Title: Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883
Author: Various
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883" ***


[Illustration]



Scientific American Supplement No. 415



NEW YORK, DECEMBER 15, 1883

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XVI, No. 415.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.



TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I.    CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY.--Carbon in Steel.

      Heat developed in Forging.

      Recent Studies on the Constitution of Alkaloids.--Extract from
      a lecture delivered before the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.
      --By SAML.P. SADTLER.

II.   ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Apparatus for Extracting
      Starch from Potatoes.--With engraving.

      A Simple Apparatus for describing Ellipses.--By Prof. E.J.
      HALLOCK. 1 figure.

      A Novel Propeller Engine.--With full description and numerous
      engravings.--By Prof. MACCORD.

      The New Russian Torpedo Boat, the Poti.--With engraving.

      A New Steamer Propelled by Hydraulic Reaction--Figures showing
      plan and side views of the steamer.

      A New Form of Flexible Band Dynamometer.--By Prof. W.C.
      UNWIN. 4 figures.

III.  TECHNOLOGY.--Enlarging on Argentic Paper and Opals.--By
      A. GOODALL.

      The Manufacture and Characteristics of Photographic Lenses.

      Improved Developers for Gelatine Plates.--By DR. EDER.

      The Preparation of Lard for Use in Pharmacy.--By Prof. REDWOOD.

      Anti-Corrosion Paint.

      Manufacture of Charcoal in Kilns.--Different kilns used.

IV.   ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND ARCHÆOLOGY.--The German
      National Monument.--With two engravings of the statues of
      Peace and War.

      The Art Aspects of Modern Dress.

      Artisans' Dwellings, Hornsey, London.--With engraving.

      Discovery of Ancient Church In Jerusalem.

V.    ELECTRICITY, HEAT. ETC.--See's Gas Stove.--With engraving.

      Rectification of Alcohol by Electricity. 3 engravings showing
      Apparatus for Hydrogenizing Impure Spirits. Electrolyzing
      Apparatus, and Arrangement of the Siemens Machine.

VI.   GEOLOGY.--On the Mineralogical Localities in and around New
      York City.--By NELSON H. DARTON.

VII.  NATURAL HISTORY.--The Zoological Society's Gardens, London.--With
      full page engravings showing the new Reptile House, and the
      Babiroussa family.

VIII. HORTICULTURE.--The Kauri Pine--Damarra Australis.--
      With engraving.

      How to Successfully Transplant Trees.

IX.  MEDICINE, HYGIENE, ETC.--On the Treatment of Congestive
     Headache.--By Dr. J.L. CORNING.

     The Use of the Mullein Plant in the Treatment of Pulmonary
     Consumption.--By Dr. J.B. QUINLAN.

     Action of Mineral Waters and of Hot Water upon the Bile.

     Vivisection.--Apparatus Used.--Full page of engravings.

     Insanity from Alcohol.--Intemperance a fruitful as well as
     inexhaustible source for the increase of insanity.--By Dr. A. BAER,
     Berlin.

     Plantain as a Styptic.--By J.W. COLCORD.

     Danger from Flies.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE GERMAN NATIONAL MONUMENT.--WAR AND PEACE.


In our SUPPLEMENT No. 412 we gave several engravings and a full
description of the colossal German National monument "Germania," lately
unveiled on the Niederwald slope of the Rhine. We now present, as
beautiful suggestions in art, engravings of the two statues, War and
Peace, which adorn the corners of the monumental facade. These figures
are about twenty feet high. The statue of War represents an allegorical
character, partly Mercury, partly mediæval knight, with trumpet in one
hand, sword in the other. The statue of Peace represents a mild and
modest maiden, holding out an olive branch in one hand and the full horn
of peaceful blessings in the other. Between the two statues is a
magnificent group in relief representing the "Watch on the Rhine." Here
the Emperor William appears in the center, on horseback, surrounded by a
noble group of kings, princes, knights, warriors, commanders, and
statesmen, who, by word or deed or counsel, helped to found the
empire--an Elgin marble, so to speak, of the German nation.

[Illustration: WAR. THE GERMAN NATIONAL MONUMENT. PEACE.]

       *       *       *       *       *

A writer in the London _Lancet_ ridicules a habit of being in great
haste and terribly pressed for time which is common among all classes of
commercial men, and argues that in most cases there is not the least
cause for it, and that it is done to convey a notion of the tremendous
volume of business which almost overwhelms the house. The writer further
says that, when developed into a confirmed habit, it is fertile in
provoking nervous maladies.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE ART ASPECTS OF MODERN DRESS.


At a recent conversazione of the London Literary and Artistic Society,
Mr. Sellon read a paper upon this subject. Having expressed his belief
that mere considerations of health would never dethrone fashion, the
lecturer said he should endeavor to show on art principles how those who
were open to conviction could have all the variety Fashion promised,
together with far greater elegance than that goddess could bestow, while
health received the fullest attention. Two excellent societies, worthy
of encouragement up to a certain point, had been showing us the folly
and wickedness of fashionable dress--dress which deformed the body,
crippled the feet, confined the waist, exposed the chest, loaded the
limbs, and even enslaved the understanding. But these societies had been
more successful in pulling down than in building up, and blinded with
excess of zeal were hurrying us onward to a goal which might or might
not be the acme of sanitative dress, but was certainly the zero of
artistic excellence. The cause of this was not far to seek. We were
inventing a new science, that of dress, and were without rules to guide
us. So long as ladies had to choose between Paris fashions and those of
Piccadilly Hall, they would, he felt sure, choose the former. Let it be
shown that the substitute was both sanitary and beautiful, capable of an
infinite variety in color and in form--in colors and forms which never
violated art principle, and in which the wearer, and not some Paris
liner, could exercise her taste, and the day would have been gained.
This was the task he had set himself to formulate, and so doing he
should divide his subject in two--Color and Form.

In color it was desirable to distinguish carefully between the meaning
of shade, tint, and hue. It was amazing that a cultured nation like the
English should be so generally ignorant of the laws of color harmony. We
were nicely critical of music, yet in color were constantly committing
the gravest solecisms. He did not think there were seventeen interiors
in London that the educated eye could wander over without pain. Yet what
knowledge was so useful? We were not competent to buy a picture, choose
a dress, or furnish a house without a knowledge of color harmony, to say
nothing of the facility such knowledge gave in all kinds of painting on
porcelain, art needlework, and a hundred occupations.

An important consideration in choosing colors for dress was the effect
they would have in juxtaposition. Primary colors should be worn in dark
shades; dark red and dark yellow, or as it was commonly called, olive
green, went well together; but a dress of full red or yellow would be
painful to behold. The rule for full primaries was, employ them
sparingly, and contrast them only with black or gray. He might notice in
passing that when people dressed in gray or black the entire dress was
usually of the one color unrelieved. Yet here they had a background that
would lend beauty to any color placed upon it.

Another safe rule was never to place together colors differing widely in
hue. The eye experienced a difficulty in accommodating itself to sudden
changes, and a species of color discord was the consequence. But if the
colors, even though primaries, were of some very dark or very light
shade, they become harmonious. All very dark shades of color went well
with black and with each other, and all very light shades went well with
white and each other.

A much-vexed question with ladies was, "What will suit my complexion?"
The generally received opinion was that the complexion was pink, either
light or dark, and colors were chosen accordingly, working dire
confusion. But no one living ever had a pink complexion unless a painted
one. The dolls in the Lowther Arcade were pink, and their pink dresses
were in harmony. No natural complexion whatever was improved by pink;
but gray would go with any. The tendency of gray was to give prominence
to the dominant hue in the complexion. When an artist wished to produce
flesh color he mixed white, light red, yellow ocher, and terra vert. The
skin of a fair person was a gray light red, tinged with green; the color
that would brighten and intensify it most was a gray light sea green,
tinged with pink--in other words, its complementary. A color always
subtracted any similar color that might exist in combination near it.
Thus red beside orange altered it to yellow; blue beside pink altered it
to cerise. Hence, if a person was so unfortunate as to have a muddy
complexion, the worst color they could wear would be their own
complexion's complementary--the best would be mud color, for it would
clear their complexion.

Passing on to the consideration of form in costume, the lecturer urged
that the proper function of dress was to drape the human figure without
disguising or burlesquing it. An illustration of Miss Mary Anderson,
attired in a Greek dress as Parthenia, was exhibited, and the lecturer
observed that while the dress once worn by Greek women was unequaled for
elegance, Greek women were not in the habit of tying their skirts in
knots round the knees, and the nervous pose of the toes suggested a more
habitual acquaintance with shoes and stockings.

An enlargement from a drawing by Walter Crane was shown as illustrating
the principles of artistic and natural costume--costume which permitted
the waist to be the normal size, and allowed the drapery to fall in
natural folds--costume which knew nothing of pleats and flounces, stays
and "improvers"--costume which was very symbolization and embodiment of
womanly grace and modesty.

A life-sized enlargement of a fashion plate from _Myra's Journal_, dated
June 1, 1882, was next shown. The circumference of the waist was but 12¾
in., involving an utter exclusion of the liver from that part of the
organization, and the attitude was worthy of a costume which was the _ne
plus ultra_ of formal ugliness.

Having shown another and equally unbecoming costume, selected from a
recent issue by an Oxford Street firm, the lecturer asked, Why did women
think small waists beautiful? Was it because big-waisted women were so
frequently fat and forty, old and ugly? A young girl had no waist, and
did not need stays. As the figure matured the hips developed, and it was
this development which formed the waist. The slightest artificial
compression of the waist destroyed the line of beauty. Therefore, the
grown woman should never wear stays, and, since they tended to weaken
the muscles of the back, the aged and weak should not adopt them. A
waist really too large was less ungraceful than a waist too small. Dress
was designed partly for warmth and partly for adornment. As the uses
were distinct, the garments should be so. A close-fitting inner garment
should supply all requisite warmth, and the outer dress should be as
thin as possible, that it might drape itself into natural folds. Velvet,
from its texture, was ill adapted for this. When worn, it should be in
close fitting garments, and in dark colors only. It was most effective
when black.

Turning for a few moments, in conclusion, to men's attire, the lecturer
suggested that the ill-success of dress reformers hitherto had been the
too-radical changes they sought to introduce. We could be artistic
without being archaic. Most men were satisfied without clothes fairly in
fashion, a tolerable fit, and any unobtrusive color their tailor
pleased. He would suggest that any reformation should begin with color.

       *       *       *       *       *



ARTISANS' DWELLINGS, HORNSEY.


The erection of artisans' dwellings is certainly a prominent feature in
the progress of building in the metropolis, and speculative builders who
work on a smaller scale would do well not to ignore the fact. The
Artisans, Laborers, and General Dwellings Company (Limited) has been
conspicuously successful in rearing large blocks of dwellings for
artisans, clerks, and others whose means necessitates the renting of a
convenient house at as low a rental as it is possible to find it. We
give an illustration of a terrace of first-class houses built by the
above company, who deserve great praise for the spirited and liberal
manner in which they are going to work on this the third of their London
estates--the Noel Park Estate, at Hornsey. On the estates at Shaftesbury
and Queen's Parks they have already built about three thousand houses,
employing therein a capital of considerably over a million sterling,
while at Noel Park they are rapidly covering an estate of one hundred
acres, which will contain, when completed, no less than two thousand six
hundred houses, to be let at weekly rentals varying from 6s. to 11s.
6d., rates and taxes all included. The object has been to provide
separate cottages, each in itself complete, and in so doing they have
not made any marked departure from the ordinary type of suburban terrace
plan, but adopting this as most favorable to economy, have added many
improvements, including sanitary appliances of the latest and most
approved type.

The most important entrance to Noel Park is by Gladstone Avenue, a road
60 ft. wide leading from the Green Lanes to the center of the estate. On
either side of this road the houses are set back 15 ft., in front of
which, along the edge of the pavement, trees of a suitable growth are
being planted, as also on all other roads on the estate. About the
center of Gladstone Avenue an oval space has been reserved as a site for
a church, and a space of five acres in another portion of the estate has
been set apart to be laid out as a recreation ground, should the
development of the estate warrant such an outlay. The remaining streets
are from 40 ft. to 50 ft. in width, clear of the garden space in front
of the houses. Shops will be erected as may be required.

[Illustration: SUGGESTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.--A ROW OF COMFORTABLE
DWELLINGS.]

The drainage of the estate has been arranged on the dual system, the
surface water being kept separate from the sewage drains. Nowhere have
these drains been carried through the houses, but they are taken
directly into drains at the back, having specially ventilated manholes
and being brought through at the ends of terraces into the road sewers;
the ventilating openings in the roads have been converted into inlet
ventilators by placing upcast shafts at short intervals, discharging
above the houses. This system of ventilation was adopted on the
recommendation of Mr. W.A. De Pape, the engineer and surveyor to the
Tottenham Local Board.

All the houses are constructed with a layer of concrete over the whole
area of the site, and a portion of the garden at back. Every room is
specially ventilated, and all party walls are hollow in order to prevent
the passage of sound. A constant water supply is laid on, there being no
cisterns but those to the water-waste preventers to closets. All water
pipes discharge over open trapped gullies outside.

The materials used are red and yellow bricks, with terracotta sills, the
roofs being slated over the greater part, and for the purpose of forming
an agreeable relief, the end houses, and in some cases the central
houses, have red tile roofs, the roofs over porches being similarly
treated. The houses are simply but effectively designed, and the general
appearance of the finished portion of the estate is bright and cheerful.
All end houses of terraces have been specially treated, and in some
cases having rather more accommodation than houses immediately
adjoining, a slightly increased rental is required. There are five
different classes of houses. The first class houses (which we illustrate
this week) are built on plats having 16 ft. frontage by 85 ft. depth,
and containing eight rooms, consisting of two sitting rooms, kitchen,
scullery, with washing copper, coal cellar, larder, and water-closet on
ground floor, and four bedrooms over. The water-closet is entered from
the outside, but in many first-class houses another water-closet has
been provided on the first floor, and one room on this floor is provided
with a small range, so that if two families live in the one house they
will be entirely separated. The rental of these houses is about 11s. to
11s. 6d. per week. Mr. Rowland Plumbe, F.R.I.B.A., of 13 Fitzroy Square,
W., is the architect.--_Building and Engineering Times_.

       *       *       *       *       *



ENLARGING ON ARGENTIC PAPER AND OPALS.

By A. GOODALL.

[Footnote: Read before the Dundee and East of Scotland Photographic
Association.]


The process of making gelatino bromide of silver prints or enlargements
on paper or opal has been before the public for two or three years now,
and cannot be called new; but still it is neither so well known nor
understood as such a facile and easy process deserves to be, and I may
just say here that after a pretty extensive experience in the working of
it I believe there is no other enlarging process capable of giving
better results than can be got by this process when properly understood
and wrought, as the results that can be got by it are certainly equal to
those obtainable by any other method, while the ease and rapidity with
which enlarged pictures can be made by it place it decidedly ahead of
any other method. I propose to show you how I make a gelatino bromide
enlargement on opal.

[Mr. Goodall then proceeded to make an enlargement on a 12 by 10 opal,
using a sciopticon burning paraffin; after an exposure for two and
a-half minutes the developer was applied, and a brilliant opal was the
result.]

We now come to the paper process, and most effective enlargements can be
made by it also; indeed, as a basis for coloring, nothing could well be
better. Artists all over the country have told me that after a few
trials they prefer it to anything else, while excellent and effective
plain enlargements are easily made by it if only carefully handled. A
very good enlargement is made by vignetting the picture, as I have just
done, with the opal, and then squeezing it down on a clean glass, and
afterward framing it with another glass in front, when it will have the
appearance almost equal to an opal. To make sure of the picture adhering
to the glass, however, and at the same time to give greater brilliancy,
it is better to flow the glass with a 10 or 15 grain solution of clear
gelatine before squeezing it down. The one fault or shortcoming of the
plain argentic paper is the dullness of the surface when dry, and this
certainly makes it unsuitable for small work, such as the rapid
production of cartes or proofs from negatives wanted in a hurry; the
tone of an argentic print is also spoken of sometimes as being
objectionable; but my impression is, that it is not so much the tone as
the want of brilliancy that is the fault there, and if once the public
were accustomed to the tones of argentine paper, they might possibly
like them twice as well as the purples and browns with which they are
familiar, provided they had the depth and gloss of a silver print; and
some time ago, acting on a suggestion made by the editor of the
_Photographic News_, I set about trying to produce this result by
enameling the paper with a barium emulsion previous to coating it with
the gelatinous bromide of silver. My experiments were successful, and we
now prepare an enamel argentic paper on which the prints stand out with
brilliancy equal to those on albumenized paper. I here show you
specimens of boudoirs and panels--pictures enlarged from
C.D.V.--negatives on this enamel argentic.

[Mr. Goodall then passed round several enlargements from landscape and
portrait negatives, which it would have been difficult to distinguish
from prints on double albumenized paper.]

I have already spoken of the great ease and facility with which an
argentic enlargement may be made as compared with a collodion transfer,
for instance; but there is another and more important point to be
considered between the two, and that is, their durability and
permanence. Now with regard to a collodion transfer, unless most
particular care be taken in the washing of it (and those who have made
them will well know what a delicate, not to say difficult, job it is to
get them thoroughly freed from the hypo, and at the same time preserve
the film intact), there is no permanence in a collodion transfer, and
that practically in nine cases out of ten they have the elements of
decay in them from the first day of their existence. I know, at least in
Glasgow, where an enormous business has been done within the last few
years by certain firms in the club picture trade (the club picture being
a collodion transfer tinted in oil or varnish colors), there are
literally thousands of pictures for which thirty shillings or more has
been paid, and of which the bare frame is all that remains at the
present day; the gilt of the frames has vanished, and the picture in
disgust, perhaps, has followed it. In short, I believe a collodion
transfer cannot be made even comparatively permanent, unless an amount
of care be taken in the making of it which is neither compatible nor
consistent with the popular price and extensive output. How now stands
the case with an argentic enlargement? Of course it may be said that
there is scarcely time yet to make a fair comparison--that the argentic
enlargements are still only on their trial.

I will give you my own experience. I mentioned at the outset that seven
or eight years ago I had tried Kennet's pellicle and failed, but got one
or two results which I retained as curiosities till only a month or two
ago; but up to that time I cannot say they had faded in the least, and I
have here a specimen made three years ago, which I have purposely
subjected to very severe treatment. It has been exposed without any
protection to the light and damp and all the other noxious influences of
a Glasgow atmosphere, and although certainly tarnished, I think you will
find that it has not faded; the whites are dirty, but the blacks have
lost nothing of their original strength. I here show you the picture
referred to, a 12 by 10 enlargement on artist's canvas, and may here
state, in short, that my whole experience of argentic enlargements leads
me to the conclusion that, setting aside every other quality, they are
the most permanent pictures that have ever been produced. Chromotypes
and other carbon pictures have been called permanent, but their
permanence depends upon the nature of the pigment employed, and
associated with the chromated gelatine in which they are produced, most
of pigments used, and all of the prettiest ones, being unable to
withstand the bleaching action of the light for more than a few weeks.
Carbon pictures are therefore only permanent according to the degree in
which the coloring matter employed is capable of resisting the
decolorizing action of light. But there is no pigment in an argentic
print, nothing but the silver reduced by the developer after the action
of light; and that has been shown by, I think, Captain Abney, to be of a
very stable and not easily decomposed nature; while if the pictures are
passed through a solution of alum after washing and fixing, the gelatine
also is so acted upon as to be rendered in a great degree impervious to
the action of damp, and the pictures are then somewhat similar to carbon
pictures without carbon.

I may now say a few words on the defects and failures sometimes met with
in working this process; and first in regard to the yellowing of the
whites. I hear frequent complaints of this want of purity in the whites,
especially in vignetted enlargements, and I believe that this almost
always arises from one or other of the two following causes:

First. An excess of the ferrous salt in the ferrous oxalate developer;
and when this is the case, the yellow compound salt is more in
suspension than solution, and in the course of development it is
deposited upon, and at the same time formed in, the gelatinous film.

The proportions of saturated solution of oxalate to saturated solution
of iron, to form the oxalate of iron developer, that has been
recommended by the highest and almost only scientific authority on the
subject--Dr. Eder--are from 4 to 6 parts of potassic oxalate to 1 part
of ferrous sulphate.

Now while these proportions may be the best for the development of a
negative, they are not, according to my experience, the best for
gelatine bromide positive enlargements; I find, indeed, that potassic
oxalate should not have more than one-eighth of the ferrous sulphate
solution added to it, otherwise it will not hold in proper solution for
any length of time the compound salt formed when the two are mixed.

The other cause is the fixing bath. This, for opals and vignetted
enlargements especially, should always be fresh and pretty strong, so
that the picture will clear rapidly before any deposit has time to take
place, as it will be observed that very shortly after even one iron
developed print has been fixed in it a deposit of some kind begins to
take place, so that although it may be used a number of times for fixing
prints that are meant to be colored afterward it is best to take a small
quantity of fresh hypo for every enlargement meant to be finished in
black and white. The proportions I use are 8 ounces to the pint of
water. Almost the only other complaints I now hear are traceable to
over-exposure or lack of intelligent cleanliness in the handling of the
paper. The operator, after having been dabbling for some time in hypo,
or pyro, or silver solution, gives his hands a wipe on the focusing
cloth, and straightway sets about making an enlargement, ending up by
blessing the manufacturer who sent him paper full of black stains and
smears. Argentic paper is capable of yielding excellent enlargements,
but it must be intelligently exposed, intelligently developed, and
cleanly and carefully handled.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE MANUFACTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC LENSES.


