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nia politics. For a number of years he was President of the Northern Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, in which position he was succeeded by Colonel Thomas A. Scott, when the Pennsylvania Railroad Company obtained a controlling interest in the Northern Central. Mr. Cameron was a prominent member of the Republican State Convention which met at Harrisburg in March, 1876, and by it was chosen as the head of the Pennsylvania delegation to the National Convention which assembled in Cincinnati in June. May 22, 1876, Mr. Cameron was nominated by President Grant as Secretary of War, and was promptly confirmed by the Senate. The new Secretary is regarded as a man having administrative abilities of a high order.

CAPERTON, ALLEN T., was born near Union, Monroe County, Va. (now West Va.), November 21, 1810; died in Washington, July 26, 1876. He graduated at Yale College in 1832, and studied law at Staunton, Va. He was for several years a member of the Virginia Legislature, his last term in the Senate being in 1859-'60. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1861, and opposed secession until the beginning of hostilities. He was elected to the Confederate States Senate, and served till the fall of the Confederacy. He was chosen to represent West Virginia in the Senate of the United States for the full term beginning March 4, 1875. He was a member of the Committees on Claims, Railroads, and the Revision of the Laws of the United States.

CAPPONI, Marquis GINO, the last representative of an illustrious Florentine family, born September 14, 1792; died February 3, 1876. In 1847 he was created Senator of

Of 221,633 children in 1874 and 252,301 in Tuscany, and after the proclamation of the 1875, the nativities were:

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Constitution of 1848 he became Minister of State and President of the Council. In the following years he resolved to give up public life, but afterward accepted a position as a member of the commission governing Tuscany in the absence of the grand-duke. His contributions to Italian literature are numerous. He wrote a number of articles for the "Italian Anthology" on Florence, which were suppressed in 1832. In addition to these various publications he dictated, after he became blind, an important work under the title of "Fragments on the Subject of Education." He was also one of the principal editors of the "Historical Archives," published in Florence. His biography was written by Montazio (1872).

CARNE, LOUIS MAROEIN, Count DE, an eminent French publicist, born February 17, 1804; died February 13, 1876. He entered the diplomatic service at an early age. In 1839 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, where he was a follower of Lamartine. He opposed many of the points of M. Guizot's foreign policy, but in the year 1847 accepted the presidency of the Commercial Department of Foreign Affairs. From this he retired after

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the Revolution of February 24, 1848. He was elected a member of the Academy in 1863. Appearing as a candidate for a seat in the Legislature in 1869, he was defeated. He received the decoration of the Legion of Honor in 1837. He was the author of numerous works, among which are "Vues sur l'Histoire Contemporaine" (1833), "Du Gouvernement Représentatif en France et en Angleterre" (1841), and "L'Europe et le Second Empire (1865). He also furnished numerous contributions to the Revue Européenne, the Encyclopédie du XIXme Siècle, the Dictionnaire de la Conversation, the Revue des Deux Mondes, and numerous journals. His son Louis accompanied the French Scientific Expedition to IndoChina in 1866 to 1868, and gained considerable reputation by his. contributions to the Revue des Deux Mondes, on that country.

CENTRAL AMERICA (AMÉRICA CENTRAL), the isthmian territory comprised between Mexico and Colombia, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and serving to unite the northern and southern continents of America.

It comprises the five independent states of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, formerly united under a single Government, known as the Republic of Central America.

On February 22, 1876, the plenipotentiaries for the reestablishment of the Central American Confederation retired "to their respective homes," leaving the prospects of reconstruction as meagre as at the time of their assembling. The spirit of union, nevertheless, still exists in the breasts of the people, though it is manifested with greatest earnestness in Guatemala, by far the most progressive of the five states.

On September 15, 1876, the anniversary of Central American independence was celebrated in all of them with unabated patriotism, and in the midst of enthusiastic rejoicings. In the national palace of Guatemala, Señor T. Martin Barrundia, of the War Department, delivered an oration, the concluding remarks of which reflect the prevailing policy at the present time in that country respecting Central American reunification: "It is on this day that we ought all to strive to join in the prayer that these five sections of the same territory may soon form one family, united under one and the same flag, and so present to the world the grand spectacle of another republic founded by them, like that of Washington or William Tell."

