442 



SCIENCE. 



Present Section. 



ft. in 

 . . .22. O 



Surface of burned clay. 



the facts were obtained concerning the long retention of 

 heat by the earth, to which I have already' referred. Mr. 

 Edwin Gilpin, Government Inspector of Mines, has kindly 

 placed at my disposal what information he could gather 

 on the subject, which I give, using, to some extent, the 

 language of this careful and accurate observer. Mr. 

 Gilpin has prepared a comparative view of sections of 

 the same strata, made only a short distance apart, the 

 design being to exhibit the changes made by igneous 

 action. 



The present section is taken at the new pit sunk by the 

 Albion Mines Company on the burnt area ; and what is 

 termed the origifial section is one given in Sir William 

 Logan's Report of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 1869, p. 69. The distance between the localities where 

 these two sections were made is so small that the com- 

 parison is at least instructive, and answers our purpose 

 as well as anything that can be had. 



Original Section. 



ft. m. 



Bl ick, argillaceous shale, ") 

 with many bands of j 

 iron-stone 1 (o 2 inches ]>2. 6 

 thick. Total thickness | 

 144 ft. 6 in. ) 

 ( Brown carbonaceous 



< shale 1. 10 



£ Bad coal o. 2 



o Good coal 3- 7l 



o Black shale with in<n- ) | 



stone bands \ ' 2 | 



Gcod coal 3. 5 j 



Coarse coal o. 8 f 



Good coal 3-9 1 



Coarse ccal 0.11 j 



I Good coal 3-4 



(Coarse coal 5 . 10J 



Total thickness of ) 

 the Deep Seam. S 



The surface cover consists of clay, with boulders of 

 sandstone and layers of gravel. The small portion of 

 the 144 feet of black argillaceous shale filled with iron- 

 stone balls, passed through by the shaft, has been con- 

 verted into an almost continuous mass of scoriae, very 

 hard and compact, and difficult to drill through. 



The next layer represents the upper portion of the 

 deep seam, which has been completely burned away, 

 leaving a compact, laminated reddish ash. And it was 

 in this ancient bank of ashes, known to be more than 

 300 years old, that the retention of heat was observed, 

 which it is now my object to place on record. Immedi- 

 ately on opening the pit, the heat of the ashes, at a point 

 30 feet below the surface, was tested by a reliable ther- 

 mometer, and was found to be 8o° Fahr. at a time when 

 the surface temperature varied from a minimum of 45 

 to a maximum of 65 Fahr. 



Soon after an opening had been made through the pit 

 to the workings in the mine, the air-currents caused the 

 temperature rapidly to fall to the normal point. 



The consideration of the gradual radiation of the heat 

 of the earth suggests the idea that abnormal increases in 

 the temperatures of deep mines'may be due in some cases 

 to the presence, at comparatively short distances, of 

 masses of heated matter, which are, geologically speak- 

 ing, modern, though they may be historically ancient. 



Band of hard scoriae 4. o 



Reddish ashes 3. 



Hardened shale 2. 



Good coal (being upper part 

 of the Deep Seam) 



Depth of Pit 32. + 



Recovery of Old Vulcanized Caoutchouc — The 

 pieces are heated in contact with steam, when the sulphur 

 is volatilized and the caoutchouc melts and is collected as 

 a liquid, used in preparing water-proof covers, etc. 



Radiophony. — Professor Mugna, repeating M. Merca- 

 dier's experiments, in which an intermittent beam meets a 

 smoked surface within a glass tube, containing aqueous or 

 ammoniacal vapor, and furnished with an ear tube, adds to 

 the effects by attaching a small microphone to an elastic 

 membrane closing the lube. By this means he finds it pos- 

 sible to operate at a sufficient distance from the interrupt- 

 ing disc to render its noise no longer disturbing. 



PILOCARPIN :— ITS ACTION IN CHANGING THE 

 COLOR OF THE HUMAN HAIR* 

 By D. W. Prentiss, M. D. Washington, D. C. 



Pilocarpin is an alkoloid of Jaborandi and the active 



principle. 



Jaborandi is a Brazilian drug recently introduced into 



medicine. 



The leaves are the offic'al part of the plant. (Pilocar- 

 pus Pennatifolius.) 



The effect upon the human system is powerful and 

 peculiar. 



(It produces profuse sweating and salivation, and stim- 

 ulates the growth of the hair.) 

 Two cases were reported. 



In the first case, the medicine was given to relieve 

 uraemia consequent upon suppression of urine due to 

 Chronic Pyelitis. 



The patient was a lady twenty-five years of age, a 

 blonde of petite figure. 



The pilocarpin (hydrochlorate) was administered by 

 hypodermic injection, commencing December 16, 1880. 

 and being continued at intervals until February 22, 1 881 . 

 The usual dose given was one centigram, but on several 

 occasions this dose was doubled. 



The object of its use was to eliminate urea from the 

 system by sweating and salivation. 



The immediate effect produced was profuse sweating 

 and salivation, calculated to amount to not less than 

 fourteen pints. (See Phila. Med. Times, July 2, 1881.) 



The result to the patient on each occasion was great 

 exhaustion, but the ureamic symptoms were relieved. 



Twenty-two "sweats" were administered in all, and 

 from thirty-five to forty centigrams of pilocarpifi were 

 tised. 



CHANGES IN THE COLOR OF THE HAIR. 



Specimens of the hair were exhibited to the section, as 

 also a colored plate showing the changes in the color. 



Two specimens dated respectively November 1879, and 

 November, 1880, were of a very light color, tinged with 

 yellow, and showed that the color of the hair had not 

 changed during that year. 



The third specimen dated January 12, 1881, was a 

 chestnut brown, and the fourth dated May, 1881, almost 

 pure black. 



The administration of the Pilocarpin began December 

 16, 1880, the change was first noticed December28. ic8o, 

 and was thenceforth progressive. 



In addition to the change of color the hair has become 

 thicker and coarser than formerly, and while previously 

 dry, is now quite oily. 



The hair on other parts of the body is also changed in 

 color. 



The eyes have become a much darker blue. 



In the second case, the Pilocarpin was administered 

 to an infant fourteen months of age, afflicted with Mem- 

 braneous Croup. (See Phila. Medical Times, August 13, 

 1881.) 



The treatment was commenced June 19, 1881; two 

 milligrams of hydro-chlorate of Pilocarpin being given 

 every hour, afterwards increased to four milligrams every 

 hour. It was administered for nine days, the amount 

 being diminished towards the last. 



The first specimen of hair was taken June 17, 1881, 

 and the second June 27, 1881. 



The color of the first is light yellow, and the second is 

 a decided shade darker. This effect, of changing the 

 color of the hair, if subsequent experience shall confirm 

 it, adds another to the marvellous influences of Jaborandi 

 on the human system. 



The modus operandi of the change is still to be deter- 

 mined. It is probably connected with the fact that 

 Jaborandi stimulates the nutrition of the hair. 



* Read before the A. A. A. S., Cincinnati, 1881. 



