Connecticut western news., 1877-03-30
SCIENTIFIC.

pulSOIy VdCcludtlOu Ou ULl0 SIOuuO GIldb it prevents further discovery, and com pels medical science to halt at just that point, because it forbids experiment. upon methods of prevention that may prove to be better. He says: "It stere- Otypes particular stage of scientific knowledge, and bars further progress. If 1 remind you of the great improve ment thought to have been made by the introduction of inoculation by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu at the end of the last century. and ask you to sup pose that Parliament might then have passed an act to compel every one to be Is meant. This method was tried for some years with great eclat, but after ward 1t was found to spread the small pOx so much that an act Of Parliament was passed to forbid it's use. Vacci- nation, introduced by Dr. Jenner, has followed, and this was another step in advance. l was the first child in my fathers family vaccinated seventy one years ago, several elder brothers and sisters having been inOculated. Both methods answered in our cases. But for many years 1 have been satisfied that other diseases besides the modified troduced by the old vaccine, and have steadily refused to use it, seeking rather, at increased trouble and ex- pense, new vaccine. And the question which comes forcibly to the front is this: May not some other preservative be discovered which shall be a further Improvement The question cannot be answered so long as vaccination is compelled by law. There are no per sons upon whom experiments can be tried" So far as it goes, this is valid ground for criticislng vaccination laws. But the proof that smallpox is more disastrous to the human race than the evils that vaccination brings with it is so strong that there is little liklihood society will subject itself to the attacks of the greater enemy in order to avoid the lesser. The evils of the old system of using vaccine taken from human beings for new inoculations are now no longer inevitable. Fresh vaccine di- rect from the calf, and called Bovine" /" can be had everywhere. A large estab- lishment for obtaining it is situated near New York.-The Galary.
 Moon Madness. The popular belief that the moons rays will cause mad ness in any person who sleeps exposed to them has long been felt to be ab- surd, and yet it has appeared to have it's source in undoubted facts. Some deleterious influence is experienced by those who rashly court slumber in full moonshine. and probably there is no superstition to which the we1-to-do pay more attention. Windows are often carefully covered to keep the mOonbeams from entering sleeping rooms. A gentleman living in India tion of this phenomenon which is at least plausible. He says: ''It has often been observed that when the moon is full, or near it's full time, there are rarely any clouds about; and ii there be clouds before the full moon rises, they are soon dissipated; and therefore a perfectly clear sky, with bright full moon is frequently observed. A clear sky admits of rapid radiation of heat from the surface of the earth, and any person exposed to such radiation is sure to be chilled by rapid loss of heat. There is reason to believe that, under the circumstances, paralysis Of one side of the face IS sometimes likely to occur from chill, as one side of the face IS more likely to be exposed to rapid ra- diation, and consequent loss of its heat. This chill is more likely to occur when the sky is perfectly clear. have often slept in the open air in India on a clear summer night, when there was no moon; and although the first part of the night may have been hot, yet toward two or three o'clock in the the morning, the chill has been so great that l have often been awakened by an ache lp my forehead, which as often have coun- teracted by wrapping handkerchief round my head, and drawing the blan- ket over my face. As the chill is like ly to be greatest on every clear night, and the dearest nights are likely to be those on which there is a bright moon shine, it is very possible that neuralgia, paralysis. or other similar injury, caused by sleeping in the open ar has been at tributed to the moon, when the prOXl- mate cause may really have been the chitL, and the moon only remote cause acting by dissipating the clouds and haze Gf it do sO), and leaving perfect ly clear sky for the play of radiation into space. ."-Ihe Gato1y.
 Panthers as Seed Distributors. It is we'll known that bees carry pollen from flower to flower, and that eggs of ma rine animals are often carried long distances in the stomachs of aquati
 birds. A very curious instance Ot thi kind, showing how vegetable species may be ditfused by means which no botanist, however acute, would be like | ly to think of, is mentioned by MT. Al fred Snee, who states that, attached to the skin of panther recently shot in India, were found numerous seeds each of which had two perfect hooks, mani festly designed to attach themselves to foreign bodies. As the panther moved about it collected the seeds on the skin and carried them about wherever It went; but when it rubbed against the shrubs, it of necessity brushed some of and thus distributed them. One Of the seeds produced handsome plant, and beautiful clusters of tubular flowers. Ii was immediately recognized to be the MGrtyniG djandrd-a plant which, al though introduced into England as fal back as 1731, ha scarcely ever been cul- tivated, although it has been cOmmen- ted on by bOtanists and other writers.
 Pl0to's Cubical Earth.-Plato was g mathematician and excogitated the uni verse out of the depths of geometrica, consciouness. In explaining how things came about, he said that matter in itself had no form or properties, but God in the beginning invested it with a sort of triangular constitution. After ward, taking certain number of these primitive triangles, he composed the four primary elements. Fire, the most subtitle, is made up of the smallest mum Der of triangles, and has the figure of 8 pyramid. Water particles are solids of twenty faces, while the earth-ele- ment is cubical or bounded by right angled triangles. The cube with its SIX equal faces appeared to Plato to be the most perfect of solids, and therefore most suitable for the earth, which was to stand in the centre of the universe -Popular Science Monthly.
 
 UhAsing Sunshine.-M. Mouchot is con- tinuing his experiments in utilizing the heat of the sun. He has lately showr to the Academy of Sciences 8 small
 still, in which the suns heat was ap- piled to the process of distillation. With this still, the mirror of which was twenty inches in diameter, the inven- tor succeeded in distilling a quart o1 l wine in half an hnnr With a mirror