If we had an agent capable of dissolving the material body of a living man, leaving untouched the spiritual form, so that our natural eyes could behold it in its dissevered state, it would be a revelation but little more wonderful than what has been described. The process called death lifts the spiritual body out of the material without the intervention of solvents devised by human skill; and although we cannot see the act of separation with our visual organs, it may be open to the spiritual eyes of those who have experienced the change. The remark is often made by educated men that they are entirely unable to entertain conceptions of spirit, or form any idea of its nature or capabilities, and therefore they cherish stolid disbelief in its existence. Such should remember that they are as clearly incompetent to understand the nature of matter and most of the laws by which it is influenced. A few years ago, before science removed the thick veil which hid from view many of the secrets of nature, mankind were walking amid mysteries which met them at every step. As regards respiration, they did not know anything of the nature of the air, or why it was so perfectly adapted to maintain animal life; they did not know, when a fire was kindled upon the hearth, what was the cause or what the nature of the phenomena of combustion; they did not know or believe that air was a material substance, having weight, like sand or water; they did not believe that water, or one of its elements, was combustible, and that the other was the grand supporter of combustion. These and many other of the secrets of nature were hidden from their eyes and understandings, but not from ours. We can explain and demonstrate a thousand processes and movements in nature which cannot be understood, and if we yield belief to only that which we see and fully comprehend, our field of knowledge is reduced to narrow limits. There is as good ground for agnosticism in physics as in psychics. A considerable number of the movements and changes in the physical world, which are regarded as well-ascertained facts, are still lingering in the domain of hypothesis. Electricity in itself considered, and much of its attendant phenomena, belongs to the realm of the unknown. We call it force, but after bestowing upon it a name it still remains a mystery. Considered as a thing, we know as much of spirit as we do of electricity. The claim that one is a physical, the other a moral, force is unsatisfactory, as the distinction is clearly indefinable. The physical and spiritual forces are capable of producing like impressions upon matter, and influencing its multiform changes. Those among the educated classes who speak derisively of the results of biological research, and of some observed occult psychical phenomena, are apt to place in contrast what are called demonstrable facts in physical science, and claim a much clearer insight in that direction than is warrantable. It is hazardous for any one to venture far in bringing to view disparaging contrasts, for it is easy to show that physical science is hedged in by barriers which effectively oppose its progress, and the domain of the unknown is a field whose boundaries are as wide as the physical universe. WHAT OF DEATH? nate the physical career of man are not necessarily In experiments with induction coils of great power, violent or sudden in their nature. A severe chill, I have frequently, through inadvertency or accident, arising from unexpected or unavoidable exposure, received powerful currents through the hands and which terminates in fatal pneumonia, is of the nature limbs, so that instantaneous temporary unconsciousof an accident, and so are sun-strokes, lightning-ness occurred. They would have caused death had strokes, malarial fever, etc. All zymotic or germ they been directed to vital parts, and in that event it diseases, which decimate populations, come to in- would have been wholly painless. The fatal force dividuals from accident of location or exposure. moves so rapidly that impressions of sense have not Combatants in war die from accident, rarely from time to reach the brain before the mind is incapanatural causes. Hereditary taint, as a cause of ble of acting through the organ, and hence there death, fills up wide gaps in our bills of mortality. can be no suffering in death by lightning-stroke. The imperfect physical organization of a father or Sudden death is never undesirable, unless it bears mother is transmitted to children with fatal results. heavily upon the sympathies and external condition The wail of woe which arises in all lands from of survivors. improper and almost criminal marriage is pitiful enough, one would think, to startle the most careless and indifferent, and lead to devising means to mitigate or remove the evil. Nature is not always kind, or at least seemingly not so. Her one grand intent of evolving a universal perfection is not carried forward without pains and misery. Progress, or advancement toward the good, is not always attended by happiness. Man only attains, the highest good through suffering, and this is a lesson of such universal application it cannot well be overlooked. Moral and physical evil is in the world for a purpose: the purpose being to bring to view, by contrast, the desirableness of the good. Evil is intended to be disciplinary, and it is well to heed its lessons. There is no evidence to show that nature intended death to be cruel or painful to the mind, or physically painful to the body. The natural man should know no more concerning his own death than his own birth. He comes into the world without the consciousness of suffering, and if the perfect law be fulfilled he will die oblivious to all pains, mental and physical. At his birth he sleeps into existence, and awakens into knowledge; at his death, he dozes into sleep, and awakens to a new life. Death resulting from protracted and hopeless ills, as cancer, consumption, broken heart, etc., is not without its consolations. It is often welcomed, not as an enemy, but a courted friend. We have, in the instance of a distinguished Southern senator dying of cancer, an illustration of the serenity which may come to one under apparently the