thesis, power of analysis, tranquil impartiality, keen discrimination, a habit of surveying both sides of a question—are indispensable parts of a woman editor's outfit for her position. She must put herself in another's place. She must also inexorably hold her own. With gentleness, suavity, and tact she must learn to say No as if she were saying Yes-so graciously that the denied shall be conciliated. She must have the courage of her opinions, particularly when some transient accident lifts into prominence and passion themes which are not vital, or that can not be settled by sudden acclamation. Many questions arise which are enthusiastically pressed and urged on the public by a few interested persons, until a flame of apparent zeal blazes furiously. The real plain public, on whom we fall back for ultimate settlements of questions affecting the weal of all, are not stirred. The editor must know how to act in such a crisis-must, above everything, be true to what she deems the highest good. personality of the woman seeking editorship, if not winning, should at least be impressive. She must needs be intellectual, receptive, alert, sympathetic; in touch with issues of current thought and action, and with drifts of current enterprise and discovery. As for her body, it must fitly sheathe so vital and so dominant a soul. Steel and india-rubber are not too strong or too flexible for the physical make-up of the woman in this case, who, if she would not wear out prematurely, must also know how to rest and when to rest, and what to gain by recreation and exercise."

A VICTORIAN ANTHOLOGY.

The

WE speak of Queen Anne's time and of the Georgian Period,

and we have epochs within periods; but we say the Age of Pericles, the Augustan Age, the Elizabethan Age; and, says Mr. Stedman in the Introduction to his "Victorian Anthology" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), "it is not beyond conjecture that posterity may award the master epithet to the time of Carlyle and Froude, of Mill and Spencer and Darwin, of Dickens, Thackeray, and their successors, of Tennyson and Browning." The adjec tive was unfamiliar, if it had been employed at all, when Mr. Stedman used it in the title of a magazine article in 1873. It is now as well in use as "Elizabethan" or "Georgian." It is remarkable that this appellation should have awaited the summons of an American's voice, and that the standard critical estimate of the poets of this reign, supplemented by a comprehensive anthology of their work, should have awaited the hands of the

same.

Mr. R. H. Stoddard speaks as follows of "A Victorian Anthology," in a critical notice of the work:

"Mr. Stedman's object, while it resembled that of his predecessors and fellow laborers in the intention of collecting the most poetical poems in the language, differed from them in that instead of merely representing poets, it was designed to represent the poetry of the period in which they flourished, and which they helped to illustrate, consciously or unconsciously, each in his own fashion, the period in question being that included in the reign of Queen Victoria, whose name will probably attach hereafter in literary history to the literature which was produced therein, as the name of Elizabeth now attaches to the literature which was produced in her reign, the era of Victoria flowing as naturally from the historic pen as the reign of Queen Anne, or of Elizabeth. No editor before Mr. Stedman ever undertook to include in a single anthology the poetry of a whole period, and as no period in English history was ever so prolific in poetry as this, the magnitude of his task may be imagined, for only those who are familiar with it can possibly know its extent, the variety of forms which it has assumed, and the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of accurately classifying some of these forms."

the

age

The Dial says:

"When Mr. Stedman published his 'Victorian Poets,' in 1875 he brought abundant and convincing logic to the support of the faith that was in us of the belief that we were nearing the close of a literary epoch as well marked and as distinctly characterized as any that had preceded it in our history. Now, at a date twenty years removed, the same skilful hand gives us a ' Victorian

