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Show SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. An examination of frogs after the administration of arsenic showed Dr. (Doctor) E. Ludwig seventeen times as much of the poison in the liver as in the brain. He has concluded that in all cases the liver absorbs more of the poison than any other organ, from which it would appear that the liver is the best part to examine in cases of criminal poisoning. The Wrecks of vessels on British coasts have shown a steady reduction in number from 1815 for the year ending with June 1877 to 881 for the year ending with July 1884. A large share of this gratifying result is believed to be due to a gradual improvement in weather forecasting and to a more intelligent attention to storm indications. From Broca's tables, including a large number of cranial measurements, the average weight of the brain is found to be about 16 ounces in men and 17 ounces in women. The greatest weight is obtained between the ages of thirty and thirty-five among men and a little earlier among women. After the age of fifty-five the weight rapidly diminishes, and at the age of eighty the average decrease has amounted to three and one-half ounces, although the loss, sometimes amounts to as much as nine ounces. Broca considered form to be of more importance than weight in estimating the comparative intellectual capacity of individuals. Dreams may be more capable of control than is usually supposed. It is known that brain action entices a raise of cranial temperature, and reciprocally M. Delaney finds that an increase of heat stimulates the action of the brain. Dreams are generally illogical and absurd, but by covering his forehead with a layer of wadding M. Delaney gets sane, intelligent dreams. He has also experimented on modes of lying in bed which favor the flow of blood to certain parts, increasing the activity of these portions of the brain. He has observed that dreams while lying on the back are sensorial, variegated, luxurious, those experienced when on the right side are mobile, exaggerated, absurd, and refer to old matters; while those which occur when on the left side are reasonable and intelligent, and pertain to recent matters - in which dreams one often speaks. It is claimed that these observations confirm the accepted idea of the functions of the different parts of the brain. The number of lions and panthers killed in Algeria is diminishing very rapidly every year, and these animals will probably soon disappear entirely from that country. In his tribute to9 the memory of Darwin, Huxley says, "Acute as were his reasoning powers, vast as was his knowledge, marvelous as was his tenacious industry under difficulties which would have converted mine men out of every ten ???LINES BLANKED OUT??? those who were admitted to his intimacy with involuntary veneration, but a certain intense and almost passionate honesty by which all his thoughts and actions were irradiated, as by a central fire." An Antarctic expedition to Cape Horn is being fitted out by the French Government. It will be furnished supplies for eighteen months. It is proposed to try a novel experiment at Paris by producing a series of scientific dramas at one of the theatres with the object of combining amusement with instruction. Three plays have already been provided, and their titles clearly indicate the direction in which the audience is to be instructed. The titles are: "Deois Pepin or the Invention of steam," "Keplef, or Astronomy and Astrology," and "Gutenberg or the Invention of Printing." The Photographie News suggests another in jest "The Triumvirate - Neipee, Daguerre, Talbot - or the Invention of Photography." The number of such themes capable of furnishing rare material for the dramatist's art would seem to be almost unlimited. The result of this new dramatic venture will be awaited with interest. Its success may be the inauguration of a new era in science teaching. For a number of years Prof. (Professor) Milne has made a systematic study of earthquakes in Japan. By a plan of distributing postal cards to important cities for weekly reports of shocks, he has obtained a record of a large number of earthquakes for a very considerable extent of territory. These reports are of great value in enabling him to compute the source and extent of earthquakes. His catalogue for Hakodate, ???in Yaza???, shows forty-two earthquakes in the period from 1879 to 1880. Comparison with the catalogue for another place, showed that ten at least of the Hakodate shocks were felt at Polu five hundred miles to the south. One interesting result of these observations is the discovery that earthquakes seldom pass the barrier of mountain ranges. Mr. Milne has estimated that a distribution of instruments of ordinary sensitiveness throughout Japan would record at least 1200 shocks per year or about three per day, which is a number greater than that obtained by Prof. (Professor) Hein for the whole world. |