M. CAILLETET has invented a new pump for compressing gases to a high degree of compression. The main point in its construction is the method by which he obviates the existence of useless space between the end of the piston-plunger and the valve, which closes the end of the cylinder. This be accomplishes by inverting the cylinder and covering the end of the plunger with a considerable quantity of mercury. This liquid piston can, of course, adapt itself to all the inequalities of form of the interior space, and sweeps up every portion of the gas, and presses it up a conical passage into the valve. The valve by which the air enters the body of the pump is opened by a cam-gearing after the descent of the piston below point where the air rusnes in.

A NEW explosive, called "dynamogen," is claimed by its inventor, U. Petrie, of Vienna, to be superior in nearly every respect to gunpowder-it is cheaper, safer and more effective, while it contains no substance which can injure the guns. In view of the announcement of so many new and greatly superior explosives, it seems a little singular that the old-fashioned gunpowder-first used at a period so remote that its origin cannot be tracedshould be the chief dependence of modern artillery.

MAGNESIA in limestone, M. Pichard says, is quickly detected by its alkaline reaction. If the stone, when pulverized, does not at once react upon red litmus paper, a portion is heated on platinum-foil at the spirit-lamp to the temperature below dull redness. Pure limestone remains unchanged. but if the one-tenthousandth part of magnesia is present an alkaline reaction takes place.

COMPOUND armor-plates-iron faced with steel - will very probably be adopted by the French Government for new men-of-war. The steel resists penetration, and the iron backing gives the required tenacity. Steel alone when struck fractures and falls to pieces. Heavy shot easily passes through a considerable thickness of iron. Iron and steel combined make a surprisingly strong resistance to projectiles.

M. D'ABBADIE, in a letter to the Paris Geographical Society, suggests the use of sulphurous fumigation as a protection against malarial influences in tropical countries. The elephant-hunters of Abyssinia, when they descend to the damp lowlands, resort to this hygienic process, to which they ascribe their immunity from føver. M. d'Abbadie suggests a trial by European explorers.

DR. SCHWEINFURTH has succeeded in freshening and preserving many of the leaves and flowers from garlands found in the breasts of mummies discovered last year at Dier el Bahari. A small herbarium is thus formed from plants which grew thirtyfive centuries ago. A number of the species have been identitled with those now found in the East.

Ir is stated, according to Mr. Leokyer, the English astronomer, that the Egyptians have recorded 373 solar and 83: lunar eclipses. Mr. Lockyer thinks the statement correct, as the proportions are exact, and the eclipses of the sun and moon would reach the respective numbers given in a period of twelve or thirteen centuries.

SOON THE work of reclaiming the Zuyder Zee will begin. A dike of twenty-four and a half miles is to be made of saud, faced with clay, and so high that it will be six and a half feet above the greatest tide level. The time for the completion of this underfaking is estimated at from seven to ten years, and the cost about $10,000,000.

GLASS-SPINNING and glass-flower manufacture is a very extensive branch of the Austrian glass industry. It is now so developed that a petroleum flame gives some 1,550 yards of glass thread every minute. that are woven not only for glass cloths, etc., but also for watch-chains, brushes, etc.

A NEW screw, adapted to be put in position by driving, has been invented, and is said to enter the wood without tearing the grain. A cone-point is used instead of the gimlet-point, and the Screw-thread has such a pitch that it drives in barb fashion, and once in position is very difficult to remove.

YEAST mixed with about one-eighth of pure glycerine will keep woll for a long time if placed in a cool cellar or chamber.

ENTERTAINING COLUMN.

PAYING & debt the moment it is due beats the best mercantile agency.

"I PUT outside my window a large box, filled with mold, and sowed it with seed. What do you think came up ?" "Wheat, barley, or oats?" "No, a policeman, who ordered me to remove it."

A DEFINITION.

WHAT is "vicissitude ?"—

This to elicit you'd

Doubtless expect in a trice;
But I frankly confess it's
Beyond me, unless it's

The French for "study for vice."

WHEN the wife of a candidate begins already to pay back tea and coffee borrowed six years ago, it may be set down as a fixed fact that her husband will make the race even if he fails to get the regular party nomination.

A LUCKLESS LOVER.

WE crossed the pasture-land together;
I knew that now my time drew near,
And hastened, longing for the moment,
Yet lingering, holding back in fear.

I wished the sunshine would not flicker
Across the river on my eyes;
Then hers she shaded with her bonnet-
How could I talk through that disguise?