Which is Our National Song ?-The recent death of Dr. Samuel F. Smith, the author of "America," caused the Philadelphia Record to ask: "What is the distinctive national anthem of the United States?" In reply to its own query this paper says: "It can not be said to be 'America,' popular as is that religiousspirited hymn, breathing the Puritanical zeal of the Pilgrim Fathers. In the first place, 'America' was written to the tune of 'God Save the King. Neither can it be 'Yankee Doodle,' for a similar reason. That galloping song was written about 1755 by Dr. Shuckburgh, an English army surgeon, and it was originally entitled 'The Yankee's Return from Camp.' It was sung later by the British redcoats in derision of the Continental soldiers, but was accepted by them as the Netherlands patriots adopted the opprobrious nickname of 'Beggars' (Les Gueux). To-day Uncle Sam may be proud of his Yankee Doodle's feather. He stuck it in his hat to stick. The only two distinctive American national tunes are those of 'Hail Columbia' and 'The StarSpangled Banner.' The first (written by Joseph Hopkinson, a Philadelphia lawyer) was set to an air originally known as 'The President's March.' Its music has saved the inferior words wedded to it. Both the music and words of Francis Scott Key's sparkling ode thrill one, however, and enhance each other's beauty. That is the American national anthem par excellence. Nevertheless, without counting Dr. Smith's grammarless and slightly faulty 'America' or any of the numerous flag songs of Drake and the rest, we have also Sidney Lanier's 'Psalm of the West,' Lowell's 'Commemoration Ode,' Emerson's 'Concord Hymn,' and George Edward Woodberry's 'My Country' as grand utterances of national patriotism."

NOTES.

"It were

IN a critical notice of "Vailima Letters," The Athenæum says: idle to deny that this book is a disappointment. That it contains charming glimpses of a fascinating personality, that it throws valuable light upon Stevenson's processes of work and self-criticism, that it has bits of color as vivid and passages of reflection as manly as we can find elsewhere in Stevenson, may be ungrudgingly allowed. But all this is buried in most trivial and uninteresting details of practical life and business, and even proofreading, which require all one's reverence for Stevenson to wade through. Mr. Colvin was scarcely well advised to print all Stevenson's letters to him of recent years practically at full length. Materials for a book are here, detailing Stevenson's life at Apia during the last five years of his life. But materials do not make a book. In the passage on p. 200 which Mr. Colvin quotes as his warrant for reproduction of these letters, Stevenson put it: This diary, of mine to you would make good pickings after I am dead, and a man could make some kind of a book out of it without much trouble.' Mr. Colvin has not done much in the way of picking and choosing. Barring a note here and there, and an omission at times, and a few admirable pages of preface and conclusion, he has printed the letters pretty much as he received them."

SPEAKING of the morality of the late Alexandre Dumas, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle says: "When one remembers that the inspiration of 'Camille' was its author's admiration for the good and generous traits he recognized in the character of an unfortunate woman, with whom his own personal relations were unquestionably pure, we can believe, as his French contemporaries believe, that Dumas's constant championship of fallen womanhood, his constant protests against what he conceives to be the injustice of society toward such unfortunates as Marguerite Gautier and Denise, were the outcome not of a vicious nature, but of a mind trained to look below the surface and back of the present when forming its judg ments and of a generous and sympathetic heart. It should not be forgotten, in this consideration, that the doors of the French Academy flew open for Dumas and that the French Academy does not easily excuse immorality, as some very famous French writers, Emil Zola and the author of 'Mademoiselle de Maupin' among them, have had good reason to know.'

The Westminster Gazette says: "In "The Gillmans of Highgate,' by A. W. Gillman, a 'chapter' just published from a larger history of the family, now in preparation, special reference is made to an inaccurate statement by some of Coleridge's biographers. Concerning the opium-habit, De Quincey said that 'Coleridge never conquered his evil habit,' and others have alleged that down to his death he continued to obtain, by the doctor's boy, supplies of laudanum surreptitiously from a chemist in the TottenhamCourt-road. Mr. Gillman's assurance was, however, that the habit was overcome; and the boy-Mr. Thomas Taylor, now one of the oldest inhabitants of Highgate-states that he never procured any opium for Mr. Coleridge, nor did he ever hear of his alleged habit of taking it, but,' he added, 'he was a great consumer of snuff. and I used to bring him a pound of "Irish blackguard" (his favorite snuff) at a time, with which he smothered himself."

AT

SCIENCE.

