep her dress in its proper 

 condition. 



Fifth. It is not necessary that the operator nor the 

 one operated upon believe in the truth of hypnotism, or 

 the success of the trial. If the necessaiy conditions are 

 complied with the effect will follow. One case mentioned 

 above proves this to be true. 



All the strange psychical conditions under the names 

 of hypnotism, magnetism, braidism, mesmerism, trance, 

 somnambulism, ecstacy, etc., come under the same cate- 

 gory, and I believe that clairvoyance and spiritualism 

 can be included in the list. 



As far as I have seen, I have never observed contrac- 

 tion of muscles, areas of hyperaesthesia, or other disorder 

 of sensibility, or any unnatural condition or action of any 

 part of the body in the persons affected, unless the oper- 

 ator should direct their attention to themselves by speak- 

 ing or motioning to them ; for example, he would indi- 

 cate that their faces were away, that their arms or fingers 

 were stiff, or that they had a pain in the head, back, or 

 some other part. In such a case what was told them 

 would be the basis on which they would feel or act. 

 If I should venture an explanation, or more properly a 

 I description of the phenomena of hypnotism, I would say 

 i that they resulted from a suspension of function of the 

 centre for ideas in the brain of the subject, and also of 

 ' his will, while the infra-cortical ganglia remain free to 

 act from a reflex excitation imparted by the voice, ges- 

 tures, or manners of the operator. 



THE HAMMOND PRIZE. 



The American Neurological Association offers a prize 

 of five hundred dollars, to be known as the "William A. 

 Hammond Prize," and to be awarded, at the meeting in 

 June, 1882, to the author of the best essay on the Func- 

 tions of the Thalamus in Man. The conditions under 

 which the prize is to be awarded are as follows : I. The 

 prize is open to competitors of all nationalities. 2. The 

 essays are to be based upon original observations and 

 experiments on man and the lower animals. 3. The 

 competing essays must be written in the English, French, 

 or German language ; if in the last, the manuscript is to 

 be in the Italian handwriting. 4. Essays are to be sent 

 (postage prepaid) to the Secretary of the Prize Committee, 

 Dr. E. C. Seguin, No. 41 West Twentieth street, New 

 York City, on or before February 1, 1882 ; each essay to 

 be marked by a distinctive device or motto, and accom- 

 panied by a sealed envelope bearing the same device or 

 motto, and containing the author's visiting card. 5. The 



