The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-07-17
SCRAPS OF SCIENCE.


Prof. Dolbeau describes at mucl
lonath, in the Annales d Hyginene. hi:
| various experiments to ascertain wheth
err a person en- be anRsthetized duriu1
sleep. He mentions the cases of three
patients, who. while sleeping, were
readily aroused by applying small guam
titles of chloroform at no great distance
| from the nostrils. In another series Of
experiments, made on seven patients,
ten drops of chloroform were poured on
a napkin folded in four, which was
| gradually brought to the vicinity of the
air passage, SO that all air inspired ira
| versed it in all these cases, the pa
| tlents were suddenly aroused from their
sleep. some Immediately, and only one
after the eleventh inspiration. A third
group of cases consisted of 90 patients.
1t was found in ten out of this number,
that is in more than a third, complete
anathesia could be induced without
awakening hem. Dexterity in the
made cf procedure seemed to have
something to do with the proportion
thus obtained. tor this increased pro-
gressively with the number of cases ex-
perimented upon.
BRAIN OF MAN AND APES.
Prof. Owen is quoted as saying. be-
fore the Archaeological society of
London, that the brain of man is more
complex in its organization than the
brain of inferior animals, it is more
subject to injury, and more liable to
experience the want of perfect develop
ment; that instances of idiocy occur
among all races of mankind, and that
extreme smallness of the skull indicates
want of intellect approaching to idiocy.
Abiding to tie attempts that have
been made to find link of connection
between man and apes, he remarked
that it was possible that an idiot with
an imperfectly developed brain might
wander into some cave, and there die,
end in two or three years his bones
might be covered with mud, or be i'm
bedded in staiagmite, and, when dis
covered, such skull might be adduoed
as affording TIE long locke d. for link con-
Meeting man with the inferior animals.
He expresses the opinion that the diff
ference in question is altogether too
wide to be bridged over by this skull of
any creature yet discovered.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LIGHTING.
The ieaf-hke figures which are so fire.
quently fonnd upon the bodies of men
and animals struck by Lightning are
generally believed to be impressions
of the foliage in the vicinity where the
accident occurs, made by the lightning
in some manner analogous to the pro-
cess of photograph. There are strong
reasons. however, in support of the
proposition advanced by Mr.. Tonlinson,
f. r. s., that these figures are not de-
rived from trees at all, but represent the
fiery hand of Lightning itself, the trunk
being traced by the main discharge,
while the spray like branches proceed
from the electric feelers first cast out, |
as it were, TO find the line of least re-
sistance. The sensation of cob webs |
being drawn over the face. which has |
sometimes been felt by sailors just be- |
fore their ship was struck by lightning, |
is by him attributed to these sprays of |
preceding the main discharge |
1t is nevertheless true that neighboring
objects, such as horseshoe, for
are frequently impressed with
distinctness upon the body |
of the person struck.
OF INCRUsTATIoN OF BOILERS.
Experiments have been made on one
of the Australian railways in lining To-
connective boilers with copper, to prevent
The plates at each end |
were lined with copper of the thickness
Of one millimetre, the result being that
while the centre plate (iron) had layer
Of incrustation ten millimefres thick in
two J ears. aud carious corrosjon besides,
the cope plates had quite a smooth
surface, and only three millimetres'
thickness of incrusfation