Through the mediation of the British Government, the consent of the Government of San Salvador to a satisfactory settlement of the outstanding bonds for the Salvadorian portion of the original Central American debt was obtained. New difficulties, created by the minister of the republic in London, appear, however, to offer an obstacle to the immediate surrender of the bonds. A memorial has been sent to the San Salvador Government, through

the Foreign Office, appealing against further delay.

CHAIX D'EST ANGE, GUSTAVE LOUIS VICTOR ADOLPHE CHARLES, a French lawyer and politician, born April 11, 1800; died Ďecember 14, 1876. He took an active part in the exciting events of 1830 and 1848, and was engaged in numerous celebrated trials. At the end of 1857 he was appointed procureur général at the Imperial Court in Paris. He was appointed shortly after Councilor of State, and in 1862 was created a Senator of the Empire. In 1863 he was appointed Vice-President of the Council of State, and in 1864 was assigned to preside over the section of Public Works and Fine Arts. He took an active part in the Corps Législatif as commissioner of the Government, and in 1868 presented to the Senate a report on the celebrated petition of the Catholics demanding free superior instruction. He was created a Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1858, and a Grand Officer in 1861.

CHELIUS, MAXIMILIAN JOSEPH, an eminent German surgeon, born in 1794; died August 17, 1876. He studied at Mannheim and Heidelberg, receiving at the age of eighteen the diploma of Doctor of Medicine. He practised medicine in several cities, was physician to the hospital at Ingolstadt, Bavaria, and accompanied the Baden troops in the invasion of France after the overthrow of Napoleon I. He subsequently increased his knowledge of surgery and medicine by attending a course of lectures at the hospitals and universities of Vienna, Göttingen, Berlin, and Paris. In 1817 he was appointed Extraordinary and in 1819 Ordinary Professor of Medicine at Heidelberg. In 1826 he was created a ducal councilor of Baden. His best-known work is his "Handbuch der Chirurgie" (2 vols., seventh edition, 1851), which has been translated into several languages, and is considered a standard work on surgery. He was also the author of "Ueber die Heilung der Blasenscheidenfisteln durch Cauterisation (1844), and "Zur Lehre von den Staphylomen des Auges" (1858).

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The albuminous matters from the brain, he observed, do not differ specifically from similar matter derived from other parts of the body, and are mainly insoluble in water. The kephalins possess a great affinity for oxygen, and also exhibit a wonderful power of combination. The first member of this group was discovered by Thudichum.

Lecithin has been obtained mainly in combination with platinic chloride as hydrochloride, but this salt proves so unstable as to defy in great measure all attempts which have been made to elucidate its nature. But it has proved at least to possess characters different in some respects from those attributed to the lecithin described by Strecker and Gobley, although it appears to yield similar products of decomposition. Cerebrin, stearoconote, phrenosin, and kerasin,

are all well-characterized substances: the first two are isomeric, stearoconote being formed from cerebrin, when the latter is heated in alcohol, more rapidly than it can be dissolved, when it fuses and becomes insoluble. But the product is readily soluble in benzine, while cerebrin is absolutely insoluble in cold benzine; from the benzine solution the stearoconote is precipitated by alcohol.

Cerebrin seems to be the di-amidated form of a

fatty acid, while phrenosin appears to constitute the mono-amidated form.

Kerasin has a microscopical character extremely easy to recognize, and of such form as to readily enable one to discover the presence of foreign mat

ters.

Inosite is a sort of sugar; it is probably present in human brain-matter, while in the brain of the ox it exists in very decided amount.

In certain cases of softening of the brain, Dr. Thudichum has observed the presence of glycerophosphoric and fatty acids in the free state. As these matters are never normally present, and as they constitute the decomposition products of some of the phosphorized principles, it is probable that softening of the brain may be expressed chemically as the decomposition of one or more of the phosphorized principles into proximate nuclei.

