Year: 1873


Some curious facts with respect to the
freezing of certain animals have long
been known. DURING his voyage to Ice
land, in 1923 or 1929, Gainmard, having
exposed in the open air a box filed with
earth in which toads were put, opening
it after q certain time, found the reptiles
frozen hard and brittle; but they could
be restored to life when put IN warm
water. Many ancient authors cite SINH
lar cases, and we can almost bring our
selves to understand how a great Eng
lish physiologist might for a moment
have given them the whimsical inter
probation that he did John Hunter
fancied it might be possible to prolong
life Indefinitely by placing man in a
very cold climate, and there subiecting
him to periodical freezing. The man,
he said. would perhaps live n thousand
years, if, at the end of every ten years,
he were frozen for n hundred, then
thawed out at the end Of the term for
ten years more, and so continuously
Like all invent ers, Hunter adds, 81 I
expected to make my fortune by this
scheme, but an experiment completely
undeceived me- Putting carp into
freezing mixture, he observed, IN fact,
that, after being entirely frozen they
were dead, past recovery. The case is
the same with all other animals, as the
late and very remarkable efforts Of F.
A. Pouchet have proved.


WHAT ARE CYCLONES Professor T.
B. Maury, in a recent article on the
subject, said The word cuclonc bas
frequently, but incorrectly, been used
as significant of an enormous or very
violent meteor, as If its application was
to be confined to the devastating hurri-
cane of the West Indies or the terrible
typhoon of the China seas. It simply
means a storm which acts in q circular
direction, and whose winds converge,
by radiaIs or sinuous spirals, toward a
centre, moving in our hemisphere in
the opposite direction to that of the
hands of clock, and in the southern
hemisphere in a contrary direction.
Taking this as the definition Of a cy-
clone, it seems scIear, from observation
alone, that all storms are to be regarded
as cyclonic. Volumes have been writ
ten to prove that this is not the case.
But we have only to examine a few
series Of weather-maps from week to
week to see that, wherever you have an
area of low barometer, into its central
hollow the exterior atmosphere from all
sides VIII pour, and that in so doing a
rotary spiral or vorticose storm is gen
Grated. The. tornado, the simoons, the
dust-whirlwind, the fre-storm, even the
slow and sluggish storm which moves
on our Western plains as the laboring
wheel of the steamship buried in a
heavy sea, all attest that a body can
not move on the earth's surface in a
straight line. 1t is not more true with
US that the Gulf Stream turns to the
eastward, the Polar Stream TO the west
ward, and the equatorial currents to
the northward, than that every air-cur-
rent, in obedience to the same law,
should turn to the right of the line
along which from any cause it is called
to move. The meteorist has therefore
only to ascertain by observation where
the barometer is lowest, to know at
once the direction of the wind from the
circumiacent districts, far and near, or
at least to test the mathematical law by
a grand experiment.


TRANSMISSION OF BLooD.-Th follow
ing is from the Popular Science Month
Ly for April The first experiment was
tried on a man aged twenty. He was
bebeaded at 8 o'clock in the morning +;
eleven hours later all traces of irrita-
bility had disappeared from most of
the muscles of the body. Injection in.
to the muscles was begun at ten min
utes past 9 in the evening the quanti-
ty of blood (Which the operator took
from his own veins) was enough for a
limited part of the body; he therefore
confined his experiments to the hand.
Injection was made by the artery in
which the pulse is usually sought, a
little above the wrist, and Of course, in
the direction of the fingers; it was urged
at first quite fast, then slowly. The
blood, which went in bright colored,
passed out dark from the vein, as is the
case in life. The operation continued
thirty-five minutes, and, ten minutes
after that time, irritability had return
ed; a movement in the musclas Of the
hand could be artifcially excited. With
the second subject, injection Of the
blood of a healthy dog was made the
blood had been first deprived Of its CO
agulable matter, and beaten up in the
air; there was about a pound Of il.
The subject was a strong man forty
/ years old. Death had occurred at
o'clock in the morning at twenty-five
minutes past 10in the evening rigidity
was complete, without a trace Of con
! tractability under the influence of slim
ulus. The arm was amputated, and at
twenty minutes past II Brown-Sequard
effected injection by the braehial artery.
The skin at first took livid color, but
verv soon the roots of the hair & ew
erect, giving the effect Of goose-hesb,
as it is called. This artificial circula
ton wasso entirely successful that the
veins On the back of the hand presented
a blush tinge; a beating like that oi
the pulse lifted the main artery of the
wrist, muscular life revived the fngers
soon lost their stiffness, and forty-tive
minutes after II irritabiity had reap
peared in the muscles of the arm; il
was still perceptible at 4 in the morn
! ing of the next day.


Bribery in the Past. .


In England for more than . century