At a recent meeting of the London and Provincial Photographic
Association Mr. J. Traill Taylor, formerly of New York, commenced his
lecture by referring to the functions of lenses, and by describing the
method by which the necessary curves were computed in order to obtain a
definite focal length. The varieties of optical glass were next
discussed, and specimens (both in the rough and partly shaped state)
were handed round for examination. The defects frequently met with in
glass, such as striæ and tears, were then treated upon; specimens of
lenses defective from this cause were submitted to inspection, and the
mode of searching for such flaws described. Tools for grinding and
polishing lenses of various curvatures were exhibited, together with a
collection of glass disks obtained from the factory of Messrs. Ross &
Co., and in various stages of manufacture--from the first rough slab to
the surface of highest polish. Details of polishing and edging were gone
into, and a series of the various grades of emery used in the processes
was shown. The lecturer then, by means of diagrams which he placed upon
the blackboard, showed the forms of various makes of photographic
lenses, and explained the influence of particular constructions in
producing certain results; positive and negative spherical aberration,
and the manner in which they are made to balance each other, was also
described by the aid of diagrams, as was also chromatic aberration. He
next spoke of the question of optical center of lenses, and said that
that was not, as had been hitherto generally supposed, the true place
from which to measure the focus of a lens or combination. This place was
a point very near the optical center, and was known as the "Gauss"
point, from the name of the eminent German mathematician who had
investigated and made known its properties, the knowledge of which was
of the greatest importance in the construction of lenses. A diagram was
drawn to show the manner of ascertaining the two Gauss points of a
bi-convex lens, and a sheet exhibited in which the various kinds of
lenses with their optical centers and Gauss points were shown. For this
drawing he (Mr. Taylor) said he was indebted to Dr. Hugo Schroeder, now
with the firm of Ross & Co. The lecturer congratulated the
newly-proposed member of the Society, Mr. John Stuart, for his
enterprise in securing for this country a man of such profound
acquirements. The subject of distortion was next treated of, and the
manner in which the idea of a non distorting doublet could be evolved
from a single bi-convex lens by division into two plano-convex lenses
with a central diaphragm was shown. The influence of density of glass
was illustrated by a description of the doublet of Steinheil, the parent
of the large family of rapid doublets now known under various names. The
effect of thickness of lenses was shown by a diagram of the ingenious
method of Mr. F. Wenham, who had long ago by this means corrected
spherical aberration in microscopic objective. The construction of
portrait lenses was next gone into, the influence of the negative
element of the back lens being especially noted. A method was then
referred to of making a rapid portrait lens cover a very large angle by
pivoting at its optical center and traversing the plate in the manner of
the pantoscopic camera. The lecturer concluded by requesting a careful
examination of the valuable exhibits upon the table, kindly lent for the
occasion by Messrs. Ross & Co.

       *       *       *       *       *



IMPROVED DEVELOPERS FOR GELATINE PLATES.

By Dr. Eder.


We are indebted to Chas. Ehrmann, Esq., for the improved formulas given
below as translated by him for the _Photographic Times_.

Dr. Eder has for a considerable time directed especial attention to the
soda and potash developers, either of which seems to offer certain
advantages over the ammoniacal pyrogallol. This advantage becomes
particularly apparent with emulsions prepared with ammonia, which
frequently show with ammoniacal developer green or red fog, or a fog of
clayish color by reflected, and of pale purple by transmitted light.
Ferrous oxalate works quite well with plates of that kind; so do soda
and potassa developers.

For soda developers, Eder uses a solution of 10 parts of pure
crystallized soda in 100 parts of water. For use, 100 c.c. of this
solution are mixed with 6 c.c. of a pyrogallic solution of 1:10, without
the addition of any bromide.

More pleasant to work with is Dr. Stolze's potassa developer. No. 1:
Water, 200 c.c.; chem. pure potassium carbonate, 90 gr.; sodium
sulphite, 25 gr. No. 2: Water 100 c.c.; citric, 1½ gr.; sodium sulphite,
25 gr.; pyrogallol., 12 gr. Solution No. 2 is for its better keeping
qualities preferable to Dr. Stolze's solution.[A] The solutions when in
well stoppered bottles keep well for some time. To develop, mix 100 c.c.
of water with 40 min. of No. 1 and 50 min. of No. 2. The picture appears
quickly and more vigorously than with iron oxalate. If it is desirable
to decrease the density of the negatives, double the quantity of water.
The negatives have a greenish brown to olive-green tone. A very fine
grayish-black can be obtained by using a strong alum bath between
developing and fixing. The same bath after fixing does not act as
effectual in producing the desired tone. A bath of equal volumes of
saturated solutions of alum and ferrous sulphate gives the negative a
deep olive-brown color and an extraordinary intensity, which excludes
all possible necessities of an after intensification.

[Footnote A: 100 c.c. water; 10 c.c. alcohol; 10 gr. pyrogallol; 1 gr.
salicylic acid.]

The sensitiveness with this developer is at least equal to that when
iron developer is used, frequently even greater.

The addition of bromides is superfluous, sometimes injurious. Bromides
in quantities, as added to ammoniacal pyro, would reduce the
sensitiveness to 1/10 or 1/20; will even retard the developing power
almost entirely.

Must a restrainer be resorted to, 1 to 3 min. of a 1:10 solution of
potassium bromide is quite sufficient.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE PREPARATION OF LARD FOR USE IN PHARMACY.

[Footnote: Read at an evening meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of
Great Britain, November 7, 1883.]

By Professor REDWOOD.


I have read with much, interest the paper on "Ointment Bases,"
communicated by Mr. Willmott to the Pharmaceutical Conference at its
recent meeting, but the part of the subject which has more particularly
attracted my attention is that which relates to prepared lard. Reference
is made by Mr. Willmott to lard prepared in different ways, and it
appears from the results of his experiments that when made according to
the process of the British Pharmacopoeia it does not keep free from
rancidity for so long a time as some of the samples do which have been
otherwise prepared. The general tendency of the discussion, as far as
related to this part of the subject, seems to have been also in the same
direction; but neither in the paper nor in the discussion was the
question of the best mode of preparing lard for use in pharmacy so
specially referred to or fully discussed as I think it deserves to be.

When, in 1860, Mr. Hills, at a meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society,
suggested a process for the preparation of lard, which consisted in
removing from the "flare" all matter soluble in water, by first
thoroughly washing it in a stream of cold water after breaking up the
tissues and afterward melting and straining the fat at a moderate heat,
this method of operating seemed to be generally approved. It was adopted
by men largely engaged in "rendering" fatty substances for use in
pharmacy and for other purposes for which the fat was required to be as
free as possible from flavor and not unduly subject to become rancid. It
became the process of the British Pharmacopoeia in 1868. In 1869 it
formed the basis of a process, which was patented in Paris and this
country by Hippolite Mege, for the production of a fat free from taste
and odor, and suitable for dietetic use as a substitute for butter.
Mege's process consists in passing the fat between revolving rollers,
together with a stream of water, and then melting at "animal heat." This
process has been used abroad in the production of the fatty substance
called oleomargarine.

But while there have been advocates for this process, of whom I have
been one, opinions have been now and then expressed to the effect that
the washing of the flare before melting the fat was rather hurtful than
beneficial. I have reason to believe that this opinion has been gaining
ground among those who have carefully inquired into the properties of
the products obtained by the various methods which have been suggested
for obtaining animal fat in its greatest state of purity.

I have had occasion during the last two or three years to make many
experiments on the rendering and purification of animal fat, and at the
same time have been brought into communication with manufacturers of
oleomargarine on the large scale; the result of which experience has
been that I have lost faith in the efficacy of the Pharmacopeia process.
I have found that in the method now generally adopted by manufacturers
of oleomargarine, which is produced in immense quantities, the use of
water, for washing the fat before melting it, is not only omitted but
specially avoided. The parts of the process to which most importance is
attached are: First, the selection of fresh and perfectly sweet natural
fat, which is hung up and freely exposed to air and light. It thus
becomes dried and freed from an odor which is present in the freshly
slaughtered carcass. It is then carefully examined, and adhering
portions of flesh or membrane as far as possible removed; after which it
is cut up and passed through a machine in which it is mashed so as to
completely break up the membraneous vesicles in which the fat is
inclosed. The magma thus produced is put into a deep jacketed pan heated
by warm water, and the fat is melted at a temperature not exceeding
130°F.

If the flare has been very effectually mashed, the fat may be easily
melted away from the membraneous matter at 120°F., or even below that,
and no further continuance of the heat is required beyond what is
necessary for effecting a separation of the melted fat from the
membraneous or other suspended matter. Complete separation of all
suspended matter is obviously important, and therefore nitration seems
desirable, where practicable; which however is not on the large scale.

My experiments tend to indicate that the process just described is that
best adapted for the preparation of lard for use in pharmacy. There is,
however, a point connected with this or any other method of preparing
lard which is deserving of more attention than it has, I believe,
usually received, and that is, the source from which the flare has been
derived. Everybody knows how greatly the quality of pork depends upon
the manner in which the pig has been fed, and this applies to the fat as
well as other parts of the animal. Some time ago I had some pork
submitted to me for the expression of opinion upon it, which had a
decided fishy flavor, both in taste and smell. This flavor was present
in every part, fat and lean, and it is obvious that lard prepared from
that fat would not be fit for use in pharmacy. The pig had been
prescribed a fish diet. Barley meal would, no doubt, have produced a
better variety of lard.

       *       *       *       *       *



ANTI-CORROSION PAINT.


The _Neueste Erfinderung_ describes an anti-corrosion paint for iron. It
states that if 10 per cent. of burnt magnesia, or even baryta, or
strontia, is mixed (cold) with ordinary linseed-oil paint, and then
enough mineral oil to envelop the alkaline earth, the free acid of the
paint will be neutralized, while the iron will be protected by the
permanent alkaline action of the paint. Iron to be buried in damp earth
may be painted with a mixture of 100 parts of resin (colophony), 25
parts of gutta-percha, and 50 parts of paraffin, to which 20 parts of
magnesia and some mineral oil have been added.

       *       *       *       *       *



CARBON IN STEEL.


At a recent meeting of the Chemical Society, London, a paper was read
entitled "Notes on the Condition in which Carbon exists in Steel," by
Sir F.A. Abel, C.B., and W.H. Deering.

Two series of experiments were made. In the first series disks of steel
2.5 inches in diameter and 0.01 inch thick were employed. They were all
cut from the same strip of metal, but some were "cold-rolled," some
"annealed," and some "hardened." The total carbon was found to be:
"cold-rolled," 1.108 per cent.; hardened, 1.128 per cent.; and annealed,
0.924 and 0.860 per cent. Some of the disks were submitted to the action
of an oxidizing solution consisting of a cold saturated solution of
potassium bichromate with 5 per cent. by volume of pure concentrated
sulphuric acid. In all cases a blackish magnetic residue was left
undissolved. These residues, calculated upon 100 parts of the disks
employed, had the following compositions: "Cold-rolled" carbon, 1.039
per cent.; iron, 5.871. Annealed, C, 0.83 per cent.; Fe, 4.74 per cent.
Hardened, C, 0.178 per cent.; Fe, 0.70 per cent. So that by treatment
with chromic acid in the cold nearly the whole of the carbon remains
undissolved with the cold-rolled and annealed disks, but only about
one-sixth of the total carbon is left undissolved in the case of the
hardened disk. The authors then give a _resume_ of previous work on the
subject. In the second part they have investigated the action of
bichromate solutions of various strengths on thin sheet-steel, about
0.098 inch thick, which was cold-rolled and contained: Carbon, 1.144 per
cent.; silica, 0.166 per cent.; manganese, 0.104 per cent. Four
solutions were used. The first contained about 10 per cent. of
bichromate and 9 per cent. of H_{2}SO_{4} by weight; the second was
eight-tenths as strong, the third about half as strong, the fourth about
one and a half times as strong. In all cases the amount of solution
employed was considerably in excess of the amount required to dissolve
the steel used. A residue was obtained as before. With solution 1, the
residue contained, C, 1.021; sol. 2, C, 0.969; sol. 3, C 1.049 the
atomic ratio of iron to carbon was Fe 2.694: C, 1; Fe, 2.65: C, 1; Fe),
2.867 C, 1): sol. 4. C, 0.266 per 100 of steel. The authors conclude
that the carbon in cold rolled steel exists not simply diffused
mechanically through the mass of steel but in the form of an iron
carbide, Fe_{3}C, a definite product, capable of resisting the action of
an oxidizing solution (if the latter is not too strong), which exerts a
rapid solvent action upon the iron through which the carbide is
distributed.

       *       *       *       *       *



APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING STARCH FROM POTATOES.


In the apparatus of Mr. Angele, of Berlin, shown in the annexed cuts
(Figs. 1 and 2), the potatoes, after being cleaned in the washer, C,
slide through the chute, v, into a rasp, D, which reduces them to a fine
pulp under the action of a continuous current of water led in by the
pipe, d. The liquid pulp flows into the iron reservoir, B, from whence a
pump, P, forces it through the pipe, w, to a sieve, g, which is
suspended by four bars and has a backward and forward motion. By means
of a rose, c, water is sprinkled over the entire surface of the sieve
and separates the fecula from the fibrous matter. The water, charged
with fine particles of fecula, and forming a sort of milk, flows through
the tube, z, into the lower part, N, of the washing apparatus, F, while
the pulp runs over the sieve and falls into the grinding-mill, H. This
latter divides all those cellular portions of the fecula that have not
been opened by the rasp, and allows them to run, through the tube, h,
into the washing apparatus, F, where the fecula is completely separated
from woody fibers. The fluid pulp is carried by means of a helix, i, to
a revolving perforated drum at e. From this, the milky starch flows into
the jacket, N, while the pulp (ligneous fibers) makes its exit from the
apparatus through the aperture, n, and falls into the reservoir, o.

[Illustration: ANGELE'S POTATO-STARCH APPARATUS.]

The liquid from the jacket, N, passes to a refining sieve, K, which,
like the one before mentioned, has a backward and forward motion, and
which is covered with very fine silk gauze in order to separate the very
finest impurities from the milky starch. The refined liquid then flows
into the reservoir, m, and the impure mass of sediment runs into the
pulp-reservoir, o. The pump, l, forces the milky liquid from the
reservoir, m, to the settling back, while the pulp is forced by a pump,
u, from the receptacle, o, into a large pulp-reservoir.

The water necessary for the manufacture is forced by the pump, a, into
the reservoir, W, from whence it flows, through the pipes, r, into the
different machines. All the apparatus are set in motion by two
shaftings, q. The principal shaft makes two hundred revolutions per
minute, but the velocity of that of the pumps is but fifty
revolutions.--_Polytech. Journ., and Bull. Musee de l'Indust_.

       *       *       *       *       *



A SIMPLE APPARATUS FOR DESCRIBING ELLIPSES.

By Prof. E.J. HALLOCK.


A very simple apparatus for describing an oval or ellipse may be
constructed by any apprentice or school boy as follows: Procure a
straight piece of wood about ¼ inch wide by 1/8 inch thick and 13 inches
long. Beginning ½ inch from the end, bore a row of small holes only
large enough for a darning needle to pass through and half an inch
apart. Mark the first one (at A) 0, the third 1, the fifth 2, and so on
to 12, so that the numbers represent the distance from O in inches. A
small slit may be made in the end of the ruler or strip of wood near A,
but a better plan is to attach a small clip on one side.

[Illustration: ELLIPSE INSTRUMENT.]

Next procure a strong piece of linen thread about four feet long; pass
it through the eye of a coarse needle, wax and twist it until it forms a
single cord. Pass the needle _upward_ through the hole marked 0, and tie
a knot in the end of the thread to prevent its slipping through. The
apparatus is now ready for immediate use. It only remains to set it to
the size of the oval desired.

Suppose it is required to describe an ellipse the longer diameter of
which is 8 inches, and the distance between the foci 5 inches. Insert a
pin or small tack loosely in the hole between 6 and 7, which is distant
6-½ inches from O. Pass the needle through hole 5, allowing the thread
to pass around the tack or pin; draw it tightly and fasten it in the
slit or clip at the end. Lay the apparatus on a smooth sheet of paper,
place the point of a pencil at E, and keeping the string tight pass it
around and describe the curve, just in the same manner as when the two
ends of the string are fastened to the paper at the foci. The chief
advantage claimed over the usual method is that it may be applied to
metal and stone, where it is difficult to attach a string. On drawings
it avoids the necessity of perforating the paper with pins.

As the pencil point is liable to slip out of the loop formed by the
string, it should have a nick cut or filed in one side, like a crochet
needle.

As the mechanic frequently wants to make an oval having a given width
and length, but does not know what the distance between the foci must be
to produce this effect, a few directions on this point may be useful:

It is a fact well known to mathematicians that if the distance between
the foci and the shorter diameter of an ellipse be made the sides of a
right angled triangle, its hypothenuse will equal the greater diameter.
Hence in order to find the distance between the foci, when the length
and width of the ellipse are known, these two are squared and the lesser
square subtracted from the greater, when the square root of the
difference will be the quantity sought. For example, if it be required
to describe an ellipse that shall have a length of 5 inches and a width
of 3 inches, the distance between the foci will be found as follows:

  (5 x 5) - (3 x 3) = (4 x 4)
  or                   __
     25 - 9 = 16 and \/16 = 4.

In the shop this distance may be found experimentally by laying a foot
rule on a square so that one end of the former will touch the figure
marking the lesser diameter on the latter, and then bringing the figure
on the rule that represents the greater diameter to the edge of the
square; the figure on the square at this point is the distance sought.
Unfortunately they rarely represent whole numbers. We present herewith a
table giving the width to the eighth of an inch for several different
ovals when the length and distance between foci are given.


    Length.     Distance between foci.   Width.
    Inches.          Inches.            Inches.

      2              1                     1¾
      2              1½                    1¼

      2½             1                     2¼
      2½             1½                    2
      2½             2                     1½

      3              1                     1½
      3              1½                    2-7/8
      3              2                     2-5/8
      3              2½                    2¼

      3½             1                     3-3/8
      3½             1½                    3-1/8
      3½             2                     2-7/8
      3½             2½                    2½
      3½             3                     1¾

      4              2                     3½
      4              2½                    3-1/8
      4              3                     2-5/8
      4              3½                    2

      5              3                     4
      5              4                     3

For larger ovals multiples of these numbers may be taken; thus for 7 and
4, take from the table twice the width corresponding to 3½ and 2, which
is twice 2-7/8, or 5¾. It will be noticed also that columns 2 and 3 are
interchangeable.

To use the apparatus in connection with the table: Find the length of
the desired oval in the first column of the table, and the width most
nearly corresponding to that desired in the third column. The
corresponding number in the middle column tells which hole the needle
must be passed through. The tack D, _around_ which the string must pass,
is so placed that the total length of the string AD + DC, or its equal
AE + EC, shall equal the greater diameter of the ellipse. In the figure
it is placed 6½ inches from A, and 1½ inches from C, making the total
length of string 8 inches. The oval described will then be 8 inches long
and 6¼ inches wide.

The above table will be found equally useful in describing ovals by
fastening the ends of the string to the drawing as is recommended in all
the text books on the subject. On the other hand, the instrument may be
set "by guess" when no particular accuracy is required.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL IN KILNS.


The manufacture of charcoal in kilns was declared many years ago, after
a series of experiments made in poorly constructed furnaces, to be
unprofitable, and the subject is dismissed by most writers with the
remark, that in order to use the method economically the products of
distillation, both liquid and gaseous, must be collected. T. Egleston,
Ph.D., of the School of Mines, New York, has read a paper on the subject
before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, from which we extract
as follows: As there are many SILVER DISTRICTS IN THE WEST where coke
cannot be had at such a price as will allow of its being used, and where
the ores are of such a nature that wood cannot be used in a
reverberatory furnace, the most economical method of making charcoal is
an important question.

Kilns for the manufacture of charcoal are made of almost any shape and
size, determined in most cases by the fancy of the builder or by the
necessities of the shape of the ground selected. They do not differ from
each other in any principle of manufacture, nor does there seem to be
any appreciable difference in the quality of the fuel they produce, when
the process is conducted with equal care in the different varieties; but
there is a considerable difference in the yield and in the cost of the
process in favor of small over large kilns. The different varieties have
come into and gone out of use mainly on account of the cost of
construction and of repairs. The object of a kiln is to replace the
cover of a meiler by a permanent structure. Intermediate between the
meiler and the kiln is the Foucauld system, the object of which is to
replace the cover by a structure more or less permanent, which has all
the disadvantages of both systems, with no advantages peculiar to
itself.

The kilns which are used may be divided into the rectangular, the round,
and the conical, but the first two seem to be disappearing before the
last, which is as readily built and much more easily managed.


