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From The Times, 29 Sept. WILL IT EVER BE POSSIBLE TO MAP A SMELL?

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL.

of an inch long, nearly oval, well-defined outline, and the membranous sac easily made out by a little subduing of the light. I compared it with fungi in a preparation made from mould on meat; it was of a very similar character, but larger, and its contents more obscured from sight. These cells alone were in a state of repose, with the exception of the few vegetable ones of which I have spoken; the rest were all alive, or rather lively; and, though now in confinement some forty-eight hours, they continue so.

SIR: I lately stated in your columns that, in my own opinion, the pernicious products of the bad air of sewers and such places might be made visible. I can now, with a great approach to truth, assert that a bad smell may be mapped, i. e. the organic atoms in it laid down on paper, so as to show their very outline. I will give my experiment and its result; I do so with the It is quite clear to the eye that the maggotless hesitation, as it is one very easily made. like forms are generated in the cells, for they An upright metal pipe, some four inches in di- may be seen within them and escaping from ameter and ten feet high, was some months them. Very many of these cells were so small since placed as an air-shaft from a vault or that they could have passed three-abreast becesspool, receiving daily additions of the worst tween the spaces of a micrometer, ruled to give, animal matters. This shaft so far answered, with the power used, something under the that it carried the effluvia above the heads of 7,000th part of an inch. All these bodies are, passers-by. By means of four uprights of wood, in substance, homogeneous; I can detect nocut to a level about half an inch above the ori-thing like organs within or without them; they fice at the top of the shaft, a rest or platform are so far transparent that they appear within was made, on which a piece of glass six inches these outlines as white and luminous. I am square was laid, so as to cover over the said familiar with monads, and I think with most of orifice, and yet leaving a narrow space for air the infusoria; but I have never seen any corto pass. This glass had been most carefully responding with the form, action, and general cleaned. Before it was laid on the platform, it character of these bodies. I have, within these was lightly smeared on the under side with few weeks, taken specimens of the vibrio from some pure glycerrhine, procured for the pur- various sources; I can trace in them the charpose and carefully tested. A small weight on acters ascribed, in various books, to the several the upper side kept the glass in its place. It species; I have caught them, in large numbers, was left thus for eight hours, then taken down, in the air; but these, the product of the efflu and at once washed with distilled water, which via from the commonest of all very dirty mathad been submitted to test. Some half-dozen ters, appear to me to be perhaps of the same preparations were at once made from this genus, so far as to deserve to be ranked as washing, i. c. a few drops were enclosed in scavengers; but yet a new species. very thin glass cells, and hermetically sealed. I had been led to believe, as I stated in my I have now studied these preparations with last, that glycerrhine might, when exposed to the utmost care, using a microscopic power of the rays of the sun or moon, itself so decommore than 600 linear, with the aid of excel- pose as to produce the so-called vibrios. I have, lent illumination, by one of the very best in- by means that defied all such chance of decepventions for the purpose. The result was to tion, ascertained that, as the rule, wherever a show me that, even in the small portion of the glass arrests in the air any vegetable fungi, a infected or polluted fluid contained in each very high microscopic power will discover preparation, there were countless masses of ani- with these great multitudes of these lively mated active bodies. The commonest form bodies. Fungi washed from the tomato, or was that of a simple circular cell, with a dis- from the mould on meat, with distilled water tinct nucleus; there were also beautifully-only, which has been boiled afresh in a glass distinct oval cells; some few fungi I recog-tube, will give to view these same bodies. nized as of the same genus as those found on That these creatures are in the atmosphere decaying vegetable matter. There were num- for some wise purpose I have no doubt; that bers of vibrionia, small magot-shaped bodies, they do, as it is written of them, act as nature's not like those found in vegetable infusions, scavengers, I have no doubt; that their existwith central lines of division, but broader in ence in the air is almost perpetual, I believe; shape, rather longer, evidently of greater di- for when and where is there season or locality ameter, and more active, the motion being in which some decaying process is not going more rolling than vibratory. There were thou-on?

sands of bodies shaped like mushrooms, the We may, probably, inhale these ordinary stalks of which twisted about as the umbrella-ærozoa in any number with impunity, perhaps head revolved. One peculiar cell I found, with benefit; but I have my doubts as to man's but not in such great numbers; it was always power to inhale without injury, repeated the largest in the group, being about 4-7,000ths draughts of the animated matter, which, I

MR. CALHOUN'S DYING HOURS.