most deplorable circumstances. In the declaration made by the suf ferer, that "he was never happier in his life" than while watching the progress of the disease and waiting for the end, we discover the action of that strange but beneficent law of reciprocity which prevails so widely throughout nature. was painless and peaceful. Like instances are not rare in the experience of every physician. There are few evils, or conditions in life, which come under observation, which are not less afflictive to those involved than they seem to the observer. An instance of great apparent affliction came under my notice, where the heads of a family, husband and wife, both in middle life, were sick of incurable diseases in the same room : the husband from suppuration of an encysted bullet in the cavity of the lungs, the mother from cancer of the breast. All the circumstances were sad: the parties were highly intelligent, poor and dependent, the physical suffering was great, and they were among strangers. There appeared to be nothing ameliorating in the cases, Dread of death arises from two prominent causes: but the sufferers were cheerful and even happy. fear of physical pain, and uncertainty in regard to Life was hardly a question of days with either, and what comes after death. The concurrent testimony yet they were interested in the affairs of the world, of all medical men who are called to sit by the bed-in passing events, and continued so to the end, which side of the departing is that mankind entertain greatly exaggerated notions of the suffering in physical death. Notwithstanding, in our present social state, we so frequently thwart Nature and violate her laws, she still vindicates her intentions, and gives true euthanasia to most, and often where it is least expected. No phenomenon in nature is more wonderful than physical death, as the event comes to the notice of physicians under all circumstances incident to the duties of the profession. Death by nature is a kind of waking sleep; the faculties of the mind, without pain, or anger, or sorrow, lose their way, retire, rest. The man, strong in intellect perhaps, is reduced to the instinctive; the consummation approaches; the deep sleep that falls so often is the sleep that knows no waking, and without pain, or struggle, or knowledge of what happens, the disenthralled spirit departs. This is natural death, and of the nature which would befall most if the free will, which has been given, doubtless for wise purposes, did not lead us into antagonism with nature's laws. Sudden and violent deaths are usually painless, or nearly so, although often to the observer they do not seem so. A fall or blow, the passage of a bullet through vital organs, incised wounds, deep into the tissues or viscera, influence instantaneously nerve centres, and partial insensibility occurs, so that if fatal results follow speedily there is but little suffering in the act of death. Instances of death from purely natural causes are rare. By natural causes is meant death from the normal decay of the vital forces, when metamorphosis of tissue ceases, and the spiritual nature relaxes its hold upon the material, the work of life In great calamities which befall communities, being accomplished. Fully one half of the human where numbers perish, the mind is filled with subbeings who people the earth die from accident, and lime awe, and the emotions are stirred to the utmost, one half of the remainder from defective organiza- but the bodies subjected to the fatal casualty are tions arising from heredity. Accidents which termi-so killed that they have not time to know or feel. In lingering death from consumption, painful as it is, even terrible to witness, the action of death, though it may be physically hard, is not usually cruel. It strikes the young largely, in whom the hope of life and the belief in life is strong, and the victim is never without hope of recovery. They live to the final hour in happy plannings of the future, and die in the dream. The lesson we have to learn is that the Supreme Creator is beneficent even in the act of death; if there is terror, sorrow, it is made sorrow, made terror, and does not come by nature. IS EVOLUTION GODLESS ? THIS important question has sometimes been hastily or ignorantly answered in the affirmative. How it is answered by a master of the subject, who accepts the great truths of Christianity as fully as he does the doctrine of evolution, and who can give a reason for both the scientific and the theological faith that is in him, may be seen from the following abstract of Dr. Winchell's lecture on the question: The religious nature of man has always maniifested a tendency to revol against any general theory of development in the processes of the world. Such doctrines have been equally opposed among the Greeks, among the religious minds of the Middle Ages, and in our own times. They have never commanded any general assent even among the purely scientific, until within less than a quarter of Now, to apply this analysis to the organic changes made butterflies and other insects, some three inches a century. Since Charles Darwin pointed out, in which sometimes take place in animals and plants, long and two inches wide, of colored paper, also 1858, the existence of tendencies in the organic we must keep clearly before the attention the dis- little balloons and a great many other things, which, world which would go far to explain the means by crimination between the fact of an evolutionary being placed in a show-case, performed in a really which transmutations of species may be effected, mode of succession, the conditions under which it is comical manner when the glass was briskly rubbed. thinking minds have generally been led to the be-effected, the instrumentalities employed in the effec- The air here being dry and light, no collodion coatlief that evolution is the method of nature; and the tuation, and the cause whose efficiency employs the ing is required. The show-cases used in the experprotests of the religious sentiments have not been instrumentalities under the conditions to make a iment were eight or ten inches in depth, yet the artiable to stay the progress of opinion. given effect a fact