ALCOHOL AS A POISON.

T the last meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science Dr. Tison read an interesting paper upon chronic alcoholism, its causes and its treatment. In this paper he treats alcohol as a poison, pure and simple, of which moderate doses, as in the case of other poisons, may be taken without toxic effects, but which is none the less a poison. He shows chemically that it is only the least poisonous of a group of alcohols which are not used as beverages, but which occur as impurities in many alcoholic drinks, thus increasing their injurious effects. We translate below an abstract of Dr. Tison's article that appears in Cosmos (Paris, October 12). The author begins by laying down the following propositions:

"1. The alcohol of wine-ethylic alcohol-is a poison of which the toxic or mortal dose is 8 grams to the kilogram [8 to the 1,000 by weight].

"2. This toxicity is increased by mixture with other alcohols, which are more poisonous as their molecular weight is greater. This is shown by the following table, which sums up the researches of Dujardin-Beaumetz and Audigé:

Ethylic alcohol kills in the proportion of

8.00 grams to the kilogram.

penses necessitated by the evils of alcohol are larger than the products of the duties on imports.

"M. Tison concludes that alcoholism is a social evil and a social plague, which, consequently, demands a social treatment; for medical treatment can be applied only to a small number of alcoholics who are willing to be cured. For these are recommended alkaline waters, milk, laudanum, and strychnine, but above all they must completely abstain from the poison that has brought on their malady.

"As to inveterate alcoholics, who do not wish to give up their fatal passion, there is nothing to do but to shut them up in special houses where they can be treated like the inmates of a hospital; these houses are not, properly speaking, insane asylums. They may be built on the model of those that already exist in America, England, Switzerland, and Germany.

"To this special treatment must be added governmental action, that of charitable institutions, and specially that of instructors, professors, and ministers of religion. Every one of these ought to teach the injuriousness of alcohol and seek to mitigate it, for it is of the highest importance that the race should be robust and free from weak members.

"M. Tison concludes that these means would have greater influence than the diminution of saloons (as in Switzerland) and the increase of license fees.”—Translated for THE LITERARY DIGEST.

Propylic Butylic Amylic

แ

2.00

1.40 to 1.70

แ

5. Alcohol causes great troubles in the system, of which the principal are as follows:

"The stomach is inflamed or irritated by alcohol, causing gastritis and ending in the atrophy of the pepsin glands and greater secretion of mucus, which produces the acidity so familiar to drinkers. At first alcohol favors steatosis of the tissues [fatty degeneration], whence the stoutness of certain drinkers in early stages of their course.

"From the stomach, the alcohol passes into the intestines, whose injuries have been less studied. It is here that it is in great part absorbed by the ramifications of the portal vein, which carry it to the liver, where it produces the changes known under the name of cirrhosis, among which are cirrhosis of the veins, Laennec's cirrhosis, which brings on dropsy of the peritoneum and the cachexia, and the biliary cirrhosis of Hanot, as well as the mixed cirrhoses, which often lead quickly to death.

"The elimination of the alcohol by the lungs produces a predisposition to special pulmonary tuberculosis, which is distinguished from hereditary tuberculosis by the epoch of its appearance, after the thirty-fifth year, by its attacking first the apex of the right lung at the rear, by its development, etc. The mortality from pulmonary tuberculosis has increased since the greater frequency of alcoholism.

"But it is especially on the nervous system that alcohol chiefly exerts its destructive force, leading ultimately to mental alienation. It is a well-attested fact that the insane asylums contain from one third to one half of alcoholic patients.

vania Railroad, who, like all other wide-awake railroad men, have been looking into the possibilities of electric traction, Mr. George Westinghouse, Jr., the eminent electrician, recently submitted a paper on the subject in which he suggests that the solution of the whole question may lie in the employment of the gas-engine instead of the steam-engine as a prime mover. Says Mr. Westinghouse:

"A strong argument heretofore used against the adoption of the electric system for main lines has been due to the fact that the investment required to make the change would be heavy, without materially decreasing the consumption of fuel and other costs of operation, an objection which it is believed can be met by the development and use of gas-engines of large sizes, instead of steam-engines, for the generation of the electric current.