-a very extraor

now believe, forms an element of animal de-all cases without commentcomposition, and is given off in its effluvia. dinary sketch of the dying hours of Mr. Cal

At all events, I think, if the public could be brought to see that which floats in what they smell from sewers and cesspools, they would be more careful in the removal of filth in such a way as to, as far as may be, limit the escape of its life-crowded atmosphere.

I trust these my crude experiments may be followed up by those who possess even more powerful instruments and greater opportunities for observation than I have. I have only sought to give the results of my attempts to shadow out my theory. I am more than ever satisfied that a diligent study of the organized products to be obtained in different conditions of the atmosphere would lead to more light than we at present possess with regard to the cause of epidemics. I am strengthened in my opinion by that given to me by one of the very first physiologists of the day.

houn, which whatever pleasure it may give to
those who look with contempt on the solemni-
ties of religion altogether, or may have some
particular reason for gratification at its humilia-
tion in this special instance, cannot but cause
unmixed pain not only to the sincere admirers
of Mr. Calhoun, but to that still larger class
who regard the sanctions of the next world as
indispensable to the economy of this. The
statement in question purports to emanate from
Mr. Scovil, Mr. Calhoun's private secretary,
and it commences by saying that during Mr.
Calhoun's illness, the Rev. Dr. Butler, then the
Chaplain of the United States Senate, and the
Rector of the church of which Mrs. Calhoun
was a communicant, called upon Mr. Calhoun,
when the following conversation took place:
I (Mr. Scovil) told him that Mr. Calhoun was
Mr. Butler
very ill-"too ill to see any one."
replied:

But, Sir, let me add that, just in proportion "That is the very reason why he should see as the experimental means I have used and pointed out are simple, so are they, unless me. Will you have the goodness to announce used with the utmost care, liable to betray. me, and tell him I wish to converse with him as a In dealing with these minute matters, the ut-minister of God in reference to his situation." I hesitated an instant, and then remembering that most care must be taken to test every stage of Mrs. Calhoun was a communicant in the Episcopal the experiment; to see that none of the ma- Church, of which Mr. Butler was pastor, I conclud terials used are the parents of the things ed, if I wished to stand well in her future regard, 1 found. It is in vain to work the product of had better forego my determination of sending off Mr. glasses used to trap the air with any powers Butler, and so I said, "wait a moment," and I less than those of the quarter-inch of the best left him standing at the front door while I remakers; to see thoroughly, a 1-8th or 1-6th turned to the bedside of Mr. Calhoun. with good eye-pieces and good illumination is necessary. I am still sanguine that these experiments are in the right path to discover phenomena in nature's works which most valuable; I see no reason why we may not make an approach to some ocular analysis giving the difference between various decaying matters as to their specific effect on the atmosphere; it would not surprise me if particles of scent- say, from the fox or civetcould be made apparent to the eye.

may prove

I am well aware that a great part of the value of my experiment will depend upon the question does glycerrhine, when exposed to the air, so rapidly decompose as in a few hours to give out this amount of life? As I have found vibrios with vegetable fungi taken directly from the plant to the stage of the microscope, using only fresh boiled distilled water and no glycerrhine at all, I believe the bodies I have described are literally taken floating in the atmosphere; and when I see their dimensions, and find with them the form of well-known fungi, it does not surprise me.

INVESTIGATOR.

MR. CALHOUN'S DYING HOURS. IN the N. Y. Churchman, as well as in seveand in ral of the secular papers, we meet

God bless his glorious soul! I see him now as I saw him then, his head propped up by pillows-his pale, emaciated, but stern and commanding eyes piercing as an eagle's, and fixed upon me as I entered the room. He knew I had been to see some one who called.

is

"Who is it?" he asked.

"Mr. Butler, sir."

"Why did you not bring him in at once? It his right, as my colleague."

"It is not Senator Butler, sir."

"Butler? I don't know any other one-who

is he?"

"It is the chaplain of the Senate, sir, Rev. Mr. Butler."

"What does he want?"

"He

says

that he has heard that you are very low, and considers it his duty to come and talk to you about serious matters."

"Send him off about his business. To come to talk to me about his nonsense, and at such a time as this?"

"I went to the front door and informed Mr. Butler that Mr. Calhoun was too ill to see him." "You certainly must be mistaken. Does he know it is me?

I cut the matter short with a decided "Yes, sir, he does; and he says he don't want to see you, and I won't disturb him by going in again with your name!"

