Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-31
CURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE.

SPEED OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION.
The farther we are from the poles the
swifter the rotation of our world on its own
axis. At St. Petersburg, in 80 degrees lati-
tude, the speed of rotation is nine miles a
minute. At Paris, eleven miles and half.
On the equatorial line, the rapidity of its
motion is not far from eighteen miles a
minute-which is $50 yards each second.
Its whirl on its axis, therefore, is equal to
the flight of cannon ball of 20 pounds
forced from a gun by IL pounds of pOwder.
Such swiftness of mass of matter Of the
density of this earth, 5000 miles in dame
ter, through celestial space, makes one giddy
to think of it.
As the earth sways either side of the ex-
act line of its orbit in running round the
sun, like balloon in the air, it has never,
since launched into space, gone over the
same track twice. In its oscillations it
passes each side of the prescribed roadway,
crossing to and fro, but never swaying so
far from it as not to be back by an attractive
force somewhere in the immensely of stellar
space, which keeps unrecOrded millions of
worlds, far superior to this in magnitude,
briliiancy and overwhelming grandeur, in
paths in which they are destined to move
till the heavens shall be burned as a scroll.
Matter cannot be annihilated. This pro-
position is admitted to be true in philosophy.
But how originated? That is the question.
SHEDDING ONES SKIN.
No animal is exempt from the operations
of the law of desquamation. Birds shed
their feathers annually, serpents their skins,
quadrupeds their hair, and Holsters and
crabs their shells.
SO it is with humanity. The skin, in
stead of being thrown off annually, as with
those referred to, is all the time weSring of,
and therefore constantly being renewed.
The scarf skin is insensible. 1t is to the
true skin or cuts UerG whatthe rough, scaly
bark of tree is to the vitalized coat imme-
diately under it. In the use of our hands,
feet, and ordinary exercises of the body,
fragments of skin are constantly rubbed of,
so that it may be truly said every living
person is slways shedding that tissue.
If that process were interrupted, as it is
partially, by some who neglect to avail
themselves of the benefits of water, the
pores become clogged, and their utility in
the preservation Of health destroyed. Thus
the actual amount of scarf skin dropping
off, rubbed off, and washed of, in year,
would be about equal to the thickness and
weight Of thin sheep-skin.
TONGUES.
Nothing but the proboscis Of an elephant
compares in muscular flexibility with the
tongue. 1t varies in length and size in
reptiles, birds, and mammalia, according
to the peculiar organic circumstances of
each.
A giraffe's tongue has the functions Of a
finger. 1t is hooked over high branch,
its strength being equal to breaking off
large, strong branches of trees, from which
tender leaves are then stripped. An ant
bears tongue is long and rough, like whip
lash. The animal tears open dry clay walls
of ant-hills, thrusts in its tongue which
sweeps round the apartments, and by its
adhesive saliva, brings out yard of ants
at a sweep. The mechanism by which it
is protruded so far is both complicated and
beautiful.
A dogs tongue in tapping water takes
form by a mere act of volition that cannot
be initiated by any ingenious mechanician.
The human tongue, in the articulation of
language, surpasses in variety of motion
the widest imagination of poet. Even
in swallowing food its Office is so extraordi-
nary that Psychologists cannot explain the
phenomena of deglutition without employ
ing the aid Of several sciences.