"During the past twenty-five years gas-engines of small sizes have been manufactured by the thousands, and some of 350 horse-power have already been made abroad, the manufacturers of which are willing to guarantee a consumption of fuel not exceeding three quarters of a pound of coal per horse-power, when the gas is obtained by means of gas producers of the character commonly employed in iron and steel mills. Taking into consideration the various losses, a locomotive consumes on an average eight times as much coal as would be required to operate a properly constructed gas-engine.

"An intimate connection with the gas and electrical engine business for over ten years, and a constant study of those subjects, have led to the conclusion that gas-engines of large power and of greater economy than those above referred to can now be manufactured, and their manufacture in a large way has only to be brought about to create new conditions of the utmust importance to railroad properties."

After quoting these paragraphs with approval, The Engineering and Mining Journal, November 23, remarks upon them as follows:

"This opinion comes with especial weight from an engineer who has made the steam motor an especial study, who has devised special types of engines, and is now engaged in the manufacture of those engines on a large scale. Mr. Westinghouse has further emphasized his belief in the gas-engine by making arrangements to develop those motors and to engage in their manufacture, which is a strong practical testimony to the sincerity of his convictions."

ACCORDING to German authority, a new and excellent liquid glue is made by dissolving gelatin in a solution of chloral hydrate in water. Ordinary glue may replace the gelatin for ordinary use. This cement is said to dry quickly, to have great adhesiveness, and to remain unchanged indefinitely.

(These illustrations are used by courtesy of The Photographic Times.) Photoheliograph.' Instead of pointing this telescope at the object to be observed, as is the case in the more usual forms, the tube is fixed in a horizontal position north and south, the objective being placed at the north end of the tube. This objective (5 inches in diameter) is ground so as to bring to a focus the rays which most strongly affect the photographic plate, as in the lenses for an ordinary photographic camera. The photographic focal length of this lens is a trifle under 40 feet, which gives an image of the sun about 41⁄2 inches in diameter. A little over 2 feet to the north of the objective is placed the 'heliostat' for reflecting the rays from the sun to the object-glass. The heliostat consists of a plane glass mirror mounted at the lower extremity of an axis, which is parallel to the earth's. The mirror is so pivoted as to revolve about a second axis, perpendicular to the polar axis, which permits of its adjustment to the sun's declination, and when so adjusted is made to follow the diurnal motion of the sun by clockwork which revolves the polar axis. In this way the earth's motion is neutralized and the reflected rays kept in a horizontal direction.

"The reflecting mirror consists of a circular glass plate 7% inches in diameter, slightly wedge-shaped, one surface of which is ground accurately flat. This surface is figured with as much care as an objective, for upon its ability to reflect properly the rays which fall upon it depends the perfection of the resulting

The focus of the instrument is within the dark room, where a metal frame on a brick pier holds the sensitive plate. This arrangement is particularly well adapted for photographing sun spots and fine work has been done with it, as the accompanying specimens show. Says Mr. Perrine:

"The greatest enemy to sharp definition in this work, which is also the general enemy to all astronomical observations, is our own atmosphere. The mixing of currents of air of varying densities, causes а blurring of the outlines and finer detail, which can not be gotten rid of entirely by short exposures. When the images are sharp and clear it is possible to bring out much of the detail by enlarging the original negatives in a camera. With one exception all of the illustrations of spot groups accompanying this article

SUN-SPOTS VISIBLE AUGUST 22, 1894.

The earth on the

have been enlarged 34 diameters. same scale as these enlargements of spots would be represented by a disk about 1⁄2 inch in diameter. In looking at the immense body of the sun we are apt to forget the real size of the spots. Such a comparison shows us that most of the sun spots are much larger than the earth."

