Various

“ Now the facts on which most sanitarians lay great stress are, that unsewered rural districts are more exposed to danger from fermenting filth than cities, that the ineffable atrocities of leaching cesspools and privy-vaults (those perversions of barbarism to which the American rustic clings as to his most precious birthright) do infinitely more to poison air, and soil, and water than all the blunders of city engineers and plumbers combined ”

“ Between the peasant class and nobility there are many grades and classes varying more or less in the refinement of their manners as well as in the extent of their education, but as it would not be possible and is also unnecessary for our purpose to describe them all in particular, I prefer to include them all under the head of gentry, and for these a more ample education is provided. The daughters of the gentry must, in addition to the aforesaid rudiments of knowledge, have a very thorough education in history as well as in grammar, mathematics, and natural and physical geography. ”

“ Experience had everywhere taught them that copper and bronzes poor in tin are too soft, while bronzes with an excess of tin could not be used for weapons and tools on account of being too brittle.
They had also learned that lead and zinc considerably lessened the strength and tenacity of weapon bronze, while small quantities of iron, nickel, and cobalt are, at least, not injurious. So all races, although we can prove that they tried very different mixtures, finally adopted very simple and tolerably constant alloys. The bronze weapons of all countries frequently contain from 6 to 16 per cent. ”

“ If in any part there is a call for work, there is a call for more blood. The nervous system forms no exception to this law, and there is the most intimate and absolute correlation between the evolution of nervous energy and the activity of the circulation. So true is this that it is everywhere admitted that the induction of functional work in any such apparatus as the digestive, the sexual, or the muscular produces a degree of hyperæmia of the apparatus called into action sufficient to prove a serious hinderance to the easy and satisfactory performance of any severe mental task. ”

“ In my opinion the metallurgical preparation of the hard metals from their ores is alone decisive on this point.
The volks' sagas frequently mention some god or hero, who discovered and taught metallurgy, yet there is scarcely any doubt that the "god," in most cases, was human ingenuity led by chance.
We have already seen that only certain metals are found native, while the hard metals under normal conditions remain in the form of oxide or mineral. They have a strong affinity for the oxygen of the air, and can only be separated and converted into metals by powerful chemical agents. ”

“ Neither motion nor pressure alone is work. The two factors, pressure and motion, must occur together. The work done is found by multiplying the pressure by the distance moved. In an engine, steam pushes the piston first one way then the other, overcomes resistance, and does work. To find this we must multiply the pressure by the motion at every instant, and add all the products together. This is what the engine power-meter does, and it shows the continuously growing result on a dial. When the piston moves, it drags the cylinder along; where the steam presses, the wheel is inclined. ”

“ This is ignited carbon, which, in its fight with the metallic oxides, robs them of their oxygen.
Carbon has been separated from the carbonic acid of the air by the life-giving force of the sun, and vegetable life dependent upon it. But the isolated element waits impatiently for the impulse that will enable it to unite with the vital air under flame and heat. Men that know how to utilize this process of nature possess the means of resurrecting those metallic treasures which, without its powerful assistance, would remain forever hidden from their eyes. ”

“ In the shod foot, the frog has more to do with keeping the foot healthy than assisting in the hold. With horses used for speeding purposes, the frog helps to sustain the sole of the foot, as when the foot is brought down with great force and the road soft enough to receive the imprint of the shoe. He further says that: "Simultaneous with this preservation and regeneration of the frog, the hold of the horse becomes firmer, and more equally divided toward the heels, and when starting a load, there is no clamping with the toe of the hoof, but the foot is brought down flat." ”

“ And the same average horse owner is conceited enough to think himself a better judge of a good job of shoeing than the intelligent animal that wears the shoes till his feet feel as though they were full of thistles. ”

“ It is certain that every psychical act, every thought, involves a certain consumption of oxygen by the nervous substance. During waking, this gas is furnished to the brain in the blood. If the blood supply fails, those forms of activity which we denominate consciousness, attention, volition, and thought cease. This is easily proved by compression of the carotids. It is known that in the waking hours the muscles, as well as the nerves and the nerve-centers, as a consequence of that activity, produce substances easily oxidizable, among which is lactic acid. ”

