The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-03-10
A String of Curious Facts.

The following striking scientific facts
were picked up in the course of our read
ing, from various reliable authorities.
We think many of them will be new to
our readers:
The difference between the skulls of
the domestic hog and wild boar, is as
great as that between the European and
negro skull. Domesticated animals that
have subsequently run wild in the forest,
after few generations lose all traces of
their domessication, and are physically
different from their tame originals.
1t is not natural for a COW, any more
than for other female animals, to give
milk when she has no young to nourish.
The permanent production of milk is a
modified animal function, produced by
an artificial habit for several generations.
In Columbia the practice of milking COWS
having been laid aside, the natural state
of the function has been restored. The
secretion of milk continues only during
the sucking of the calf, and is only an
occasional phenomenon. If the calf dies,
the milk ceases to flow, and it is only by
keeping him with his dam by day, that
an opportunity of obtaining milk from
COWS by night can be found.
The barking of of dogs is an acquired
hereditary instinct, supposed to have O.
riginated in an attempt to intimate the
human voice. Wild dogs and domestic
breeds which become wild, never bark,
but howl. Cats, which so disturb civiliz-
ed com unities by their midnight "cata-
waul," in the wild state in South Ameri-
ca, are quite silent.
The hair of negro is not wool, but
curled aud twisted hair. The distinction
between hair and wool is clearly revealed
By the microscope.
The dark races have less nervous SEN
sibilty than the whites. They are not
subject to nervous disease. They sleep
soundly in evey disease; nor does any
mental disturbance keep them awake
They bear chirurgical operations much
better than the white people.
A certain species of fungas has been
known to attain the size of gourd in
one night; and is calculated that the eel
lules, of which it is composed must a.
mount to forty thousand millions.
If it grew in twelve this would give four
thousand millions per hour, or more than
sixty six millions each minute.
Amin alcules have been discovered so
small that one million would not exceed
a grain of sand, and five hundred millions
would sport in a drop of water. Yet
each of these must have blood vessels,
nerves, muscles, circulating fluids, &c.,
like large animals.
One of the most wonderful achieve
ments of astronomers, is the weighing of
the bodies of the solar system. 1t is cer-
tain that the mass of Jupiter is more
than 322, and less than 323 times the
mass of this globe-so accurately has
this work been accomplished. The mass
of the sun is 339, 55l times greater than
that of the earth and moon, ond 700 times
greater than the united masses of all the
planets.
The planet Saturn is composed of mat
ter only half as heavy as water; Mercury
is considerably heavier than lead; and
our own globe is twice as heavy as lead
"a fact shows the great density of in
ternal parts.
A fash of lightning on the earth
would be visible on the moon in second
aud quarter; on the sun in eight min
ates; on Jupiter. when farthest from US,
in City two minutes; on Uranus in two
hours; ou Neptune in four and quarter;
on the star Vega, Of the first magnitude,
in forty. FIVE years; on star OF the eighth
10 four thousand years; and
such stars are visible through the tele-
scope.
La Place, the great astronomer, says:
II have ascertained that between the
heavenly bodies all attractions are trans
mitted with velocity which fit be not
Infinite, surpsssos several thousand times
Lhe velocity Of light" His apDotator es'