The article closes with a few items of interesting information about these great disturbances of the solar atmosphere:

Observations show that the spots do not remain fixed in one place on the sun's disk, but that they all, in common, have a motion across the disk, indicating a complete rotation of the solar body in about 25% of our days. This rotation causes the spots to travel slowly across the disk and to disappear on the western limb. If they are sufficiently persistent they reappear again at the eastern limb in about 14 days. It is these successive appearances, after having made a revolution, that are shown in

SUN-SPOTS VISIBLE AUGUST 8, 1893.

image. This reflector is used plain, without any silver film to increase its reflective power."

In the illustration the photographic house is at the right, and the tube may be seen extending horizontally to the left, the objective being mounted at its end, while the heliostat is mounted still further to the left, its axis being elevated toward the pole.

SUN-SPOTS VISIBLE AUGUST 13, 1895.

the group of 1893 spots. Further observations have shown that the axis on which the sun revolves is nearly perpendicular to the plane of the earth's orbit about the sun.

"One of the most important facts concerning the spots is that of the general period of their waxing and waning which Schwabe of Dessau noted in his long series of observations, and which has been amply verified since. This period is not of uniform length, but averages about 11 years, and is the interval from one maximum to the next, between which there is a minimum when the number and size of spots decrease until for days and weeks not a spot may be visible.

"As already stated, the sun's surface is in a state of constant, and for the most part very rapid, change, and this element of uncertainty lends added interest to problems connected with the central body of our system, and at the same time prevents their earlier solution."

IS THE PROBLEM OF COLOR-PHOTOGRAPHY SOLVED?

T is by no means uncommon to hear this question answered in the affirmative. But, as we pointed out recently in this column, many processes commonly referred to in the newspapers under this head are not, properly speaking, photography in colors at all, the color being obtained by means independent of or subsequent to the taking of the photograph. The statement that color-photography is an accomplished fact has been so often repeated, however, that the editor of The American Journal of Photography, Julius F. Sachse, protests against it in a leading article in his November issue. We quote below his main points: "Among the hackneyed subjects that form the stock in trade of the sensational journalism of the present day, none is more frequently called upon for duty than the announcement that colorphotography is now an accomplished fact, and that Mr. So-andSo or Dr. This-and-That lately demonstrated the fact before the Solar Tripod Club, or that Professor Gotitall was awarded a premium of a million lire for his experiments before the Imperial Academy, and so on. It is always the same old story, only that the names and locality are varied occasionally. So common has the announcement become of late, especially in the 'Sunday papers,' that persons who have any knowledge of photography pass it over without further notice."

As an illustration of the fact that this exaggerated form of statement has been taken up even by technical journals, Mr. Sachse proceeds to quote as follows from a photographic contem. porary:

"The dream of Daguerre is at last realized. Both he and his partner inventor, Nicephore Niepce, wasted the best portion of their lives in the vain endeavor to fix the beautiful colors of nature seen on the ground-glass of the camera. . . . The problem has at last been solved, and what was considered impossible but so few years ago, is now in practical use.'

"Now this startling announcement certainly sounds very well, but who is the inventor and where are specimens to be seen? Has a company been formed as yet to work the process commercially; if so, where can any stock be had and at what figure? Would the inventors or controllers of the process be willing to let a few members of the photographic press in on the ground floor? All of which are pertinent questions in view of the great value of the heralded discovery.

"Now what are the facts of the case? How much foundation is there in the above positive statement? Not a particle, so far as the solving of the color problem is concerred.

'As a matter of fact we are as far from solving the problem of color-photography (or, to be properly understood, the permanent fixation of the image as it appears in its concentrated color on the focusing screen) as we were the first day when Daguerre demonstrated his process, on August 19, 1839. Now why deliberately attempt to deceive the public? A photographic periodical should be the last to stoop to such unwarranted statements. . .