All the principles of which brain-matter is composed are, en masse (with the exception of the albuminous framework), soluble in warm alcohol, although the individual principles are not all soluble under these conditions. The question occurs here: Can a man consume so much alcohol in the form of stimulants, and retain enough in his blood in the unoxidized condition, to dissolve traces of matter from his brain? Actual experiments made by Mr. Kingsett appear to favor the hypothesis of a solvent action exerted by alcohol on the brain of the living

individual.

Influence of Chemical Works on Public Health.-With a view to determine statistic

ally the effects upon human life of the vapors and gases emanating from chemical works, a series of questions was sent to the members of the Northwestern (England) Association of Medical Officers of Health. Upon the basis of the facts brought out in the replies, Dr. Francis Vacher has written a report, the substance of which is here given. Five questions were submitted to the officers of health, the first being whether the gases and vapors from chemical works are productive of any excessive mortality. To this question twenty-six medical officers made reply. Of these, six distinctly state that they do consider noxious vapors a cause of the mortality in their respective districts, and one of these six gave an opinion that the irritant as well as the poisonous gases increase the death-rate. Three other medical officers refrain from answering positively, either in the affirmative or in the negative. Of these, the officer for the city of Glasgow is of the opinion that noxious vapors do affect the local death-rate, but asserts that the subject "cannot be studied in its purity," as "the larger factors of house over-crowding and building, dirt, and poverty, obscure the action of all other agencies." The other two do not answer the question. But the remaining seventeen medical officers answer the question, positively or indirectly, in the negative. Thus, the officer for Bristol finds "the population exposed to these gases as healthy as that of any part of the city." The medical officer of Blaydon-on-Tyne, where there are considerable chemical works, states that the average health condition of the place is singularly good, and has been for the last thirty years. The medical officer for Liverpool is (6 acquainted with no facts which would support a belief that the excessive mortality of the district is due to the vapors of chemical works.”

In thirteen of the twenty-six returns no reply is made to the second question, in which information is sought as to the forms of disease, if any, produced or aggravated by noxious vapors. The medical officers of the remaining thirteen towns and districts are of opinion that diseases are produced or aggravated by gases and vapors from chemical works, and many of them instance specific diseases, which they believe to be traceable to this cause. In one return it is stated that " every disease of the respiratory organs seems to be aggravated, and vomiting sometimes produced," by the noxious vapors. Other returns note injurious effects produced on patients suffering from bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, and, in some instances, these and allied complaints are said to be primarily caused by the vapors from chemical works. Lastly, the medical officers for three districts charge gases and vapors from chemical works with the production of phthisis. There is also some evidence that these gases and vapors, in some districts, cause loss of appetite, sick headache, diarrhoea, nausea, and indigestion.

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Question number three is in this form: Have you noticed any signs of general illhealth or weakness that could properly be attributed to this pollution of the air? In seven of the twenty-six returns tabulated, the question is not specifically answered. The medical officers for ten districts say they have not noticed any signs of general ill-health or weakness attributable to this cause; the medical officer for Bristol adding, "Although St. Philip's, Bristol, stinks from one end to the other of gases from different manufactories, the people are very healthy-the children remarkably plump and healthy." The answers from the remaining nine districts are all in the affirmative. Thus, one medical officer reports cases of temporary uneasiness of the respiratory organs," which he ascribes to this cause; and another says: "I could not fairly attribute the general signs of ill-health I observe to this pollution of the air alone, but it appears to me, in some cases, to be the chief cause of illhealth." The medical officer for St. Helens remarks: "The aspect of the people, especially those who dwell in the immediate neighborhood of the works, is sallow and anæmic, presenting a marked contrast to those who live in healthy towns." Thus, we have the evidence of several medical officers in charge of polluted districts that the vapors and gases emitted by chemical works are a cause of general ill-health and weakness, sometimes producing specific diseases of an asthenic type, or even premature old age.

Question number four refers to a matter on which it is particularly difficult to obtain positive information; it is as follows:

Have you observed whether the atmosphere is especially injurious to those newly settled in the district, and whether a prolonged stay seems to secure comparative immunity from suffering?

