the breaking of the locomotive crank axle—has called attention to the
fact that such breakage is by no means a rare occurrence, although it
is seldom accompanied by fatal results. Some slight flaw in the metal,
quite invisible on the outer surface, grows by constant vibration
into a crack, and this crack eventually is the place of fracture.
Although the accident has brought forth an unusual amount of comment
by skilled engineers and others, we have seen no reference to a method
of detecting flaws in metal which was discovered some years ago by Mr
Saxton. He pointed out that a magnetic needle passed along such a bar
would be deflected upon coming to a flaw. The method was experimented
upon at the royal dockyards, and was found to give most certain results
so far as bars of iron were concerned. Whether the system is applicable
or not to railway axles, we do not know; but we call attention to
the matter, as a possibly useful contribution to the subject under
discussion. It is the opinion of many competent men that the above
accident would not have been so disastrous if the train had been fitted
with an automatic brake. It had what is called a continuous vacuum
brake, which is effective enough so long as the coaches do not become
separated. When such separation occurs, the wheels are no longer held
in check. With the automatic brake, on the other hand, which is adopted
by many of the leading railway Companies, the wheels are immediately
acted upon, if by any means the coupling between the carriages should
be broken. In the accident referred to, the train would with such a
brake have been brought to a stand-still before it reached the point
where it ran over the embankment.
An influential Committee has been formed with the endeavour to found a
fund for the conservation of London antiquities. It seems that during
recent building operations in the City, the discovery was made of
some massive foundations evidently belonging to an important building
of the Roman period. Several of the stones used were fragments of
sculpture. These have now been preserved; but they ran a narrow escape
of being again buried where they were found. Similar discoveries in the
metropolis are by no means rare, and the preservation of such relics
should be provided for. The treasurer for the fund is Sir John Lubbock,
M.P.
There is a certain region in the United States, reaching from the
oil-wells of Pennsylvania to West Virginia, which has become known as
the ‘Gas Belt;’ for wherever a well is sunk to a certain depth, the
borer is rewarded for his pains by a liberal supply of natural gas,
which can be utilised in heating, lighting, and other purposes. It
seems that it is only of late years that the commercial importance of
this phenomenon has been recognised. The Penn Fuel Company has been
formed to bring the consumption of this gas into wider employment.
There seems to be but two drawbacks to its use, one being unsteadiness
of pressure, and the other a fear as to permanence of supply. The first
difficulty might surely be obviated by mechanical means; and the second
is hardly worth consideration, seeing that the yield of gas has been
constant for many years, and as yet shows no sign of diminution.
A curious experiment dealing with another natural product has lately
been made at Acqui by the proprietor of some baths there. This
gentleman has at his disposal an inexhaustible supply of hot water
from a natural spring, the temperature being a hundred and sixty-seven
degrees Fahrenheit. The surplus not required for the baths has been
diverted so as to flow through pipes to a garden on the outskirts of
the town. Here the warm liquid flows beneath a number of forcing-frames
containing melons, tomatoes, asparagus, and other garden produce. The
result is that a supply of these delicacies is ready for market at a
very early period of the year, and when, therefore, they fetch high
prices. Surely this system could be extended with profitable results.
Even in this country, far away from active volcanoes, we have hot
springs where the experiment could be tried.
It is no new thing to get benefit from volcanic products; indeed, some
of these products are of great commercial value. At Vulcano, one of the
Lipari Islands on the north coast of Sicily, there is a small factory
which was started some years ago by a Scotch firm, where a number of
men are engaged in collecting materials deposited continually round the
various vents. These products consist chiefly of sulphur, ammonia, and
boracic acid.
The introduction of real Chinese birds’-nest soup to Londoners, to
which we adverted last month, may raise the question as to what
material such nests can be made of. An English naturalist living at
Yokohama has lately published a very interesting account of a visit
which he paid to Gormanton Caves, which are situated amid the tropical
forests of North Borneo. From these caves come the bulk of the nests of
which the soup is made, and they are the only place in the world where
they can be obtained in any quantity. The caves are of immense extent,
and are several hundred feet in height. They are covered with nests,
which are built by swallows and bats; the material being a soft fungoid
growth, which incrusts the limestone in which the caves are formed. The
yearly value of the nests taken is between five and six thousand pounds
on the spot. The value when they reach China is of course very much
more. It is perhaps as well, considering the expensive nature of the
luxury and its scarcity, that the consumption is not likely to increase
from its introduction into Britain. To our barbarian palates it is
decidedly insipid.