I wished the catbird would not whistle,
I paused till he grew tired and still;
And then the frogs took up the music,
And lambs caine bleating from the hill.
Now all was silent; in the stubble

The crickets even held their peace;
But yet I waited, wishing only

That all the crickets would not cease.

I saw the gateway as we neared it,

I shaped my mouth and formed the word, When from the bonnet but demurely,

A little laugh I thought I heard.

A plowboy passing smiled and nodded,
I bit my lip and blushed for shame;
Then stopped to pick a bood-red berry-
'Twas sour, and speechless I became.

I leaned upon the bars; she fluttered
A farewell signal back to me;

I turned, I staggered from the roadway,
Gray fog came drifting from the sea.

"PA, what kind of whisky do the doctors prescribe ?" "Monongahealy, my son, Monongahealy. You shouldn't try your experienced old father with such casy ones."

"IT is strange," said an unsophisticated child, "that everybody gets taffy after they're dead." "Why, what on earth do you mean?" exclaimed the unsophisticated child's mamma. "I mean epitaph-y," answered the unsophisticated child.

"Hi! where did you get them trousers ?" asked an Irishman of a man who happened to be passing with a remarkably short pair of trousers. I got them where they grew," was the indignant reply. Then, by my conscience!" said at, "you've pulled them a year too soon.'

"I SHOULD SO like to have a coin dated the year of my birth," said a maiden lady of uncertain age to a male acquaintance. "Do you think you could get one for me?" "I am afraid not," he replied. "These very old coins are only to be found in valuable collections." And yet he cannot see why, when he met the lady the next day, she didn't speak to him.

SAID a singer to a farmer: "I would like to engage board with you for a month" The husbandman looked at him a moment, then asked, "What do you do for a livin' ?" "Oh, I sing in a church choir in the city." "You do. eh? Well, you can't board with me." "Why not? gasped the wondering warbler. "'Cause," replied the soil-tiller, "the last fellow who boarded with me was a singer, and he had such a thunderin' pass voice that every time he growled all the milk in the cellar turned sour."

A DARKY came to a Galveston justice of the peace and asked him for a warrant for the arrest of Jim Webster. "What's he done ?" "He stole my chickens. Dar's de fedders in his yard." "How do you know those feathers belonged to your chickens ?" "I kin prove it by Colonel Jones, but I doesn't like to have him brung into court, 'case he is modest-like." "What's the matter with Colonel Jones ?" "Nothing, boss; but to tell de troof, eber since I stole his chickens I loses all confidence in de man as soon as he looks me squar' in de face."

THE PU STER GOES BUGGY RIDING. "SUPPOSE," he said, in accents soft, "A fellow just like me Should axle little girl to wed-What would the answer be?"

The maiden drops her liquid eyes-
Her smiles with blushes mingle-
"Why seek the bridal halter when
You may live on, sur, cingle?"

And then he spoke: “Oh, be my bride,
I ask you once again;
You are the empress of my heart,
And there shall ever rein!"

"I'll never tire of kindly deed
To win your gentle heart.
And saddle be the shaft that rends
Our happy lives apart!"

Upon her cheeks the maiden felt
The mantling blushes glow-
She took him for her faithful hub,
To share his wheel or whoa!

He urged her to calmness, assuring her that there was no immediate danger, and insisting on the necessity of care for herself if any trouble was at hand, prescribed an anodyne for her, to be taken immediately.

Proceeding to other calls, he returned in an hour to find the lady calm and free from excitement, the husband in a paroxysm of mania, standing in the wrecked drawingroom still holding a pistol which he had discharged at an imaginary foe in the mantel mirror. There was no longer any doubt. Though he had spoken in the House within twenty-four hours, showing a complete mastery of an intricate question, and its multiform statistics, insanity had been coming on, and the faithful wife, watching him daily, taxed her nervous system so severely that her condition seemed to indicate insanity rather than his.

Within the past year the country has had many cases brought to public notice where the debatable land between reason and unreason has been the subject of earnest debate and discussion. The long, strange trial of Guiteau was, in the main, an examination into his mental condition at the time he committed his murderous act. Eminent physicians, accustomed for years to the management of the insane, even after personal examination of the man and a study of his previous life, differed utterly in their decision. And though the jury finally held that the proof of his insanity had not been full and clear, and that he was sane when he shot President Garfield, the question is still in debate, and the microscopic examination of his brain is appealed to as proof that he was not a responsible person.

Whether a person is or is not insane, then, is a question of great difficulty, if doctors differ, and the only sure test is a microscopic examination of the brain, which, of course, is impossible in a living subject.