ALL VARIETIES OF KILNS

Are usually built of red brick, or, rarely, of brick and stone together.
Occasionally, refractory brick is used, but it is not necessary. The
foundations are usually made of stone. There are several precautions
necessary in constructing the walls. The brick should be sufficiently
hard to resist the fire, and should therefore be tested before using. It
is an unnecessary expense to use either second or third quality
fire-brick. As the pyroligneous acid which results from the distillation
of the wood attacks lime mortar, it is best to lay up the brick with
fire-clay mortar, to which a little salt has been added; sometimes loam
mixed with coal-tar, to which a little salt is also added, is used. As
the principal office of this mortar is to fill the joints, special care
must be taken in laying the bricks that every joint is broken, and
frequent headers put in to tie the bricks together. It is especially
necessary that all the joints should be carefully filled, as any small
open spaces would admit air, and would materially decrease the yield of
the kiln. The floor of the kiln was formerly made of two rows of brick
set edgewise and carefully laid, but latterly it is found to be best
made of clay. Any material, however, that will pack hard may be used. It
must be well beaten down with paving mauls. The center must be about six
inches higher than the sides, which are brought up to the bottom of the
lower vents. Most kilns are carefully pointed, and are then painted on
the outside with a wash of clay suspended in water, and covered with a
coating of coal-tar, which makes them waterproof, and does not require
to be renewed for several years.

[Illustration: RECTANGULAR KILNS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL.]

The kilns were formerly roofed over with rough boards to protect the
masonry from the weather, but as no special advantage was found to
result from so doing, since of late years they have been made
water-proof, the practice has been discontinued.

The wood used is cut about one and a fifth meters long. The diameter is
not considered of much importance, except in so far as it is desirable
to have it as nearly uniform as possible. When most of the wood is
small, and only a small part of it is large, the large pieces are
usually split, to make it pack well. It has been found most satisfactory
to have three rows of vents around the kiln, which should be provided
with a cast-iron frame reaching to the inside of the furnace. The vents
near the ground are generally five inches high--the size of two
bricks--and four inches wide--the width of one--and the holes are closed
by inserting one or two bricks in them. They are usually the size of one
brick, and larger on the outside than on the inside. These holes are
usually from 0.45 m. to 0.60 m. apart vertically, and from 0.80 m. to
0.90 m. apart horizontally. The lower vents start on the second row of
the brickwork above the foundation, and are placed on the level with the
floor, so that the fire can draw to the bottom. There is sometimes an
additional opening near the top to allow of the rapid escape of the
smoke and gas at the time of firing, which is then closed, and kept
closed until the kiln is discharged. This applies mostly to the best
types of conical kilns. In the circular and conical ones the top
charging door is sometimes used for this purpose. Hard and soft woods
are burned indifferently in the kilns. Hard-wood coal weighs more than
soft, and the hard variety of charcoal is usually preferred for blast
furnaces, and for such purposes there is an advantage of fully 33-1/3
per cent. or even more in using hard woods. For the direct process in
the bloomaries, soft-wood charcoal is preferred. It is found that it is
not usually advantageous to build kilns of over 160 to 180 cubic meters
in capacity. Larger furnaces have been used, and give as good a yield,
but they are much more cumbersome to manage. The largest yield got from
kilns is from 50 to 60 bushels for hard wood to 50 for soft wood. The
average yield, however, is about 45 bushels. In meilers, two and a half
to three cords of wood are required for 100 bushels, or 30 to 40 bushels
to the cord. The kiln charcoal is very large, so that the loss in fine
coal is very much diminished. The pieces usually come out the whole
size, and sometimes the whole length of the wood.

The rectangular kilns were those which were formerly exclusively in use.
They are generally built to contain from 30 to 90 cords of wood. The
usual sizes are given in the table below:

                              1   2   3   4
  Length                     50  40  40  48
  Width                      12  15  14  17
  Height                     12  15  18  18
  Capacity, in cords         55  70  75  90

1 and 2. Used in New England. 3. Type of those used in Mexico. 4. Kiln
at Lauton, Mich.

The arch is usually an arc of a circle. A kiln of the size of No. 4, as
constructed at the Michigan Central Iron Works, with a good burn, will
yield 4,000 bushels of charcoal.

The vertical walls in the best constructions are 12 to 13 feet high, and
1-½ brick thick, containing from 20 to 52 bricks to the cubic foot of
wall. To insure sufficient strength to resist the expansion and
contraction due to the heating and cooling, they should be provided with
buttresses which are 1 brick thick and 2 wide, as at Wassaic, New York;
but many of them are built without them, as at Lauton, Michigan, as
shown in the engraving. In both cases they are supported with strong
braces, from 3 to 4 feet apart, made of round or hewn wood, or of cast
iron, which are buried in the ground below, and are tied above and below
with iron rods, as in the engraving, and the lower end passing beneath
the floor of the kiln. When made of wood they are usually 8 inches
square or round, or sometimes by 8 inches placed edgewise. They are
sometimes tied at the top with wooden braces of the same size, which are
securely fastened by iron rods running through the corners, as shown.
When a number of kilns are built together, as at the Michigan Central
Iron Works, at Lauton, Michigan, shown in the plan view, only the end
kilns are braced in this way. The intermediate ones are supported below
by wooden braces, securely fastened at the bottom. The roof is always
arched, is one brick, or eight inches, thick, and is laid in headers,
fourteen being used in each superficial foot. Many of the kilns have in
the center a round hole, from sixteen to eighteen inches in diameter,
which is closed by a cast iron plate. It requires from 35 M. to 40 M.
brick for a kiln of 45 cords, and 60 M. to 65 M. for one of 90 cords.

       *       *       *       *       *

The belief that population in the West Indies is stationary is so far
from accurate that, as Sir Anthony Musgrave points out, it is increasing
more rapidly than the population of the United Kingdom. The statistics
of population show an increase of 16 per cent. on the last decennial
period, while the increase in the United Kingdom in the ten years
preceding the last census was under 11 per cent. This increase appears
to be general, and is only slightly influenced by immigration. "The
population of the West Indies," adds Sir A. Musgrave, "is now greater
than that of any of the larger Australian colonies, and three times that
of New Zealand."

       *       *       *       *       *



HEAT DEVELOPED IN FORGING.


M. Tresca has lately presented to the Academy of Sciences some very
interesting experiments on the development and distribution of heat
produced by a blow of the steam hammer in the process of forging. The
method used was as follows: The bar was carefully polished on both
sides, and this polished part covered with a thin layer of wax. It was
then placed on an anvil and struck by a monkey of known weight, P,
falling from a height, H. The faces of the monkey and anvil were exactly
alike, and care was taken that the whole work, T = PH, should be
expended upon the bar. A single blow was enough to melt the wax over a
certain zone; and this indicated clearly how much of the lateral faces
had been raised by the shock to the temperature of melting wax. The form
of this melted part could be made to differ considerably, but
approximated to that of an equilateral hyperbola. Let A be the area of
this zone, b the width of the bar, d the density, C the heat capacity,
and t-t0 the excess of temperature of melting wax over the temperature
of the air. Then, assuming that the area, A, is the base of a horizontal
prism, which is everywhere heated to the temperature, t, the heating
effect produced will be expressed by

Ab x d x C(t-t0)

Multiplying this by 425, or Joule's equivalent for the metrical system,
the energy developed in heat is given by

T1 = 425 AbdC(t-t0).

Dividing T1 by T, we obtain the ratio which the energy developed in heat
bears to the total energy of the blow.

With regard to the form of the zone of melting, it was found always to
extend round the edges of the indent produced in the bar by the blow. We
are speaking for the present of cases where the faces of the monkey and
anvil were sharp. On the sides of the bar the zone took the form of a
sort of cross with curved arms, the arms being thinner or thicker
according to the greater or less energy of the shock. These forms are
shown in Figs. 1 to 6. It will be seen that these zones correspond to
the zones of greatest sliding in the deformation of a bar forged with a
sharp edged hammer, showing in fact that it is the mechanical work done
in this sliding which is afterward transformed into heat.

[Illustration]

With regard to the ratio, above mentioned, between the heat developed
and the energy of the blow, it is very much greater than had been
expected when the other sources of loss were taken into consideration.
In some cases it reached 80 per cent., and in a table given the limits
vary for an iron bar between 68.4 per cent. with an energy of 40
kilogram-meters, and 83.6 per cent. with an energy of 90
kilogram-meters. With copper the energy is nearly constant at 70 per
cent. It will be seen that the proportion is less when the energy is
less, and it also diminishes with the section of the bar. This is no
doubt due to the fact that the heat is then conducted away more rapidly.
On the whole, the results are summed up by M. Tresca as follows:

(1) The development of heat depends on the form of the faces and the
energy of the blow.

(2) In the case of faces with sharp edges, the process described allows
this heat to be clearly indicated.

(3) The development of heat is greatest where the shearing of the
material is strongest. This shearing is therefore the mechanical cause
which produces the heating effect.

(4) With a blow of sufficient energy and a bar of sufficient size, about
80 per cent. of the energy reappears in the heat.

(5) The figures formed by the melted wax give a sort of diagram, showing
the distribution of the heat and the character of the deformation in the
bar.

(6) Where the energy is small the calculation of the percentage is not
reliable.

So far we have spoken only of cases where the anvil and monkey have
sharp faces. Where the faces are rounded the phenomena are somewhat
different. Figs. 7 to 12 give the area of melted wax in the case of bars
struck with blows gradually increasing in energy. It will be seen that,
instead of commencing at the edges of the indent, the fusion begins near
the middle, and appears in small triangular figures, which gradually
increase in width and depth until at last they meet at the apex, as in
Fig. 12. The explanation is that with the rounded edges the compression
at first takes place only in the outer layers of the bar, the inner
remaining comparatively unaffected. Hence the development of heat is
concentrated on these outer layers, so long as the blows are moderate in
intensity. The same thing had already been remarked in cases of holes
punched with a rounded punch, where the burr, when examined, was found
to have suffered the greatest compression just below the punch. With
regard to the percentage of energy developed as heat, it was about the
same as in the previous experiments, reaching in one case, with an iron
bar and with an energy of 110 kilogram-meters, the exceedingly high
figure of 91 per cent. With copper, the same figure varied between 50
and 60 per cent.--_Iron_.

       *       *       *       *       *



A NOVEL PROPELLER ENGINE.

By Prof. C.W. MacCord.


The accompanying engravings illustrate the arrangement of a propeller
engine of 20 inch bore and 22 inch stroke, whose cylinder and valve gear
were recently designed by the writer, and are in process of construction
by Messrs. Valk & Murdoch, of Charleston, S.C.

In the principal features of the engine, taken as a whole, as will be
perceived, there is no new departure. The main slide valve, following
nearly full stroke, is of the ordinary form, and reversed by a shifting
link actuated by two eccentrics, in the usual manner; and the expansion
valves are of the well known Meyer type, consisting of two plates on the
back of the main valve, driven by a third eccentric, and connected by a
right and left handed screw, the turning of which alters the distance
between the plates and the point of cutting off.

The details of this mechanism, however, present several novel features,
of which the following description will be understood by reference to
the detached cuts, which are drawn upon a larger scale than the general
plan shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

[Illustration: Figs. 1-2 IMPROVED STEAM ENGINE.--BY PROF MACCORD.]

The first of these relates to the arrangement of the right and left
handed screw, above mentioned, and of the device by which it is rotated.

Usually, the threads, both right handed and left handed, are cut upon
the cut-off valve stem itself, which must be so connected with the
eccentric rod as to admit of being turned; and in most cases the valve
stem extends through both ends of the steam chest, so that it must both
slide endwise and turn upon its axis in two stuffing boxes, necessarily
of comparatively large size.

All this involves considerable friction, and in the engine under
consideration an attempt has been made to reduce the amount of this
friction, and to make the whole of this part of the gear neater and more
compact, in the following manner:

Two small valve stems are used, which are connected at their lower ends
by a crosstail actuated directly by the eccentric rod, and at their
upper ends by a transverse yoke. This yoke, filling snugly between two
collars formed upon a sleeve which it embraces, imparts a longitudinal
motion to the latter, while at the same time leaving it free to rotate.

This sleeve has cut upon it the right and left handed screws for
adjusting the cut-off valves; and it slides freely upon a central
spindle which has no longitudinal motion, but, projecting through the
upper end of the valve chest, can be turned at pleasure by means of a
bevel wheel and pinion. The rotation of the spindle is communicated to
the sleeve by means of two steel keys fixed in the body of the latter
and projecting inwardly so as to slide in corresponding longitudinal
grooves in the spindle.

Thus the point of cutting off is varied at will while the engine is
running, by means of the hand wheel on the horizontal axis of the bevel
pinion, and a small worm on the same axis turns the index, which points
out upon the dial the distance followed. These details are shown in
Figs. 3, 4, and 5; in further explanation of which it may be added that
Fig. 3 is a front view of the valve chest and its contents, the cover,
and also the balance plate for relieving the pressure on the back of the
main valve (in the arrangement of which there is nothing new), being
removed in order to show the valve stems, transverse yoke, sleeve, and
spindle above described. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 5 is
a transverse section, the right hand side showing the cylinder cut by a
plane through the middle of the exhaust port, the left hand side being a
section by a plane above, for the purpose of exhibiting more clearly the
manner in which the steam is admitted to the valve chest; the latter
having no pipes for this service, the steam enters below the valve, at
each end of the chest, just as it escapes in the center.

The second noteworthy feature consists in this: that the cut-off
eccentric is not keyed fast, as is customary when valve gear of this
kind is employed, but is loose upon the shaft, the angular position in
relation to the crank being changed when the engine is reversed; two
strong lugs are bolted on the shaft, one driving the eccentric in one
direction, the other in the opposite, by acting against the reverse
faces of a projection from the side of The eccentric pulley.

The loose eccentric is of course a familiar arrangement in connection
with poppet valves, as well as for the purpose of reversing an engine
when driving a single slide valve. Its use in connection with the Meyer
cut-off valves, however, is believed to be new; and the reason for its
employment will be understood by the aid of Fig. 6.

For the purposes of this explanation we may neglect the angular
vibrations of the connecting rod and eccentric rod, considering them
both as of infinite length. Let O be the center of the shaft; let L O M
represent the face of the main valve seat, in which is shown the port
leading to the cylinder; and let A be the edge of the main valve, at the
beginning of a stroke of the piston. It will then be apparent that the
center of the eccentric must at that instant be at the point, C, if the
engine turn to the left, as shown by the arrow, and at G, if the
rotation be in the opposite direction; C and G then may be taken as the
centers of the "go-ahead" and the "backing" eccentrics respectively,
which operate the main valve through the intervention of the link.

Now, in each revolution of the engine, the cut-off eccentric in effect
revolves in the same direction about the center of the main eccentric.
Consequently, we may let R C S, parallel to L O M, represent the face of
the cut-off valve seat, or, in other words, the back of the main valve,
in which the port, C N, corresponds to one of those shown in Fig. 4; and
the motion of the cut-off valve over this seat will be precisely, the
same as though it were driven directly by an eccentric revolving around
the center, C.

In determining the position of this eccentric, we proceed upon the
assumption that the best results will be effected by such an arrangement
that when cutting off at the earliest point required, the cut-off valve
shall, at the instant of closing the port, be moving over it at its
highest speed. And this requires that the center of the eccentric shall
at the instant in question lie in the vertical line through C.

[Illustration: Figs. 3-12 IMPROVED STEAM ENGINE.--BY PROF MACCORD.]

Next, the least distance to be followed being assigned, the angle
through which the crank will turn while the piston is traveling that
distance is readily found; then, drawing an indefinite line C T, making
with the vertical line, G O, an angle, G C T. equal to the one thus
determined, any point upon that line may be assumed as the position of
the required center of the cut-off eccentric, at the beginning of the
stroke.

But again, in order that the cut-off may operate in the same manner when
backing as when going ahead, this eccentric must be symmetrically
situated with respect to both C and G; and since L O M bisects and is
perpendicular to G C, it follows that if the cut-off eccentric be fixed
on the shaft, its center must be located at H, the intersection of C T
with L M. This would require the edge of the cut-off valve at the given
instant to be at Q, perpendicularly over H; and the travel over the main
valve would be equal to twice C H, the virtual lever arm of the
eccentric, the actual traverse in the valve chest being twice O H, the
real eccentricity.

This being clearly excessive, let us next see what will occur if the
lever arm, CH, be reduced as in the diagram to CK. The edge of the
cut-off valve will then be at N; it instantly begins to close the port.
CN, but not so rapidly as the main valve opens the port, AB.

The former motion increases in rapidity, while the latter decreases;
therefore at some point they will become equal in velocity, and the
openings of the two ports will be the same; and the question is, Will
this maximum effective port area give a sufficient supply of steam?

This diagram is the same as the one actually used in the engine under
consideration, in which it was required to follow a minimum distance of
5 inches in the stroke of 22. Under these conditions it is found that
the actual port opening for that point of cutting off is three-fifths of
that allowed when following full stroke, whereas the speed of the piston
at the time when this maximum opening occurs is less than half its
greatest speed.

This, it would seem, is ample; but we now find the eccentric, K, no
longer in the right position for backing; when the engine is reversed it
ought to be at, P, the angle, POL, being equal to the angle, KOL. By
leaving it free, therefore, to move upon the shaft, by the means above
described, through the angle, KOP, the desired object is accomplished.
The real eccentricity is now reduced in the proportion of OK to OH,
while the lengths of the cut-off valves, and what is equally important,
their travel over the back of the main valve, are reduced in the
proportion of CK to CH, in this instance nearly one-half; a gain quite
sufficient to warrant the adoption of the expedient.

The third, and perhaps the most notable, peculiarity is the manner of
suspending and operating the main link. As before stated, this link is
used only for reversing, and is therefore always in "full gear" in one
direction or the other; and the striking feature of the arrangement here
used is that, whether going ahead or backing, there is _no slipping of
the link upon the link block_.

The link itself is of the simplest form, being merely a curved flat bar,
L, in which are two holes, A and B (Fig. 7), by which the link is hung
upon the pins, which project from the sides of the eccentric rods at
their upper ends.

This is most clearly shown in Fig. 8, which is a top view of the
reversing gear. The link block is a socket, open on the side next to the
eccentric rods, but closed on the side opposite, from which projects the
journal, J, as shown in Fig. 9, which is a vertical section by the
plane, XY. This journal turns freely in the outer end of a lever, M,
which transmits the reciprocating motion to the valve, through the
rock-shaft, O, and another lever, N. Connected with the lever, M, by the
bridge-piece, K, and facing it, is a slotted arm, G, as shown in the end
view, Fig. 10. The center line of this slot lies in the plane which
contains the axes of the journal, J, and of the shaft, O.

A block, E, is fitted to slide in the slotted arm, G; and in this block
is fixed a pin, P. A bridle-rod, R, connects P with the pin, A, of one
of the eccentric-rods, prolonged for that purpose as shown in Fig. 8;
and a suspension-rod, S, connects the same pin, P, with the upper end of
the reversing lever, T, which is operated by the worm and sector. The
distance, JO, in Fig. 10, or in other words the length of the lever, M,
is precisely equal to the distance, AB, in Fig. 7, measured in a right
line; and the rods, R and S, from center to center of the eyes, are also
each of precisely this same length. Further, the axis about which the
reversing lever, T, vibrates is so situated that when that lever, as in
Fig 11, is thrown full to the left, the pin in its upper end is exactly
in line with the rock-shaft, O.

When the parts are in this position, the suspension-rod, S, the arm, G,
and the lever, M, will be as one piece, and their motions will be
identical, consisting simply of vibration about the axis of the
rock-shaft, O. The motion of the lever, M, is then due solely to the
pin, B, which is in this case exactly in line with the journal, J, so
that the result is the same as though this eccentric rod were connected
directly to the lever; and the pin, P, being also in line with B and J,
and kept so by the suspension-rod, S, it will be seen that the
bridle-rod, R, will move with the link, L, as though the two were
rigidly fastened together.

When the reversing lever, T, is thrown full to the right, as in Fig. 12,
the pin, P, is drawn to the inner end of the slot in the arm, G, and is
thus exactly in line with the rock-shaft, O. The suspension-rod, S,
will, therefore, be at rest; but the pin, A, will have been drawn, by
the bridle-rod, R, into line with the journal, J, and the bridle-rod
itself will now vibrate with the lever, M, whose sole motion will be
derived from the pin, A.

There is, then, no block slip whatever when the link thus suspended and
operated is run in "full gear," either forward or backward.

If this arrangement be used in cases where the link is used as an
expansion device, there will be, of course, some block slip while
running in the intermediate gears. But even then, it is to be observed
that the motion of the pin, A, relatively to the rocker arm is one of
vibration about the moving center, J; and its motion relatively to the
sliding block, E, is one of vibration about the center, P, whose motion
relatively to E is a small amount of sliding in the direction of the
slot, due to the fact that the rocker arm itself, which virtually
carries the block, E, vibrates about O, while the suspension-rod, S,
vibrates about another fixed center. It will thus be seen that, finally,
the block slip will be determined by the difference in curvature of arcs
_which curve in the same direction_, whether the engine be running
forward or backward; whereas in the common modes of suspension the block
slip in one direction is substantially the half sum of the curvatures of
two arcs curving in opposite directions.