For three centuries, Britain has been able to boast that her
adventurous sons have penetrated farther towards the frozen north
than the sailors of any other nation. She must now yield the palm to
America. The interesting story of the rescue of the six survivors of
the Greely Expedition—who at the moment of their discovery were
listening to prayers for the dying read by one of their number—is only
second in interest to the story of Sir John Franklin, whose fate was
for so long hidden in mystery. It seems to be a general feeling that
no more expeditions to the frozen regions should be attempted. The
barren honour of having arrived at a place so inaccessible that nobody
has been there before you, is hardly worth the risk of being slowly
starved to death. The Greely Expedition originally numbered twenty-five
persons, so that nineteen have perished. This is a heavy price to pay
for geographical knowledge however valuable; but of the scientific
value of the expedition few details are as yet published.
Lieutenant Brown of the United States’ navy has compiled a long
official Report for his government on the progress of the Panama Canal,
which is not quite so hopeful as the subscribers would desire. He
considers that a great portion of the work accomplished is theoretical
rather than practical, and that what has been done has been too costly.
He thinks it evident that the scheme cannot be accomplished within the
estimated cost nor within the stipulated time. Two leading problems are
likely to baffle the engineers—one is, how to dispose of the sixty
million cubic mètres of earth which must be cut from the hilly part of
the isthmus; and the other is the difficulty of dealing with the river
Chagres, which was to form part of the channel. In the dry season,
this river is a sluggish stream; but after the rains, it is a foaming
torrent carrying everything before it. There is also a probability of
an epidemic of yellow fever, which is generally of a fatal type in the
district.
In the course of two lectures lately delivered at the Health
Exhibition by Dr Cobbold upon the subject of Parasites in Food, some
very interesting facts came to light. With regard to parasites, he
tells us that the dreaded trichinæ, about which so much alarm was
created some years ago in connection with the consumption of foreign
pork, cannot live after being subjected to a heat of one hundred and
twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit, which temperature is of course far
below that to which meat is subjected in ordinary cooking. Referring
to the late mackerel scare, the lecturer said that the entozoa of this
fish were perfectly innocuous to mankind whether they were swallowed
alive or dead. There are altogether no fewer than fourteen different
kinds of parasites which find their home in the mackerel. Speaking of
vegetarianism, he said that it was a mistake to suppose that those who
eschewed flesh-foods had any consequent immunity from diseases provoked
by parasites; on the contrary, the most common parasite known in this
country was a vegetable feeder which could easily be received into the
system by carelessly washed salads, &c.
A Java correspondent of our contemporary, _Nature_, relates a curious
instance of cannibalism among snakes which came under his notice. He
had killed close to his house a snake of very deadly character. Upon
examining it some time later he found, protruding from its mouth, the
tail of another snake, which eventually turned out to be of the same
species and only a few inches shorter than its host. The natives of
the place gave it as their opinion that the two creatures had been
fighting, and that the victor had swallowed the vanquished. Another
correspondent of the same journal tells of a similar case which he saw
in India.
It deserves to be placed on record that the University of London have
for the first time conferred the high degree of D.Sc. upon a lady. Mrs
Sophia Bryant, by whom this honour has been achieved, is the daughter
of the Rev. Dr Willock, late rector of Cleenish, Enniskillen, and
Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. Mrs Bryant has for some time held
the position of mathematical mistress at the North London Collegiate
School for Girls.