“ The first, which has been used in every laboratory ever since electricity has been understood, is the chemical method. When electricity passes through a salt solution it carries metal with it, and deposits it on the plate by which the electricity leaves the liquid. The amount of metal deposited is a measure of the quantity of electricity. Mr. Sprague and Mr. Edison have adopted this method; but as it is impossible to allow the whole of a strong current to pass through a liquid, the current is divided; a small proportion only is allowed to pass through. ”

“ I shall at once explain what I mean by the term "meter," and I shall take the flow of water in a trough as an illustration of my meaning. If we hang in a trough a weighted board, then, when the water flows past it, the board will be pushed back; when the current of water is strong, the board will be pushed back a long way; when the current is less, it will not be pushed so far; when the water runs the other way, the board will be pushed the other way. So by observing the position of the board, we can tell how strong the current of water is at any time. ”

“ It is clear, in fact, that the air introduced by force cannot escape when the piston-rod is raised, since the valve, pressed by the internal air, remains closed. If then, replacing the tube, ΡΣ, in a vertical position, we set up a communication again between the corresponding apertures, the liquid will be driven to the exterior through the compressed air, and the latter will assume its normal volume again, and press in the liquid beneath it. If the quantity of compressed air is considerable, there will occur an expulsion, not only of the entire liquid, but also of the excess of air. ”

“ It is not saying too much to affirm that for every one channel of filth-poisoning in a paved and sewered city there are at least three in the average village settlement, and if the evidence of insanitary conditions be found in "not more than one house out of five," it is because, unfortunately, very few physicians in this country have cared to learn how to look for it—familiarity with the doses of drugs and the results of disease being regarded in most of our medical schools as vastly more important than rerum cognoscere causas. ”

“ The front action of a horse may be greatly modified by the weight of the shoe, and here is where great caution, close attention, and a thorough knowledge of the principles involved are required, or one will be liable to throw his horse out of balance if he is used for speeding; for slow work it is better to have the shoe somewhat lighter than the horse might carry than to err in the opposite direction. ”

“ A line of shafting running perfectly true, without jumping or jerking, turning smoothly and noiselessly, is a delight to the mechanical eye; and the first thing always examined by a thorough millwright when he enters a mill, is the shafting. ”

“ The immediate cause of sleep is not simply the shutting off of a portion of the blood current from the brain. There are more important factors. Here Vulpian12 is right. The lessening of the blood supply to the encephalon is rather the accompaniment than the cause of sleep. We cannot produce normal sleep in a person simply by exsanguinating his brain, or else we should have in an ice-cap and a hot foot-bath the speediest and most effective of hypnotics. The brain must first be in a certain condition. ”

“ If the steam engine or the water wheel is in good order, and performing their work properly, and the machines driven by them are also in good order, there is seldom a thought bestowed upon the media between the actuating power and its ultimate development, except the necessary attention which must be paid to the belting, and oiling of the machinery. ”

“ In later times, however, we find zinc ores used a good deal. We can distinguish three types of zinc alloys:
1. Copper with 10 to 20 per cent. zinc produces a red metal, red brass, which is similar to bronze that is poor in tin.
2. Copper with 20 or 30 (and even 40) per cent. of zinc, gives a yellow metal (yellow or ordinary brass) , which has more of a golden color than bronze with much tin, but quite brittle.
3. Statuary metal, which is made of copper with quite a good deal of zinc and little tin (often lead) can be called brass containing tin. ”

“ In the society of the Court, the ladies will naturally acquire some knowledge of the affairs of State, which those in private life and a more retired existence will not care to learn. But in matters of art, in literature, in the general business of life, all German ladies are expected to be well informed and to be able to converse intelligently regarding them, while the special faculties of law, of medicine, of theology, of chemistry, etc., etc., are left to the higher ambition of their fathers and brothers, and they do not meddle with them. ”