of nature. It is plain that when ficial insects would readily hop from the bottom up These protests, it must be particularly observed, an animal comes into possession of a modified struc- against the glass, and dart about from place to place. are based on the supposition that a method of evo-ture that structure has grown. The result has been Often an insect would be seen to leave its place, lution must be a method of self-evolution. With attained through the action of the growing forces. swoop down almost to the bottom of the case, then this understanding religious opposition is inevitable A denser covering of fur may have come into exist-rise and attach itself to the glass at another point and is right. The religious nature is an original ence in connection with the advent of a colder cli- from one to two feet away from where it had its first and ineradicable constituent of humanity, and has mate. The change in the climate is the condition hold. Sometimes two or more of the insects would the same right to exercise as the intellect itself. It to which the organism becomes adapted, and the be seen to suddenly dart at one another, cling tomeans more. The objects toward which its activi- changed action of the vital forces produces the gether, and fall to the bottom of the case, as though ties are directed must be recognized as realities. adaptation. But the physiological activities within fighting; and on touching the bottom of the case They are ultimate truths, as valid as the intuitions the animal are themselves only instrumental. They they would separate, and, darting back, take new A spontaneous evolution robs these fac- are merely physical activities, directed to certain places on the glass. When a lot of small insects ulties of their object, and they protest. It falsifies ends. They do a work not planned by the organs. made of the bright, artificially-colored mosses iman affirmation of the fundamental authority of our These facts point to the existence of some real cause ported from Europe are used, the effect is very fine, being, and must be an impossibility. yet undiscovered. It must be an immaterial cause, and those who see the experiment for the first time But such an interpretation of evolution is unnec- since the deepest scrutiny of our microscopes dis- can hardly be made to believe that the bugs, worms, essary. It cannot be defended. The doctrine of closes only matter engaged in the physical activities butterflies, and moths are not alive. The effect evolution is simply a statement of fact concerning just referred to. It must be an intelligent cause, may be produced (in this climate) by laying a pane the method of the succession of events in the natural since it selects and builds according to intelligible of glass upon the lid of any ordinary paper box. world. It affirms nothing respecting any efficient plans. Only intellect performs such works. Man- The changes are almost as many and curious as connection between the successive terms of the se-ifestly, then, some intelligent and immaterial cause those seen in a kaleidoscope. ries. It affirms nothing respecting the mode of employs the physiological forces to build the organorigination of the first term of the series. It says ism according to certain methods, into such growths nothing of beginning, but only of the mode of con- as shall be best suited to the external conditions tinuance. It is entirely compatible with the suppo- under which the animal lives. sition that the first term was the product of immediate creation. of reason. THE MONKEY AND THE SUGAR. A RECENT English writer gives the following illustration of the sagacity of animals, which will interest our young readers, if not their elders as well: The theological deductions from such a scientific conclusion follow immediately. There must be a But scientific writers speak of causes. They tell first cause. The immaterial cause operative in us that such and such modifications of structure are nature must act constantly, not periodically. The I remember once, in India, giving a tame monproduced by such and such conditions or ante- world was not created in some beginning, and set The cedents. How is such language to be reconciled running like a clock. Sustaining power is imminent key a lump of sugar inside a corked bottle. with the statement that evolution has nothing to say in the world. This view is maintained by eminent killed it. Sometimes, in an impulse of disgust, it monkey was of an inquiring mind, and it nearly about causation ? It is important to-be borne in authorities in science and philosophy. The cause would throw the bottle away, out of its own reach, mind that the word cause is employed in literature of the world is possessed of attributes co-extensive and then be distracted until it was given back to it. in two senses. By cause the scientist means only a with the origination and maintenance of the visible At others it would sit with a countenance of the uniform antecedent. But every one immediately universe. This to us means a body of infinite atunderstands that mere antecedence is insufficient. tributes. But the metaphysical infinity of the first But the metaphysical infinity of the first most intense dejection, contemplating the bottled Some efficiency must be exerted in the preceding cause is reflected in our necessary intuition of the sugar, and then, as if pulling itself together for another effort at solution, would sternly take up the term which passes over into the following term. infinite. There must be a bond connecting the two which is Thus evolution is a world-embracing plan exproblem afresh, and gaze into it. It would tilt it more than simple successiveness. This is the other pressive of mind. It lifts us to the highest possible neck; and then, suddenly reversing it, try to catch up one way, and try and drink the sugar out of the conception of cause. This is the conception of real apprehension of the wisdom and power and unity of it as it fell out at the bottom. and only cause. The scientific conception of cause the Supreme Being, and brings us into the most inis merely that of uniform antecedence among mate-timate relations with the Father of All in all the rial phenomena, and is