Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1869-04-30
SCIENTIFIC.

Seiaiica has been radically cured by sticking
twelve needles through the diseased nerve and
leaving them there for half an hour.
IN art fetal sponge, made by filling india
rubber, in a fluid state, with bubbles Of gas and
allowing it TO harden has JUS been introduced
in England and this country.
White gunpowder is made in Russia, to
which the explosive quality is impaired only at
the last moment Of Manufacture, and so may be
withheld until the powder is needed for ship
ment.
4 liquid glue, far superior to mucilage, may
be made by dissolying glue in an equal quantity
If strong hot vinegar, adding fourth OF alcohol
and a little alum. This viii keep any length of
time when placed in closed bottles, and will glue
together horn, wood, and mother of pearl.
A physician at Bordeaux, France, thinks he
has discovered plan for the prevention of hy-
drophoba, by iu0culatiug men and brutes with
the poison Of Il viper which is feared in the south
Of France, but whose bite is not fatal 1t isa
theory worth testing, and the French Academy
of Science is now considering it.
A German doctor maintains that the human
skin when healthy does not absorb, and that baths
can have no effect upon it. He offers to 20 into
a bafn containing the most poisonous substances
provided they be not corrosive, to test the truth
Of his theory, to pay fine if he be wrong, and to
20 to Paris and submit himself TO the disposal Of
the Academy Of Medicine at. any time for the
purpose.
N-turalists assert that nearly all marine ami
mals die if placed in fresh water. Indeed, it ap-
pears to act upon them like specific poison,
This fact gives rise to the proposition that every
ship with foul bottom should be berthed for
brief period in a fresh water dock after coming
into port. Though mussels, barnacles, &c,
should not be dsengaged by the change, they
would in all probability, die, and their increase.
either by growth or experimentation of which
processes 90 on with extraordinary rapidity-
would at all events be completely checked.
The painful effect Of artificial light upon the
eyes is attributed by recent Investigators in
Germany to the great proportion of nOn-lumin-
Gus rays, or rays Of mere caloric bearing no iu-
mination, which it contains In sunlight there
are fifty per cent. of such rays, in gaslight near
ly NINETY, in electric light eighty, in kerosene
light ninety four. German chemist named
Landsberg has discovered that by passing any
kind Of artificial light through thin layer Of
alum or mica, these caloric rays are absorbed
while the Illuminating power of the light rays is
undiminished, and becomes exceedingly mild and
pleasant TO the eyes.
Glass panes constantly exposed to the action
Of the and rain, are soon deteriorated, as the
pot ash or soda they contain (glass being nothing
but silicate of either of those bases combined with
linz or ltharge) combines with the carbonic acid
Of the air. whitish opaqueness is the conse-
quence of this action; and in order to make the
pane return to its pristine transparency, it
should first be rubbed with diluted bydrochloric
p ed and then eleanSed with rnoisfeped uhiten;n,