Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/262

 white grains mixed together and rounded as if by instant fusion. The wall of the tube is about one-twentieth of an inch thick, and very solid and rigid. In the opinion of Prof. Buckland, lightning is the only agent that could at once supply the heat and force necessary to make these tubes.

A similar tube, coming from North Carolina, has been described by Prof. Leeds, of the Stevens Institute. In this case the lightning had penetrated a bed of pure white sand, melting the silex, and forming a hollow shaft two or three inches in diameter and four feet long, filled within and surrounded without by the pure white sand of the locality. The shaft, however, was discolored by finely-divided metallic iron (which does not exist in Nature at the earth's surface), and the explanation seems to be that at the immensely high temperature at which silica melts, iron dissociates from oxygen, and that here, dissociation having occurred, the metallic iron, transported by the electric flux from some subterranean depth, became incased in molten sand, and was preserved unoxidized in the vitreous tube.

The Weakness of a Great Man.—The vanity of the great botanist Linnæus was extraordinary, as witness the following document written by his own hand, and entitled "The Good Fortune, Services, and Fame of Linnæus:" "God gave him to wife the woman he most loved, and who cared for the household while he studied. God granted him the largest herbarium in the world, and this is his delight. God honored him with a title (chief physician), orders (knighthood), coat-of-arms (nobility), and a name among the learned. God saved him from a conflagration. No man before him ever pursued his special study with greater zeal, or had more listeners. No man before him was ever more famous throughout the whole world." The same trait of character is seen in "Flora's Body Guard," as Linnæus, curiously enough, called the most eminent botanists of his day: "General, Karl von Linnæus; major-general, Bernard Jussieu; colonels, Albrecht von Hall and J. F. Gronovius; lieutenant-colonels, Burmann, Gleditsch, Ludwig, etc.; major, J. G. Gmelin;" and so on. A lady having once visited Linnæus's cabinet, the great man made a profound impression on her by giving her some interesting information about each specimen. At last she exclaimed, "I can now understand why Linnæus is so famous in the whole province of Upsala," But Linnæus, who had expected to hear "all over the world," instead of "in the province of Upsala," was hurt by the meagreness of the lady's adulation, and dismissed her curtly enough. In order to sound the depths of the great botanist's vanity, an acquaintance once saluted him as the Sun of Botanists, the Jupiter of Scholars, Nature's Secretary, an Ocean of Knowledge, a Traveling Mountain of Erudition, and the like. Far from being displeased at such fulsome flattery, Linnæus interrupted the panegyrist at the close of each phrase, embraced him, and again and again called him his best and dearest friend.

Perception of Color by Bees.—To test the faculty possessed by bees of distinguishing between colors, Sir John Lubbock brought a bee to some honey, which he placed on blue paper, and about three feet off he placed a similar quantity of honey on orange paper. After the bee had returned twice he transposed the papers, but the bee returned to the honey on the blue paper. After she had made three more visits, always to the blue paper, he transposed them again, and she again followed the color, though the honey was left in the same place. The papers having been again transposed, the bee returned to the former site of the blue; but, when just about to alight, she noticed the change of color, and without a moment's hesitation dashed off to the blue. No one, says he, who saw her at that moment, could have entertained the slightest doubt of her perceiving the difference between the two colors.

Poisoning with Extract of Hemlock.—The following is a condensed history of the remarkable case of Frederick W. Walker, who died in Brooklyn, on the 3d of April, from an overdose of extract of hemlock, taken with the hope of controlling the symptoms of an annoying and obstinate complaint. The rare force of will and cool-headedness displayed by the patient in noting and detailing the effects of the drug up