therefore not a conception phenomena of the natural world, and all the experiences of our daily lives. of true efficient causation at all. much more. Our Now, all real efficiency originates in will. own experiences teach that every result attained in the realm of human activities proceeds from human volition. Tools, machinery, the elements of nature, - these are only intermedia which will employs for the accomplishment of its ends. All the eminent authorities concur that the same conclusion must be applied to events in the natural world. All its phenomena are the products of some causal volition. But the mere fact of volitional causation implies The exercise of will implies a real being, possessing such an attribute. The effects to be produced must be first conceived or apprehended. This is an act of intelligence. The suitable conditions must be chosen; appropriate instrumentalities selected. These are other acts of intelligence. The premeditated effect must be desired; there must be a motive for producing it. Motive and desire belong to the emotional nature. Finally, the exertion of will for the effectuation of the result completes the circle of attributes constituting personality, —that is, separate, self-sustained existence. Intellect, sensibility, and will are the three moments of our own personal being. AN ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENT. Under the impression that it could capture it by in futile bites, and, warming to the pursuit of the rea surprise, it kept rasping its teeth against the glass volving lump, used to tie itself into regular knots round the bottle. Fits of the most ludicrous melancholy would alternate with spasms of delight, as a fresh series of experiments. A FRENCH journal gives the following experi- new idea seemed to suggest itself, followed by a ment: render it A small pasteboard box is provided with a glass lid, which is coated on the upper surface with one or more thin layers of collodion, but not enough to opaque. A number of figures representing insects and the like, and made of cotton or sponge, are placed within the box. When now the collodion surface is rubbed with dry fingers in dry weather, the insects are made to move about in an interesting manner, as they become electrified. A Western exchange describes the same experiment somewhat more minutely thus: A shopkeeper, in wiping off boxes that had glass lids, discovered that particles of lint, bits of thread, paper, and the like, flew up from the bottom of the box and attached themselves to the glass, moving about as though they were alive. Further experiment showed him that the same thing took place in the show-cases, when the glass of the tops was rubbed with a handkerchief, but on a larger scale. He Nothing availed, however, until one day a light was shed upon the problem by a jar of olives falling from the table with a crash, and the fruit rolling about in all directions. His monkeyship contemplated the catastrophe, and reasoned upon it with the intelligence of a Humboldt. Lifting the bottle high in his paws, he brought it down upon the floor with a tremendous noise, smashing the glass into fragments, after which he calmly transferred the sugar to his mouth, and munched it with much satisfaction. wanted. them, for they are hard and destitute of muscles. negative. When the needle is at rest, exposure of Mouth glue, for sticking labels, etc., is less The theory has long been contradicted by the ex- the battery to solar light causes further deflection, used than formerly, owing to the general intraperiments of Blackwell, who found that flies could the extreme sensitiveness of the battery being shown duction of adhesive labels, envelopes, newspaper climb the sides of a jar under the receiver of an air- by the fact that the passage of a cloud causes a variwrappers, etc. It is, however, very convenient pump, where there was no atmospheric pressure, and ation. The effect of the battery is due to the mer- to carry in the vest pocket when travelling, and who asserted that the power of adherence was due cury being attacked by the bichloride of copper adhesive wrappers may not be at hand wher to a sticky matter secreted from the foot-hairs of formed by the mixture of marine salt and sulphate flies. This assertion was generally regarded as not of copper. The proto-copper formed reduces the To prepare it, good white glue is proved, and the case has rested there. Dewitz silver sulphide; but this reduction requires the in-soaked several hours in water, then melted on a reports that his investigations have shown that tervention of solar light, which produces a photo-water-bath, and an equal weight of sugar added. Blackwell was right. He has watched the exuda- electric current. We do not know whether this The hot mixture is poured out and dried in this tion of the sticky matter from the feet of the flies photo-electric battery has been tried as a recorder sheets. A good proportion is 45 parts (by by fastening one of the insects to the under side of a of sunshine, but if it is as sensitive as represented weight) of light glue, 60 of rain-water, and 45 plate of glass, and viewing it under the microscope. it should be of some value in this direction. of white sugar. A perfectly clear liquid was seen to flow from the DAILY VARIATIONS IN STATURE. Dr. Merkel ends of the foot-hairs and attach the foot to the glass. When the foot was lifted up, to be put down in another place, the drops of the sticky matter were perceived to be left on the glass, in the exact places where the foot-hairs had rested. The adhesive fluid states that the height of an individual after a night's There is a gradual diminution in height, caused by Practical Chemistry and the Arts. IT has long been known that the addition of For water-proof glue dissolve caoutchouc in naphtha, and add pulverized shellac to the proper consistence (used hot); or strips of crude rubber wood and leather); or 340 parts of glue may te may be dissolved in warm copal varnish (for dissolved in a sufficient quantity of water, & parts of rosin melted up with it, and 4 parts of turpentine added. PARCHMENT PAPER. It is well known that when unsized paper is inmersed for a short time in a mixture of