Consequently it would appear that the average action of the new
arrangement would be at least equal to that of the old in respect to
reducing the block slip when running in the intermediate gears, while in
the full gears it entirely obviates that objectionable feature.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE NEW RUSSIAN TORPEDO BOAT, THE POTI.


The Russian government has just had built at the shipyards of Mr.
Normand, the celebrated Havre engineer, a torpedo boat called the Poti,
which we herewith illustrate. This vessel perceptibly differs from all
others of her class, at least as regards her model. Her extremities,
which are strongly depressed in the upperworks, and the excessive
inclination of her sides, give the boat as a whole a certain resemblance
to the rams of our navy, such as the Taureau and Tigre.

[Illustration: THE NEW RUSSIAN TORPEDO BOAT, THE "POTI".]

A transverse section of the Poti approaches an ellipse in shape. Her
water lines are exceedingly fine, and, in point of elegance, in no wise
cede to those of the most renowned yachts. The vessel is entirely of
steel, and her dimensions are as follows: Length, 28 meters; extreme
breadth, 3.6 meters; depth, 2.5 meters; draught, 1.9 meters;
displacement, 66 tons. The engine, which is a compound one, is of 600
H.P. The minimum speed required is 18 knots, or 33-34 meters, per hour,
and it will probably reach 40 kilometers.

The vessel will be armed with 4 Whitehead torpedoes of 5.8 m., and 2
Hotchkiss guns of 40 cm. Her supply of coal will be sufficient for a
voyage of 1000 nautical miles at a speed of 11 knots.--_L'Illustration_.

       *       *       *       *       *



A NEW STEAMER PROPELLED BY HYDRAULIC REACTION.


The oar, the helix, and the paddle-wheel constitute at present the means
of propulsion that are exclusively employed when one has recourse to a
motive power for effecting the propulsion of a boat. The sail
constitutes an entirely different mode, and should not figure in our
enumeration, considering the essentially variable character of the force
utilized.

In all these propellers, we have only an imitation, very often a rude
one, of the processes which nature puts in play in fishes and mollusks,
and the mode that we now wish to make known is without contradiction
that which imitates these the best.

Hydraulic propulsion by reaction consists, in principle, in effecting a
movement of boats, by sucking in water at the bow and forcing it out at
the stern. This is a very old idea. Naturalists cite whole families of
mollusks that move about in this way with great rapidity. It is probable
that such was the origin of the first idea of this mode of operating.
However this may be, as long ago as 1661 a patent was taken out in
England, on this principle, by Toogood & Hayes. After this we find the
patents of Allen (1729) and Rumsay (1788). In France, Daniel Bernouilli
presented to the Académic des Sciences a similar project during the last
century.

Mr. Seydell was the first to build a vessel on this principle. This
ship, which was called the Enterprise, was of 100 tons burden, and was
constructed at Edinburgh for marine fishery. The success of this was
incomplete, but it was sufficient to show all the advantage that could
be got from the idea. Another boat, the Albert, was built at Stettin,
after the same type and at about the same epoch; and the question was
considered of placing a reaction propeller upon the Great Eastern.

About 1860 the question was taken up again by the house of Cokerill de
Seraing, which built the Seraing No. 2, that did service as an excursion
boat between Liége and Seraing. The propeller of this consisted of a
strong centrifugal pump, with vertical axis, actuated by a low pressure
engine. This pump sucked water into a perforated channel at the bottom
of the boat, and forced it through a spiral pipe to the propelling
tubes. These latter consisted of two elbowed pipes issuing from the
sides of the vessel and capable of pivoting in the exhaust ports in such
a way as to each turn its mouth downward at will, backward or forward.
The water expelled by the elbowed pipes reacted through pressure, as in
the hydraulic tourniquet of cabinets of physics, and effected the
propulsion of the vessel. Upon turning the two mouths of the propelling
tubes backward, the boat was thrust forward, and, when they were turned
toward the front, she was thrust backward. When one was turned toward
the front and the other toward the stern, the boat swung around.
Finally, when the two mouths were placed vertically the boat remained
immovable. All the evolutions were easy, even without the help of the
rudder, and the ways in which the propelling tubes could be placed were
capable of being varied _ad infinitum_ by a system of levers.

The Seraing No. 2 had an engine of a nominal power of 40 horses, and
took on an average 30 minutes to make the trip, backward and forward, of
85 kilometers, with four stoppages.

The success obtained was perfect, and the running was most satisfactory.
It was remarked, only, that from the standpoint of effective duty it
would have been desirable to reduce the velocity of the water at its
exit from the propellers.

Mr. Poillon attributes the small effective performance to the system
employed for putting the water in motion. At time of Mr. Seraing's
experiments, only centrifugal force pumps were known, and the theoretic
effective duty of these, whatever be the peculiar system of
construction, cannot exceed 66 per cent., and, in practice, falls to 40
or 50 per cent. in the majority of cases.

It is probable, then, that in making use of those new rotary pumps where
effective duty reaches and often exceeds 80 per cent., we might obtain
much better results, and it is this that justifies the new researches
that have been undertaken by Messrs. Maginot & Pinette, whose first
experiments we are about to make known.

In order to have it understood what interest attaches to these
researches, let us state the principal advantages that this mode of
propulsion will have over the helix and paddle wheel: The width of
side-wheel boats will be reduced by from 20 to 30 per cent., and the
draught of water will be diminished in screw steamers to that of the
hull itself; the maneuver in which the power of the engine might be
directly employed will be simplified; a machine will be had of a
sensibly constant speed, and without change in its running; the
production of waves capable of injuring the banks of canals will be
avoided; the propeller will be capable of being utilized as a bilge
pump; all vibration will be suppressed; the boat will be able to run at
any speed under good conditions, while the helix works well only when
the speed of the vessel corresponds to its pitch; it will be possible to
put the propelling apparatus under water; and, finally, it will be
possible to run the pump directly by the shaft of the high speed engine,
without intermediate gearing, which is something that would prove a very
great advantage in the case of electric pleasure boats actuated by piles
and accumulators and dynamo-electric machines.

[Illustration: NEW STEAMER PROPELLED BY HYDRAULIC REACTION.]

We now arrive at Messrs. Maginot & Pinette's system, the description of
which will be greatly facilitated by the diagram that accompanies this
article. The inventors have employed a boat 14 meters in length by 1.8
m. in width, and 65 centimeters draught behind and 32 in front. The
section of the midship beam is 70 square decimeters, and that of the
exhaust port is 4. At a speed of 2.2 meters per second the tractive
stress, K, is from 10 to 11 kilogrammes. At a speed of 13.5 kilometers
per hour, or 3.75 meters per second, the engine develops a power of 12
horses. The piston is 19 centimeters in diameter, and has a stroke of 15
centimeters. The shaft, in common, of the pump and engine makes 410
revolutions per minute. It will be seen from the figure that suction
occurs at the lower part of the hull, at A, and that the water is forced
out at B, to impel the vessel forward. C and C' are the tubes for
putting the vessel about, and DD' the tubes for causing her to run
backward. Owing to the tubes, C, C', the rudder has but small dimensions
and is only used for _directing_ the boat. The vessel may be turned
about _in situ_ by opening one of the receiving tubes, according to the
side toward which it is desired to turn.

This boat is as yet only in an experimental state, and the first trials
of her that have recently been made upon the Saône have shown the
necessity of certain modifications that the inventors are now at work
upon.--_La Nature_.

       *       *       *       *       *



A NEW FORM OF FLEXIBLE BAND DYNAMOMETER.

[Footnote: Read before Section G of British Association.]

By Professor W.C. UNWIN.


[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

In the ordinary strap dynamometer a flexible band, sometimes carrying
segments of wood blocks, is hung over a pulley rotated by the motor, the
power of which is to be measured. If the pulley turns with left-handed
rotation, the friction would carry the strap toward the left, unless the
weight, Q, were greater than P. If the belt does not slip in either
direction when the pulley rotates under it, then Q-P exactly measures
the friction on the surface of the pulley; and V being the surface
velocity of the pulley (Q-P)V, is exactly the work consumed by the
dynamometer. But the work consumed in friction can be expressed in
another way. Putting [theta] for the arc embraced by the belt, and [mu]
for the coefficient of friction,

  Q/P = [epsilon]^{[mu]^{[theta]}},

or for a given arc of contact Q = [kappa]P, where [kappa] depends only
on the coefficient of friction, increasing as [mu] increases, and _vice
versa_. Hence, for the belt to remain at rest with two fixed weights, Q
and P, it is necessary that the coefficient of friction should be
exactly constant. But this constancy cannot be obtained. The coefficient
of friction varies with the condition of lubrication of the surface of
the pulley, which alters during the running and with every change in the
velocity and temperature of the rubbing surfaces. Consequently, in a
dynamometer in this simple form more or less violent oscillations of the
weights are set up, which cannot be directly controlled without
impairing the accuracy of the dynamometer. Professors Ayrton and Perry
have recently used a modification of this dynamometer, in which the part
of the cord nearest to P is larger and rougher than the part nearest to
Q. The effect of this is that when the coefficients of friction
increase, Q rises a little, and diminishes the amount of the rougher
cord in contact, and _vice versa_. Thus reducing the friction,
notwithstanding the increase of the coefficient. This is very ingenious,
and the only objection to it, if it is an objection, is that only a
purely empirical adjustment of the friction can be obtained, and that
the range of the adjustment cannot be very great. If in place of one of
the weights we use a spring balance, as in Figs. 2 and 3, we get a
dynamometer which automatically adjusts itself to changes in the
coefficient of friction.

[Illustration: FIG.2 FIG.3]

For any increase in the coefficient, the spring in Fig. 2 lengthens, Q
increases, and the frictional resistance on the surface of the pulley
increases, both in consequence of the increase of Q, which increases the
pressure on the pulley, and of the increase of the coefficient of
friction. Similarly for any increase of the coefficient of friction, the
spring in Fig. 3 shortens, P diminishes, and the friction on the surface
of the pulley diminishes so far as the diminution of P diminishes the
normal pressure, but on the whole increases in consequence of the
increase of the coefficient of friction. The value of the friction on
the surface of the pulley, however, is more constant for a given
variation of the frictional coefficient in Fig. 3 than in Fig. 2, and
the variation of the difference of tensions to be measured is less. Fig.
3, therefore, is the better form.

A numerical calculation here may be useful. Supposing the break set to a
given difference of tension, Q-P, and that in consequence of any cause
the coefficient of friction increases 20 per cent., the difference of
tensions for an ordinary value of the coefficient of friction would
increase from 1.5 P to 2 P in Fig. 2, and from 1.5 P to 1.67 P in Fig.
3. That is, the vibration of the spring, and the possible error of
measurement of the difference of tension would be much greater in Fig. 2
than in Fig. 3. It has recently occurred to the author that a further
change in the dynamometer would make the friction on the pulley still
more independent of changes in the coefficient of friction, and
consequently the measurement of the work absorbed still more accurate.
Suppose the cord taken twice over a pulley fixed on the shaft driven by
the motor and round a fixed pulley, C.

For clearness, the pulleys, A B, are shown of different sizes, but they
are more conveniently of the same size. Further, let the spring balance
be at the free end of the cord toward which the pulley runs. Then it
will be found that a variation of 20 per cent. in the friction produces
a somewhat greater variation of P than in Fig. 3. But P is now so much
smaller than before that Q-P is much less affected by any error in the
estimate of P. An alteration of 20 per cent. in the friction will only
alter the quantity Q-P from 5.25 P to 5.55 P, or an alteration of less
than 6 per cent.

[Illustration: FIG. 4]

To put it in another way, the errors in the use of dynamometer are due
to the vibration of the spring which measures P, and are caused by
variations of the coefficient of friction of the dynamometer. By making
P very much smaller than in the usual form of the dynamometer, any
errors in determining it have much less influence on the measurement of
the work absorbed. We may go further. The cord may be taken over four
pulleys; in that case a variation of 20 per cent. in the frictional
coefficient only alters the total friction on the pulleys 1¼ percent. P
is now so insignificant compared with Q that an error in determining it
is of comparatively little consequence.

[Illustration: FIG. 5]

The dynamometer is now more powerful in absorbing work than in the form
Fig. 3. As to the practical construction of the brake, the author thinks
that simple wires for the flexible bands, lying in V grooves in the
pulleys, of no great acuteness, would give the greatest resistance with
the least variation of the coefficient of friction; the heat developed
being in that case neutralized by a jet of water on the pulley. It would
be quite possible with a pulley of say 3 feet diameter, and running at
50 feet of surface velocity per second, to have a sufficiently flexible
wire, capable of carrying 100 lb. as the greater load, Q. Now with these
proportions a brake of the form in Fig. 3 would, with a probable value
of the coefficient of friction, absorb 6 horse power. With a brake in
the form Fig. 4, 8.2 horse power would be absorbed; and with a brake in
the form Fig. 5, 8.8 horse power would be absorbed. But since it would
be easy to have two, three, or more wires side by side, each carrying
its load of 100 lb., large amounts of horsepower could be conveniently
absorbed and measured.

       *       *       *       *       *



SEE'S GAS STOVE.


This stove consists of two or more superposed pipes provided with
radiators. A gas burner is placed at the entrance of either the upper or
lower pipe, according to circumstances. The products of combustion are
discharged through a pipe of small diameter, which may be readily
inserted into an already existing chimney or be hidden behind the
wainscoting. The heat furnished by the gas flame is so well absorbed by
radiation from the radiator rings that the gases, on making their exit,
have no longer a temperature of more than from 35 to 40 degrees.

[Illustration: SEE'S GAS STOVE.]

The apparatus, which is simple, compact, and cheap, is surrounded on all
sides with an ornamented sheet iron casing. Being entirely of cast iron,
it will last for a long time. The joints, being of asbestos, are
absolutely tight, so as to prevent the escape of bad odors. The water
due to the condensation of the gases is led through a small pipe out of
doors or into a vessel from whence it may evaporate anew, so as not to
change the hygrometric state of the air. The consumption of gas is very
small, it taking but 250 liters per hour to heat a room of 80 cubic
meters to a temperature of 18° C.--_Revue Industrielle_.

       *       *       *       *       *

The number of persons killed by wild animals and snakes in India last
year was 22,125, against 21,427 in the previous year, and of cattle,
46,707, against 44,669. Of the human beings destroyed, 2,606 were killed
by wild animals, and 19,519 by snakes. Of the deaths occasioned by the
attacks of wild animals, 895 were caused by tigers, 278 by wolves, 207
by leopards, 356 by jackals, and 202 by alligators; 18,591 wild animals
and 322,421 snakes were destroyed, for which the Government paid rewards
amounting to 141,653 rupees.

       *       *       *       *       *



RECTIFICATION OF ALCOHOL BY ELECTRICITY.


Some time ago, Mr. Laurent Naudin, it will be remembered,[1] devised a
method of converting the aldehydes that give a bad taste and odor to
impure spirits, into alcohol, through electrolytic hydrogen, the
apparatus first employed being a zinc-copper couple, and afterward
electrolyzers with platinum plates.

[Footnote 1: See SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT of July 29, 1882, p.
5472.]

His apparatus had been in operation for several months, in the
distillery of Mr. Boulet, at Bapeaume-les-Rouen, when a fire in
December, 1881, completely destroyed that establishment. In
reconstructing his apparatus, Mr. Naudin has availed himself of the
experience already acquired, and has necessarily had to introduce
important modifications and simplifications into the process. In the
zinc-copper couple, he had in the very first place proposed to employ
zinc in the form of clippings; but the metal in this state presents
grave inconveniences, since the subsidence of the lower part, under the
influence of the zinc's weight, soon proves an obstacle to the free
circulation of the liquids, and, besides this, the cleaning presents
insurmountable difficulties. This is why he substituted for the
clippings zinc in straight and corrugated plates such as may be easily
found in commerce. The management and cleaning of the pile thus became
very simple.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--APPARATUS FOR HYDROGENIZING IMPURE SPIRITS.]

The apparatus that contains the zinc-copper couple now has the form
shown in Fig. 1. It may be cylindrical, as here represented, or, what is
better, rectangular, because of the square form under which the sheets
of zinc are found in commerce.

In this vessel of wood or iron plate, P, the corrugated zinc plates, b,
b', b", are placed one above the other, each alternating with a flat
one, a, a', a". These plates have previously been scoured, first with a
weak solution of caustic soda in order to remove every trace of fatty
matter derived from rolling, and then with very dilute hydrochloric
acid, and finally are washed with common water. In order to facilitate
the disengagement of hydrogen during the reaction, care must be taken to
form apertures in the zinc plates, and to incline the first lower row
with respect to the bottom of the vessel. A cubical pile of 150
hectoliters contains 105 rows of No. 16 flat and corrugated zinc plates,
whose total weight is 6,200 kilogrammes. We obtain thus a hydrogenizing
surface of 1,800 square meters, or 12 square meters per hectoliter of
impure spirits of 50° to 60° Gay-Lussac. The raw impure spirits enter
the apparatus through the upper pipe, E, and, after a sufficient stay
therein, are drawn off through the lower pipe, H, into a reservoir, R,
from whence, by means of a pump, they are forced to the rectifier.

The hydrogen engendered during the electrolysis is disengaged through an
aperture in the cover of the pile.

As a measure of precaution, the hydrogen saturated with alcoholic vapors
may be forced to traverse a small, cooled room. The liquefied alcohol
returns to the pile. At a mean temperature of 15°, the quantity of
alcohol carried along mechanically is insignificant. In order to secure
a uniformity of action in all parts of the spirits, during the period
devoted to the operation, the liquid is made to circulate from top to
bottom by means of a pump, O. The tube, N, indicates the level of the
liquid in the vessel. The zinc having been arranged, the first operation
consists in forming the couple. This is done by introducing into the
pile, by means of the pump, O, a solution of sulphate of copper so as to
completely fill it.

The adherence of the copper to the zinc is essential to a proper working
of the couple, and may be obtained by observing the following
conditions:

1. Impure spirits of 40° Gay-Lussac, and not water, should be used as a
menstruum for the salt of copper.

2. The sulphatization should be operated by five successive solutions of
½ per cent., representing 20 kilogrammes of sulphate of copper per 100
square meters of zinc exposed, or a total of 360 kilogrammes of sulphate
for a pile of 150 hectoliters capacity.

3. A temperature of 25° should not be exceeded during the
sulphatization.

The use of spirits is justified by the fact that the presence of the
alcohol notably retards the precipitation of copper. As each charging
with copper takes twenty-four hours, it requires five days to form the
pile. At the end of this time the deposit should be of a chocolate-brown
and sufficiently adherent; but the adherence becomes much greater after
a fortnight's operation.

Temperature has a marked influence upon the rapidity and continuity of
the reaction. Below +5° the couple no longer works, and above +35° the
reaction becomes vigorous and destroys the adherence of the copper to
such a degree that it becomes necessary to sulphatize the pile anew. The
battery is kept up by adding every eight days a few thousandths of
hydrochloric acid to a vatful of the spirits under treatment, say 5
kilos. of acid to 150 hectoliters of spirits. The object of adding this
acid is to dissolve the hydrate of oxide of zinc formed during the
electrolysis and deposited in a whitish stratum upon the surface of the
copper. The pile required no attention, and it is capable of operating
from 18 months to two years without being renewed or cleaned.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--ELECTROLYZING APPARATUS.]

Passing them over, the zinc-copper couple does not suffice to deodorize
the impure spirits, so they must be sent directly to a rectifier. But,
in certain cases, it is necessary to follow up the treatment by the pile
with another one by electrolysis. The voltameters in which this second
operation is performed have likewise been modified. They consist now
(Fig. 2) of cylindrical glass vessels, AH, 125 mm. in diameter by 600 in
height, with polished edges. These are hermetically closed by an ebonite
cover through which pass the tubes, B' C' and B C, that allow the
liquid, E+E-E'+E', to circulate.

The current of spirits is regulated at the entrance by the cock, R,
which, through its division plate, gives the exact discharge per hour.
In addition, in order to secure great regularity in the flow, there is
placed between the voltameters and the reservoir that supplies them a
second and constant level reservoir regulated by an automatic cock.

In practice, Mr. Naudin employs 12 voltameters that discharge 12
hectoliters per hour, for a distillery that handles 300 hectoliters of
impure spirits every 24 hours. The electric current is furnished to the
voltameters by a Siemens machine (Fig. 3) having inductors in
derivation, the intensity being regulated by the aid of resistance wires
interposed in the circuit of the inductors.

The current is made to pass into the series of voltameters by means of a
commutator, and its intensity is shown by a Deprez galvanometer. The
voltameters, as shown in the diagram, are mounted in derivation in
groups of two in tension. The spirits traverse them in two parallel
currents. The Siemens machine is of the type SD2, and revolves at the
rate of 1,200 times per minute, absorbing a motive power of four horses.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--ARRANGEMENT OF THE SIEMENS MACHINE.]