An interesting article upon a very curious subject is contributed
by M. C. E. Brown-Sequard to the French journal _La Nature_. This
article takes for its title ‘Attitudes after Death,’ and deals
with the numerous instances, on the field of battle and in other
situations, where dead bodies have been found—sitting on horseback
in one instance, raising a cup to the lips in another, transfixed in
the position last assumed when sudden death came upon them. One case
is very remarkable. A brakesman on an American railway was shot by
a guerrilla, who lay in ambush in a forest through which the train
passed. As he was shot, the unfortunate man was in the act of putting
on the brake. His body remained fixed, his arms and hands stiff on the
brake-wheel, whilst the pipe he was smoking remained between his teeth.
It was extremely difficult to make the corpse let go its hold. The
writer of the paper points out that this fixture of the body is quite
different from the ordinary rigidity of death; and he believes that it
depends upon the production of a persistent muscular action, like the
fixed spasm often seen in hysterical or paralytic subjects. It is an
act of life, but the last one.
For a long time, and more particularly since telephones have come
into common use, it has been seen that our telegraphic methods are
open to very great improvement. At present, each letter of every word
transmitted requires one or more distinct signals, either by right or
left deflections of a needle, or, as in the Morse method, by dots and
dashes. In Signor Michela’s steno-telegraph, which bids fair to come
into very extended use, this difficulty is obviated. It works on the
phonetic system; that is to say, the various sounds which go to make
up speech—be the language that common to any European country—are
grouped into series and represented by certain signs, each word being,
as it were, dissected into sound-values. The system is, in fact, that
of a telegraphic shorthand. The transmitting instrument consists of
two keyboards, each having ten keys, each key communicating with a
style on the receiving instrument, which prints a sign representing
a particular sound. With such an apparatus, a skilled operator can
telegraph words as they fall from the lips of a speaker as readily as
a shorthand reporter can write them down. The system has for some time
been in use in the Italian Senate, and is now on an experimental trial
in Paris. Whether it prove to be the telegraph of the future or not, it
most certainly is constructed on a correct basis. We propose shortly to
notice it more fully.
An invention which is said to be largely used in America has lately
formed the subject of some interesting and successful experiments in
London. Introduced by Messrs G. H. Gardner & Co., Southwark Bridge
Road, London, it is known as the Harden Hand Grenade Fire-extinguisher,
and consists of a glass flask containing a chemical liquid, which,
when the flask is broken, emits a copious supply of that enemy to
combustion, carbonic acid gas. The experiments were of the usual
type—miniature conflagrations being put out readily when a grenade was
thrown upon them. The extreme simplicity of the system is one of its
chief recommendations; for the flasks, ornamental in appearance, can be
disposed throughout a house, and are then ready for immediate use, in
case an incipient fire should break out. They therefore take the place
of the cumbrous fire-bucket, which is too often, when wanted, found to
be empty.
So much has been published relative to smoke abatement in our large
towns, and so little has been actually accomplished towards the
solution of the problem, that many are beginning to despair, and to
believe that the evil must be allowed to continue. Factories, which
are the chief offenders, have been to some extent dealt with by law,
and are now supposed to consume their own smoke; but the private
householder, who contributes no small share of the carbon sent into the
atmosphere, has, even if he had the will, been almost powerless in the
matter. A stove has just been invented which, it may be hoped, will
put a different complexion on the subject. At the back of the grate is
a receptacle for the coals, which, by the action of a loose vertical
iron plate, are forced forward to be consumed, so that the fuel is
partly coked before it reaches the front of the fire. By an ingenious
arrangement, the products of combustion are not carried direct to the
chimney, but are delivered beneath the grate. This perfect combustion
stove is the invention of Mr H. Thompson, of 29 Marquess Road,
Canonbury, London.
Most people will be glad to hear that the guardians of our national
picture-galleries have at last consented to allow their art treasures
to be copied by photography. Why this permission has been delayed so
long is strange, for nearly every continental gallery has long ago
distributed fac-similes of its contents to willing purchasers. There is
one advantage gained in the delay, for by modern processes every touch
of the artist’s brush may be faithfully portrayed in the copy, and,
moreover, that copy is of a permanent nature. In front of the National
Gallery, London, a temporary structure has been erected into which the
pictures can be carried to be operated upon in a good light. By this
means, a far more satisfactory result can be obtained than by carrying
the camera to the pictures as they hang upon the walls.
