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Extension of Astronomy.—An interesting and important announcement is made by an English scientist, Dr. Pritchard, of Oxford, which, if confirmed, will give a great deal of satisfaction to all who study the evening skies. He has succeeded in throwing out his measure-line to one of the fixed stars. Hitherto measurement has virtually stopped with our own solar system. The angles which form the basis of calculations for the remoter stellar spaces are so infinitesimal that human vision can take no certain and uniform cognizance of them. Until now science could only draw its great circle and say: Within this the millions of suns which shine upon the earth from all directions are not; how far they really are beyond, no one can tell, only conjecture. But now comes the camera, a veritable new eye for science, as sensitive as the optic nerve and a thousand times more steadfast and tireless, being able to hold its gaze upon the minutest object of search hour after hour, without blinking. It is with this new eye that Dr. Pritchard has succeeded, as he thinks, in reading the infinitesimal figures on the milestone of the star 61 Cygni. He gives the distance as fifty billions of miles, and reminds us that this star is probably the nearest to us of all the bodies in space outside our own planetary system.—Home Journal.

A New Basis for Chemistry has been published by Thos. Sterry Hunt, 165 pages, price, $2. Prof. Hunt dispenses entirely with the atomic theory, but that does not make the mystery of definite combinations any clearer. It is only “confusion worse confounded.”

Chloroform in Hydrophobia.—Dr. V. G. Miller, an old army surgeon of Osage Mission, Kansas, says that he once treated a terrible case of hydrophobia with chloroform, using altogether about three pounds. It conquered the spasms. A slimy, stringy secretion ran out of the man’s mouth which probably carried off the poison, and for a long time he could not swallow, but in three weeks he entirely recovered. The salivary glands seem to have a close relation to hydrophobia. Many years ago reports were published from Russia on the authority of M. Marochetti, a hospital surgeon, of the cure of hydrophobia, by piercing with a red hot needle certain swellings that rose under the tongue, and giving a decoction of broom. Dr. M. said that fourteen were cured in this manner. This discovery seems to have been forgotten.

The Water Question.—“It may naturally be asked, If Brooklyn has been so successfully supplied with water from driven wells, why has not New York adopted the same system? In answer to this it must be remembered that the drive-well is a new invention, and, before its application to Brooklyn, had only been used on a small scale. To this day no one can give satisfactory reasons why the water flows continuously from the earth through the pipe of a driven-well. Hence, to the public generally, this mode of obtaining water was new and little understood. At the time of its introduction to Brooklyn a water-famine was threatened. All the ordinary sources of supply had been exhausted by the ever-increasing population, and the authorities were puzzled what to do. In this extremity Andrews & Bro., a firm which had much experience in working drive-wells, offered at their own expense, to put down wells and supply the town with water. Had Andrews & Co. merely proposed to put down the wells and the town to pay the bill and run the risk of failure, the proposition would not have been entertained. Fortunately, Andrews & Co. offered to take the expense and risk of failure on their own shoulders. The city’s chief engineer at the time, Robert Van Buren, seconded by Engineer Bergen, with the approval of Mayor Low and Commissioner Ropes, accepted the contract.

Engineers and scientists, at the time, scouted the idea and raised all sorts of objections. The summer it was completed there was a five-months drought, with less than 2½ inches of rain. This, however, did not affect the drive wells, and at the request of the town authorities, they increased the speed of their pumping engines, and supplied all demands, even beyond their contract. And there the wells still remain, a standing example, a pharos to enlighten the world.

In the meantime, the neighboring city of New York, across the river, was alarmed for fear their Croton water should give out. Plans had been laid down and estimates made for enlarging their supply by bringing the whole Croton river to New York and building a new aqueduct. This involved an expenditure of fifty or sixty million dollars, and such a chance was not to be lightly given up by those who expected to be enriched by the job. To put down auxiliary driven wells would have required not one-twentieth the expense, and they would have furnished the town with water for all time, and moreover might have been put down within the city limits.”—J. Donbavand.

Progress of Homoeopathy.—Homoeopathy was first introduced into America in the year 1825 by Dr. Gram. It now numbers 11,000 practitioners, 14 medical colleges, 1,200 matriculants annually, 400 graduates annually, 57 hospitals with 4,500 beds, 3 insane asylums, 48 dispensaries, 150 societies, 23 journals, 33 pharmacies, 1 college of specialties.

Round the World Quickly.—A copy of the London Times, sent to Lord Huntly, Japan, went round the world, returning to London in 69 days.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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