The disacidification, before entering the rectifier, is effected by the
metallic zinc. Let us now examine what economic advantages this process
presents over the old method of rectifying by pure and simple
distillation. The following are the data given by Mr. Naudin:

In ordinary processes (1) a given quantity of impure alcohol must
undergo five rectifications in order that the products composing the
mixture (pure alcohol, oils, etc.) may be separated and sold according
to their respective quality; (2) the mean yield in the first
distillation does not exceed 60 cent.; (3) the loss experienced in
distillation amounts, for each rectification, to 4 per cent.; (4) the
quantity of essential oils (mixture of the homologues of ethylic
alcohol) collected at the end of the first distillation equals, on an
average, 3.5 per cent.; (5) the cost of a rectification may be estimated
at, on an average, 4 francs per hectoliter.

All things being equal, the yield in the first operation by the electric
method is 80 per cent., and the treatment costs, on an average, 0.40
franc per hectoliter. The economy that is realized is therefore
considerable. For an establishment in which 150 hectoliters of 100°
alcohol are treated per day this saving becomes evident, amounting, as
it does, to 373 francs.

We may add that the electric process permits of rectifying spirits
which, up to the present, could not be rectified by the ordinary
processes. Mr. Naudin's experiments have shown, for example, that
artichoke spirits, which could not be utilized by the old processes,
give through hydrogenation an alcohol equal to that derived from Indian
corn.--_La Nature_.

       *       *       *       *       *



PLASTIC CARBON FOR BATTERIES.


Max Nitsche-Niesky recommends the following in _Neueste Erfindung_.:
Good coke is ground and mixed with coal-tar to a stiff dough and pressed
into moulds made of iron and brass. After drying for a few days in a
closed place, it is heated in a furnace where it is protected from the
direct flames and burned, feebly at first, then strongly, the fire being
gradually raised to white heat which is maintained for 6 or 8 hours. The
fire is then permitted to slowly go down, and when perfectly cold the
carbon is taken out of the furnace.

       *       *       *       *       *



RECENT STUDIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ALKALOIDS.

By SAMUEL P. SADTLER, Ph.D.

[Footnote: Introductory lecture, Course of 1883-84, Philadelphia College
of Pharmacy.]


The sciences of to-day present, as might be expected, a very different
aspect from the same branches of knowledge as they appeared fifty or
sixty years ago. It is not merely that the mass of observations in most
of these lines of study has enormously increased during this interval.
Were that all, the change could hardly be considered as an unmixed
benefit, because of the increased difficulty of assimilation of this
additional matter. Many would be the contradictions in the observations
and hopeless would be the task of bringing order out of such a chaos.
The advance in the several branches of knowledge has been largely one
resulting from improved methods of study, rather than one following
simply from diligence in the application of the old ways.

Let us turn to chemistry for our illustration of this. The chemistry of
the last century and the early decades of this was largely a descriptive
science, such as the natural history branches, zoology, and botany are
still in great part. Reasonably exact mineral analyses were made, it is
true, but the laws of chemical combination and the fundamental
conceptions of atoms and molecules had not been as yet generally
established. Now, this want of comprehensive views of chemical
reactions, their why and wherefore, was bad enough as it affected the
study of inorganic and metallic compounds, but what must have been the
conditions for studying the complex compounds of carbon, so widely
spread in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Their number is so enormous
that, in the absence of any established relationships, not much more
than a mere enumeration was possible for the student of this branch of
chemistry. It is only within the last twenty years that chemists have
attained to any comprehensive views at all in the domain of organic
chemistry. It has been found possible to gradually range most carbon
compounds under two categories, either as marsh-gas or as benzol
derivatives, as fatty compounds or as aromatic compounds. To do this,
methods of analysis very different from those used in mineral chemistry
had to be applied. The mere finding out of percentage composition tells
us little or nothing about an organic compound. What the elements are
that compose the compound is not to be found out. That can be told
beforehand with almost absolute certainty. What is wanted is to know how
the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are linked together,
for, strange to say, these differences of groupings, which may be found
to exist between these three or four elements, endow the compounds with
radically different properties and serve us as a basis of
classification.

The development of this part of chemistry, therefore, required very
different methods of research. Instead of at once destroying a compound
in order to learn of what elements it was composed, we submit it to a
course of treatment with reagents, which take it apart very gradually,
or modify it in the production of some related substance. In this way,
we are enabled to establish its relations with well defined classes and
to put it in its proper place. Of equal importance with the analytical
method of study, however, is the synthetical. This method of research,
as applied to organic compounds, embodies in it the highest triumphs of
modern chemistry. It has been most fruitful of results, both theoretical
and practical. Within recent years, hundreds of the products of
vegetable and animal life have been built up from simpler compounds.
Thousands of valuable dye-colors and other compounds used in the arts
attest its practical value. It may, therefore, seem anomalous when I say
that one of the most important of all the classes of organic compounds
has not shared in this advance. The alkaloids, that most important class
from a medical and pharmaceutical point of view, have until quite
recently been defined in the books simply as "vegetable bases,
containing nitrogen." Whether they were marsh-gas or benzol derivatives
was not made out; how the four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and
nitrogen, were grouped together in them was absolutely a thing unknown.
Chemists all admitted two things--first, that their constitution was
very complex, and, second, that the synthesis of any of the more
important medicinal alkaloids would be an eminently desirable thing to
effect from every point of view. Within the last five years, however,
quite considerable progress has been made in arriving at a clearer
understanding of these most important compounds, and I shall offer to
your attention this evening a brief statement of what has been done and
what seems likely to be accomplished in the near future.

It was early recognized that the alkaloids were complex amines or
ammonia derivatives. The more or less strongly marked basic character of
these bodies, the presence of nitrogen as an essential element, and,
above all, the analogy shown to ammonia in the way these bases united
with acids to form salts, not by replacement of the hydrogen of the
acid, but by direct addition of acid and base, pointed unmistakably to
this constitution. But with this granted, the simplest alkaloid
formulas, those of conine, C_{8}H_{17}N, and nicotine,
C_{10}H_{14}N_{2}, still showed that the amine molecule contained quite
complex groups of carbon and hydrogen atoms, and the great majority of
the alkaloids--the non-volatile ones--contained groups in which the
three elements, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, all entered. Hence the
difficulty in acquiring a knowledge of the molecular structure of those
alkaloids at all comparable with that attained in the case of other
organic compounds. Of course synthesis could not be applied until
analysis had revealed something of the molecular grouping of these
compounds, so the action of different classes of reagents was tried upon
the alkaloids. Before summarizing the results of this study of the
decomposition and alteration products of the alkaloids, a brief
reference to a related class of organic compounds will be of assistance
to those unfamiliar with recent researches in this field.

It is well known that in coal-tar is found a series of ammonia-like
bases, aniline or amido-benzol, toluidine or amido-toluol, and xylidine
or amido-xylol, which are utilized practically in the manufacture of the
so-called aniline dye-colors. It is perhaps not so well known that there
are other series of bases found there too. The first of these is the
pyridine series, including _pyridine_, C_{5}H_{5}N, _picoline_
(methyl-pyridine), C_{5}H_{4}N(CH_{3}), _lutidine_ (dimethyl-pyridine),
C_{5}H_{5}N(CH_{3})_{2}, and _collidine_ (trimethyl-pyridine),
C_{5}H_{2}N(CH_{3})_{3}. This series is also found in relatively larger
proportion in what is known as Dippel's oil, the product of the dry
distillation of bones.

The second series is the quinoline series, including _quinoline_,
C_{9}H_{7}N, _lepidine_ (methyl-quinoline), C_{10}H_{9}N, and
_cryptidine_ (dimethyl-quinoline), C_{11}H_{11}N. The two compounds
which give name to these series, pyridine, C_{5}H_{5}N, and quinoline,
C_{9}H_{7}N, respectively, bear to each other a relation analogous to
that existing between benzol, C_{6}H_{6}, and naphthalene, C_{10}H_{8};
and the theory generally accepted by those chemists who have been
occupying themselves with these bases and their derivatives is that
pyridine is simply benzol, in which an atom of nitrogen replaces the
triad group, CH, and quinoline, the naphthalene molecule with a similar
change. Indeed, Ladenberg has recently succeeded in obtaining benzol as
an alteration product from pyridine, in certain reactions. Moreover,
from methyl-pyridine, C_{5}H_{4}N(CH_{3}), would be derived an acid know
as pyridine-carboxylic acid, C_{5}H_{4}N(COOH), just as benzoic acid,
C_{6}H_{5}COOH, is derived from methyl-benzol, C_{6}H_{5}CH_{3}, and
from dimethyl-pyridine, C_{5}H_{3}N(CH_{3})_{2}, an acid known as
pyridine-dicarboxylic acid, C_{5}H_{3}N(COOH)_{2}, just as phthalic
acid, C_{6}H_{4}(COOH)_{2}, is derived from dimethyl-benzol,
C_{6}H_{4}(CH_{3})_{2}. The same thing applies to quinoline as compared
to naphthalene.

We may now look at the question of the decomposing effect of reagents
upon the alkaloids. The means which have proved most efficacious in
decomposing these bases are the action of oxidizing and reducing agents,
of bromine, of organic iodides, of concentrated acids and alkalies, and
of heat.

Taking up the volatile alkaloids, we find with regard to _conine_,
first, that the action of methyl iodide shows it to be a secondary
amine, that is, it restrains only one replaceable hydrogen atom of the
original ammonia molecule. Its formula is therefore C_{8}H_{16}NH. From
conine can be prepared methyl-conine, which also occurs in nature, and
dimethyl-conine. From this latter has been gotten a hydrocarbon,
C_{8}H_{14}, conylene, homologous with acetylene, C_{2}H_{2}. Conine, on
oxidation, yields chiefly butyric acid, but among the products of
oxidation has been found the pyridine carboxylic acid before referred
to. The formula of conine, C_{8}H_{17}N, shows it to be homologous with
piperidine, C_{5}H_{11}N, a derivative of piperine, the alkaloid of
pepper, to be spoken of later; and, just as piperidine is derived from
pyridine by the action of reducing agents, so conine is probably derived
from a propyl-pyridine. The artificial alkaloid paraconine, isomeric
with the natural conine, will be referred to later.

_Nicotine_, C_{10}H_{14}N_{2}, the next simplest in formula of the
alkaloids, is a tertiary base, that is, contains no replaceable hydrogen
atoms in its molecule. It shows very close relations to pyridine. When
nicotine vapor is passed through a red-hot tube, it yields essentially
collidine, and, with this, some pyridine, picoline, lutidine, and gases
such as hydrogen, marsh-gas, and ethylene. Heated with bromine water to
120°C. it decomposes into bromoform, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and
pyridine. When its alcoholic solution is treated with ferricyanide of
potassium it is oxidized to dipyridine, C_{10}H_{10}N_{2}. Potassium
permanganate, chromic or nitric acid oxidises it to nicotinic acid,
C_{6}H_{5}NO_{2}, which is simply pyridine-carboxylic acid,
C_{5}H_{4}N(COOH), and which, distilled over quick-lime, yields
pyridine, C_{5}H_{5}N.

Turning now to the non-volatile and oxygenized bases, we take up first
the opium alkaloids. _Morphine_, C_{17}H_{19}NO_{3}, is a tertiary
amine, and appears to contain a hydroxyl group like phenols, to which
class of bodies it has some analogies, as is shown in its reaction with
ferric chloride. Its meythl ester, which can be formed from it, is
_codeine_, one of the accompanying alkaloids of opium. Besides the
methyl derivative, however, others are possible, and several have been
recently prepared, giving rise to a class of artificial alkaloids known
as _codeines_. Morphine, rapidly distilled over zinc dust, yields
phenanthren, trimethyl-amine, pyrrol, pyridine, quinoline, and other
bases. The action of strong hydrocholoric acid upon morphine changes it
into apomorphine, C_{17}H_{17}NO_{2}, by the withdrawal of a molecule of
water. Ferricyanide of potassium and caustic soda solution change
morphine into oxidimorphine, C_{34}H_{36}N_{2}O_{6}. When heated with
strong potassium hydrate, it yields methylamine.

_Narcotine_, another of the opium alkaloids, when heated with manganese
dioxide and sulphuric acid, is oxidized and splits apart into opianic
acid, C_{10}H_{10}O_{5}, and cotarnine, C_{12}H_{13}NO_{3}. This latter,
by careful oxidation, yields apophyllenic acid, C_{8}H_{7}NO_{4}, and
this, on heating with hydrochloric acid to 240° C., yields
pyridine-dicarboxylic acid, C_{5}H_{9}N(COOH)_{2}. The base cotarnine
also results from the prolonged heating of narcotine with water alone.
In this case, instead of opianic acid, its reduction product meconine,
C_{10}H_{10}O_{4}, is produced.

_Meconic acid_, C_{7}H_{4}O_{7}, which is found in opium in combination
with the different bases, has also been investigated. By acting upon
meconic acid with ammonia, comenamic acid is formed, and this latter,
when heated with zinc dust, yields pyridine.

If we go now to the cinchona alkaloids, we meet with exceedingly
interesting results. _Quinine_, C_{20}H_{24}N_{2}O_{2}, when carefully
oxidized with chromic acid or potassium permanganate, yields a series of
products. First is formed quitenine, C_{19}H_{22}N_{2}O_{4}, a weak
base, then quininic acid, C_{11}H_{9}NO_{3}, then the so-called
oxycinchomeronic acid, C_{8}H_{5}N0_{6}, and finally cinchomeronic acid,
C_{7}H_{6}NO_{4}. Now the two acids last mentioned are simple
substitution products of pyridine, oxycinchomeronic acid being a
pyridine-dicarboxylic acid, C_{5}H_{2}N(COOH)_{3}, and cinchomeronic
acid, a pyridine-dicarboxylic acid, C_{5}H_{3}N(COOH)_{2}. When
distilled with potassium hydrate, quinine yields quinoline and its
homologues. The alkaloid has been shown to be a tertiary base.

_Quinidine_ yields with chromic acid the same decomposition products as
quinine.

_Cinchonine_, C_{19}H_{22}N_{2}O, the second most important alkaloid of
these barks, when oxidized with potassium permanganate, yields cinchonic
acid, which is a quinoline-carboxylic acid, C_{9}H_{6}N(COOH),
cinchomeronic acid, which has just been stated to be a pyridine
dicarboxylic acid, and a pyridine tricarboxylic acid. When cinchonine is
treated with potassium hydrate, it is decomposed into quinoline and a
solid body, which on further treatment yields a liquid base,
C_{7}H_{9}N, which is probably lutidine. It has been found, moreover,
that both tetrahydroquinoline and dihydroquinoline, hydrogen addition
products of quinoline, are present. When cinchonine is distilled with
solid potassium hydrate, it yields pyrrol and bases of both the pyridine
and quinoline series.

_Cinchonidine_, when heated with potassium hydrate, yields quinoline
also, and with nitric acid the same products as cinchonine.

_Strychnine_ has been found to be a tertiary amine. When distilled with
potassium hydrate, quinoline is formed.

_Brucine_ is a tertiary diamine, that is, formed by substitution in a
double ammonia molecule. When distilled with potassium hydrate it yields
quinoline, lutidine, and two isomeric collidines.

The alkaloid _atropine_ has been quite thoroughly studied with results
of great interest. When heated with baryta-water or hydrochloric acid,
it takes up a molecule of water and is split into tropine,
C_{8}H_{15}NO, and tropic acid, C_{9}H_{10}O_{3}. This latter is
phenyl-oxypropionic acid. Tropine, when heated to 180°C. with
concentrated hydrochloric acid, splits off a molecule of water, and
yields tropidine, C_{8}H_{13}N, a liquid base, with an odor resembling
conine. When this tropidine is heated with an excess of bromine, it
yields dibrompyridine.

_Piperine_, the alkaloid of pepper, has also been well studied. When
boiled with alcoholic potash solution, it takes up a molecule of water
and splits apart into piperic acid, C_{12}H_{10}O_{4}, and piperidine,
C_{5}H_{11}N. This latter base has been shown to be a hydrogen addition
product of pyridine, C_{5}H_{5}N. When heated with concentrated
sulphuric acid, it is oxidized to pyridine. Piperidine hydrochlorate,
also, when heated with excess of bromine to 180° C., yields
dibrompyridine.

_Sinapine_, the alkaloid which exists as sulphocyanate in white mustard
seed, yields, under the same reaction as that applied to atropine and
piperine, quite different results. When boiled with baryta water,
sinapine decomposes into sinapic acid, C_{11}H_{12}O_{5}, and choline,
C_{5}H_{15}NO_{2}, the latter a well-known constituent of the bile, and
produced also in the decomposition of the lecithin of the brain and yolk
of egg.

_Cocaine_, the alkaloid of coca leaves, is decomposed by heating with
hydrochloric acid into methyl alcohol, benzoic acid, and a crystalline
base, ecgonine, C_{9}H_{15}NO_{3}.

_Caffeine_ and _theobromine_ have also quite different relations.
Caffeine, it will be remembered, is the methyl ester of theobromine, and
can be prepared from it. When caffeine is carefully oxidized with
chlorine, it yields dimethyl-alloxan and methyl-urea. Both theobromine
and caffeine are decomposed by heating to 240° C. in sealed tubes with
hydrochloric acid, identical products being obtained. These products are
carbon dioxide, formic acid, ammonia, methyl-amine, and sarcosine, the
last three being of course in combination with the excess of
hydrochloric acid. The artificial preparation of theobromine and
caffeine from xanthine, and guanine also show clearly their relations.

If, having completed our survey of what has been done in the way of
decomposing the alkaloids by the different classes of reagents, we
review the field, it will be seen that with all the alkaloids mentioned,
except the last four, a more or less immediate connection with the
pyridine and quinoline bases has been indicated. The conviction
accordingly forces itself upon us that, if we want to attack the problem
of building up any of these important alkaloids artificially, we must
turn to these bases as our starting point.

As already stated, both series occur in coal-tar and the pyridine series
also more abundantly in bone-oil. Pyridine, picoline, lutidine, and
collidine, the first four members of the pyridine series, have,
moreover, all been formed synthetically, although the processes are not
such as would yield the products as cheaply as they can be gotten from
Dippel's oil. Quinoline, the first member of the higher series, had been
made synthetically by several chemists, but by expensive and involved
methods, when Skraup, in 1881, effected its synthesis from nitrobenzol
and glycerin, or still better, a mixture of nitrobenzol and aniline with
glycerin. This process allows of its being made on a commercial scale if
desirable. Shortly after, by an application of the same principle,
Dobner and Miller effected the synthesis of lepidine, the second member
of the quinoline series.

At the same time that this general agreement to consider these bases as
the starting point in the endeavor to effect the synthesis of the
natural alkaloids had been arrived at by chemists, it was thought well
to look into the question whether these bases and their immediate
derivatives had any therapeutic value of their own.

Piperidine, the decomposition product of piperine, which we have shown
may be considered to be hexahydropyridine, was examined by Dr.
Kronecker, of Berlin, at the request of Prof. Hofmann, and was found to
have an action upon animals in many respects resembling that of conine.
Prof. Filehne, of Erlangen, who has studied a large number of these
pyridine and quinoline derivatives, found, moreover, that the
hydrochlorate of ethyl-piperidine had a physiological action quite
analogous to that of conine.

The physiological action of quinoline itself has been studied quite
extensively by Donath and others, and it was found that several of its
salts were quite valuable febrifuges, acting very like quinine, and
capable in cases of being used as a substitute for it. In general, the
hydrogen addition products were found to be more active than the simple
base, an observation entirely in accord with the theory formed by
Wischnegradsky, and by Konigs, as the result of the study of the
decomposition products of the alkaloids, viz., the alkaloids are in
general hydrogen addition products of pyridine and quinoline, or of the
two bases combined. Thus Prof. Filehne found that hydrochlorate of
tetrahydroquinoline was much more energetic in its action than
quinoline, but could not be used on account of a too powerful local
effect. The hydrochlorate of dimethyl-tetrahydroquinoline, which was
distinguished by its strong bitter taste, much resembling that of
quinine, had an effect like that of curare poison. The most decided
febrifuge action, however was found by Prof. Filehne to reside in the
hydrochlorate of oxyhydro-methyl-quinoline, introduced to public notice
by Prof. O. Fischer under the name of "Kairin," and in the acid sulphate
of tetrahydro-methylquinoline, introduced under the name of "Kairolin."
These compounds had a very surprising febrifuge action, without any
unpleasant after effects or local disturbances.

The most active workers in the field of synthetic formation of the
alkaloids have been Wischnegradsky, of St. Petersburg--who,
unfortunately for science, died at an untimely age in 1880--Königs and
Fischer, of Munich, and Ladenburg, of Kiel. The study of the
decomposition products of the cinchona alkaloids especially points quite
distinctly to the probable existence in quinine of a hydrogen addition
product of pyridine, in combination with a methyl-quinoline group. The
many experiments that are now being made to test this and other
questions that suggest themselves, will not long leave us in the dark.
Whether a practical commercial synthesis of quinine will follow is
another matter, but it is within the bounds of possibility, or perhaps
even of probability.