Yet in real life every day men and women are adjudged insane, and deprived of their liberty and the management of their property, after a hurried and superficial examination, with no guarantee for the interests of the person alleged to be a lunatic, no opportunity for him to call in testimony, and, in fact, no appeal.

Where insanity shows itself, or eccentricity that simulates insanity, a family is thrown into great confusion. Then statements will often be excited and exaggerated. A physician is called in; the suspected person resents the intrusion; if naturally choleric he will show violence. A second physician is summoned; on their certificate a judge at Chambers, hearing only one side, can declare a person a lunatic, and appoint a committee of his person and property.

This may be done where all are acting perfectly in good faith. But where the object is to get control of the property of a severe but eccentric relative, and cunning is employed to deceive and mislead the medical men called in, the case is environed with difficulty.

In one case in New Jersey a lawyer of ability was taken from his house and conveyed to an asylum. There had been family troubles, he was eccentric, and at times carried his severity to an extent that bordered on violence. He took his confinement calmly, and while steps were taking to bring his case before the courts in such a manner as to insure a full and clear examination, he continued in the asylum his study of a case that he was to argue in one of the highest courts of New York State, and his arguments attested not only the soundness and vigor of his mind, but the fidelity and accuracy of his memory.

The most remarkable of the cases recently brought

beaten by two roughs, political hangers-on, probably, and had made a complaint against them. To prevent his appearance in the case, or his institution of any civil action, they contrived by some stratagem to entrap him into a carriage and drive him off to an insane asylum, where he was confined for more than a year, although perfectly sane; yet by some means the certificates and order were obtained.

In a series of cases brought before the New York courts there was not one in which actual insanity could be established, and in every case the supposed lunatic was restored to liberty, free to recover any of his property that had not been squandered by his committees.

In a case some

The loss in that way is often very great. years ago a great cotton operator was committed to Bloomingdale Asylum, and though his detention lasted only a few weeks-his counsel, one of the ablest members of the New York bar, showing conclusively that, though subject to delusions on two points (a supposed knowledge of French and music), he was in all business matters a man of wonderful ability, not only fully competent to manage his business, but capable of managing transactions that few men could conduct successfully-the committee, from lack of that very business ability, had lost several hundred thousand dollars.

The supposed lunatic, somewhat tartly, asked the Court to send the committee to an asylum, as he had shown beyond all peradventure that he was utterly unfit to manage his own affairs or other people's.

Mere delusions, loss of memory, queer fancies, are not enough to constitute insanity. Unless the delusions or fancies are the outgrowth of a long career of depravity, and a life showing no moral restraint or control; unless they show a tendency to injure the life or property of the person himself or of others, there ought to be great hesitation in depriving the individual of his liberty and the control of his property or business. So long as he can conduct himself without danger to himself and others, observing the usual decencies of life, and can follow his ordinary avocations, he should not be deprived of liberty and subjected to enforced idleness.

Society can call for a suspension of personal liberty when, from unbalanced reason, that liberty is abused to the injury of others, or the danger of such abuse is so proximate as to require immediate action.

A reform in the ordinary proceedings de lunatico inquirendo seems imperatively demanded. Where the case requires immediate action, and violence can be shown, or circumstances that make it so probable as to render delay dangerous, an immediate commitment may be allowed. In the unhappy cases where insanity is hereditary, and friends have lived for years in constant watchfulness, dreading and watching the symptoms which, they feel almost certain, will sooner or later manifest themselves, preliminary proofs can be made without leaving everything to the last moment, when the outburst of insanity, sudden, though expected, fills a household with alarm. But the commitment of a person as a lunatic ought to be only preliminary and temporary, as a precautionary step to a full, thorough examination of each case, and in cv:ry instance the accused ought to be represented by counsel, selected by him cr appointed by the court. with power to call a certain a umber o experts, and the right of submitting the case to a jury

This preliminary commitment, resembling that of a magistrate in regard to one accused of crime, will givo ample scope for calm investigation, and will defeat nefarious plans where a person not actually insane is accused.