We some months ago recorded the fact that a prize of five hundred
pounds had been offered by Mr Ellis Lever for a new Safety-lamp,
which must fulfil certain stringent conditions. The adjudicators—all
well-known scientific men—have just reported upon the one hundred and
eight lamps which were sent in for competition. Of these, four were
electric lamps, no one of which approached fulfilment of the conditions
of the award; the rest being oil-lamps. All those which fulfilled
the preliminary requirements were experimented upon; and very few
indeed remained when the more extreme tests were reached. But none of
the lamps really embraced the whole of the conditions enumerated, so
the adjudicators felt themselves unable to make the award to any. At
the same time, they highly commend two which nearly fulfilled those
conditions. One of them is called the Marsaut Lamp; and the other is
the contrivance of Mr William Morgan of Pontypridd, which they say
presents several good features of marked originality.
The success of the Royal Tapestry Works at Windsor, where so much
excellent work is turned out every year, has stimulated others to
endeavour to produce a material similar in appearance, without all the
costly processes which makes the woven fabric so expensive. In London
recently, an Exhibition has been opened of the works of English artists
upon a material known as Gobelins tissue. The work is executed with
the brush like an ordinary picture on canvas, but with an intention to
imitate the work of the loom.
A rare phenomenon in these latitudes, a waterspout, was recently
witnessed at Southwold. The wind at the time was changeable, and
attention was directed to the strange manner in which certain dark
clouds seemed to be driven first in one direction and then in another.
At length these clouds united, and their mass formed a clearly defined
edge some distance above the horizon. From this edge there suddenly
shot down a narrow tongue of cloud, which seemed to strike the sea
above five miles from the shore. Swayed from side to side by the wind
at first, it gradually grew into an enormous column of water, estimated
to be nearly one hundred and fifty yards in diameter, the mass of foam
at its base indicating the enormous velocity with which water was
being poured from it into the sea. The waterspout remained for twenty
minutes, when it disappeared as quickly as it came. It was fortunate
that there were at the time no ships in the neighbourhood.
An exhibition of what is called ‘sanitary and insanitary houses’ has
been opened at the Health Exhibition. The idea seems to be to arrange
two houses, the one as it ought to be, and the other as it ought not
to be, and thus to exhibit the two in strong contrast the one to the
other, by which an opportunity will be given to visitors, and those
who choose to take the trouble to exercise their wits, of gaining
instruction upon a point which has never before been brought forward
in this manner. The houses are so placed that visitors enter by the
ground-floor of the insanitary house, and pass through its various
rooms, where all its defects are carefully and plainly set forth; then,
on reaching the top-floor, the visitor crosses over to the sanitary
house and descends through it.
OCCASIONAL NOTES.
THE FRENCH CROWN JEWELS.
According to a contemporary, we learn that the French crown jewels
when valued just after the Revolution of 1789 were estimated at eight
hundred and forty thousand pounds, and they consisted of seven thousand
four hundred and eighty-two diamonds, five hundred and six pearls,
two hundred and thirty rubies, one hundred and fifty emeralds, one
hundred and thirty-four sapphires, seventy-one topazes, eight garnets,
and three amethysts. They were stolen from the Treasury, in which
they had been deposited, and only a very small portion recovered;
but the purchases made by Napoleon and the Bourbon kings brought the
total of the crown jewels up to nine hundred thousand pounds when they
were valued in 1832. When a fresh inventory was taken in 1875, it was
found that the crown jewels consisted of seventy-seven thousand four
hundred and eighty-six stones, weighing over nineteen thousand carats,
and a part of these will shortly be sold. It is a mistake, however,
to suppose that at the impending sale all the objects of historical
interest will be reserved, for many of the jewels which belonged to the
Duchess Anne of Brittany, and became an appanage of the French Crown
when she married Charles VIII., are to be disposed of, as also several
articles bequeathed by Cardinal Richelieu.
TREATMENT OF DIARRHŒA AND CHOLERA.
