THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
91 
The Meaning: of Dreams. 
Lively dreams are, in general, a sign of ex- 
citement of nervous action ; soft dreams, a sign 
of slight irritation of the brain, often, in nervous 
fevers, announcing the approach of a favorable 
crisis. Frightful dreams are a sign of deter- 
mination of blood to the head. Dreams about 
fire are, in women, signs of impending haemor- 
rhage. Dreams about blood and red objects are 
signs of inflammatory conditions. Dreams 
about rain and water are often signs of diseased 
mucous membrane and dropsy. Dreams in 
which the patient sees any part of the body 
especially suffering, indicate disease in that 
part. Dreams about death often precede apo- 
plexy, which is connected with determination of 
blood to the head. The nightmare (incubus 
epMaltes) with great sensitiveness, is a sign of 
determination of blood to the chest. "To 
these," says Baron Von Fechterleben, "we may 
add that dreams of dogs, after the bite of a mad 
dog, often precede the appearance of hydro- 
phobia, but may be only the consequences of an 
excited imagination," Dr. Forbes Winslow 
quotes several cases in which dreams are said 
to have been prognostic : Arnaud de Yilleneuve 
dreamed one night that a black cat bit him on 
the arm. The next day an anthrax appeared on 
the part bitten, A patient of Galen's dreamed 
that one of his limbs was changed to stone. 
Some days after his leg was paralyzed. Hippo- 
crates remarks that dreams in which one sees 
black spectres are a bad omen.— Dr. Hammond 
in Druggists' Circular. 
bring up any fault. After this they may be also 
touched on the outer and inner side to remove 
barbs or feather edge. Careful inspection of the 
instrument during this process, and the exercise 
of careful judgment, will enable any one to put 
a pair of draughting pens in good condition, pro- 
vided, as we said above, they are not too badly 
rusted or worn out.— Metal Worker. 
Dressing" tlie Points of Draughting- 
Pens. 
The ability to sharpen a draughting pen and 
Ijut it in complete order depends, in some meas- 
ure, upon the skill and experience of the 
draughtsman, and the previous condition of 
the pen. If the pen has been worn too much, 
it would be much better to throw it aside and 
procure a new one. If it has not been worn 
or rusted to any very considerable extent, it 
may be easily sharpened as follows: In the 
first place, screw the blades up into contact 
and pass along the surface of an oil stone, 
turning upon the point in a directly perpen- 
dicular plane until the two plates acquire an 
identical profile. Next, unscrew the blades 
and examine them, in order to ascertain the 
parts of unequal thickness around the nib ; then 
the blades are to be laid separately upon their 
backs on the stone and rubbed down at the 
points until they are brought up to an edge of 
uniform fineness. At this stage it is advisable 
to screw them together again and pass them 
once or twice more over the atonej in order to 
Coppering and Bronzing Zinc. 
The following recipes for coppering and 
bronzing zinc arc said to produce quite beau- 
tiful results : Prepare a solution of fifteen parts 
of blue vitriol and one of nineteen parts of cj'a- 
nide of potassium, then mix both solutions to- 
gether. Incorporate this liquid well with one 
hundred and sixty parts of pipe clay, and rub 
the resulting semi-fluid mass, by means of a 
linen rag, on the previously cleaned object. For 
bronzing, take fifteen parts of verdigris, nine- 
teen of cream of tartar, and thirty parts of crys- 
tallized soda, reduce them to powder, and dis- 
solve them in the necessary amount of water. 
Mix this liquid together with one hundred and 
sixty parts of pipe-clay, and proceed as above 
directed. Anotlier process is as follows : Take 
fifteen grammes of blue vitrol, twenty of cal- 
cined soda, mix them well with thirty-two cubic 
centimetres of glycerine, and mix the paste ob- 
tained with eighty grammes of pipe-clay. It is 
then ready to be applied as before stated. 
The Word "Gramme. 
The general adoption of the French weights 
and measures by scientific writers in all parts 
of the world, has rendered the use of the word 
" gramme " of constant occurrence. We are ex- 
tremely sorry to see that some of the young , 
chemical writers in England have lately fol- 
lowed the American example of spelling the 
word " gram," It has been long ago observed 
that American writers have" little respect for 
literary laws of any kind, and if their example 
were universally followed, philolog)^ and ety- 
mology, which are so useful to the historian and 
to the antiquary, would soon be things of the 
past. But in the present case the abbreviation 
of the word gramme is not only an example of 
needless bad taste, but it is also a dangerous 
vulgarity. More than once we have seen the 
most important errors committed in medical 
periodicals by confusing the said al)breviatioa 
with our English word grain. As there are fif- 
teen English grains in a gramme, our readers 
will at once perceive the necessity of avoiding- 
such dangerous confusion in medical and scien- 
tific literature by adhering to proper spelling. — 
The Monthly Magazine, 
