intervals. The third removed the feeling of languor caused by his long fast, and his pulse rose from 72 to 80. The fourth and fifth caused slight heaviness and desire for sleep, but there was no hesitation in giving correct replies to questions, though he could not guide himself about the room. After the seventh pipe the pulse fell to 70. The twelfth pipe was followed by singing in the ears, and after the thirteenth he laughed heartily, though without any cause that he can remember. Questions asked at this time were answered only after a pause, and not always correctly. He had for some time ceased to be conscious of his actions. After the twenty-fifth pipe, questions asked in a loud tone were not answered. After the last pipe had been smoked, he remarked, "I do not hear well." Forty minutes later there was a slight return of conciousness, and he said: "I am quite bewildered. May I smoke some more? Is the man with the pipe gone already?" Fifteen minutes later he was able to go home, and then retired to bed. He woke the next morning at 3 a. m. and took a hearty meal, after his fast of thirty-three hours. During the next day he felt as if he had bees in a great hollow in his head, as well as a slight headache. The organs of locomotion were first affected, next came sight and hearing, but Mr. Maclay is positive that there were no dreams, hallucinations, or visions of any sort whatever.
Descartes on the Invention of the Telescope.—Concerning the invention of the telescope, Descartes, in 1637, wrote as follows: "This invention, as illustrious as it is useful, is, to the shame of our science, due to chance and mere experiment. About thirty years ago there lived in Alkmaer, in Holland, a certain Jacob Metius, who had never studied, though both his father and his brother were professors of mathematics. He found his greatest pleasure in making burning-glasses and mirrors; and when he was thus once in possession of a lot of glasses of different forms he happened to look at the same time through two glasses, of which the one was a little thicker in the middle than on the edge, and the other thinner in the middle. He afterward fixed them in a tube, and in-that way originated a telescope, from which all the later ones have been made, for as far as I know nobody as yet has sufficiently explained what form these glasses by right ought to have. On the 17th of October, 1608, this Jacob Metius (otherwise Adriaanz) applied to the States-General of the Netherlands for a reward as the inventor of the instrument two years previously. But one of his own countrymen had anticipated him in this application, for Jan Lapprey (otherwise Hans Lippersheim) had some days before presented to the States a similar instrument. Thus, then, the first authentic publication on record of this great invention was made when Lapprey delivered his telescope to the States-General."
"This Jan Lapprey," says the author of a paper in "The Observatory," "was born in Wesel, and followed the trade of a spectacle-maker in Middelburg. On October 2, 1608, he solicited the States for a patent for thirty years, or an annual pension for life, for the instrument he had invented, promising them to construct such instruments only for the Government. After inviting the inventor to improve the instrument, and alter it so that they could look through it with both eyes at the same time, the States determined, on October 4th, that from every province one deputy should be chosen to try the apparatus and make terms with him concerning the price. The committee declared, on October 6th, that it found the invention useful for the country, and nine hundred florins were offered to Lapprey for the instrument. He had at first asked three thousand florins for three instruments of rock-crystal. He was then ordered to deliver the instruments within a certain time and the patent was promised him on condition that he kept the invention a secret. Lapprey delivered the instrument in due time. He had arranged it for both eyes, and it was found satisfactory."
A Carnivorous Goose.—In communicating to "Nature" an account of a goose which had learned to eat flesh, the Duke of Argyll remarks upon the circumstance as being extremely curious, but at the same time notes the fact that cows are largely fed on fish-offal in Scandinavia. This carnivorous goose is in the possession of Mr.