It must not be supposed that no syntheses of alkaloids have been
effected as yet. By heating butyl-aldehyde with alcoholic ammonia is
formed _paraconine_, an alkaloid isomeric with the natural conine, but
differing in physiological action. By the action of sodium upon pyridine
is produced a compound C_{10}H_{8}N_{2}, known as dipyridyl, and this,
under the influence of nascent hydrogen, takes up six atoms and becomes
_isonicotine_ C_{10}H_{14}N_{2}, a physiologically active alkaloid,
isomeric with the true nicotine. The formation of a series of alkaloids
under the name of _codeines_, by the substitution of other organic
radicals instead of methyl in the codeine reaction, has already been
alluded to. _Atropine_ can be formed by uniting tropine and tropic acid,
the two decomposition products already noted. The latter of these
products is already shown to be capable of synthetical formation, and
the other will no doubt be formed in the same way. The artificial
atropine is identical with the natural alkaloid. Ladenburg has also
formed a series of artificial alkaloids, called _tropeines_, by uniting
the base tropine with different organic acids, as in the case of the
compound of mandelic acid and tropine, known as _homatropine_, an
alkaloid of action similar to atropine, but possessing some decided
advantages in its use. _Piperine_ has also been made by the uniting of
piperidine and piperic acid, and, as piperidine has already been formed
from pyridine, we have here a true synthesis also. Both _theobromine_
and _caffeine_, its methyl derivative, have been made from xanthine,
which itself can be formed from guanine, a constituent of guano.

We may conclude from this reference to what has been done in the last
few years, that the reproach mentioned in first speaking of the
alkaloids as a class, that almost nothing was known of their
constitution, will not long remain, and that as their molecular
structure is laid bare in these studies now being made, keen-sighted
chemists will effect their artificial formation. When these most
valuable compounds can be made by exact methods, in a state of entire
purity, and at a cost much below that paid for the present extraction of
them from relatively rare plants, organic chemistry will have placed all
of us under obligations as great as those owing any branch of science,
no matter how practical we call it.--_Amer. Jour. of Pharmacy_.

       *       *       *       *       *



ON THE TREATMENT OF CONGESTIVE HEADACHE.

By J. LEONARD CORNING, M.D., New York.


If we examine the literature of our theme, we are astounded by the
apparently hopeless confusion in which the whole is involved. Everywhere
attempts at ill-founded generalization are encountered. We are compelled
to admit, after perusing long debates in regard to the relative merits
of various therapeutic measures, that those who were foremost to
disparage the treatment pursued by others were totally ignorant of the
fact that those same symptomatic manifestations which they were
considering might be owing to entirely different causes from similar
conditions described by others. Hence a commensurate modification in
therapy might not only be admissible, but eminently desirable. It is
more especially of recent years that a laudable attempt to differentiate
the various etiological factors involved in different forms of headache
has been made. In 1832 Dr. James Mease, of Philadelphia published a
monograph on "The Cause, Cure, and Prevention of the Sick Headache,"
which is substantially a treatise on the dietetics of this particular
form of headache. The work, however, is conspicuously lacking in those
philosophical qualities which are so necessary to a true understanding
of the questions involved. Dr. E.H. Sieveking published in 1854[1] a
most interesting paper on "Chronic and Periodical Headache." The views
therein expressed are remarkable for their succinct and thoroughly
scientific elucidation of the two great physiological principles
involved in the consideration of by far the greater majority of
instances of cephalalgia. I refer namely to the importance ascribed by
this eminent physician to the fluctuations of the blood-stream within
the cranial vault. In speaking of this subject Dr. Sieveking says:
"Nothing is of more importance in reference to the pathology and
therapeutics of the head than clear and well-defined notions on the
physiological subject of the circulation within the cranium; for, among
the various sources of medical skepticism, no one is more puzzling or
more destructive of logical practice than a contradiction between the
doctrine of physiology and the daily practice of medicine."

[Footnote 1: On Chronic and Periodical Headache, by E.H. Sieveking,
M.D., _Medical Times and Gazette_ London, August 12, 1854.]

What Dr. Sieveking said in 1854 holds equally good to-day; and, indeed,
the position then taken has received substantial indorsement through the
positive results of more recent experimental physiology. Conspicuous in
this connection are the inductive researches of Durham, Fleming, and
Hammond, touching the modifications in the cerebral circulation during
sleep and wakefulness. By these experiments it has been conclusively
proved that the amount of blood in the brain is decreased during sleep
and increased during wakefulness. More, recently I have had occasion to
confirm the experiments of Fleming in this direction, and have published
the results of those researches in various papers and articles.[1] "What
Hippocrates said of spasm," says Dr. Sieveking, "that it results either
from fullness or emptiness, or, to use more modern terms, from hyperæmia
or anæmia, applies equally to headache; but, to embrace all the causes
of this affection we must add a third element, which, though most
commonly complicating one of the above circumstances, is not necessarily
included in them, namely a change in the constitution of the blood."
While I agree with Dr. Sieveking as regards the importance to be
ascribed to the first two factors--cerebral hyperæmia and anæmia, in the
production of the group of symptoms known as "headache,"--I fail to
perceive why especial prominence should be given to the third condition
mentioned by Dr. Sieveking. Indeed, I am quite unable to imagine how the
periodical, and more especially the intermittent form, of headache is to
be explained by what Dr. Sieveking describes rather ambiguously as a
"change in the constitution of the blood." It is quite evident,
admitting that such a change is capable of producing an amount of
cerebral irritation sufficient to develop well-marked cephalalgia, that
the latter must of necessity be within certain limits continuous. This
is not the case, as the causative factor is constant and not
fluctuating. I am, therefore, not prepared to accept this third
causative factor without question. Nevertheless I am perfectly willing
to admit that other factors besides cerebral hyperæmia and anæmia may
produce the functional variety of headache. There would seem to be ample
ground for ascribing great causative importance to excessive irritation
of the brain plasma itself. Hence those forms of headache which while,
being unaccompanied by any especial circulatory derangements, succeed,
oftentimes, with relentless regularity upon any considerable degree of
mental work. It is not my purpose to discuss the treatment of the
multifarious forms of cephalalgia on this occasion, did time permit. As
regards the so-called "neuralgic" variety I content myself by referring
to the admirable work on "Neuralgia and Kindred Diseases of the Nervous
System," by Dr. John Chapman of London, in which will be found many
interesting facts bearing on the question. Accepting the propositions,
then, that the more adjacent causes of headache are (1) cerebral
hyperæmia, (2) cerebral anæmia, and (3) irritation of the cerebral
plasma itself, let us now consider how these morbid factors are most
scientifically and speedily met at the bedside; and how, more
particularly, those distressing conditions of engorgement, which are so
baneful an item in the causation of a certain form of cephalalgia, are
best overcome.

[Footnote 1: _Vide_ Carotid Compression and Brain Rest, by J.L. Corning,
M.D. New York: Anson D.F. Randolph & Co.]

Two years ago I began a series of experiments on epileptics and maniacs,
which involved the application of protracted pressure to the common
carotid artery on both sides. In the course of these experiments the
thought suggested itself that suppression of the carotids might prove a
salutary means of reducing that form of cerebral congestion which is so
prolific a source of headache and vertigo. Accordingly I made a
protracted series of experiments with carotid compression upon those
suffering from congestive headache, and I can only say that I have been
so far pleased with the uniformly good results obtained, that I have
felt it a duty to call the attention of the profession to a procedure
which, for obvious reasons, possesses all the advantages of local
depletion by leeching or cupping, without the manifest disadvantages of
either of these methods. The instruments which I have devised as
substitutes for the primitive procedure of digital compression of the
carotids have already been described in former communications. It is
only necessary to say that the implements in question are of two kinds;
one, the "carotid fork," is an adjustable instrument, which being held
in the hand of the operator permits him to exert any degree of pressure
upon both carotids for any desired length of time. The other instrument,
which I have designated as the "carotid truss," for lack of a better
name, is a circular spring provided with adjustable pads at each
extremity. The spring is placed about the neck of the patient, and by
suitable appliances the pads at the extremities can be placed directly
above the trunks of the two common carotid arteries. By turning the
screws to which the pads are attached the desired amount of pressure can
be applied to the arteries, and the apparatus can be worn for any length
of time by the patient.

With these instruments I have frequently succeeded in arresting the most
obstinate form of congestive headache in an incredibly short time (on
one occasion in about five minutes). Where, however, the headache is of
manifestly nervous origin and uncomplicated by any especial circulatory
derangements, I have never been able to achieve notable results with
this method. Indeed, pressure upon the carotids is an excellent method
of differentiating the congestive form of headache from the nervous
varieties of head pains.

Of galvanism this much may be said, that it is one of the most valuable
methods which we possess for treating the form of headache under
consideration, for not only does it cause contraction of the smaller
arteries, but it also exerts a soothing influence upon the plasma of the
brain itself.

A powerful therapeutic agent, and one which has been more or less
extensively employed in the treatment of various forms of head and
spinal symptoms, is cold.

A very excellent method of applying both cold and galvanism to the head,
at the same time, is afforded by a species of refrigerating electrode,
designed by myself for this purpose. The apparatus in question consists
of a concave sponge electrode, the concavity of which corresponds to the
convexity of the external aspect of the cranium. Above the electrode is
a chamber of metal or India-rubber, designed to contain ice. The whole
is secured to the head of the patient by a single chin-strap, and
connection established with an ordinary galvanic battery by means of an
appropriate clamp and insulated cord. The indifferent pole is applied
over the sternum or other convenient point. Care should be taken not to
employ too strong currents, as otherwise vertigo and other unpleasant
symptoms may be produced. An application of from five to ten minutes is
usually sufficient to arrest the head-pain. As an additional security it
is well to recommend the patient to take a hot foot-bath, and to remain
as quiet as possible for twelve hours succeeding the treatment. In
hyperæmic headache cupping and blood-letting have been recommended; but
as a rule both procedures are not only unnecessary but positively
inadmissible, as exclusion of the superfluous amount of blood by
compression upon the carotids, followed by a corresponding dilatation of
the peripheral circulation by means of the foot-bath, will almost always
be sufficient to cause a permanent cessation of the symptoms. Among the
internal remedies which may be employed with good effect in certain
cases are aconite, bromide of potassium, and Indian hemp. The inhalation
of from five to ten drops of chloroform is an excellent expedient in
some instances. Chlorodyne, which is nothing more than a mixture of
sedatives, often works well, and indeed frequently excels other
remedies. The regulation of the heart's action is also of very great
importance in these cases, and the physician should have no hesitancy in
resorting to such remedies as digitalis and belladonna for the purpose
of reducing the tension in the domain of the cerebral circulation. As a
matter of course the digestive functions should be carefully looked to;
the bowels should be kept open; and in all cases where there are
indications of a congestive origin, alcohol in all forms should be
absolutely forbidden.--_Med. Record_.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE USE OF THE MULLEIN PLANT IN THE TREATMENT OF PULMONARY CONSUMPTION.

[Footnote: From a paper published in the _British Medical Journal_.]

By F.J.B. QUINLAN, M.D., M.R.I.A., F.K.Q.C P., Physician to St.
Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.


From time immemorial, the _Verbascum thapsus_, or great mullein, has
been a trusted popular remedy, in Ireland, for the treatment of the
above formidable malady. It is a wild plant--most persons would call it
a weed--found in many parts of the United Kingdom; and, according to
Sowerby's _British Botany_, vol. vi., page 110, is "rather sparingly
distributed over England and the south of Scotland." In most parts of
Ireland, however, in addition to growing wild it is carefully cultivated
in gardens, and occasionally on a rather extensive scale; and this is
done wholly and solely in obedience to a steady popular call for the
herb by phthisical sufferers. Constantly, in Irish newspapers, there are
advertisements offering it for sale; and there are, in this city,
pharmaceutical establishments of the first rank in which it can be
bought. Still it does not appear in the Pharmacopoeia; nor, as far as I
know, has its use received the official sanction of the medical
profession. Some friends with whom I talked over the matter at the
Pharmaceutical Conference at Southampton last August, suggested that it
would be desirable to make a therapeutical research into the powers of
this drug, and ascertain by actual experiment its efficacy or otherwise.
Having partially accomplished this, I am anxious to very briefly set
forth what has been done, in order that others may be induced to
co-operate in the work.

"There are five mulleins, all belonging to the parent order of the
Scrophulariaceæ; but the old Irish remedy is the great mullein, or
_Verbascum thapsus_, a faithful delineation of which will be found in
Plate 1, 437, vol. vi., of Sowerby. It is a hardy biennial, with a thick
stalk, from eighteen inches to four feet high, and with very peculiar
large woolly and mucilaginous leaves, and a long flower spike with ugly
yellow and nearly sessile flowers. The leaves are best gathered in late
summer or autumn, shortly before the plant flowers. In former times it
appears to have been rather highly thought of, particularly as a remedy
for diarrhoea; and Dioscorides, Culpepper, and Gerarde favorably allude
to it.

"Having been furnished with a good supply of fresh mullein from a garden
near this city, where it is extensively grown, I commenced operations.
As it proved useful, subsequent supplies were procured from our
drug-contractor.

"The old Irish method of administering the mullein is to place an ounce
of dried leaves, or a corresponding quantity of the fresh ones, in a
pint of milk; to boil for ten minutes, and then to strain. This strained
fluid is given warm to the patient, with or without a little sugar. It
is administered twice a day; and the taste of the mixture is bland,
mucilaginous, comforting to the praecordia, and not disagreeable. I
resolved to try this method, and also the watery infusion; and,
moreover, the natural expressed juice fortified with glycerin. This
latter preparation was carefully made for me, from fresh mullein leaves,
by Dr. John Evans, chemist to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.

"Some phthisical sufferers, of whom there are here, alas! too many, were
now admitted from time to time into St. Vincent's Hospital. They were
admitted in all stages, from an early one to the most advanced. On each
admission the case was carefully examined; the history, symptoms, and
physical signs were exactly noted; and the patient was weighed on a
stage balance with great accuracy. The patient was put as much as
possible on the mullein treatment only. For obvious reasons, no
cod-liver oil, koumiss, or other weight producer was given; the patients
got the diet suitable to such sufferers; and, if the special symptoms
became troublesome, received appropriate treatment. As much as possible,
however, they were left to the mullein--a proceeding which was entirely
satisfactory to themselves. In addition to the admission weighing, they
were carefully weighed every week, and care was taken that this should
be done as nearly as possible on the same day and hour, with the same
clothes, and, in fact, as much as could be under the same conditions. In
securing this the patients anxiously co-operated; and it was frequently
amusing, but sometimes painful, to watch the satisfaction or chagrin
with which the weekly result was received. I must here tender my
acknowledgments to our zealous, attentive, and accurate house surgeon,
Mr. Denis P. Kenna, by whom this important, but tedious, duty was
discharged."

Dr. Quinlan then refers to several cases, in which the mullein plant has
been tried as a remedy for consumption, and remarks that these cases,
although too few to justify any general conclusion, appear to establish
some useful facts. The mullein plant boiled in milk is liked by the
patients; in watery infusion it is disagreeable, and the succus is still
more so. The hot milk decoction causes a comfortable (what our Gallic
neighbors call _pectorale_) sensation, and when once patients take it
they experience a physiological want, and when the supply was once or
twice interrupted, complained much in consequence. That it eases
phthisical cough there can be no doubt; in fact, some of the patients
scarcely took their cough mixtures at all--an unmixed boon to phthisical
sufferers with delicate stomachs. Its power of checking phthisical
looseness of the bowels was very marked, and experiment proved that this
was not merely due to the well known astringent properties of boiled
milk. It also gave great relief to the dyspnoea. For phthisical night
sweats it is utterly useless; but these can be completely checked by the
hypodermic use of from one-eighteenth to one-fiftieth of a grain of the
atropia sulphate; the smaller dose, if it will answer, being preferable,
as the larger causes dryness of the pharynx, and interferes with ocular
accommodation. In advanced cases, it does not prevent loss of weight,
nor am I aware of anything that will, except koumiss. Dr. Carrick, in
his interesting work on the koumiss treatment of Southern Russia (page
213), says: "I have seen a consumption invalid gain largely in weight,
while the disease was making rapid progress in her lungs, and the
evening temperature rarely fell below 101° Fahr. Until then I considered
that an increase of weight in phthisis pulmonalis was a proof of the
arrest of the malady." If koumiss possesses this power, mullein does
not; but unfortunately, as real koumiss can be made from the milk of the
mare only, and as it does not bear traveling, the consumptive invalid
must go at least to Samara or Southern Russia. In pretubercular and
early cases of pulmonary consumption, mullein appears to have a distinct
weight-increasing power; and I have observed this in several private
cases also. Having no weighings of these latter, however, makes this
statement merely an expression of opinion. In early cases, mullein milk
appears to act very much in the same manner as cod-liver oil; and when
we consider that it is at once cheap and palatable it is certainly worth
a trial. I will continue the research by careful weighings of early
cases; and will further endeavor to ascertain whether the addition of
mullein to the cultivating solution prevents the propagation of the
phthisical bacillus.

       *       *       *       *       *



ACTION OF MINERAL WATERS AND OF HOT WATER UPON THE BILE.


Lewaschew and Klikowitch, from experiments upon dogs, conclude that the
use of ordinary alkaline mineral waters was to increase the quantity of
bile and to make it more fluid and watery. This increased flow is
beneficial in clearing out any bile stagnating in the gall-bladder. A
subsequent increase in the quantity of bile indicates a greater flow of
bile into the gall-bladder, and this also is of service in emptying out
any stagnant bile, and restoring the normal condition when this is
disturbed. Artificial solutions of alkaline salts were found to have a
similar action to the natural mineral waters, and, as with them, the
action varies according to the concentration of the solution.
Bicarbonate of sodium has a quicker, more powerful, and more lasting
effect on the composition of the bile than the sulphate of sodium, and
weak solutions than strong ones. Vichy was more efficacious than
Carlsbad water. Hot water was found to have an effect on the bile much
like that of the mineral waters.

       *       *       *       *       *



VIVISECTION.


Although Magendie is rightly considered the true initiator of
experimentation upon living beings, the practice of vivisection is as
old as science itself.

Galien, the physician of Marcus Aurelius (in the second century of the
Christian era), dissected living animals, and yet he is regarded as
having merited his name (_Galenus_, "gentle") from the mildness of his
character. Five centuries before him, under the Ptolemies, Egyptian
experimenters had operated upon condemned persons. So, then, vivisection
is not, as usually thought, a diabolical invention of modern science.

[Illustration: Fig. 1-5 APPARATUS USED IN VIVISECTION.]

In all ages the necessity has been recognized of operating upon animals
that are nearest allied to man, such as the monkey, the hog, and the
dog, and who share with the king of creation the privilege of eating a
little of everything. Claude Bernard, however, had another way of
looking at things. It is true that he especially made researches into
the general laws of physiology, the secret of the vital functions, and
the operation of the various organic systems that constitute living
matter, but his immediate object was not to furnish weapons for the art
of curing. He left to physicians and surgeons the care of drawing
conclusions from his great work in biology, and of acting experimentally
upon animals allied to man in order to found a rational system of
therapeutics. So he preferred to operate upon beings placed low in the
animal scale--the frog especially, an animal that has rendered him
greater service than even man himself could have done. Cold-blooded
animals offer, moreover, the advantage of being less impressionable than
others, and the experiments to which they are submitted present more
accurate conclusions, since it is not necessary to take so much account
of the victim's restlessness. And then it is necessary in many cases to
choose subjects that possess endurance. The unfortunate frog, so aptly
named "the Job of physiology," becomes resigned to living under most
dreadful conditions, and when, through sheer exhaustion, he has
succumbed, his twitching limbs may still he used as an object of
experimentation for twenty-four hours. Thanks are due to nature for
giving so extraordinary a vitality to the tissues of a modest
batrachian! We owe to it the famous experiment of Galvani that led Volta
to the discovery of the pile and what followed it, the astonishing
conquests of electricity and those more marvelous ones still that are
now in their dawn. Science is much indebted to the frog, and may the
homage that we pay him help to alleviate the sufferings that have been
imposed upon this brave animal!

[Illustration: Fig. 6-8 APPARATUS USED IN VIVISECTION.]

The simple fact that we have just enunciated pleads loudly enough for
the cause of vivisection to make it useless to defend it. No one,
however, has risen to ask for an absolute proscription of it, but it is
only desired that the abuse of an abominable practice shall be curbed.
Does the abuse exist? That is the question, and it may be answered in
the affirmative. Yes, we do sometimes impose useless sufferings upon
animals. It is a culpable folly, a beastly cruelty, to constantly repeat
barbarous experiments with the object of exhibiting a well known
physical fact, a hundred times verified and always the same, when it
would only be necessary to enunciate it. But this is not the place to
expatiate upon the subject. After proclaiming the utility of
vivisection, we give it as our opinion that the practice of it should be
confined within narrow limits. It is not too much to ask that it be
confined to the privacy of laboratories, with the exclusion of visitors,
and to require from students a diploma guaranteeing their knowledge and
giving a programme of researches to be made. It is useless to seek in
the living what a study of the corpse reveals in all its details.

[Illustration: Fig. 9-11 APPARATUS USED IN VIVISECTION.]