"Triple projections by aid of a lantern are by no means 'colorphotography,' and even in the best of these the colors are a great way 'off,' and it is a disputed question whether the same view can be projected twice in succession with the same shadings of color. Then the triple impressions made with three tints on the printing-press is certainly not 'color-photography.' It is chromotypography pure and simple, no matter what fancy name is given to it. Then again there are certain difficulties that present themselves to the color printer with our present inks that are hard to overcome. No matter how great care is taken either in the preliminary photographic work or, in the presswork, so uncertain and accidental are the results obtained by this three-color process, that according to the best judges, only about one out of a thousand impressions meets all the requirements of a faithful reproduction of the original colors.

...

"A few words on the Lippmann process.* Interesting as his results may be to the scientist, plates that have to be viewed through a prism to obtain any idea of color, and then either complementary or inferential, is by no means color-photography. A diligent search by the writer in Paris, London, and Germany failed to bring to light either a specimen or even a living witness * See THE LITERARY DIGEST. vol. x., p. 285.

"An eminent Chicago physician recently remarked to the writer, 'Thousands of persons are unconsciously suffering from the pernicious effects of the use of tea and coffee. The investigations made by Morton, of Brooklyn, and a number of other neurologists have clearly shown that the use of tea and coffee often develops a special form of neurasthenic symptoms which are evidently the result of chronic poisoning. Dr. Arlinge, an English physician, reported, a number of years ago, that there were thousands of tea-drinkers in the British Islands. An Australian physician has made the same observation with reference to the people of Australia. Dr. Kimball, an intelligent practitioner of New Hampshire, reported an epidemic of a strange neurosis among the factory girls employed in a large factory of which he had the medical supervision, which upon thorough investigation was shown to be due to tea-chewing, which had become almost universal among the girls. Many of them were disabled from duty by strange mental and choreic symptoms, but they had become so addicted to tea-chewing that it was found necessary to subject them to a most careful examination each day, when they entered the factory, to prevent their continuing the habit. Two young women were arrested in Boston, a few years ago, for being drunk and disorderly. On investigation it was proven that they had taken no alcoholic liquors of any sort, but were addicted to tea-chewing.

"Professor Virchow, of Berlin, is credited with saying: 'We have at last arrived at the truth that caffein (the active principle of tea and coffee) is nothing more nor less than a strong stimulant, and, taken in large quantities, a poison, like brandy.' Roberts, of England, has shown the pernicious effect of tea and coffee upon both starch digestion and the digestion of proteids."

The latest study of the subject, and a most careful one, has been made by two French physicians, Drs. Gasne and Gilles de Tourette, whose report on the subject to the Society of the Hospitals of Paris describe at great length and in detail the symptoms of what they term "chronic intoxication" by coffee. We quote a few paragraphs from a translation in The Medical Week: 'Caffeic dyspepsia resembles closely alcoholic gastritis, being characterized by phlegm in the morning, pain in the epigastric region, with radiation toward the back, coated tongue, distaste for solid food, etc. . .

"The most important symptoms, however, involve the nervous system; there is insomnia, or sleep is accompanied by frightful dreams; when the patient stands upright he suffers from a sensation of emptiness of the head, and frequently from vertigo.

"In addition the muscles of the calf and thigh are affected by painful attacks of cramp, especially at night, which contribute toward making sleep impossible."

The authors add that with cessation of the use of coffee the symptoms subside, being much less persistent than those of alcohol-poisoning.

ACCORDING to The Journal of Hygiene, consumptives have been recently treated by feeding them with peanuts, with very favorable results. The physician who used the treatment reports: "The peanut was long known as an excellent fat-producer, and much more agreeable than rancid sharkoil that oftentimes is sold for cod-liver oil. While not all can digest peanuts, a great many even with feeble digestion eat them without discom fort. It beats the Koch lymph and is the most satisfactory treatment I

have ever tried for these diseases."

THE

WHAT IS AN ALLOY?