The evidence under this head may be briefly summed up. It is not very strong either way, but what there is appears to amount to this: The medical officers who have had experience of the more serious effects of noxious vapors do not find that immunity from these is secured by a prolonged stay in a polluted district, and those medical officers who can charge the vapors with producing nothing graver than headache, chest constriction, and indigestion, find the sufferers from such complaints become acclimatized. There is also some evidence supporting the belief that, except in the case of those actually employed in the works, the newly settled in a polluted district suffer most.

The fifth question, which asks for practical or legislative suggestions toward amending the evils observed, has elicited suggestions from six medical officers.

These suggestions are briefly as follows: 1. The removal of the works from the vicinity of inhabited houses.

2. The reduction of the legal maximum of noxious vapors allowed to be discharged.

3. Emitting the vapors, for the most part, when the wind will carry them in a safe direction.

4. The more stringent application by sanitary authorities of the legislative provisions already existing.

5. The adoption by manufacturers of the most approved scientific processes.

6. Requiring the removal of all sulphur from alkali waste before deposit.

Bartlett's Ozone-Generator.-Dr. F. W. Bartlett's ozone - generator, which was exhibited at the Buffalo meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, consists of three parts, each having a share in the process. The base, or generator, is a glass vessel eight inches high, with a projecting rim at either end; the interior space, four and a half inches in diameter, being divided into eight compartments by projections from the inner wall, extending one and a quarter inch toward the centre. This unoccupied centre has a movable cylinder which, when in position, completes the walls of the separate cavities. In each of these a tablet of phosphorus, one by two inches, and one-eighth of an inch thick, is suspended in water by a fusible wire-the fusible wire being used so that, in cases of ignition, which sometimes occurs, the phosphorus may be completely submerged and the flame extinguished. Resting upon the base is a conical cylinder, eight inches high, and with a diameter at the top of five inches, composed of double walls of wire-cloth, between which lies some porous material saturated with a strong alkaline solution. This presents an effectual bar to the passage of phosphoric acids, while it permits the free transit of the ozone. Above this eliminating-chamber is a second glass cylinder about eight inches in height, with an aperture at the top through which passes a glass rod carrying a plunger for displacing the water in the base, and by means of which the tablets of phosphorus may be raised or lowered. The space thus provided above the phosphorus is about eighteen inches, and is considered by the inventor indispensable to the full utilization of the phosphoric vapor in the production of ozone.

In its present form the machine is employed chiefly for disinfecting purposes, and performs such work not only thoroughly but very cheaply. For ozonizing the atmosphere of a house, the slow oxidation of 100 to 150 grains of phosphorus daily will suffice. It is entirely manageable and without any disagreeable odor.

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, cte. He predicts that its introduction will work great changes in the medical treatment of zymotic or malarial diseases.

An Improved Gas-Jet.-The flame from a Bunsen burner is not solid, but, like the flame of

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a candle, has a central hollow space about half its own length, the "zone of no combustion." Mr. J. Wallace, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, has discovered a method of obliterating this hollow space, and of producing a solid flame. While experimenting with a view to ascertain the conditions of safety in the mixture of air with coal-gas, Mr. Wallace observed that as the proportion of air was increased the hollow space became smaller, the whole flame contracted, and the heat became more intense. The surface of the space changed from a leaden color to a brilliant emerald green, and finally, as the proportion of air was increased, the zone of no combustion" disappeared altogether and the gas and air exploded in the Bunsen burner. The form of the burner was such as to allow of an intimate mixture of the air and gas. It was thus apparent that the hollow space or "zone of no combustion" depended entirely on the amount of air which was mixed with the gas previous to combustion, and it only remained to construct a burner in which the gas-jet should be able to induce the extra quantity of air, and the burner itself be so arranged that the tendency to explode or light within should be prevented. It may here be noted that a much greater proportion of air must be preadmixed to obtain a good flame from a large burner than from a small one, because the area of the flame increases at a much greater rate than its circumference. The remainder of the air, which makes up the total combining quantity, is combined with the gas during combustion, and appears only to unite at the lower part of the flame; the upper part being enveloped and cut off, so to speak, by its own products.