Rev. Mr. Butler left; and when I returned to the room the impudence of the call was still in his mind. His eyes were closed, but I heard

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broken sentences, such as "To call on me for | feelings of so many, as well as of the sanctions such a purpose!" Young man, not half of truth itself! And alas! that by such men grown!" Subject that I have thought of all my life."

the great truth should be so entirely forgotten,
that even on the principle of the most meagre
natural religion, it behooves all men, whether
they be great or small, when it comes to be
their lot to be summoned to their last account
before the Judge of all men, to approach that
and the most reverent humility.
majestic presence with the most profound awe

We have so far treated Mr. Scovil's statement upon its own merits. Its worthlessness, but we feel ourselves at liberty to go further we think, is thereby abundantly evidenced; and to state, on the best living authority, that on no occasion did Mr. Butler ever give to Mr. Scovil any message to Mr. Calhoun whatever in any way connected with his last sickness.— Episcopal Recorder.

From Chambers's Journal. SCIENCE AND ARTS.

According to Mr. Scovil's own statement, therefore, he thought it not unbecoming to caricature the message left by Dr. Butler, by giving it, when delivering it to the dying man to whom it was addressed, first a disrespectful and then a ludicrous turn. If his irreverence and his looseness of memory were such as to permit him to take such liberties as this both with the truth and with the eminent statesman of whom he was the attendant, we cannot but be pardoned for supposing that a still greater license has been exercised by him in giving Mr. Calhoun's reply, where he has had so much more margin as to time and so much less as to responsibility. And independently of this, those who know Mr. Calhoun's great personal sweetness and unselfishness of temper, will be loath to believe that even under the influence of the unfeeling speech which Mr. Scovil blurted out, he would have given way to language so coarse and so unworthy of his own lofty and gentle temper, as that Mr. Scovil details. That Dr. Butler called upon Mr. Calhoun during his illness, we have no doubt. That Mr. Calhoun was unable to see him, and was perhaps impatient at being disturbed, is very possible. But that Mr. Calhoun's reply given to us by Mr. Scovil is as much the production of the latter as was Dr. Butler's message to Mr. Calhoun, is a presumption about which those who either knew Mr. Calhoun or have read Mr. Scovil's statement, can have little difficulty in considering conclusive. And this opinion is by no means weakened by the discovery that Mr. Scovil, who during his il- The electro-magnetic weaving-machine, lustrious chieftain's life, " in order to stand well which we have more than once mentioned, is in Mrs. Calhoun's regard," took up Dr. But-growing more and more into a practical reality. ler's name, after Mr. Calhoun's death has not hesitated to so far forget his desire to "stand well" with that noble and true-hearted lady, as to inflict from pure wantonness, upon her widowed feelings, a blow perhaps the most galling which they could possibly receive.

THE past few weeks have been especially fruitful in matters electrical, some of which possess more than ordinary interest, and are striking instances of advance in scientific research. One is Dr. Watson's electric-light railway signal-lamp, which, as the inventor avers, can be seen at a distance of five miles through the densest fog. The ordinary lamps as is well known, are comparatively useless in thick weather; and if the new light be as penetrating as is asserted, it may do signal service in preventing such collisions as those by which we have been startled of late on certain lines of railway.

The inventor, Cavaliere Bonelli, has sold his patent to two eminent banking firms at Turin and Lyons: models are soon to be exhibited in Paris and London, and in the United States; and no doubt is entertained that the machine will effect a great change in the weaving art. Such indeed is the temper, and such the fi- The invention is indeed one of the most redelity as to facts, which mark the assaults of markable applications of electro-magnetism to scepticism upon the religion of Christ. And industrial purposes we have yet heard of. we have been induced to notice the passages Most persons will remember the Jacquardnow for this very reason. It is by weapons looms in the Great Exhibition, and the large just of the temper as this, just as poisoned perforated cards, or cartoons, which had to be and yet just as brittle,- that the popular mind shifted with every movement of the shuttle to is sought to be prejudiced against Divine truth. produce the pattern. In the electro-magnetic Alas! indeed, that it should have been thought foom, instead of cards, numbers of small iron necessary, in order to give a Sunday Institute bars are employed, arranged in sets according set-off to the deaths of those illustrious states- to the pattern; and these being in connection men who gave, in their last hours, the most with the magnets, move obedient to the will solemn of all recognitions of the Christian reli- of the designer, each time the shuttle leaves gion, to have siezed upon and circulated a his hand. The movements are, of course, story such as the present, at the sacrifice of the effected by a repeated making and breaking

SCIENCE AND ARTS.