“ We can easily comprehend how bronze with these excellent qualities could compete with steel at a time when rich ores were still abundant, and thus it checked and restrained the development of the iron industry. ”

“ The sulphur compounds, at least when near the surface, are oxidized, and hand in hand with this process goes the partial reduction of certain metals to the metallic state. Gold and silver, and to a less extent copper, are subject to this change; they are unmasked and are exposed to day light, not as stones, but as brilliant, malleable metals. Finally, the heavy ores and metallic particles are loosened from the rocks by the destructive action of water, floated off, elutriated, and washed. In undisturbed mountain ranges the mineral treasures lie in masses before our eyes. ”

“ It is hardly necessary for me to mention the object of making electric meters. Every one who has had to pay his gas bill once a quarter probably quite appreciates what the electric meters are going to do, and why they are at the present time attracting so much attention. ”

“ Finally it is not impossible that the ancients did not put in phosphorus salts in some form. First of all I would mention certain vegetable and animal substances that are rich in phosphorus, especially blood,26 which was a favorite with the old metallurgists and alchemists as having a powerful enchantment. In each of the cases referred to some phosphorus got into the metal, which thus acquired a considerable hardness that could be increased in the well known manner by chilling and hammering. Under certain circumstances weapons and tools were made almost as hard as steel. ”

“ But we know, on the other hand, that red sulphur and red phosphorus may be mixed with impunity at common temperatures without combination ensuing; to produce combination the temperature must be raised to about 260°, the point of transformation of red phosphorus into white phosphorus.
It is thus established that red phosphorus must first be changed from its allotropic condition before entering into combination with sulphur. The pressure opposing this change renders also the act of combination impossible; red phosphorus appears to us like a body which has lost its chemical faculties. ”

“ It will often be necessary to make several trials before you find out just what suits the horse best, and don't fail to let the horse be judge in the matter, for when he is suited you ought to be.
Place the horse on a smooth, clean floor, and note the set of each foot, and whether it is in line with the limb above it. Cut away the wall of the foot until you come to where it joins the sole; except at the heels and quarter, it may not be quite as low; let the frog and bars remain intact, but see that the shoe will not bear much on the bars. ”

“ Two privy-vaults, a pig-pen, and an indescribably filthy cow stable just behind and above them, from which the washings were traceable into their cellars.
I could extend the list by scores of illustrations of rural house-defects: soil-pipes disjointed from their outlet drains and discharging their sewage under basement floors; cesspools "backing-up" into kitchen sinks or laundry tubs, or pouring a reflux tide through "overflow" pipes into drinking water cisterns; ingenious devices of every sort to deprive the gases from pent-up filth of any escape, save into the dwelling. ”

“ In such cases, the shoe will be torn off, no matter how solid the clinches hold, and it is better to come away without breaking the hoof. We repeat and make emphatic that the bearing surface of the shoe must not be concave, as it is almost sure to make corns, and induce an inflammatory condition of the foot, and this inflammatory action is the forerunner of the long list of evils that are sure to follow, unless means are taken to relieve the parts. And yet almost every horseshoer in the country gives the bearing surface of the shoe a bevel to the center. ”

“ The metal was useful, and there was an excess of rich and easily worked ores. Under such conditions, of course, the age of bronze would flourish a long time.
Zinc ores frequently occur on copper beds, and yet zinc is rarely found in quantity worth mentioning in the bronzes of the ancients. There are two reasons for this:
1. Near the surface of the earth zinc occurs as calamine (silicate of zinc) , which is a gray, unattractive, earthy looking mineral, not heavy enough to be taken for a metallic ore, and would naturally be thrown away and not put in the furnace. ”

“ If a grain of wheat is examined, it will be astonishing to see the chemical laboratory that is locked up in it. The most valuable substances, gluten, is placed near the air and light, while the little cells of the interior are composed of starch, which being the softest is the first to break up under the influence of the rolls. ”