Year: 1874

which was always considered the most incon,-
bustible matter in nature, produces the great
est heat known. Watch springs burn like
pitch. The chemist prepares delicate muslin
SO that it can be cleansed with fire. Arsenic
Is prescribed for dangerous diseases. Frozen
feet are saved by plunging them into snow.
Children are told to keep away from iron dur
ing thunderstorms, yet hardware stores ara
never struck by lightning. Persons suffering
with hydrophobia go into commissions at the
sight OF water. A French physician, how
ever. has cured fifty cases of this awful malady
with hot baths. An editor Of q New York
newspaper lost his sight until surgeon put
knife into his eyeballs. whereupon the man
recovered and went about his work.


The widest imagination is unable to pre-.
dict the discoveries Of the future. For oil we
know families in the next century may pump
fuel from the river and illuminate their houses
with ice and electricity. Iron vessels, prop
erly magnetized may sail through the air liks
balloons, and . trip to the Rocky Mountains
may be made in an hour. Perhaps within
fifty years American grain will be shot into
Liverpool and Calcutta through iron pipes
laid under the sea. By means of condensed
air and cold vapor engines excursion parties
may travel along the floor Of the ocean, sail
ing past ancient wrecks and mountains OF
coral. On land the intelligent farmer may
turn the soil Of q thousand acres in day,
while his son cuts wood with a platinum wire
and shells corn by electricity. The matter
now contained in q New York daily may be
produced ten thousand times minute, on lit
tie scraps Of pasteboard, by improved photo
graphy; and boys may sell the news of the
world printed on visiting cards, which their
customers will read through artificial eyes.
Five hundred years hence musician may
play q piano in New York connected
with instruments in San Francisco, Chi
cago, Cincinnati, New Orleans and other
cities, which will be listened to by
halt million of people. A speech delivered
in New York will be heard instantly in tha
halls of those cities, and when fashionable
audiences in San Francisco go to hear some
renowned singer she will be performing i'm
New York OF Philadelphia.


In the year 1900 man may put on his inc
fated overcoat, with q pair Of light steering
wings fastened to his arms; and go to Newark
and back in an hour. All the great battles
will be fought in the air. Patent thunderbolts
will be used instead Of cannon. A boy in Ho-
boken will go to Canada in the family cir car
riage to see his sweetheart, and the next day his
father will chasten him with q magnetic 10
buker because he did not return before mid
night The time is coming when the HERALD
will send reporter to see man reduce ons
of the Rocky Mountains to powder in half .
day. Skilful miners will extract gold from
quartz as easily as cider is squeezed from apples
compound telescope will be invented on
entirely new principles, 80 that one may SEQ
the planets as distinctly as we now see Staten
Island. Microscopes will be made so powerful
that particle of dust on gnats back win
appear larger than Pixies Peak. And marvel
lous progress will be made in psychological
and mental sciences. Two men will sit in
baths filed with chemical liquids. One Of
them may be in Denver and the other in
Montreal A pipe filed with the same liquid
will connect the two vessels, and the fluid
will be so sensitive that each man will know
the others thoughts. In these coming days
our present mode of telegraphing will be
classed with the wooden ploughs of Egypt,
and the people will look back to steamships
and locomotives as we look back to sailbOats
and stage coaches.