HE substances obtained by adding one metal to another have long puzzled scientists. They are in universal use, including such well-known materials as brass, bronze, and typemetal; and, in fact, they embrace also most metallic substances used in the arts, for a chemically pure metal is a rarity. The gold of our coins and the silver of our forks and spoons are really alloys with baser metals. Are these substances chemical compounds or are they mere mixtures? Science can scarcely say: some appear to be the one, some the other, while others still appear to be neither, or both, or to occupy a middle ground between the two. In a recent lecture on "The Nature of Alloys," a report of which we quote, in part from Industries and Iron (November 8), Mr. McMillan, the English metallurgist, tells us of the latest discoveries and speculations on this subject. Says the report:

"Beginning with pure metals, he showed that the addition of mere traces of foreign substances may seriously impair the working properties of a material; and that the effect could be understood of the eutectic alloy that would be formed in such a case had unsatisfactory properties, for it would then often happen that the resulting metal would be interpenetrated throughout by a mesh of bad material, which would thus communicate its character to the whole mass. But the influence of traces of different impurities singly was very variable, a few actually improving the material, while most of them caused deterioration. An attempt had been made to connect these effects with the relative volumes of the atoms of the elements taking part, those impurities which had larger atoms than had the original metal often causing deterioration, and those with smaller atoms giving either no effect or else a good one. Proceeding then to series of alloys, he showed, by means of tables and curves, that the results of adding increasing quantities of one metal to another were very variable. Thus, in brass, the addition of zinc to pure copper at first caused a somewhat irregular rise in the strength of the copper, until 20 per cent. of zinc had been introduced; then there was a slight fallingoff until the alloy of 30 zinc and 70 copper was reached. This was followed by a rapid increase in strength, and the maximum was obtained with the mixture of 42 of zinc and 58 of copper, and, after this, the continued addition of zinc led to a sudden and strikingly marked decrease in strength, in toughness, and in ductility, the minimum strength occurring with the alloys containing from 60 to 70 per cent. of zinc, which were intensely hard and brittle. Bronze gave a somewhat similar curve, but the maximum strength was reached after the addition of 18 per cent., and the minimum strength after 32 per cent. of tin. Similar curves were shown for gold and aluminium, nickel and iron, and other alloys. In endeavoring to answer the question, 'Are alloys chemical compounds?' Mr. McMillan adduced much evidence from many different sources to show that there were a few alloys (which he described) that appeared to be undoubted compounds; about a few others there must still be uncertainty, while in the vast majority of cases it would seem that only mechanical mixtures were formed. Where true compounds existed, the alloy usually had undesirable mechanical properties, and reasoning from the fact that most chemical compounds had properties widely diferent from those of their components, it seemed useless, if not undesirable, to attempt to produce compounds (even if it were possible), by striving after mixtures in atomic proportions."

Magnetic Surgery.—"A remarkable use of magnetism was recently made at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary," according to The Electrical Age. "A piece of steel three eighths by one quarter inch in size had accidentally become imbedded in a man's eye, and the nature of the injury as such that a surgical operation was held to be inadvisable. A strong electro-magnet was procured and placed before the patient's eyes. When the man's eyes were brought within a few inches of the poles of the magnet he uttered a cry of pain, and the piece of steel came to the surface of the eyeball, whence it was extracted. Such use of the power of magnetism is not rare, but the process followed heretofore has been to bring the magnet in contact with the metallic substance to be removed. In the case referred to the location of the piece of metal in the eye was uncertain, and the method adopted was decided upon, with successful results, as stated.”

