Various

“ We owe to it the famous experiment of Galvani that led Volta to the discovery of the pile and what followed it, the astonishing conquests of electricity and those more marvelous ones still that are now in their dawn. Science is much indebted to the frog, and may the homage that we pay him help to alleviate the sufferings that have been imposed upon this brave animal! ”

“ Turning for a few moments, in conclusion, to men's attire, the lecturer suggested that the ill-success of dress reformers hitherto had been the too-radical changes they sought to introduce. We could be artistic without being archaic. Most men were satisfied without clothes fairly in fashion, a tolerable fit, and any unobtrusive color their tailor pleased. He would suggest that any reformation should begin with color. ”

“ More than even civilization itself, are at fault those pernicious abnormities, rare monstrosities, which are transmitted from generation to generation, or are also often newly developed and appear to belong to our civilization. If we want to prevent the increase of insanity, we must endeavor to do away with these monstrosities and eccentricities from our social life which remove mankind more and more, in a pernicious manner, from its natural development and from the normal conditions of moral and physical life ”

“ Is it not to be expected that a large proportion of those who have been discharged as improved, or even cured, cannot withstand the ever-moving sea of the outside life and bear up under the turmoil which constantly stirs mind and soul? ”

“ Intemperance is an inexhaustible source of the development and increase of insanity. It demands our undivided attention, not only on account of its existing relation, but particularly because intemperance, among all the factors which aid in the increase of insanity, can best be diminished, and its influence weakened, through the will of the single individual, as well as of society as a whole. ”

“ In comparing the number of drinking saloons in the different provinces of the kingdom of Prussia with the number of insane, both in public institutions and in private families, as gleaned from the census report of 1871, I was enabled to show conclusively, that everywhere, where the number of drinking places, i.e., the consumption of alcohol, was greatest, the number of insane was also largest. Without doubt, to my mind it is in alcohol that we must look for and will find the most potent cause of the development and spread of mental diseases. ”

“ I could name a much larger number of the greatest modern authorities on insanity, who are all unanimous in their opinion that the increase of intemperance (alcoholism) produces a corresponding increase of insanity. Of especial interest is this fact in those countries in which the consumption of concentrated alcohol, and particularly in the form of whiskies distilled from potatoes and corn, has only in later years become general. Thus Lunier has shown the number of alcoholic insane increased by ten per cent. ”

“ When most of the wood is small, and only a small part of it is large, the large pieces are usually split, to make it pack well. It has been found most satisfactory to have three rows of vents around the kiln, which should be provided with a cast-iron frame reaching to the inside of the furnace. The vents near the ground are generally five inches high--the size of two bricks--and four inches wide--the width of one--and the holes are closed by inserting one or two bricks in them. They are usually the size of one brick, and larger on the outside than on the inside. ”

“ The artificial atropine is identical with the natural alkaloid. Ladenburg has also formed a series of artificial alkaloids, called tropeines, by uniting the base tropine with different organic acids, as in the case of the compound of mandelic acid and tropine, known as homatropine, an alkaloid of action similar to atropine, but possessing some decided advantages in its use. Piperine has also been made by the uniting of piperidine and piperic acid, and, as piperidine has already been formed from pyridine, we have here a true synthesis also. ”

“ Good coke is ground and mixed with coal-tar to a stiff dough and pressed into moulds made of iron and brass. After drying for a few days in a closed place, it is heated in a furnace where it is protected from the direct flames and burned, feebly at first, then strongly, the fire being gradually raised to white heat which is maintained for 6 or 8 hours. The fire is then permitted to slowly go down, and when perfectly cold the carbon is taken out of the furnace. ”

“ Being entirely of cast iron, it will last for a long time. The joints, being of asbestos, are absolutely tight, so as to prevent the escape of bad odors. The water due to the condensation of the gases is led through a small pipe out of doors or into a vessel from whence it may evaporate anew, so as not to change the hygrometric state of the air. The consumption of gas is very small, it taking but 250 liters per hour to heat a room of 80 cubic meters to a temperature of 18° C.--Revue Industrielle. ”

“ As there are many SILVER DISTRICTS IN THE WEST where coke cannot be had at such a price as will allow of its being used, and where the ores are of such a nature that wood cannot be used in a reverberatory furnace, the most economical method of making charcoal is an important question.
Kilns for the manufacture of charcoal are made of almost any shape and size, determined in most cases by the fancy of the builder or by the necessities of the shape of the ground selected. ”

“ The study of the decomposition products of the cinchona alkaloids especially points quite distinctly to the probable existence in quinine of a hydrogen addition product of pyridine, in combination with a methyl-quinoline group. The many experiments that are now being made to test this and other questions that suggest themselves, will not long leave us in the dark. Whether a practical commercial synthesis of quinine will follow is another matter, but it is within the bounds of possibility, or perhaps even of probability. ”