The following instructions, issued to local authorities in Scotland
by the Board of Supervision, and certified by Dr Littlejohn, Medical
Officer of the city of Edinburgh, may be useful in the event of cholera
occurring in this country:
Local authorities, where there are either no medical men, or only a few
scattered over the country, should provide themselves with a supply of
suitable remedies. Among these may be mentioned—(1) elixir of vitriol;
(2) the lead and opium pill; (3) the aromatic powder of chalk and
opium; (4) ordinary mustard.
It is, however, not only of importance that an attack of cholera should
be properly treated before medical assistance is procured, but also
that the diarrhœa which may be present for days before the serious
symptoms present themselves, should be checked at once. This may
generally be effectually accomplished by causing persons so affected,
and who are usually very thirsty, to drink freely of cold water to
which elixir of vitriol has been added in the proportion of half a
teaspoonful of elixir to the tumbler of water. Should the diarrhœa,
in spite of the above treatment, continue for, say, two hours, a
lead and opium pill should be given, and the dose should be repeated
every time after the patient has been affected by the diarrhœa. If
the patient, from weakness, be unable to follow his usual employment,
he should be put to bed—care being taken that the limbs are kept
warm, and that the bed is kept dry by means of a sheet of oilcloth,
gutta-percha, or mackintosh between the sheet and the mattress.
Should the discharge present the appearance of rice-water, and should
there be urgent vomiting, cramps of the limbs, together with general
sinking or collapse, the case should be regarded as most serious; and
in the absence of a medical man, mustard poultices should be applied
to the stomach and chest for half an hour at a time, and should be
followed either by fomentations with warm water, or by bran or porridge
poultices on the same parts of the body. These mustard and soft
poultices should be alternated from time to time. Meanwhile the limbs
should be well rubbed with warm cloths, and the lead and opium pills
regularly administered, as directed above.
This treatment may be advantageously employed for all persons above
fifteen years of age. From ten to fifteen years, the only change
recommended in the treatment is that half a lead and opium pill,
instead of an entire pill, should be given as a dose. Below ten years
of age, the aromatic powder of chalk and opium should be substituted
for the pill, and may be administered in doses of one grain for each
year of life. Thus, an infant of one year should have one grain for
a dose; and under one year, half a grain; while a child of six years
should have six grains. The treatment otherwise is the same—care,
however, being taken in the case of children not to allow the mustard
to remain _beyond ten minutes_ in contact with the skin.
Should there be no hospital at the disposal of the local authority, and
should the house of the patient consist of one or two apartments, the
other members of the household should be at once removed. The room in
which the sick person is lying should as far as possible be cleared of
furniture; and the other apartment, if any, should be devoted to the
preparation of articles of food and to the residence of the attendants,
limited in number to a day and a night nurse.
GRANTON MARINE STATION.—We have to acknowledge receipt of the
following sum in behalf of the Granton Marine Station:
£ _s._ _d._
Aug. 4. A Friend, 1 0 0
EN PASSANT.
A sidelong glance like April sunlight shining
Through drifting clouds, a moment rent apart—
A glance which reads with swift, occult divining
Fond thoughts deep hidden in the inmost heart.
A sudden flash of love-born radiance gleaming
From two dark melting orbs of liquid light,
Whose haunting beauty sets the fond soul dreaming
Of far-off, unattainable delight.
A passing word of greeting, sweetly spoken
By two sweet lips whose lightest word is dear;
A moment more, and lo! the spell is broken
While yet its charm is ling’ring on the ear.
* * * * *
Ten years ago, I watched a sunbeam falling
Athwart the shadows of a sombre way;
Now, ’mid the after-glooms its charm recalling,
I bless the spot whereon its brightness lay.
G. C. J.
* * * * *
The Conductor of CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL begs to direct the attention of
CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice:
_1st._ All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339
High Street, Edinburgh.’
_2d._ For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps
should accompany every manuscript.
_3d._ MANUSCRIPTS should bear the author’s full _Christian_ name,
Surname, and Address, legibly written; and should be written on
white (not blue) paper, and on one side of the leaf only.
_4th._ Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a
stamped and directed envelope.
_If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to
insure the safe return of ineligible papers._
* * * * *
Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON,
and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.
* * * * *
_All Rights Reserved._