In other words, such an examination as is now obtainable only by Habeas Corpus proceedings, in rare cases and with great difficulty, ought to be had in every case before the granting of the writ.

reason, perhaps kept within the family precincts, to the fear and discomfort of all the other members, at an expense ill-afforded, or, what is still more likely, a suffering, neglected inmate of some wretched, God-forsaken poorhouse, abandoned by hope, and waiting that relief which death, sooner or later, brings to all. Our noble palatial State lunatic asylums give shelter and care to 7,000 of this unfortunate class; but there are 60,000 others of the same class, a majority of whom are inmates of poorhouses and jails, and the numbers are increasing far more rapidly than provision for their relief. These facts" (continues Dr. Charles A. Lee) "certainly deserve not only the attention of medical men, but of governments and legislators, for no civilization can be called advanced, or

During the Summer, as the daily journals detailed case after case, public attention was aroused, and the necessity for some legislative action was generally admitted. Unfortunately, the public feeling is apt to be evanescent, and when the legislatures meet, unless some concerted action is taken, the subject will probably be overlooked or put aside for the manœuvres of party or monopoly, and the real interests of a large class of our people be ignored, till some terrible catastrophe forces it on legislative bodies in a peremptory form that will prevent all further delay.

The necessity of wide and full legislation in regard to insanity concerns the people of this country in an especial degree from the rapid increase of real cases. In no part of the world is there so much mental activity, and in none do people live under such a constant strain of excitement. New England shows a very great amount of insanity; and the whole system of life among us predis poses and accelerates mental disorders. Nervous diseases prevail to an unprecedented degree-neuralgia, hysteria, chorea, epilepsy and catalepsy; and all, by weakening the brain, tend more or less directly to bring about the condition most apt to result in insanity.

If the disease ended its course when the sufferer breathed his last, the question of insanity would not rise to the importance of a national one; but, unfortunately, insanity descends, as all scientific writers admit. It is almost certain to reappear, if not in the patient's children, at least in some succeeding generation. The proportion of cases of insanity into which hereditary taint enters is variously stated by the authorities, some placing it as high as sixty-nine per cent., others as low as twenty-six. "Authors," says Dr. Maudsley, "are not agreed as to the proportion of cases of insanity in which positive hereditary taint is detectable; some, like Moreau, putting it as high as nine-tenths, others as low as one-tenth. The most careful researches fix the proportion as not lower than one-fourth, if not so high as one-half; and there can be no doubt that the tendency is to increase the proportion, as investigation becomes more certain and exact.

If the insanity is hereditary in more than one-fourth of the actual cases, and the children of persons afflicted with nervous diseases are predisposed to mental unsoundness, there is enough scope for all our benevolence in the care of the actually insane, without, by negligence, rashness or injustice, classing with these unfortunate people persons still able to care for themselves and their families.

"More than 60,000 otherwise happy homes in the United States are to-day made wretched and sad by

more wretched condition than its domestic animals."

Spirituous liquors, morphine, ether, chloral, licentiousness, all swell the army of the insane. Domestic infelicity, loss of property, the terrors of the wreck at sea, or collision on land, all play their part in unsettling our boasted human reason; and even religion, the balm and comforter of trouble, man's greatest stay on earth, when the mind is given to it too absorbingly, makes man no longer a reasoning and resonable creatur.

There is in many not suspected of insanity morbid impulse that often resembles unsoundness. There are many who cannot look down from a high rock, window or tower, without feeling a morbid impulse to throw them. selves down; in a healthy person this impulse is controlled; in the weak it may control. Others, at the sight of a rapidly advancing railroad train, feel an impulse to cast themselves before it, and the momentary insanity arising from morbid impulse is undoubtedly the explanation of many cases of suicide.

There is, then, much real insanity; there are, unfortunately, cases where persons of sound mind are, through ignorance, haste or malice, committed as insane and deprived of liberty. Yet there is still another class of cases, where a commitment for insanity is submitted to willingly by a perfectly s ne person to escape either punishment at the hands of justice or the loss of social reputation for some delinquency. Such cases occur, as legal practitioners know. Public prosecution has been prevented or suspended by the prompt action of friends in having the guilty person judicially declared to be non compos mentis; the wrong is redressed, the injured person compensated, and when the matter is forgotten, the individual is discharged as cured. A family will sometimes see no other way to avoid disgrace than by confining an erring member in an asylum to disarm the harsh censure of a world not given to view too indulgently any faults but its own.

Much as we may sympathize with families thus cruelly placed, we cannot feel inclined to wink at such a course, and with this matter of insanity formed into a special branch of judicial investigation and treatment, it will be rendered nearly impossible, except where extraordinary powers of simulation are possessed or acquired, as is often the case with malingerers in the army, who, in their schemes to obtain a discharge, outwit the keenest surgeons.

The question of insanity is thus one of growing importance, and though in earlier times it occupied a small and insignificant place in the course of legislation and judicature, it now requires full and careful treatment, and new modes of trying a question that often proves difficult to the most varied expedient and soundest judgment.

With the recognized fact that we have, and must continue to have, a large body of insane among us, arises the