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of the magnetic current, aided by an instru-[pellation; and ores the most refractory, such ment similar in construction to a comb, which as blende and gray copper, yield readily to The experiments strikes the bars at the reqired moment, and this mode of treatment. throws them in or out of position according to have all been satisfactorily confirmed by M. the nature of the design. It is in the comb,' St. Clair, a refiner of Mexico, who in his rewe believe, that the pattern is first set, after port dwells strongly on the fact, that the exwhich its reproduction is a mere question of haustion of quicksilver-mines, long dreaded by time; but it reappears in the woven material American miners, need no longer be feared, as accurately as a message printed at one end as quicksilver will no longer be required in of a telegraph-wire is repeated in print at the their operations. Only in places where comFrom these particulars we see that mon salt is very dear, would the electro-chemthe new apparatus offers considerable advan- ical process be too expensive to be profitable. M. Becquerel has published a book containtages to the silk-weaving trade, and there is this further in its favor, that it may be fitted ing a full account of his method; and we comSome mend it to the notice of miners in this counto Jacquard-looms at present in use.

other.

ers.

of the initiated say that tapestries and textile try, where the price of salt is no difficulty in designs, however exquisite, will be so readily the way of experiment, and where any means reproduced by the aid of electro-magnetism, by which fuel and labor may be saved claim as to supply the most beautiful materials for serious consideration. dress and decoration to all classes of purchasWe may add here, that a new weavingmachine, called the 'appréteuse,' is about to be tried in the cloth factories at Leeds. It combines the principle of the 'gig' and 'shearing-machine,' and at Rouen, and some other manufacturing towns on the continent, has been found superior to any machine yet introduced for the same purpose.

Aliquid purifier' has been invented by Mr. B. L. Phillips, which is understood to effect a great improvement in the manufacture of iron and other metals. It is introduced as a flux when the metal is in a state of fusion; and according to the Mining Journal, the result as regards iron is an increase in the strength of the bar by at least 16 per cent. Copper and brass have been experimented Next comes M. Becquerel's new method of upon with equal success; and the Birmingham treating mineral ores, the result of twenty Journal states, that the purifier has been provyears' study, which, in two words, is electro-ed to add greatly to the crystalline and cohechemical. Every one knows that in the sepa- sive properties of glass. ration of metal from the earthy matters with

The next is an instance of the employment which it is combined, certain processes are of electricity in furtherance of astronomical gone through, involving the use of quicksilver science. Father Secchi, of the observatory at or of fire, as in smelting, cupellation, etc., vary- Rome, is carrying on an important series of ing according to the nature of the metal ope- magnetic observations, during which he has rated on. For all these, M. Becquerel propo- found in the movements of the bar-magnets a ses to substitute an electro-chemical action, by means of detecting the appearance of the See-aurora. Wishing to extend his researches to which he dispenses with them entirely. ing that his experiments have been made on other celestial phenomena, he suggests calling more than 10,000 kilogrammes of ores of silver, in the aid of the electric-telegraph in the obcopper, and lead, from Mexico, Peru, the Altai servation of shooting-stars. For instance: a Mountains, and other parts of the globe, there meteor being seen at one observatory, inforis no question as to the attention due to the mation of the fact is to be instantaneously results. We must content ourselves with a flashed to the next beyond, and so on, thus brief outline of the process. The ore is first enabling two or more observers to notice the treated in such a way that its constituents shall same object; and then, by subsequent combe soluble in a solution of common salt at the parison and calculation, to discover whether maximum of saturation. In the case of galena they all saw it at the same instant, and in the the constituents are chloride of silver and sul- same part of the sky. These and some other phate of lead. When these are dissolved, the points being ascertained, it will be possible to liquid is transferred to wooden vats or reser- clear up certain doubts that now confuse the voirs, in which the decomposition of the me- question of shooting-stars. From some few talic salts is effected by means of a galvanic- experiments made between Rome and Naples, battery, the plates of which vary according to Father Secchi believes the present notions on the subject to stand in need of rectification. the nature of the metal to be thrown down M. Deville is pursuing his task of extracting carbon in some instances being used for the negative. The battery being set in action, aluminum from clay with the most marked the operation, as a rule, is complete in twenty-success-his latest achievements having been four hours, but may be accelerated by the laid before the Academie in sheets, ingots, and application of heat. Argentiferous lead gives medals, all of the new metal. M. Castels has disup all its silver without the necessity for cu-covered a way of making artificial quinine,