“ The brick should be sufficiently hard to resist the fire, and should therefore be tested before using. It is an unnecessary expense to use either second or third quality fire-brick. As the pyroligneous acid which results from the distillation of the wood attacks lime mortar, it is best to lay up the brick with fire-clay mortar, to which a little salt has been added; sometimes loam mixed with coal-tar, to which a little salt is also added, is used. ”

“ It is found that it is not usually advantageous to build kilns of over 160 to 180 cubic meters in capacity. Larger furnaces have been used, and give as good a yield, but they are much more cumbersome to manage. The largest yield got from kilns is from 50 to 60 bushels for hard wood to 50 for soft wood. The average yield, however, is about 45 bushels. In meilers, two and a half to three cords of wood are required for 100 bushels, or 30 to 40 bushels to the cord. The kiln charcoal is very large, so that the loss in fine coal is very much diminished. ”

“ The width of side-wheel boats will be reduced by from 20 to 30 per cent., and the draught of water will be diminished in screw steamers to that of the hull itself; the maneuver in which the power of the engine might be directly employed will be simplified; a machine will be had of a sensibly constant speed, and without change in its running; the production of waves capable of injuring the banks of canals will be avoided; the propeller will be capable of being utilized as a bilge pump; all vibration will be suppressed ”

“ By the action of sodium upon pyridine is produced a compound C10H8N2, known as dipyridyl, and this, under the influence of nascent hydrogen, takes up six atoms and becomes isonicotine C10H14N2, a physiologically active alkaloid, isomeric with the true nicotine. The formation of a series of alkaloids under the name of codeines, by the substitution of other organic radicals instead of methyl in the codeine reaction, has already been alluded to. Atropine can be formed by uniting tropine and tropic acid, the two decomposition products already noted. ”

“ In hyperæmic headache cupping and blood-letting have been recommended; but as a rule both procedures are not only unnecessary but positively inadmissible, as exclusion of the superfluous amount of blood by compression upon the carotids, followed by a corresponding dilatation of the peripheral circulation by means of the foot-bath, will almost always be sufficient to cause a permanent cessation of the symptoms. Among the internal remedies which may be employed with good effect in certain cases are aconite, bromide of potassium, and Indian hemp. ”

“ The dynamometer is now more powerful in absorbing work than in the form Fig. 3. As to the practical construction of the brake, the author thinks that simple wires for the flexible bands, lying in V grooves in the pulleys, of no great acuteness, would give the greatest resistance with the least variation of the coefficient of friction; the heat developed being in that case neutralized by a jet of water on the pulley. ”

“ The spacious interior, represented in our view, is one of the most agreeable places in the whole precinct of these gardens, being well aired and lighted, very nicely paved, and tastefully decorated in pale color, with some fine tropical plants in tubs on the floor, or in the windows, and in baskets hanging from the roof. ”

“ Phlozopite.--In a vein near the lower end of the quarry, near the asbestos locality, occurs large plates of this mineral, which is a variety of mica, and has all of the characteristics of a pure silvery white color, and from one by three inches in area to less. It is easily separable in folia, and cannot be confounded with any of the other minerals. A huge mass of the veinstone holding abundance of this mineral is exposed, whence it may be plentifully obtained in excellent crystals. ”

“ When they are separated by a small interspace, as it frequently is, the fibers are very large, coarse, and brittle, and thus do not resemble asbestos, although in some instances they might be mistaken for picolite, but, distinguished from it by effervescing on contact with a drop of acid, as it is a carbonate of lime, and also containing a trace of iron. I have never seen any fine specimens of it from this locality, but deeper down in the rock it may occur in greater profusion. ”

“ How can, for instance, the indigent and poor patient, after his discharge from the institution in which he has found a shelter and the proper care, stand up in the struggle for existence and the support of his family? ”

“ He left to physicians and surgeons the care of drawing conclusions from his great work in biology, and of acting experimentally upon animals allied to man in order to found a rational system of therapeutics. So he preferred to operate upon beings placed low in the animal scale--the frog especially, an animal that has rendered him greater service than even man himself could have done. ”

“ The offspring of drunkards are not only weakly and sickly, and die early, especially of diseases of the brain, but, as Dahl, Morel, Howe, Beach, and others have shown, they are frequently born idiotic, or show early signs of insanity. Under the influence of alcohol, the individual constitution of the drinker becomes lowered and depraved, and, according to the law of inheritance, is transmitted through the progeny to the race. ”