sulphurie acid and water (two parts of acid to one of water by bulk), and then washed with dilute ammonia, i undergoes a peculiar change of properties without suffering any change of chemical composition. I: is now very tough, and is called vegetable parchment. We learn from the Apotheker Zeitung that a company is being formed in New York to undertake tory in this country. The factory is to be in the its manufacture, as at present there is no manufac two seeds, and there is no plant so unproductive liquid, acetic and nitric acids being commonly neighborhood of that city. The paper is made both -- as this, and their seedlings next year produced two, and so on, then in twenty years there would be 1,000,000 plants. The elephant is reckoned to be the slowest breeder of all known animals, and I have taken some pains to estimate its probable minimum rate of natural increase. It will be under the mark to assume that it breeds when thirty years old, and goes on breeding till ninety years old, bringing forth three pair of young in this interval; if this be so, at the end of the fifth century there would be alive 15,000,000 elephants, descended from the first pair." recommended. It is customary to put the glue A few months since we had occasion to use cesses. white and in various colors, and of six grades of thickness. It has the following uses: - (1.) As a substitute for leather and bladder in wrapping perfumery, preserved fruits, extracts, salves, etc. (2.) For ice-bags, labels, and similar articles. (3.) Large quantities of it are consumed by the manufacturers of cheese, preserves, pressed yeast, etc., to pack their wares. (4.) A considerable quantity is used for chemical mite cartridges. purposes, such as dialysis and osmose, and for dyna (5.) Parchment paper is used to line barrels for holding deliquescent substances that soak into the wood, such as tin salts, also butter and lard. (6.) Parchment paper is found to be a practical substitute for tracing-paper and tracing-cloth. (7.) Beside its ancient use as writing-paper for important documents, is its use in book-binding. (8.) When made extra soft it finds use in hospitals as a substitute for gum elastic, as it can be washed and is durable. some glue, and attempted to make the liquid glue by the easiest and least promising of proSCIENCE FOR THE YOUNG. - The Philadelphia A few pieces of carpenter's glue were Medical Times has found some choice reading in a broken up and thrown into a wide-mouthed small manual used for children of eleven or twelve bottle, covered with common vinegar, and years old in the schools of Manchester, England. corked. In a short time, with occasional shakIn one of them "the author explains scientifically ing, they dissolved, forming a very strong and the things of common life. Youths of twelve are excellent glue, superior to most of the liquid quite ignorant of what jumping means. He tells glues sold in the stores. Sometimes the cork them, jumping or leaping is effected (1) by the is left out, and evaporation takes place; but it is sudden contraction of the muscles of the calf, by only necessary to add a little vinegar, cork and which the heels are suddenly raised and the body shake it, when it will soon be ready for use, jerked off the ground; (2) by the simultaneous con(9.) Parchment paper has long been used to make traction of muscles which bend the thigh upon the just as gum-arabic mucilage that has dried up "cases" for sausages, instead of intestines. The pelvis; (3) by the sudden extension of the legs is restored by the addition of water, only more difficulty of pasting it together was overcome by by the contraction of extensor muscles, this move-quickly and effectively. Its strength is cer- using a chromated gelatine cement, which hardens ment following immediately on the two movements tainly not inferior to hot glue, while it is always in the light. first described."'" Should this be called condensed ready. It possesses, however, one disadvantage: milk for babes? if tightly corked, the cork becomes glued fast, A PHOTO-ELECTRIC BATTERY. A series of ex- and is not very easily removed, while if the periments has led a French chemist (M. Saur) to the cork is not put in tightly it evaporates rapidly. construction of an electric battery which gives a A German paper gives the following more current only when exposed to light. The battery, tedious process for making a better article, which is described in L'Ingénieur, consists of a square which shall be clear and white, and keep well glass-vessel, with a solution of 15 parts of marine without drying out: 100 parts of gelatine and salt and 7 of sulphate of copper in 100 of water. 6 or 7 parts of oxalic acid are dissolved in 400 This has an electrode of sulphide of silver. An inner porous vessel with mercury has an electrode of parts of water (all by weight), and the solution platinum. The electrodes are connected with a digested several hours in steam in a porcelain galvanometer, and the battery is placed in a box, vessel; then diluted, neutralized with chalk, filwith the light excluded. Closure of the circuit dis- tered, and evaporated at moderate heat, until its places the needle, the sulphide of silver being the weight is but twice that of the gelatine used. H. ESTIMATING THE FERTILITY OF SOILS. In a previous number of the JOURNAL we described the best methods of analyzing soils, and spoke of the difficulty of judging of their fertility from a mere chemical analysis. Prof. A. Vogel, of Munich, is of the opinion that a sufficiently accurate estimate of the quality of a soil can be formed by determining two constitutents, the phosphoric acid and the organic matter. He takes 100 parts of the earth, and digests it for 24 hours with 200 parts of dilute acetic acid. The solution is filtered and molybdate of ammonia added; if no precipitate forms on standing. the amount of phosphoric acid is too small and the soil is poor. In comparing two soils, the relative organic matter is found by filtering a little water through the soil, and then titrating the filtrate with permanganate of potash solution. This, of course, is a rough approximation, and we give it for what it is worth. CHEMICAL NOTES. OBTAINING OXYGEN FROM THE