The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-09-06
SCIENTIFIC AND MECHANICAL.


Baron Cuvier states that if the progeny
OF q pair of herrings went on increasing
and multiplying, without molestation OF
destruction Of the ova, in twenty years it
would take all the seas in the world to con-
tam the herrlnGs that would result. If
only half the spawn came to life, and half
the young fish lived, Il boat could not move
| i'll the sea-
The dwellings found Mt the bottom of tho
fresh water lochs in Scotland continue to
be discovered in various parts of the
country and are attracting great attention,
history OF the Celtic race which for many
centuries inhabited that country. The
first one was brought to light by the drain
ing of a loch on the property of the late Mr..
r. d. p. Asley, in Arisaig.
The Rerue Pop"taire, of Paris, gives an
account of some very curious experiments
made by Or. Claude Bernard. If oxygen
lied blood be injected into the arteries Of
the neck Immediately after decapitatiop,
warmth and sensibility return, the eye gets
that an object shaken before it will cause
winking of the eyelids and movements of
eyeballs as though to avoid injury.
SPEED OF THE SENsEs.-There nre thirty
one pairs of compound nerves in the human
body, the sensory and motor fbres of which
are SO commingled as to render it an inn
possible undertaking to separate them by
any means at present known. Now if, for
instance, needle DO stuck into one of the
fingers, the sensory fbres take the i'm
preston through the nerve and the poss
terror root to the spinal cord, and thence
draw the finger away" Tie mandate
travels down the spinal cord to the anterior
root and thence through the motor fbres
of the nerve to the muscles, which imme-
diately act, and the finger is at once re-
moved. All this takes place with great ra-
ni6itv Inf with nnthiur lil.a 1,o
lerity once imagined. The researches of
Helmholtz, distinguished German ply
siologst, have shown with great exactitude
the rate of speed with which the nerve
fluid travels; and other observers have
given great deal of time and patience to
this and kindred questions. AS the result
of many deliberations, it was ascertained
that the nervous fluid moves ut the rate of
about nincty-seven and one-tenth feet in n
second. Now electricity travels with q
thousand feet in n second, and light over
nine hundred million. A shooting star
moves with the velocity of two hundred
thousand feet i'll n second, and the earth in
its orbit round the sun, one hundred
thousand A cannon ball has a mean velo-
city of one thousand eight hundred feet in a
second, an eagle one hundred and thirty,
and d locomotive ninety We thus per-
ceive the nervous fluid has no very remark
able rate of speed. A fact, which among
many OUners, Serves 10 luOlCaCe us nOu-
identity with electricity. Professor Dom
ders, Of Utrecht, Holland, has recently
been making some experiments in regard to
the rapidity of thought, which are likewise
interesting. BY means of two instruments
which he calls the acknowledgement and
the noematachomcter, he promises some
important details. For the present he an
nounces that simple idea requires the
brain to act for sixty seven one thousandths
of a second for its elaboration. Doubtless
the time required is"not the same for all
brains, and that by means of these instru-
ments we may obtain definite indications
relative to the meEtal calibre of our friends.
What invaluable instruments they would
be for nominating caucuses, for vestries, for
trustees of colleges, for merchants in want
of book-keepers; in short, for all having
appointments of any kind to make. For
the eye to receive an impression requires
seventy seven one-thousanduls of a second
and for the ear to appreciate n sound, one
hundred and forty-nine one thousandths Of
Il second are necessary. The eye, there
fore, acts with nearly twice the rapidity of
the ear.-Gdtary.