And now, after these preliminary remarks, we present herewith a series
of cuts representing the various apparatus used in the practice of
vivisection, which are taken from a recent work by Claude Bernard. Fig.
1 shows the mode of muzzling a dog with a strong cord placed behind an
iron bit. Fig. 2 shows a method of tying a dog. Fig. 3 is a vessel in
which hares or cats are placed in order to anæsthetize them. Fig. 4
shows the mode of fixing an animal on its side, and Fig. 5 the mode of
fixing him on his back. Fig. 6 shows a dog fixed upon the vivisecting
table, and Fig. 7 a hare secured to the same. Fig. 8 exhibits the
general arrangement of a vivisecting table, properly so called. Fig. 9
shows (1) an anæsthetizing muzzle applied to a dog, and (2) the
extremity of the apparatus in section. Fig. 10 shows how the muzzle is
applied for anæsthetizing, and gives the details of construction of the
chloroform box. Fig. 11 exhibits the arrangement of the apparatus used
for holding the animal's jaws open upon the vivisecting
table.--_L'Illustration_.

       *       *       *       *       *



INSANITY FROM ALCOHOL.

[Footnote: Read at the late meeting of the National Association for the
Protection of the Insane and translated for the American Psychological
Journal by Carl Sieler, M.D., of Philadelphia.]

By A. BAER, M.D., of Berlin, Germany.


The benevolent efforts of your society diverge in two different
directions, which have totally different aims and purposes, and which
require different means in order to attain lasting success. Since the
number of insane has increased alarmingly within the last few years, in
all civilized countries, so that the responsibility of the proper charge
of them occupies continually not only the community, but also the State;
and since the public as well as the private asylums are filled almost
before they are finished, it becomes necessary to rid the institutions,
as soon as possible, of those patients which have been cured, as well as
of those which are improved. Patients of this kind are, as early as
possible, returned to the unrestrained enjoyment of liberty with the
expectation that the new scenes and surroundings may have a beneficial
influence, besides having the advantage of relieving the overcrowded
institutions. Unfortunately, however, it has been frequently found that
the hut suddenly restored mental and emotional equilibrium is not of
sufficient stability to withstand the storm of conflicting interests.
Frequently it happens that the but recently discharged patient returns
to the institution, after a short lapse of time, because the "rudder"
(steuer) of his intelligence was soon shattered in the turmoil of life.
How can, for instance, the indigent and poor patient, after his
discharge from the institution in which he has found a shelter and the
proper care, stand up in the struggle for existence and the support of
his family? Is it not to be expected that a large proportion of those
who have been discharged as improved, or even cured, cannot withstand
the ever-moving sea of the outside life and bear up under the turmoil
which constantly stirs mind and soul?

Starting with the recognition of this fact, societies of benevolent
people have been formed in all countries in which true civilization and
humanity are at work, to diminish or abolish social evils, whose object
is to assist the restored patient who has been discharged from the
institution, at a time when he is most in need of help and assistance.
Switzerland has taken the lead of all countries by her brilliant
example, and there these societies found the greatest encouragement. It
should be looked upon as a good sign of the spirit of modern times, that
the seed of true humanity, with astonishing rapidity, found its way, far
and wide, for the benefit of suffering mankind. Everywhere, in all
European countries, and also on the American continent, has this branch
of a truly noble thought become acclimated, and many societies have been
organized for the purpose of assisting cured insane patients, by aiding
them in obtaining suitable occupations, or by direct donations of money,
etc., with a view of preventing, if possible, a relapse of the disease.
May this portion of the work of your society be an ever-flowing fountain
of joy and satisfaction to your members!

Of much greater importance is the best portion of your work, namely,
_the prevention of insanity_. It is nevertheless true, and cannot be
doubted, that in all civilized countries insanity increases in a manner
which is out of proportion to the increase of the population. Much
thought has been given to the cause of this phenomenon, and physicians
as well as moralists, national economists as well as philosophers and
philanthropists, have endeavored to fathom the connection between this
fact and the conditions of modern social life. According to all
observations, it is certain that the cause of this phenomenon is not a
single etiological condition, but that it is the sum of a number of
influences which act upon the human race and produce their travages in
the mental and moral life of our patients. The conditions which give
rise to this increase of insanity may be looked for in the manner in
which modern civilization influences mankind, in its development and
culture, in the family and in the school-room, in its views of life and
habits; also in the manner in which civilization forces a man to fight a
heavier and harder battle for pleasure and possessions, power and
knowledge, and causes him to go even beyond his powers of endurance.

More than even civilization itself, are at fault those pernicious
abnormities, rare monstrosities, which are transmitted from generation
to generation, or are also often newly developed and appear to belong to
our civilization. If we want to prevent the increase of insanity, we
must endeavor to do away with these monstrosities and eccentricities
from our social life which remove mankind more and more, in a pernicious
manner, from its natural development and from the normal conditions of
moral and physical life; we must endeavor to kill these poisonous
offshoots of pseudo civilization, which are the enemies of the normal
existence of man. It is necessary to liberate the individual, as well as
the entire society of modern times, from the potentiated egotism which
spurs man on in overhaste, and in all departments of mental and physical
life, to a feverish activity, and then leads to an early senile decay of
both body and mind; from that terrible materialism which causes the
modern individual in every class of society to find satisfaction in over
excited taste and ingenious luxury. It is necessary to strengthen more
than has been done heretofore the young, by means of their education, in
their physical development, and at the same time to diminish, in proper
proportion, the amount of mental over-exertion; and finally it is
necessary to fight against, to do away with, those habits of modern
society-life which have a pernicious influence upon the physical as well
as the mental and moral organization of man. And of these latter, there
is none so lasting in its effects, none so harmful to the physical as
well as moral life, as the abuse of intoxicating liquors.

Intemperance is an inexhaustible source of the development and increase
of insanity. It demands our undivided attention, not only on account of
its existing relation, but particularly because intemperance, among all
the factors which aid in the increase of insanity, can best be
diminished, and its influence weakened, through the will of the single
individual, as well as of society as a whole. The relation between
intemperance and insanity is so definite and clear, that it is not
necessary to adduce proofs of this fact. I will not refer to the
writings of the older authors, such as Rush, in America; Hutchison,
Macnish, Carpenter, and others, in England; Huss and Dahl, in Sweden;
Ramaer, in Holland; Esquirol, Pinel Brierre de Boismont, Morel, and
others, in France; Flemming, Jameson, Roller, Griesinger, and others, in
Germany. I could name a much larger number of the greatest modern
authorities on insanity, who are all unanimous in their opinion that the
increase of intemperance (alcoholism) produces a corresponding increase
of insanity. Of especial interest is this fact in those countries in
which the consumption of concentrated alcohol, and particularly in the
form of whiskies distilled from potatoes and corn, has only in later
years become general. Thus Lunier has shown the number of alcoholic
insane increased by ten per cent. in those departments in which more
whisky and less wine is consumed.

In Italy a similar result has been reached by investigation; and in that
country (according to Kanti, Sormani, Vesay, Rareri, Castiglione, Ferri,
and others) the frequency of insanity caused by the abuse of alcohol
stands in an unmistakable relation to the consumption of alcohol in
certain provinces of Italy.

In a discussion at one of the meetings (1876) of the London
Medico-Psychological Society, the general opinion of the members was,
that intemperance is the most fruitful source of the increase of
insanity, even when no other etiological element could be found, and
alcohol had to be looked upon as the sole cause of the mental disease.
Maudsley laid especial stress upon the observation, that intemperance,
without hereditary predisposition, was one of the most powerful agencies
in the production of aberration of the mind. Even Beckwith, who could
not coincide with others as to the great importance of intemperance as
an etiological element, says distinctly, that intemperance was, by far,
the most potent of all removable causes of mental disease.

In comparing the number of drinking saloons in the different provinces
of the kingdom of Prussia with the number of insane, both in public
institutions and in private families, as gleaned from the census report
of 1871, I was enabled to show conclusively, that everywhere, where the
number of drinking places, i.e., the consumption of alcohol, was
greatest, the number of insane was also largest. Without doubt, to my
mind it is in alcohol that we must look for and will find the most
potent cause of the development and spread of mental diseases.

As is well known, alcohol acts as a disturbing element upon the nerve
centers, even if it has only once been imbibed in excessive quantity. In
consequence of the acute disturbance of circulation and nutrition an
acute intoxication takes place, which may range from a slight excitation
to a complete loss of consciousness. After habitual abuse of alcohol,
the functional disturbances of the brain and spinal cord became constant
and disappear the less, as in the central organs degenerative processes
are more and more developed, processes which lead to congestions and
hemorrhagic effusions in the meninges and in the brain itself, to
softening or hardening, and finally to disappearance of the brain
substance. These degenerations of the nervous system give rise to a
progressive decay of all intellectual and also, more especially, of the
ethical functions, a decay which presents the phenomena of feeble
mindedness, complicated with a large number of sensational and motor
disturbances, and gradually ends in complete idiocy.

The number of those mental disturbances which are caused by alcohol
intoxication is a very considerable one. We do not err if we assert that
from 20 to 25 per cent. of all mental diseases stand in a direct or
indirect relation to the evil consequences of intemperance in the use of
intoxicating liquors. This is the opinion of a large number of
authorities on mental diseases in all countries. Habitual intemperance
leads to severe (psychical?) lesions (of the nervous system) which may
show themselves in the different forms of insanity, but express
themselves chiefly as mental weakness, not only in persons whose nervous
system was weakened through inherited or acquired defects, but also in
those whose mental organization was intact. In many other cases we see
less complete forms of insanity and more indistinct psychological
disturbances and neuroses, and among the latter epilepsy demands
particular attention.

An investigation among the patients in the insane department of the
Berlin Charite Hospital, in charge of Prof. Westfahl, which was lately
carried on by Dr. T. Galle (Uber die Beziehunger des Alcoholismus zur
Epilepsie. Inaug. Dissert. 1881, Berlin), showed that among 607 patients
who had entered the ward as epileptics or epileptic insane, 150 = 24.7
per cent. had been addicted to drink; 133 before, and 17 after the
disease had shown itself; further, that of 1572 patients with delirium
tremens, alcoholism, alcoholic dementia, and ebrietas, 243, or 15.4 per
cent., were epileptic; and that in 221 intemperance was present before
the outbreak of epilepsy; finally, that among 2679 patients which
entered the department in six and a half years, 393, or 18 per cent.,
were inebriates and epileptics. Among 128 epileptics which I had
occasion to note in the receiving institute, Plotseurie, 21 per cent.
were drunkards and 20 per cent. were the offspring of intemperate
parents.

If the list of injuries which intemperance, as we have seen, does
directly to the mental life of man is a very considerable one, the
baneful effect which is produced indirectly, by the intemperance of
parents, upon the mental constitution of their progeny is surely just as
great and disastrous. The children of intemperate parents frequently
become drunkards themselves; they have inherited a degeneration of the
vitiated constitution, and carry the stamp of this degeneration within
themselves. The offspring of drunkards are not only weakly and sickly,
and die early, especially of diseases of the brain, but, as Dahl, Morel,
Howe, Beach, and others have shown, they are frequently born idiotic, or
show early signs of insanity. Under the influence of alcohol, the
individual constitution of the drinker becomes lowered and depraved,
and, according to the law of inheritance, is transmitted through the
progeny to the race.

Prof. Bollinger, the latest writer on inheritance of disease (Stuttgart,
1882--Cotta--Uber Dererbung von Krankheiten), names alcoholism among the
transient abnormal conditions which, during conception, exert their
influence, so that children of intemperate parents acquire pathological,
and especially neuro-pathological, dispositions. Intemperance, says this
author, in its acute, as well as in its chronic form, causes frequently
pathological changes in the nervous system, and thus may the
pathological differences in children of the same parents be partially
explained. On account of the inheritance of a depraved and pathological
constitution, the children of intemperate parents frequently suffer from
an abnormal psychical organization. As in the progeny of insane,
epileptics, suicides, and criminals, so also among the children of
drunkards, do we see cases of congenital idiocy and imbecility, of
neurasthenia and inebriety, of psychical and somatic degeneracy, also of
depraved morality, of vagrancy and crime.

Mr. President and Gentlemen: In the light of the enumerated facts,
nobody will dispute that intemperance is a fruitful as well as
inexhaustible source for the increase and development of insanity; and
that every effort toward diminution of the frequency of insanity, toward
the prevention of mental diseases, must be directed against this
widespread evil, intemperance.

May your noble society succeed in confining this torrent of evil in a
narrower growing bed, and to deliver mankind from a curse which cannot
be too much contended with.

       *       *       *       *       *



PLANTAIN AS A STYPTIC.

[Footnote: Read at the meeting of the Amer. Pharm. Assoc.]

By J.W. COLCORD.


Several articles during the past few months, copied from English
pharmaceutical journals, calling attention to the styptic properties of
plantain leaves--Plantago major--having attracted my attention, I
determined to try a few experiments when opportunity offered. Having a
shiftless neighbor whose yard produced a bountiful crop of the article,
I was easily able to secure an abundant supply for my experiments.
Believing that better results would be obtained from fresh plants than
from dried, I expressed the juice from them by means of an "Enterprise"
mill, obtaining about 16 fluid ounces of juice from 3 pounds of leaves.
The juice was of a light green color, very turbid, evidently caused by a
large amount of chlorophyl. Setting aside 4 ounces of the filtered
liquid for further experimenting, I packed the residue from the press
into a conical glass percolator and exhausted with dilute alcohol,
evaporating the percolate in a water-bath to two ounces, mixing with the
12 ounces of expressed juice and adding 2 ounces of alcohol. This
preparation, which I call a fluid extract, represents virtually equal
parts by weight of the dried plants. It is of a dark brown color with a
marked odor of the recent plant, and so far, after standing three months
undisturbed on my shelves, shows no sign of precipitation.

My next experiment was a mixture of equal quantities of the expressed
juice with glycerin. At the present time, after standing three months,
the mixture is clear and bright, with no sign of precipitation. This, I
think, promises to be the most efficient preparation, and will prove
valuable as an injection in the treatment of leucorrhoea, hemorrhages,
and similar disorders.

Experiment number three was made with equal parts of the juice and
alcohol, and number four with three parts of the juice with one part of
alcohol.

In a short time a precipitate was observed in both samples in about
equal proportions, and was removed about one month after making by
filtering through paper, and neither has shown signs of precipitation
since, and continue bright, clear, light-brown liquids.

Of their therapeutic value as styptics, I have not had sufficient trial
to form an opinion, although, as far as I can judge, they have proved
satisfactory. While writing this article, a cook from a neighboring
restaurant, with a finger sliced off in a potato slicer, exposing the
bone, came in for treatment. Having bandaged I applied the glycerate,
which soon stopped the profuse bleeding, giving her a small bottle of it
to apply subsequently. I asked her to report to me in two or three days,
and, on reporting, I found a healthy granulation presenting. Its styptic
properties are undoubtedly due to tannic acid, as all the tests I have
been able to make prove this to be the case. The readiness with which it
can be obtained in the summer renders it a valuable adjunct,
undoubtedly, to the materia medica of the country practitioner or
housewife for stopping hemorrhages in simple wounds.

The bruised leaves applied directly usually prove sufficient for the
purpose; as to whether it will prove sufficiently valuable to add to our
list of pharmaceutical preparations will require longer and more
extended experiment.--_New Remedies_.

       *       *       *       *       *



DANGER FROM FLIES.


Dr. Grassi is said (_British Medical Journal_) to have made an
important, and by no means pleasant, discovery in regard to flies. It
was always recognized that these insects might carry the germs of
infection on their wings or feet, but it was not known that they are
capable of taking in at the mouth such objects as the ova of various
worms, and of discharging them again unchanged in their fæces. This
point has now been established, and several striking experiments
illustrate it. Dr. Grassi exposed in his laboratory a plate containing a
great number of the eggs of a human parasite, the _Tricocephalus
dispar_. Some sheets of white paper were placed in the kitchen, which
stands about ten meters from the laboratory. After some hours, the usual
little spots produced by the fæces of flies were found on the paper.
These spots, when examined by the microscope, were found to contain some
of the eggs of the tricocephalus. Some of the flies themselves were then
caught, and their intestines presented large numbers of the ova. Similar
experiments with the ova of the _Oxyuris vermicularis_ and of the
_Toenia solium_ afforded corresponding results. Shortly after the flies
had some mouldy cream, the _Oidium lactis_ was found in their fæces. Dr.
Grassi mentions an innocuous and yet conclusive experiment that every
one can try. Sprinkle a little lycopodium on sweetened water, and
afterward examine the fæces and intestines of the flies; numerous spores
will be found. As flies are by no means particular in choosing either a
place to feed or a place to defecate, often selecting meat or food for
the purpose, a somewhat alarming vision of possible consequences is
raised.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS.


The erection of the new house for the accommodation of the serpents,
alligators, and other reptiles, which is shown in our illustration, must
be commended as a valuable improvement of the Zoological Society's
establishment in Regent's Park. This building, which has a rather
stately aspect and is of imposing dimensions, constructed of brick and
terracotta, with a roof of glass and iron, stands close to the south
gate of the Gardens, entered from the Broad Walk of the Park. The
visitor, on entering by that gate, should turn immediately to the left
hand, along the narrow path beside the aviary of the Chinese golden
pheasants, and will presently come to the Reptile House, which is too
much concealed from view by some of the sheds for the deer. The spacious
interior, represented in our view, is one of the most agreeable places
in the whole precinct of these gardens, being well aired and lighted,
very nicely paved, and tastefully decorated in pale color, with some
fine tropical plants in tubs on the floor, or in the windows, and in
baskets hanging from the roof. Three oval basins, with substantial
margins of concrete, so formed as to prevent the reptiles crawling over
them, while one basin is further protected by an iron grating, contain
water in which the alligators, the infant crocodiles, and a number of
tortoises, but none of the larger species, make themselves quite at
home. One side of the house, with its windows looking into a pleasant
airy vestibule, is occupied by many small glass cases for the smaller
lizards, with boxes and pots of flowers set between them upon tables,
which present a very attractive exhibition. The other three sides of the
hall, which is nearly square, are entirely devoted to the large wall
cages, with fronts of stout plate glass, in single sheets, rising about
14 feet to the roof, in which the serpents are confined--the huge
pythons, anaconda, and boa constrictor, the poisonous cobras and
rattlesnakes, and others well known to the visitors at these gardens.
Each cage or compartment has a sliding door of iron behind, to which the
keeper has access in a passage running along the back of the wall, and
there are doors also from one compartment to another. The floor is of
smooth slate, and the largest snake has ample space to uncoil itself, or
to climb up the trunks and branches of trees placed there for its
exercise and amusement.

[Illustration: THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS. THE BABIROUSSA FAMILY.]


THE BABIROUSSA.

We present, on the same page, a few sketches of the babiroussas, a male
and two females, with a young one, recently presented to the society by
Dr. F.H. Bauer. These animals, which are from Celebes, in the Malay
Archipelago, have been placed temporarily in different stalls of the
ostrich house, on the north side of the gardens. The babiroussa is a
species of wild hog, peculiar to the islands of Eastern Asia, and
remarkable, in the male animal, for the extraordinary growth and
direction of the canine teeth. The upper pair of canine teeth, growing
out through the upper jaw, curve backward and upward on the forehead,
having somewhat the aspect of horns; while the lower canine teeth form a
pair of crooked tusks in the under jaw. These teeth may be useful for
defensive fighting, as a guard to the head, but could not serve for
attack. The skull of a babiroussa, with the teeth fully developed, is in
the possession of Mr. Bartlett, the able superintendent of the
Zoological Society's collection.--_Illustrated London News_.

[Illustration: THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS. THE NEW REPTILE HOUSE.]

       *       *       *       *       *

Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 363, page 5797.



ON THE MINERALOGICAL LOCALITIES IN AND AROUND NEW YORK CITY.

PART IV.

By NELSON H. DARTON.


Montville, Morris County, New Jersey.--This locality is an old one, and
well known to mineralogists. It is outside of the limits prescribed in
introducing this series of paper, but by only a few miles, and being
such an interesting locality, I have included it in the granular
limestone, which occurs in a small isolated ridge in the gneiss within a
space of ten acres, about two miles north of the railroad station of
Montville, on the Boonton Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and
Western Railroad, and is reached by a road running north from about a
mile east of the railroad station. This road branches into two at the
limestone kilns, about a mile from the railroad track, and the left hand
branch is taken, which leads more directly to the quarry, which is on
the right hand, about a mile further on, and quite conspicuous by the
loose rock lying in front of the quarry. It is on the property of a Mr.
John J. Gordon, and produces a very fine limestone for use in the
furnaces and forges in the vicinity, as well as lime for agricultural
purposes, it being the only limestone in the vicinity for fifteen miles.
Between it and its walk of gneiss occur veins of the minerals so
characteristic of the locality, and for which it has become
famous--serpentine, asbestos, phlozopite, gurhofite pyrites, biotite,
aragonite, dolomite, tremolite, and possibly others in lesser quantity.

_Serpentine_.--All the varieties of this species, and of every color
from nearly white to black, is profusely distributed through the
limestone in the lower or main quarry in veins and pockets. It is
generally soft, translucent, and to be found in masses from a pea to a
cubic foot in size. Much of it is of a pure oil green color, rich and
translucent, making a very fine and attractive looking mineral specimen.
No difficulty need be experienced in producing all the varieties of this
mineral, as much has been removed and may be found in the vicinity of
the quarry, as it is always carefully separated from the limestone as
being useless, and thrown aside, or in some instances, when of peculiar
beauty, sold as specimens. The variety of serpentine known as marmolite,
which is made up of numberless plates of the mineral packed together
similar to mica, but of the green color of the serpentine picolite, or
fibrous serpentine, also frequently occurs of a light grass green color,
and is a very interesting variety.