Formation of Mountain Chains.-In a paper read recently before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, Stanislas Meunier states, according to the report in the Revue Scientifique (November 16), that "the results to which he has been led can be summed up by saying that the great mountain features of Europe are as if the nucleus that lies beneath the rocky crust, and that has deformed it, possessed properties similar to those of indiarubber, which after being stretched returns to its original shape. It is as if, thanks to a sort of viscosity, the internal matter of the earth had been distended by centrifugal force under the influence of the rotation, and that in contracting, by the effect of secular cooling, it had drawn away from the equator toward the poles. It follows from this that each spindle-shaped section of the globe can be represented by a band of india-rubber fixed at one end corresponding to the pole, and undergoing traction at the other extremity, comparable to the equatorial zone. If such an indiarubber band be properly arranged and allowed to return slowly to its original shape, it is evident that for a given contraction the path traveled by its different points varies regularly, and increases from the pole toward the equator. It results that if it be covered with a layer of a plastic, non-retractile substance, this undergoes a shifting toward the pole, which varies in the same way along the entire length of the meridian. Each point of this meridian, considered by itself, acts as a point of resistance for the portions lying toward the south, and this results in the appearance of fissures, upheavals, and hollows that form first near the pole, then successively in lower and lower latitudes. One çan not help being struck, says the author, in witnessing the experiment, with the conformity of this result with the fact of the relative disposition of the Caledonian, Hercynian, Alpine, and Apennine zones of upheaval, whose situation is more and more southerly and whose age is, at the same time, less and less great. - Translated for THE LITERARY Digest.

SCIENCE BREVITIES.

"THE scarcity of genuine camphor has, it is said, led to the manufacture of an artificial article, and it is rumored that a certain firm has forwarded shipments of the latter to Hamburg and then reshipped it to England as genuine camphor," says Food and Sanitation. "Artificial camphor may be made by passing a current of dry hydrochloric-acid gas through spirits of turpentine cooled by a freezing mixture. The liquid darkens and deposits crystals, which are dissolved in alcohol and precipitated by water. The separated crystals are drained and dried. They are perfectly colorless, with an odor like camphor. At the ordinary temperature, its vapor tension is sufficient to cause it to sublime like ordinary camphor in small brilliant crystals in the bottles in which it is preserved. It is insoluble in water, and gyrates when on the surface of that liquid like true camphor." ONE of the latest uses of mica, according to The Canadian Druggist, is that of an ingenious Australian, who has invented and introduced a mica cartridge for sporting and military guns. "The filling inside the cartridge is visible, and a further advantage is that instead of the usual wad of felt a mica wad is used. This substance, being a non-conductor unaffected by acids or fumes, acts as a lubricant. When smokeless powders, such as cordite or other nitroglycerin compounds, are used, mica has a distinct advantage over every other material used in cartridge manufacture. Being transparent, any chemical change in the explosive can be at once detected. The peculiar property it has of withstanding intense heat is here utilized, the breech and barrel being kept constantly cool. The fouling of the rifle is also avoided, the wad actually cleaning the barrel."

INFLUENCE OF HIGH ALTITUDES ON THE BLOOD-" Gebhard, Fränkel, Grawitz have shown that there is a notable increase in the proportion of the number of corpuscles in the blood in persons who go from a low to a high altitude," says Modern Medicine. "This increase takes place in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. It is possible that this fact may be one of the reasons for the beneficial effects of high altitude in cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. The increase in the red corpuscles is attributed to the desiccating effects of a high atmosphere."

"IT has been decided to honor Pasteur in the district where his first experiments in vaccinating sheep stricken with anthrax were carried out," says The Lancet. "These experiments were made at Pouilly-le-Fort in 1881, and in grateful memory of the benefits which accrued to agriculture as the result of these scientific experiments a statue is to be erected to Pasteur at Melun, near Fontainebleau. A committee, consisting of members of the agricultural and veterinary societies of the Department of the Seineet-Marne has been formed for the purpose of receiving subscriptions."

A SUBSTITUTE for whitewash called "asbestos cold-water paint" has recently been invented. It is claimed that this paint will neither scale, rub, nor drop off, and that one coat properly mixed and applied will cover as well as two coats of whitewash. It is a fire retardent to a considerable degree, and through being treated with carbolic acid it is also a disinfectant. "An electrical engineer expresses the opinion that whereas an insulated electric-light wire carried over a dressed, seasoned pine surface painted with oil paint might ignite at a point where there was an imperfect insulation, such a result would be prevented where this asbestos paint is used."