< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 10.djvu
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MISCELLANY.

Dr. Bartlett claims that ozone possesses very important curative properties, has employed it successfully in numerous cases of asthma, hay-fever, typhoid fever, scarlatina, diphtheria, puerperal fever, erysipelas, etc. He predicts that its introduction will work great changes in the medical treatment of zymotic or malarial diseases. While making due allowance for the enthusiasm of an inventor, it must be admitted that Dr. Bartlett has produced a machine which does well the work for which it was intended.

Science in the United States.—Sir William Thomson, in the presidential address to the Physical Section of the British Association, spoke as follows of the work of some of our American scientific men:

"I wish I could speak to you of the veteran Henry, generous rival of Faraday in electromagnetic discovery; of Peirce, the founder of high mathematics in America; of Bach e, and of the splendid heritage he has left to America and to the world in the United States Coast Survey; of the great school of astronomers which followed—Newton, Newcomb, Watson, Young, Alvan Clark, Rutherfurd, Draper, father and son; of Commander Belknap and his great exploration of the Pacific depths by piano-forte wire with imperfect apparatus supplied from Glasgow, out of which he forced a success in his own way; and of Captain Sigsbee, who followed with like fervor and resolution, and made further improvements in the apparatus by which he has done marvels of easy, quick, and sure deep-sea sounding in his little surveying-ship Blake; and of the admirable official spirit which makes such men and such doings possible in the United States naval service. I would like to tell you, too, of my reasons for confidently expecting that American hydrography will soon supply the data from tidal observations, long ago asked of our own Government in vain by a committee of the British Association, by which the amount of the earth's elastic yielding to the distorting influence of sun and moon will be measured; and of my strong hope that the Compass Department of the American Navy will repay the debt to France, England, and Germany, so appreciatively acknowledged in their reprint of the works of Poisson, Airy, Archibald Smith, Evans, and the Liverpool Compass Committee, by giving in return a fresh marine survey of terrestrial magnetism to supply the navigator with data for correcting his compass without sights of sun or stars. I should tell you also of 'Old Prob's' weather-warnings, which cost the nation $250,000 a year, money well spent, say the Western farmers, and not they alone; in this the whole people of the United States are agreed; and though Democrats or Republicans playing the 'economical ticket' may for half a session stop the appropriations for even the United States Coast Survey, no one would for a moment think of starving 'Old Prob;' and now that 80 per cent, of his probabilities have proved true, and General Myer has for a mouth back ceased to call his daily forecasts 'probabilities,' and has begun to call them 'indications,' what will the Western farmers call him this time next year?"

The French Association.—The fifth session of the French Association for the Advancement of Science was opened at Clermont-Ferrand, on the 18th of August. In the opening address, the president, M. J. Dumas, sketched the history of the British Association, pointing out the great services rendered by that body in popularizing science. Similar results are to be expected from the French Association. Of the place occupied by science in modern life, he said: "Natural science is no longer content with the contemplative attitude which sufficed for Newton and Laplace. Science is now mixed up with all the personal acts of our existence; she interferes in all measures of public interest; industry owes to her its immense prosperity; agriculture is regenerated under her fostering care; commerce is forced to take her discoveries into account; the art of war has been transformed by her; politics is bound to admit her into its councils for the government of states. How could it be otherwise? Have not mechanics, physics, chemistry, the natural sciences, become intelligent and necessary agents for the creation of wealth by labor? If comfort is more universal, the life of man more prolonged, wealth better distributed, houses more commodious, furniture and clothing cheaper, the soldier better armed, the finances of the state more prosperous, is it not to the sciences that all this progress is due?... Whether we wish it or not, we must needs accept Science as a companion, to possess her or to be possessed by her. If you are ignorant, you are her slave; if you are skilled, she obeys you. The future belongs to science; unhappy are they who shut their eyes to this truth."

Japanese Metallurgy.—A writer in the Japan Mail describes as follows the Japanese method of obtaining mercury from its sulphide (cinnabar): The cinnabar is first

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