In selecting specimens of serpentine, care should be taken to procure
that which is the most translucent, and that holding miniature veins of
asbestos. These are not so plentiful as those of the pure serpentine
alone, but occur in the southern end of the main quarry. The width of
these veins of asbestos is seldom over an inch, but those of even much
less are highly prized as specimens. These veins of asbestos are, in
places, several inches in length, but are generally much broken in
removing them, as their fibrous structure, at right angles to their
length, makes them very fragile, and pure specimens of asbestos can
seldom be found. However, they make much finer specimens when with the
serpentine. Frequently these specimens may be obtained with a layer of
gurhofite above them, and separated by the serpentine; this assortment
is very interesting, revealing to us the manner in which they were
formed, which was by a process termed segregation.

This gurhofite, called bone
by the quarrymen, occurs in white, dense looking masses, intermingled
with the serpentine, especially in the upper end of the quarry, where
veins six and eight inches in thickness are abundant, and from which
specimens may be readily obtained showing the fibrous structure of the
gurhofite and the association with the serpentine, to which it is found
attached; it is quite different from the limestone in appearance, and
need not be mistaken for it.

_Phlozopite_.--In a vein near the lower end of the quarry, near the
asbestos locality, occurs large plates of this mineral, which is a
variety of mica, and has all of the characteristics of a pure silvery
white color, and from one by three inches in area to less. It is easily
separable in folia, and cannot be confounded with any of the other
minerals. A huge mass of the veinstone holding abundance of this mineral
is exposed, whence it may be plentifully obtained in excellent crystals.

_Pyrites_.--White and yellow iron pyrites are abundant in the gneissic
rock adjoining the limestone, and frequently very fine, perfect crystals
may be found handsomely dressed upon the rock. There is no particular
portion of the quarries in which they abound.

_Biotite_.--This is a variety of mica in small crystals, of a dark brown
color, and quite plentiful in the gneiss inclosing the veins of
limestone. Up in the older quarries it is more abundant; on the north
wall of the vein it is often in very fine specimens, and there even in
large number, in a locality, generally a pocket in the gneiss.

_Tremolite_ is quite abundant on a large mass of limestone in the
extreme upper quarry, which is a short distance east of the main one,
over a small hill. The tremolite occurs in white crystals, about a
quarter inch in width and from a half to three inches in length. The
crystals are opaque, but very smooth and glistening, lining cavities in
this mass of limestone. It is a variety of hornblende, composed of
silica, lime, and magnesia, with a little alumina. It probably occurs in
places in the vicinity of this block, and in finer specimens, as these
are frequently, when near the surface, much weathered and worn. This is
a characteristic granular limestone mineral, and a very interesting one.
We will again meet it when examining the New York city localities.

_Aragonite_ occurs in very small masses, of a light yellow color and
fibrous structure, between layers of serpentine. When they are separated
by a small interspace, as it frequently is, the fibers are very large,
coarse, and brittle, and thus do not resemble asbestos, although in some
instances they might be mistaken for picolite, but, distinguished from
it by effervescing on contact with a drop of acid, as it is a carbonate
of lime, and also containing a trace of iron. I have never seen any fine
specimens of it from this locality, but deeper down in the rock it may
occur in greater profusion.

Dolomite occurs to a limited extent as such; most of it, being in the
form of gurhofite crystals, may be occasionally found with aragonite of
a light pearly gray color and rhombohedral crystals. As before noticed,
Staten Island is the best locality for this species.

_Calcite_.--In places the limestone is perfectly crystallized, and of a
pure white or other color, when it forms an attractive mineral, and
often worth removing. The limestone of the main quarry, carefully
averaged, was found to have the following chemical composition.

  Lime.                11.09
  Magnesia.            37.94
  Carbonic acid.       30.61
  Silica.              10.22
  Water and loss.       4.90
  Iron and alumina.     5.24
                      ------
                      100.00

In places it is spotted with the serpentine, and judging from its rough
state resembles "_verde antique_," and at that of a beautiful color;
samples of this should be obtained.

_Feldspar_.--This mineral occurs very plentfully in the space between
the limestones and gneiss. It is generally of a flesh red color and
often in very perfect crystals, in some instances an inch and a half in
length; as its hardness is 6, it can be readily distinguished from
calcite, which it much resembles, but which has only a hardness of 3,
and dissolves with effervescence in acids.

A visit to this locality is a delightful manner in which to spend a
holiday or other time of leisure; and as it affords so many interesting
and valuable minerals, it forms a very profitable trip as well. In
reaching it many interesting localities are passed, and if one has an
early start these may all be visited. I will describe a few of these,
which are alike possessors of beautiful scenery and instructing
geological features and not far from the main line of travel.

Starting from the Erie depot, on the Greenwood Lake road, the first stop
may be at Arlington, about seven miles west of Jersey City. Here a visit
to the Schuyler copper mine may be profitably taken; and as I have
written a full account of this locality in a previous portion of these
articles,[1] I will not reiterate it here, but refer to that paper. The
mine, I might add, is only a mile north of the railroad station, and on
Schuyler Avenue, a short distance north from its junction with the
Jersey City and Paterson turnpike. Coming back to Arlington depot, and
walking on the track for about a quarter of a mile west through the deep
cut, the manner in which the sandstones and shales which constitute so
large a portion of New Jersey are laid and arranged can be seen to great
advantage, this being one of the finest exposures in the formation. At a
point about equidistant from either end is a fault in the layers of
shales and sandstone; this fault is noticeable as a slight irregularity
in the otherwise continuous sides of the cut, and is a point at which
the layers of rock on the east have fallen vertically, the western side
remaining in its original position. This fault has a thrust of only
three feet, but is an instructive example of faults which occur on a
tremendous scale in some of the other formations. It will be noticed
that between the two edges of the separated layers there is a deposit of
a talcky substance, which has been derived from infiltrating waters.
Fissure veins are generally in positions of this kind, formed and filled
in a similar manner, but with the various metallic ores. Passing further
west a short distance we reach the Passaic River, and walk along its
banks for a mile north to the Belleville bridge; at this point is the
intake of the Jersey City water works, with their huge Worthington pumps
and other accessories, which may be conveniently visited. The Passaic
River is then crossed, and the train on the Newark and Paterson road may
be taken for three miles to Avondale, from whence it is two miles east
to the Belleville sandstone quarries, or the bank of the Passaic may be
followed and the quarries reached in an hour from Belleville. Here again
are met the sandstones and shales, besides another and larger fault, and
many interesting features of the sandstone and its quarrying may be
examined. The railroad station having been regained, Paterson is the
next point of interest. The first thing noticeable in approaching the
city are the quarries in the side of the hills to the south, and these
may be visited the first; they are but a short distance southeast of the
station. Here the sandstone will be found in contact with the trap above
and the layers of basalt, trap, tufa, sandstone, shales and
conglomerates are exposed. Regaining the nearest railroad track (the
Boonton branch of the D., L. & W.R.R.), this is followed for some
distance west, when the various strata can be examined in the cut of the
railroad and a fault of nearly sixty feet in the trap; this is noticed
as a depression in the face of the cliff, and it may be seen by the
superposition of the layers of trap and basalt. Where the fault occurs a
short distance further west, there is another smaller fault. A visit to
the Great Falls of the Passaic is a very pleasurable diversion at this
point, and these are about a half mile north of this locality. Here the
arrangement of the trap and sandstones can be again profitably studied,
and the mineralogical localities which I have described in a former one
of these articles[2] examined, not omitting the one at West Paterson,
wherein so much phrenite may be found. Taking the train from West
Paterson to Little Falls, a walk of a few miles south brings us to the
Little Falls, and here is another interesting locality wherein the
contact of the sandstone and trap may be examined and the numerous
additional phenomena studied. A quarry near the Falls is the best point
in which to find these exposures, and from the viaduct crossing the
river an excellent view of the surrounding country may be obtained.
Regaining the train, Montville is soon reached and visited, and after
this, if time sufficient Boonville, two miles west, may be taken in, or
it may be necessary to go there to catch a return train, as but few stop
at Montville. At Boonton there are many interesting features--iron works
furnaces, localities in which fossil remains are found, footprints,
conglomeritic beds, and many other things, of which I will endeavor to
give a detailed account in some other of this series of articles.

[Footnote 1: See SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, No. 363.]

[Footnote 2: See SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, No. 363.]

       *       *       *       *       *



DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT CHURCH IN JERUSALEM.


An account of the newly discovered church, north of the Damascus Gate,
Jerusalem, appears in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine
Exploration Fund. The author is Dr. Selah Merrill. The ruin has proved
to be one of great extent, and of special interest. The way in which it
was brought to light is worth recording. In an uneven field, which rose
considerably above the land about it, parts of which appearing, indeed,
like little hillocks, the owner of the soil tried to maintain a
vegetable garden, but the ground was so dry that neither grain nor
vegetables would flourish, and even irrigation did little or no good;
besides, here and there large holes appeared in the ground which could
not be accounted for. At last the owner determined to dig and see what
there was below the surface of his field, and to his surprise he very
soon came upon fine walls and a pavement. The excavations being followed
up have laid bare a church with some of the surrounding buildings. The
amount of _débris_ which had accumulated above the floor of these
buildings was 10 to 20 feet in depth. To remove this mass of earth has
required much time and labor, and the work is not yet completed. The
piece of ground in question has about 60 yards of frontage on the main
road, and extends, so far as the excavations go, about the same distance
back from the road, that is, to the east.

The church itself is situated on the south side of this plot, and is
very near the street. The ground in front of the church is paved with
fine slabs of stone. The steps by which the church was entered were 5
feet wide, but the doorway itself was somewhat wider. From the entrance
to the altar step, or platform, the distance is 55 feet, and from that
point to the back of the apse 15 feet 6 inches; the width of the apse is
16 feet 6 inches. The width of the church is 24 feet 6 inches. Nine feet
in front of the altar step a wall has been thrown across the church in a
manner similar to that in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. This
wall, also those of the church, of which several courses remain, and the
interior of the apse, show that the building was originally painted, and
some of the figures and designs can still be traced. At the southeast
corner of the church, leading from the apse, there is a narrow but well
built passageway to the buildings in the rear. The character of these
buildings is not very evident; certainly they did not stand on a line
with the church, but at an angle of 25° with that line. Between the
church and what appears now to have been the main building in the rear,
there was a passage not over 3 feet wide. The main building in the rear
of the church is 47 feet 6 inches long, but to this must be added 20
feet more of a special room, which seems to have belonged to it, and
which had a beautiful mosaic pavement. Thus the extreme length from the
entrance of the church to the (present) east side of this mosaic floor
is 140 feet.

On the west side of this mosaic floor, where it joins the wall of the
main building, there is a threshold of a single stone, 9 feet 6 inches
long, with a step 6 feet 9 inches in the clear. This is considerably
wider, it will be seen, than the steps, and even the entrance of the
church. Several patches of mosaic pavement have been found, but in one
place two or three square yards have been preserved, enough to show that
the work was extremely beautiful. The colored tracings resemble those in
the church on the Mount of Olives, and on one side are the large Greek
letters [Theta][epsilon][omicron][nu]. North of this mosaic floor, and
of the main building which joins it, and running alongside of both,
there is a watercourse or channel cut in the solid rock, which has been
leveled to accommodate the buildings above. This can be traced in an
east and west line for a distance of 37 feet; it is 2 feet 3 inches
deep, 20 inches wide at the top and 12 at the bottom. From about the
middle of the mosaic floor this channel turns a right angle and runs 20
feet or more to the north; it is possible that it led _from_ the north,
and at the point indicated turned a right angle and ran to the west.
Piles of stones and _debris_ prevent us at present from deciding as to
the length of the channel or where it comes from. In the bank of
_debris_, which rises on the east side of the mosaic floor to a height
of 20 feet, there is, about 6 feet above the floor, a watercourse formed
of cement, running north and south at right angles to the line of the
church and the other buildings, which must have belonged to a much later
period. In fact--and this is an interesting circumstance--the mosaic
pavement appears to extend under and beyond this canal and the mass of
_debris_ which is yet to be removed.

In the northwest corner of the room, where the mosaic floor is found,
very near the angle (already mentioned) of the rock-cut channel, there
is a tomb about 6 feet below the surface or level of the floor. The tomb
is 10 feet long and 9 feet wide, and is entered by a doorway 26 inches
wide, which is well built, and in the sides of which are grooves for a
door to slide up and down. On the wall of the tomb at the east end there
is a raised Greek cross, 22 inches long and 13 inches wide. One cannot
stand erect in its highest part, but it is to be considered that the
loculi are two-thirds full of _debris_, composed chiefly of decayed
bones and bits of glass. Those in charge of the excavations have not, up
to the present time, allowed the tombs to be cleared out. The loculi are
2 feet in depth.

What Captain Conder speaks of as "vaults north of the church," turn out
to be the tops of houses. They are four in number, each 75 feet long by
28 feet wide, and faced the street. They were divided (one or two of
them at least) into apartments by means of arches. The lower courses of
the walls, to the height of several feet, are of squared stones, while
the upper portions and the roofs are of rubble work, which was covered
with a heavy coating of plaster. The threshold of one has been exposed,
which is 6 feet in the clear, and the sides of the doorway show
excellent work.

Among the ruins there are two sections of marble columns, each 33 inches
in diameter. Three large cisterns have been found, two of which were
nearly full of water; the mouths of these, which were closed, were many
feet below the surface of the ground before the excavations began, hence
no one knows how old the water in them may be. Some of the slabs with
which the church was paved were 6 feet long by 2½ feet wide. In the
church two pieces of cornice were found, each 8 feet in length. One is
entire and quite plain, while the other is broken in the middle. It is
upon this that the figures of Christ and his twelve apostles were
painted. They can still be traced, although exposure has nearly
obliterated the colors. Pottery and a considerable quantity of broken
glass have been found and some small articles in marble of no great
value. The top of a certain block of marble has been formed into a
basin, and a hole drilled the entire length of the block for the water
to run off.

South of the mosaic floor and of the east end of the main building there
is a large underground chamber with seven openings (each the size of a
man's body) to the surface. The chamber is 12 feet wide and nearly 20
feet long, but the depth is not yet ascertained, owing to the
accumulation of _debris_ on the bottom. On the west and north sides a
wall of solid rock appears to a depth of 6 feet, showing that the
chamber was excavated in part at least in the solid rock. The use of
this chamber does not appear evident, unless it may have been a store
room. The place within the city shown as "Peter's Prison" consists of a
similar chamber (not dug in the solid rock, however), with similar
openings in the ceiling or roof. The ruins extend underground some
distance to the east of the mosaic floor, and efforts are being made to
purchase the land in that direction, in order to allow of the
excavations being extended there. It is almost equally certain that the
buildings extended to the south and southeast of the present plat of
ground. But the owners of the land are jealous, and everybody is
superstitious; consequently, excavations must be abandoned, or move with
aggravating slowness.

Dr. Selah Merrill, in a note describing a late visit, says that the west
wall of what he called the "main building," toward the apse of the
church, has been removed and the floor cleared, exposing a fine
pavement. This pavement, the threshold before mentioned, and the mosaic
floor all belong to one period, and to a structure very much older than
the date of the "main building." It puzzled the doctor, because the
threshold west of the mosaic floor was not square with the east wall of
the "main buildings," but the reason is now clear. Captain Conder says
of this church with such of the ruins about it as were exposed when he
was there, that "the whole is evidently of the Crusading period." As
regards the church itself, this is not clear, and the mosaic floor
especially may belong to a time many centuries previous to that era. At
the south side of the floor of the "main building" a new mouth to the
largest cistern has been discovered; over the mouth there is a thick
stone 5 feet in diameter. This was eight sided, and was built against
the wall, so that five sides are exposed. The stone was cut in such a
way as to leave on two of its sides small brackets shaped like the two
halves of the utensil called a "tunnel." It may be of interest to state
that this piece of land was offered for sale a few years since, and for
a long time went a begging for a purchaser; at last it was sold for 40
Napoleons. During the present year it has passed into the hands of the
French for 2,000 Napoleons.

       *       *       *       *       *



DAMMARA AUSTRALIS


One of the noblest evergreen trees in that noblest of collections of
such plants contained in the Temperate House at Kew, is the subject of
the present note. Some months since cones were observed to be forming on
this tree, and a representation of which we are now enabled, through the
courtesy of Mrs. Dyer, to lay before our readers. We are not aware
whether the tree has previously produced cones at Kew, though we have
the impression that such is the case; at any rate it has done so
elsewhere, as recorded in the _Flore des Serres_, 1856, p. 75, but
fertile seed was not yielded, owing to the absence of pollen.

In this country the tree is only valuable for its massive aspect and
richly colored thick evergreen leaves, borne on successive tiers of
branches, which render it specially suitable for the decoration of
winter gardens, corridors, and such like situations, where no great
amount of heat is required. In the northern island of New Zealand,
however, it is quite another matter, for there, where it is known as the
Kauri Pine, it furnishes the most valuable of timbers, as may be judged
from the fact that the trunk of the tree attains a height of from 50 to
100 feet clear of the branches; moreover, it yields a gum resin like
copal, which exudes from the trunk, and which is sometimes found below
ground in the vicinity of the trees, thus giving the clew to the real
nature of amber and other similar substances.

[Illustration: THE KAURI PINE.--DAMMARA AUSTRALIS.]

The timber is of slow growth, especially valuable for the construction
of masts of ships, its durability, strength, and elasticity rendering it
particularly suitable for this purpose, and Laslett speaks of it as one
of the best woods for working that the carpenter can take in hand, and
recommends its use for the decks of yachts, for cabin panels, for
joiner's work generally, or for ornamental purposes. Owing to the
difficulty and expense of working the forests, and the great distance,
comparatively little of it comes to this country.--_The London
Gardeners' Chronicle_.

       *       *       *       *       *



HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY TRANSPLANT TREES.


Many think it cheaper and better to take up large trees from the woods,
and transplant them to their grounds or to the road-side, than to buy
nursery trees. As a rule, such trees die; they fail because proper
precautions have not been taken. In digging up a tree, all the roots
outside of a circle a few feet in diameter are cut off, and the tree is
reset with its full head of branches. Whoever has seen trees in the
forest that were upturned by a tornado, must have been struck by the
manner in which the roots run very near to the surface, and to a great
distance. When the roots of these trees are cut off at two or three feet
from the trunk, few or no fibrous or feeding roots are left; and if the
mass of tops is left, the expansion of the buds in the spring will not
be responded to by a supply of sap from the roots, and death must
follow. If such trees have the tops completely removed, leaving only a
bare pole, they will usually grow when transplanted. The tree is little
more than an immense cutting; but there are roots enough left to meet
the demand of the few shoots that start from the top, and growth above
and below ground is well balanced.

We have seen maples, elms, and basswood trees, fifteen feet or more
high, transplanted in this manner, without failure. Some trees treated
in this manner were planted in our neighborhood about ten years ago.
They have now as fine heads as one would wish, and show no signs of
former rough treatment. Trees in pastures, or on the edge of the woods,
are better furnished with roots. These should be prepared for
transplanting by digging down to the roots, and cutting off all that
extended beyond the desired distance. This will cause the formation of
fibrous roots near the tree. It will be safer to take two years for the
operation, cutting half of the roots each year. Such trees may be
removed in safety, especially if a good share of the top is removed at
transplanting--_American Agriculturist_.

       *       *       *       *       *

A CATALOGUE, containing brief notices of many important scientific
papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at this
office.

       *       *       *       *       *



The Scientific American Supplement.

PUBLISHED WEEKLY.


TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, $5 A YEAR.

Sent by mail, postage prepaid, to subscribers in any part of the United
States or Canada. Six dollars a year, sent, prepaid, to any foreign
country.

All the back numbers of THE SUPPLEMENT, from the commencement, January
1, 1876, can be had. Price, 10 cents each.

All the back volumes of THE SUPPLEMENT can likewise be supplied. Two
volumes are issued yearly. Price of each volume, $2.50, stitched in
paper, or $3.50, bound in stiff covers.

COMBINED RATES--One copy of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and one copy of
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, one year, postpaid, $7.00.

A liberal discount to booksellers, news agents, and canvassers.

MUNN & CO., PUBLISHERS,

261 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N. Y.

       *       *       *       *       *



PATENTS.


In connection with the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Messrs. MUNN & Co. are
Solicitors of American and Foreign Patents, have had 38 years'
experience, and now have the largest establishment in the world. Patents
are obtained on the best terms.

A special notice is made in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of all Inventions
patented through this Agency, with the name and residence of the
Patentee. By the immense circulation thus given, public attention is
directed to the merits of the new patent, and sales or introduction
often easily effected.

Any person who has made a new discovery or invention can ascertain, free
of charge, whether a patent can probably be obtained, by writing to MUNN
& Co.

We also send free our Hand Book about the Patent Laws, Patents, Caveats.
Trade Marks, their costs, and how procured. Address

MUNN & CO., 261 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

Branch Office, cor. F and 7th Sts., Washington, D. C.





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.