AIR. - A method of obtaining oxygen from air for technical purposes has been recently devised and patented by M. Margis, of Paris. The principle is that of dialysis, or diffusion under pressure. Atmospheric air being forced against a caoutchouc membrane by suction, a mixture of about 40 per cent. oxygen and 60 per cent. nitrogen is obtained on the other side. A second membrane increases the proportion of oxygen to 60 per cent., that of the nitrogen being reduced to 40 per cent. A third gives 80 per cent. oxygen; a fourth, 95 per cent. M. Margis prepares his membranes by immersing taffeta in a solution containing carbon disulphide (or light petroleum ether), spirit of wine, ether, and caoutchouc. After drying, the taffeta has a fine layer of caoutchouc on it. A bag of the membrane, with frame-work of rings of galvanized iron wire, is placed in a cylindrical iron vessel admitting air. It is connected by means of strengthened caoutchouc tube with the suction apparatus, which is (preferably) formed of a cylinder containing a series of conical cups, with small spaces between; steam is forced through these, and draws in the gas obtained from the first diffusion, passing on with it through a cooler, where the steam is condensed and the gas separated for its second diffusion. This latter occurs through a similar apparatus, except that the space round the bag is provided with a tube passing down into water; thus the pressure can be regulated, and the superfluous gas let off. Four sets of apparatus are generally used (as already indicated), and the final gas with 95 per cent. oxygen is collected in a gasometer. millionth of a gram of atropine sulphate can be thus ready shipped two engines of the American type THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF URANIUM. . Clemens Zimmerman has prepared metallic uranium, and determined some of its properties. Its specific gravity was found to be 18.685, and its specific heat between 99° and 0° is .02765. The latter number multiplied by 240 gives a product of 6.64, which agrees with the mean atomic heat indicated by Dulong and Petit's law. The controversy between the values 120, 180, and 240 for the atomic weight of uranium is thus settled in favor of the highest. MEMORANDA IN THE ARTS. INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHY. The method by which Muybridge took his instantaneous photographs of horses while racing is thus described. At one side of the track is a long building, containing a battery of 24 cameras, all alike, and standing one foot apart. On the other side of the track is a screen of white muslin and a footboard. The screen is marked with vertical and horizontal lines, and the footboard bears numbers indicating intervals of one foot each. The instantaneous shutters of the cameras are operated by electricity, and their movement is governed by such powerful springs that the exposure is estimated to be about one five-thousandth of a second. The contact by which the shutters are sprung is made by the breaking of a thread drawn across the track at about the height of a horse's breast, there being one thread for each camera. In his flight through the air, therefore, he brings each of the 24 cameras to bear upon him at the moment when he passes in front of it, and that camera represents his position at that moment. PRACTICAL RECIPES. CRYSTALLINE SURFACE ON CARDBOARD. - The substance generally used for this purpose is the acetate of lead, commonly called sugar of lead; but inasmuch as it is poisonous, it is not to be recommended, as it is liable to become the cause of accidents. Better formulæ are the following, suggested by the late Professor Boettger, which afford a brilliant crystalline surface on wood, paper, etc.: Mix a very concentrated cold solution of salt with dextrine, and lay the thinnest possible coating of the fluid on the surface to be covered with a broad soft brush. After drying, the surface has a beautiful bright mother-of-pearl coating, which, in consequence of the dextrine, adheres firmly to paper and wood. The surface may be made adhesive to glass by going over it with an alcoholic shellac solution. Beautiful crystalline coatings may be produced on wood or on sized or glazed paper by the use of the following salts: sulphate of magnesia, acetate of soda, and sulphate of tin. Colored glass thus pre pared gives a good effect by transmitted light. WRITING ON METALS. Take half a pound of nitric acid and one ounce muriatic acid. Mix and shake well together, and then it is ready for use. Cover the place you wish to mark with melted beeswax; when cold, write your inscription plainly in the wax, clear to the metal, with a sharp instrument. Then apply the mixed acids with a feather, carefully filling each letter. Let it remain from one to ten hours, according to the appearance desired; then wash and remove the wax. BLUE MARKING INK FOR WHITE GOODS. Dorvault recommends the following: — Crystallized nitrate of silver Crystallized carbonate of soda Sulphate of copper Distilled water 1 drachm. 3 drachms. 1 drachm, 1 drachms. 30 grains. 4 drachms. Dissolve the silver salt in the ammonia; dissolve A CURIOUS ACCIDENT WITH HYDROGEN. It is well known that zinc, in acidulated water, is oxidized and liberates the hydrogen of the water; but not so well known that a like action occurs, though more slowly, of course, when zinc is in water containing carbonic acid, even rain-water. A curious TO PROTECT IRON FROM RUST. A new proaccident, arising from this action, lately occurred to cess for preserving iron is described by Les Mondes. M. Sébère, in Saint Brieue. He has been long used It consists of treating the casting with dilute hydroto keep oxygen in a gasometer of galvanized iron, of chloric acid, which dissolves a little of the metal, and 100 liters capacity, sunk in water. Several weeks leaves a skin of homogeneous graphite, holding well recently passed without his using the apparatus, in to the iron. The article is then washed in a receiver which there were 30 to 40 liters of gas; and during with hot or cold water, or cooked in steam, so as to this time the hydrogen resulting from decomposition remove completely the chloride of iron that has been of the water by the