The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-15

| through the microscope; and adulterated tea
| may be easily detected, for 1t will be found to
| contain not only grains of sand, but fecua de-
| rived from beans or other pulse; fragments of
| rice cellues of turmeric, bits OF ind CO. etc
The,use Of the microscope requires, however,
| some preliminary study TO make it applicable
| to the purpose the author has in view; thus IL
| would be necessary to take several kinds of
J -four, examine them through the instrument,
and jet down the principal shapes we see. The
| -four Of rye for instance, contains grains of
fecula, VIII ch, being TOO large TO pass entire be-
| tween the millstones, are crushed and burst, so
| that under the microscope we see what has the
appearance of a number of small bags, each
having darkish sJar at the top. from being
torn asunder. Wheat -four does not present
this appearance.
UTILIZATION OF THE MARSHES OF FRANCE.
French savant has proposed to the Snciety
OF Acclamatlza1on, OF Paris, a plan of utiiz-
ing the marshes OF France, which at present
produce moth ng but fever and ague. He pro-
poses sowing them with Canada rice, and turn
ing down lot of beavers; both the plant and
the animal can live in any climate; both would
be equylly useful, and one would support the
other. At present large sups are annually sent
from France to America to purchase beaver
skins, which might thus become articles OF home
production.
WHAT is OXYGEN?
Professor Schoenbein writes, by invitation,
his views on the subject to the Scientific Asso-
citation of France on a lengthy communication,
from which we extract the following statements:
You know, says the Professor, that for the
last thirty years ] have been almost exclusively
and uninterrUptedly engaged in investigating
oxygen, ana that in this long series of researches
/ have collected. with respect to that elementary
body, considerable number of new facts, from
which think can deduce the following con-
clusions:-l. Oxygen can exist in three different
allotrOpic states. 2, Two of these states are
active and opposed to each other; l distin-
guish them by the names OF ozone aud antazone.
3. EQUAL quantities of ozone and antozone neu-
frqIl 70 nj in nrfar m form irnan
neutral oxygen. 4. Neutral oxygen may be de-
composed or transformed into equal parts of
ozone and antoZone. But | must add that the
experimental demonstration of the correctness
OF these propositions is not so simple as for ex-
ample, that of the composition or decomposi-
ton OF water and in order well to understand
their logical concatenatlon it is absolutely me-
Cessary to know good many facts relating to
them. ozone and antozone are always mingled
with certain quantity of neutral oxygen, a
consequence intimately connected with the
generation of the two active notifications of
oxygen.
WHAT'S THE USE OF THE MOON?
M. Geofroy, of Paris, asks, in an article in the
Ih0neteuT, what may be the utility of the moon
with regard to our planet, and whether it is only
there for the purpose of raising the waters of
the ocean twice day. To this he replies that
besides the great planets that are carried along
regular path round the sun, there exists
an unlimited number of bodies of different
sizes, moving through space in every direction
AS the almost daily discovery of a vast number
OF asteroids proves. In his opinion, the moon
was once one of those erTatic bodies and hap
pening one day to get within the sphere of
attraction OF our planet was forced to become
our satellite, instead of continuing its own
course. Hence the moon is but an accident,
The earth had done without it before and might
do without it again. Venus is about the size of
the earth, and goes regularly round the sun,
although 1t has no satellite. Why should the
earth need one? He continues to say that our
moon is no of use to us, because we mig bit per.
iectly well do without oceanic and atmospheric
tides, and the best eulogium he can pass on our
satellite being that it is utterly useless, he goes
further, and declares that we owe it to the
merest chance, it having been picked up, as it
were, on the way; and as such thing might
happen again. the author sees no impossibility
whatever in our getting some day another, and
perhaps more moons still added to our stock.
NJ. Geotfroy is one of those who deny that the
moon is inhabited. First, because The exces-
sve cold there must prevent the possibility of
any animal life, and second, because the moon
has no atmosphere.
THE HARDENING OF IRON.
A French experimentalist found few years
since, that by heating iron tolerably free from
carbon with a small quantity of boron, to very
high temperature, he obtained product which
could not be forged, but which possessed extra
ordinary hardness. He has now found that an
equally hard metal may be obtained by adding
to ordinary cast.iron in fusion, phosphate of
iron and peroxide of manganese he does not
mention III what proportions. The product can.
not De forged, but It casts easily. and is, there
tore, applicable to the construction OF such
machines or parts of machines as require in
their material extreme hardness rather than
tenacity. The metal is, moreover, singularly
sonorous, and the dlscoverer proposes it as a
material for bells. He finds that a still harder
metal is produeibe by the addition OF tungsten
again he omits to say in what amount-to
ordinary cast.iron. He states that tungsten
iron surpasses everything previously known as
material for tools for cutting rocks, and that
crystals OF it Will cut glass as readily as the
diamond.
CHINESE PROTECTION AGAINST ''sHIPw oRMs.n
Lieutenant Marot, of the French navy, states
from experience that the Chinese preserve their
ships adm irably IRON the ravages OF the ship
worm (IeyTedO NGudLs) by means of two
kinds OF rosin which are obtained from native
trees. One Of them is called by the Annamites
Cdyddu, which means OIL tree. 1t often grows
to height of from two hundred to two hundred
and forty feet. A single tree will yield from two
to three lltres of oil by inclsion. The natives
cut large boats for as many as thirty men out of
this trunk, and these boats are so durable as to
descend by inheritance from father to son for
many generations. The other tree is of the same
kind, put not SO good. Vessels having their
keels coated with mixture of the resnous sub
stance obtained from these two trees will resist
the attacks Of the shipwOrm for many years
and all Chinese and Annamite barques and junks
are so preserved.
THE RAILROAD BETWEEN CoNsTAN TINoPLE AND
SMYRNA.
A telegram from Smyrna reports tnat the
crossing Of the Ephesus pass on the Adm Rail.
way, by the temporary line over the mountain
(pendlng the completion of the tunneD, was
successfully effected by locomotive, which
passed into the Adm plain, and proceeded be-
yond Azizieh. AS the man way had been for