The following account of some of Mr. Wallace's experiments is from the Engineering and Mining Journal:

A cylindrical cap of finely perforated iron plate was fitted on to a burner tube 1 inch in diameter, and made adjustable to various heights. When raised to inch, gas was burned above it at the rate of 20 feet per hour, with a flame which was solid to the centre, each hole in the cap being covered by a bright-green bead showing where combustion began. A 2-inch tube was next fitted up with 3 jets at the bottom, capable of passing 40 feet per hour at 14inch pressure. When lighted and adjusted the flame proved to be as complete as the previous ones, and the proportion of air pre-admixed, when measured from a test-holder, was 4% volumes. A platinum wire stretched across the flame inch above the cap became instantly white-hot for a distance of 4 inches, and the color gave no indication of any diference of temperature in any part enveloped in the flames. When the air was interrupted at the base of the burner a large hollow space immediately appeared above the cip, and the wire cooled to blackness. On again admitting the air the wire was once more incandescent. The green beads when examined by the spectroscope give the spectrum of carbonic oxide, and they only appear in a flame which burns in the most complete manner.

Absorption of Nitrogen by Plants.-Berthelot has published the results of a series of experiments which prove that, under the in

fluence of atmospheric electricity, free nitrogen is absorbed at the ordinary temperatures by the proximate principles of plants. The apparatus used in these experiments consists of a system of tubes in which the organic substances come into contact either with pure nitrogen or with atmospheric air, the whole communicating with a source of electricity at a tension precisely the same as that of atmos pheric electricity. Under these conditions pure nitrogen, or the nitrogen of the atmosphere, is invariably fixed by different organic matters, as moist cellulose and dextrin. The amount of nitrogen that is thus fixed is considerable. These experiments demonstrate the influence of a natural cause, hitherto scarcely suspected, and nevertheless of great importance for vegetation. Hitherto, when the effects of atmospheric electricity have been studied, its luminous and violent manifestations, such as thunder and lightning, have been chiefly regarded. Upon whatsoever hypothesis, the formnation of nitric and nitrous acids or of nitrate of ammonia has been exclusively taken into account. But the author's experiments show a new and hitherto unknown action, which works unceasingly under the most serene sky, and which determines a direct fixation of nitrogen in the principles of the tissues of plants.

New Oxide of Manganese.-Frémy has obtained a new oxide of manganese, Mn,Os, arising from the reaction of the sulphate of the sesquioxide of manganese on the sulphate of the protoxide. It is obtained by decomposing permanganate of potassium with an excess of trihydrated sulphuric acid. On mixing the two sulphates of manganese, the liquor takes on a wine-red color, and deposits hexagonal tablets formed by the combination of sulphuric acid with the oxide Mn.O.. This salt is very unstable, water decomposing it with a precipitate of hydrated sesquioxide of manganese. The liquor retains in solution a mixture of sulphuric acid and sulphate of protoxide of manganese. The rose-colored liquid known to chemists, obtained in the preparation of oxygen by treating the peroxide of manganese with concentrated sulphuric acid, owes its coloration to the presence of the new compound discovered by M. Frémy. The new oxide, Mn.0, takes its place in the following series of oxides, sometimes called manganites, true saline oxides: Sesquioxide, Mn,O,= MnO2, MnO; red oxide, Mn,O.=MnO2, 2MnO; new oxide, Mn,O=MnO2, 3MnO. The newly-discovered salt is decomposed by potash, and gives a black precipitate, which easily dissolves in sulphuric acid, and which reproduces the primitive salt. Certain specimens of peroxide of manganese, it is thought, contain a certain quantity of the oxide Mn.Os; those, probably, which give a rose-colored liquor under the action of concentrated sulphuric acid.

The Oxides of Manganese Sources of Ozone.Experiments made by Valmagini indicate that ozone is not only abundantly present in bi

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