by a process not yet made public; but if the permitted to fix his apparatus in the Pantheon, fact be as he states, a step is here gained in an where he demonstrates the rotation of the important branch of chemistry which promises earth to numbers of admiring Parisians. well for further discovery. Fresenius has There is more in this experiment than appears done something towards preventing the in- at first sight. It furnishes a means whereby crustation of steam-boilers which is worth re- the true meridian may be found in any part cording. Having observed that incrustation of the world, and thus the deviation of the is due rather to sulphate than carbonate of magnetic meridian may be detected, the comlime, he throws soda into the water as a reme-pass corrected, and the dangers from magnedy, in the proportion of 78 of soda to 100 of tic disturbance avoided. In fact, it is said, the sulphate, and thus neutralizes the latter. that with this apparatus properly fitted, a ship "Take," he says, 66 a given quantity of water might go to sea without a compass; but as yet from the boiler, filtered if necessary, divide it the difficulty of neutralizing the motion of a into two portions, add to one a portion of vessel on the waves presents an unsurmountsoda, to the other a small quantity of lime-able obstacle. From another quarter we hear water. If the former remains clear while of a machine which, fitted under the bottom the later becomes somewhat slightly turbid, of a ship, indicates by a dial on deck the rate the proportion of soda is correct; if the con- of sailing; and of a "marine clock," that tells trary, soda must be added; but if the lime- the latitude and longitude while the vessel watered portion becomes very thick, then the pursues her course. soda must be diminished." This experiment is simple enough, and there appears to be no reason why it should not be tried wherever incrusted boilers are complained of.

The continued ravages of the vine-disease, and consequent increase in the price of wine, has led a Parisian chemist, M. Hoffmann, to seek for some vegetable substance from which alcohol might be distilled suitable as a beverage. After sundry trials, he found what he wanted in a gramineous plant, the Triticum repens, or couch-grass, the roots of which are known to be sweet and nourishing, though regarded by agriculturists as a noxious weed. This grass, when n properly treated, yelds a "colorless alcohol, of agreeable flavor, without any empyreumatic odor, and altogether analogous to that obtained from sugar.' Whether it be desirable to increase the production of alcohol may admit of question; but as great quantities are needed for manufacturing purposes, farmers and others might find it worth their while to collect couch-grass for distillation, instead of burning it.

The great oceanic survey is advancing from discussion into real practice; the governments of Holland, Belgium, Portugal, and Prussia, complying with the recommendations of the "maritime conference" held last year at Brussels, have prepared lists of their ships to be employed in the observations, and issued the necessary instructions to their captains. These, with the United States and British vessels, which are already engaged in the work, will be able to make a good beginning in all latitudes, and is a task which pre-eminently requires the amplest co-operation.

While science is thus busy on the ocean, she is turning her attention to a rather delicate question on land. We do not yet know so much as we ought to know of the weight and mass of the earth, and the relation it bears in these particulars to the other planets. The question is one which has arisen again and again, in proportion with the growing sense that rigorous exactitude in scientific research is an indispensable condition; and attempts to solve it have been made in various ways-by Foucault is again making the rotation of the swinging a pendulum in different latitudes, earth visible to the eye, and with an appara- and by observations of the attraction of suspendtus that exhibits the phenomenon more palpa- ed balls. Some twenty-five years ago, certain bly to the ordinary observer than did this fa- eminent members of the Astronomical Society mous pendulum experiment, which was so swung a pendulum at the top and bottom of much talked of two years ago. The contri- the Dolcoath Mine, in Cornwall, but failed to vance now used resembles, in its main features, arrive at any satisfactory conclusions-perhaps the beam and wheel to which we drew atten- because of the flood which drove them from tion last April; the wheel being made to the lowest part of the mine before their secrotate rapidly, sets in motion a second wheel ond series of experiments was completed. moving slowly in a different plane. Gradu- Now, a new attempt is being made by the ally, as the movement continues, the axis of astronomer-royal, who, when he thinks a thing the latter places itself precisely in a line with the true meridian of the place where the experiment is tried, as is clearly seen by the spectator looking through a telescope fixed at a short distance off on the same floor. Stability and quiet are required for the success of the experiment. and M. Foucault has been

ought to be done, loses little time in setting about it. He has chosen the north for the scene of his experiments, and has set up his pendulums at the Horton Mine, at Shields, on the banks of the Tyne. The depth of the mine is 1200 feet; and as the pendulums are placed in electric communication with each other, we

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