zinc in the interior of the bell formed. Finally, the piece is allowed to dry in the sufficed to produce a detonating mixture. M. Sébère, empty receiver, and a solution of caoutchouc, gutta supposing only oxygen to be present, opened the percha, or gum resin in essence of petroleum is instopcock at the top to admit a jet of that gas to a jected, and the solvent, afterward evaporating, leaves According to an Antflame, whereupon the gasometer exploded, fracturing a hard and solid enamel on the surface of the iron- werp pharmaceutical journal, the best plan is to his right hand, inundating the laboratory, and doing work. Another plan is to keep the chloride of iron use a phosphate of soda, first of all spreading a few considerable mischief to it. The gasometer con- on the metal instead of washing it off, and to plunge drops of melted suet over the ink-spot, and then tained an abundant deposit of carbonate of zinc, the piece into a bath of silicate and borate of soda. washing the substance in the saline solution until the and the author assured himself, by means of a test- Thus is formed a silicoborate of iron, very hard and spot disappears. tube filled with small fragments of the metal and brilliant, which fills the pores of the metal skin. As The following is commended inverted over the water, that the production of hy- for the chlorine disengaged, it combines with the drogen goes on with considerable rapidity. He now soda to form chloride of sodium, which remains in thickly varnishes the interior of the bell. the pickle. If a TEST FOR ATROPINE AND DATURINE. JOHN BULL TAKING LESSONS OF YANKEE specimen of either atropine or daturine, or of their MACHINISTS. -The English manufacturers have salts, be covered with a little fuming nitric acid, adopted the shape of the American axe, as the only evaporated to dryness on the water-bath, and when way in which they can successfully compete with the cold moistened with a drop of a solution of caustic American axe makers in foreign markets. They potassium in absolute alcohol, a violet color is at have also pursued this course in respect of many once produced, which soon passes into a fine red. other manufactures. Their latest and most imporThe violet color only is characteristic, since strych- tant imitation is that of the American locomotive. nine, when similarly treated, gives the red. One A prominent firm at Newcastle-on-the-Tyne has al the carbonate of soda, gum arabic, and sulphate of copper in the distilled water, and mix the two solutions together. REMOVING INK SPOTS. Thoroughly mix the flour and water, strain through a sieve, add the nitric acid, apply heat until thoroughly cooked, and when nearly cold add the oil of cloves and carbolic acid. This makes an excellent paste for all pharmaceutical uses. In dry climates the addition of about 5 per cent. of glycerine prevents it from drying up too soon in the mucilage-pot, when used on the prescription counter. PAPER FOR TAKING OUT INK STAINS. Thick blotting paper is soaked in a concentrated solution of oxalic acid and dried. Laid immediately on a blot, it takes it out without leaving a trace behind. Agriculture. A FARMERS' SCHOOL. THE need of elementary instruction in chemical and other branches or departments of science which have a special bearing upon husbandry is widely felt among farmers. Again and again have we insisted, in public lectures, in discussions, and in the columns of the JOURNAL, that the right method to advance useful knowledge among farmers has not yet been adopted. We have insisted that our agricultural literature, especially that part which presents the results of scientific research and experiment, is not read, or if read is not understood, by farmers. They have not the necessary elementary knowledge of the sciences to enable them to understand the most valuable portion of our agricultural literature. It has been urged by our esteemed and learned associates in the various departments of instruction that it is useless to attempt to educate the practical working farmer; that all our efforts must be spent in educating the boys who are born upon the farms. It is impossible to concede the truthfulness of this position. We believe the farmers can be brought under a form of instruction, without a large expenditure of time or money, which will fit them to pursue their vocations successfully, and help to elevate and improve American husbandry. upon humus. On meadows, or on the land contiguous manifestly heat, moisture, and shade are the reto meadows, they exert a decided influence for quirements for palms, with fibrous earth full of degood, but it is not seen until the second or third caying vegetable matter for their roots. So with year. We are inclined to think that the full in- all plants; one must know them intimately to enfluence of the phosphatic principle may be secured tice them to their best expression in the window lands of the nature indicated, and that the garden. All plants do not need sunshine; so if you have no sunny windows, do not despair of having preliminary dissolving in mineral acids is not pretty plants. Ferns, many of the palms, tradesnecessary. Our experiments indicate that the cantia or "wandering Jew," ivies, and lycopodium insoluble phosphates are made soluble and avail- do not need the sun. Fuchsias, begonias, lily of the able to vegetation by the various acids arising valley, need but little sun, and many of our loveliest from vegetable decay. wild flowers grow best when partially shaded. But all plants require fresh, pure air. Most plants thrive best in moist air. Gas is fatal to plants. These facts should be kept in mind. Many a drooping plant is crying out for air, and not for the del The powdered phosphate is sold on the market at a low price, about ten or twelve dollars a ton, we believe, and its use should be encouraged by those farmers who understand its nature and the soils to which it is adapted. EUROPEAN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. WE learn from the Report of the Commissioner of Education that Austria supports no less than 70 schools of agriculture, with 2200 students, beside 174 agricultural evening schools, with 5500 students. In contrast with this, Italy has three agricultural colleges and high schools. Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that has a regular system of agricultural education. There are 115 of the national schools that have a farm attached, and form national agricultural farm schools. There are, beside, 16 national model agricultural schools, with model farms attached. The Albert Institute at Glasneven is the national agricultural college of Ireland. France has 43 farm schools, with about 30 or 40 pupils at each. The government pays the board of each pupil, and allows him 70 francs a year for clothing. There are also three departIt is well to educate the boys, but we must mental schools of agriculture, and a National not neglect the fathers, who are longing for a Agricultural Institute (now in Paris). kind of knowledge not imparted by ordinary lect- Germany has at present over 150 schools of ures, discussions, or institutes. What is needed agriculture, horticulture, arboriculture, viniculis elementary scientific instruction, presented in ture, etc. Each of these has farms, gardens, etc., a clear, plain, concise way, and every point illus-attached. The first experimental agricultural trated by experiment and example. This is just what is needed. station was established in 1852, and in 1877 their number was 55. Each of these is devoted to some special line of research. LIGHT AND AIR FOR HOUSE PLANTS. Union: For several years it has been our intention to open a school of this nature during the winters, the term extending over a few days or a week, and made free to all. The obstacles have been THE following sensible hints on this subject of a personal nature, -impaired health and the are from an interesting series of articles on pressure of absorbing cares. The plan has not," House Plants," by Mr. W. M. F. Round, however, been abandoned, and, if circumstances which recently appeared in the Christian favor, we shall make the experiment during the present winter, probably during the month of February. Every facility and convenience will be furnished to make the school a pleasant and profitable one. As soon as the programme is fixed upon, it will be made known through the agricultural press. We do not promise the school positively, but hope that no obstacles will spring up to prevent. Plants will not grow without light, and will not thrive without fresh and pure air. But some plants require less light than others, and some will do perfectly well without any sunshine. A knowledge of varieties, of the habits and requirements of plants, is essential to the success of the window garden. Go to nature for this knowledge. Nature never makes a mistake. Her hints may be trusted implicitly. Find out in what relations to sunshine and moisture plants grow in their native conditions. The primrose, nestling under hedges where its leaves are sheltered from the sun and protected from the dew, where its roots dip into the moisture of ditches, tells us that we must not let our primrose pots stand too fully in the sun, nor drench the leaves, nor let the roots dry up. The cactus, growing in hot sand plains, in climates where the rain falls one half the year, and the sun shines fiercely the other half, has a lesson on its own leaves for those who would be successful in the treatment of cacti. Most of the palms grow in forest jungles in the tropics, and uge of water that you pour about its roots. Leaves drink as well as roots. And if leaves drink they must not only have good moist air to drink, but they must be kept clean, so that their mouth-pores may be able to take it in. A growing plant needs as much washing as a growing baby. Smooth-leaved plants need more washing than those that have rough leaves. The rough-leaved plants have their pores protected from the dust by little forests of minute hairs; many of them need no wetting, but the dust should be frequently blown from them with the bellows or the breath. Plants that are growing need much more air and water than plants that are resting. Most flowering plants exhaust themselves in blooming. When the last blossom has fallen the pot may be taken from the window and set in an out-of-the-way corner. There it will rest for a while. Then it will have a period of root growth, and by and by new shoots and leaves will appear, which is a sign that it is ready for blooming again, and it may be placed once more in the full light of the window. GRAIN AND MEAT IN EUROPE. A PAPER on "Agricultural Statistics," read by Mr. William Botly at the meeting of the British Association, contained some interesting facts concerning the food supply of Great Britain and the Continent, which are thus summarized in a London journal: At present the food supply produced in Europe is equal to about eleven months' consumption, but in a few years the deficit will be, instead of thirty days, nearer to sixty days. As matters now stand, the production and consumption are as follows: Grain, consumption in the United Kingdom, 607,000,000 bush.; Continent, 4,794,000,000 bush.; total, 5,401,000,000 bush. Production of the United Kingdom, 322,000,000 bush.; Continent, 4,736,000,000 bush.; total, 5,058,000,000. Meat, consumption in the United Kingdom, 1,740,000 tons; Continent, 6,372,000 tons; total, 8,112,000 tons. Production of the United Kingdom, 1,090,000 tons; Continent, 6,229,000 tons; total, 7,319,000 tons. It appears that the bulk of the deficit belongs to Great Britain, but as the Continent is unable to feed its own population, we must in future look rather to some other hemisphere for the needful supply than to the supposed surplus that Russia, Hungary, Holland, or Denmark will have for disposal. Europe paid last year £35,000,000 sterling for meat from beyond the seas, and £85,000,000 sterling for grain, together equal to a tax of £10,000,000 sterThis may give some idea of the ling per month. magnitude the question of food supply has assumed in the destinies of this quarter of the globe. In the United Kingdom the importation of meat, including cattle, has risen as follows: 1860, 91,230 tons; value, £4,390,000; per inhabitant, seven lb. 1870, 144,225 tons; value, £7,708,000; per inhabitant, 10 lb. 1880, 650,300 tons; value, £26,612,000; per inhabitant, 40 lb. |