“ It is necessary to liberate the individual, as well as the entire society of modern times, from the potentiated egotism which spurs man on in overhaste, and in all departments of mental and physical life, to a feverish activity, and then leads to an early senile decay of both body and mind ”

“ According to all observations, it is certain that the cause of this phenomenon is not a single etiological condition, but that it is the sum of a number of influences which act upon the human race and produce their travages in the mental and moral life of our patients. The conditions which give rise to this increase of insanity may be looked for in the manner in which modern civilization influences mankind, in its development and culture, in the family and in the school-room, in its views of life and habits ”

“ Hence the development of heat is concentrated on these outer layers, so long as the blows are moderate in intensity. The same thing had already been remarked in cases of holes punched with a rounded punch, where the burr, when examined, was found to have suffered the greatest compression just below the punch. With regard to the percentage of energy developed as heat, it was about the same as in the previous experiments, reaching in one case, with an iron bar and with an energy of 110 kilogram-meters, the exceedingly high figure of 91 per cent. ”

“ Of much greater importance is the best portion of your work, namely, the prevention of insanity. It is nevertheless true, and cannot be doubted, that in all civilized countries insanity increases in a manner which is out of proportion to the increase of the population. ”

“ Artists all over the country have told me that after a few trials they prefer it to anything else, while excellent and effective plain enlargements are easily made by it if only carefully handled. A very good enlargement is made by vignetting the picture, as I have just done, with the opal, and then squeezing it down on a clean glass, and afterward framing it with another glass in front, when it will have the appearance almost equal to an opal. ”

“ The number of those mental disturbances which are caused by alcohol intoxication is a very considerable one. We do not err if we assert that from 20 to 25 per cent. of all mental diseases stand in a direct or indirect relation to the evil consequences of intemperance in the use of intoxicating liquors. This is the opinion of a large number of authorities on mental diseases in all countries. Habitual intemperance leads to severe (psychical?) ”

“ It is especially necessary that all the joints should be carefully filled, as any small open spaces would admit air, and would materially decrease the yield of the kiln. The floor of the kiln was formerly made of two rows of brick set edgewise and carefully laid, but latterly it is found to be best made of clay. Any material, however, that will pack hard may be used. It must be well beaten down with paving mauls. The center must be about six inches higher than the sides, which are brought up to the bottom of the lower vents. ”

“ In ordinary processes (1) a given quantity of impure alcohol must undergo five rectifications in order that the products composing the mixture (pure alcohol, oils, etc.) may be separated and sold according to their respective quality; (2) the mean yield in the first distillation does not exceed 60 cent.; (3) the loss experienced in distillation amounts, for each rectification, to 4 per cent.; (4) the quantity of essential oils (mixture of the homologues of ethylic alcohol) collected at the end of the first distillation equals, on an average, 3.5 per cent. ”

“ Many of the kilns have in the center a round hole, from sixteen to eighteen inches in diameter, which is closed by a cast iron plate. It requires from 35 M. to 40 M. brick for a kiln of 45 cords, and 60 M. to 65 M. for one of 90 cords.
The belief that population in the West Indies is stationary is so far from accurate that, as Sir Anthony Musgrave points out, it is increasing more rapidly than the population of the United Kingdom. The statistics of population show an increase of 16 per cent. ”

“ There is sometimes an additional opening near the top to allow of the rapid escape of the smoke and gas at the time of firing, which is then closed, and kept closed until the kiln is discharged. This applies mostly to the best types of conical kilns. In the circular and conical ones the top charging door is sometimes used for this purpose. Hard and soft woods are burned indifferently in the kilns. Hard-wood coal weighs more than soft, and the hard variety of charcoal is usually preferred for blast furnaces, and for such purposes there is an advantage of fully 33-1/3 per cent. ”

“ It should be looked upon as a good sign of the spirit of modern times, that the seed of true humanity, with astonishing rapidity, found its way, far and wide, for the benefit of suffering mankind. Everywhere, in all European countries, and also on the American continent, has this branch of a truly noble thought become acclimated, and many societies have been organized for the purpose of assisting cured insane patients, by aiding them in obtaining suitable occupations, or by direct donations of money, etc., with a view of preventing, if possible, a relapse of the disease. ”

“ A subsequent increase in the quantity of bile indicates a greater flow of bile into the gall-bladder, and this also is of service in emptying out any stagnant bile, and restoring the normal condition when this is disturbed. Artificial solutions of alkaline salts were found to have a similar action to the natural mineral waters, and, as with them, the action varies according to the concentration of the solution. Bicarbonate of sodium has a quicker, more powerful, and more lasting effect on the composition of the bile than the sulphate of sodium, and weak solutions than strong ones. ”