The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-01-12
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

JnOuSdHuJH part OI us weight OF car
bOlic ecid sufficed for the distinction
of the dead-house" in Paris during
the hottest weather, when it con-
tanned six or seven bodies.
DR.. Burg, in reviewing the statis-
tics Of death frOm cholera, finds that
out of about $1,000 artisans in copper,
brass and bronze employed in Paris
and other cities during the last out
break of cholera, only Is deaths re-
suited from that disease. Another
fact bearing on this question is that
the city of Mio-Tinto, surrounded as
it is by copper mines, has never been
visited by this epidemic.
Sponge paper, an article, recently
patented in France, is fabricated by
adding to ordinary paper pulp evenly
and finely divided sponge, and by
means of the ordinary paper-making
machinery the mixture is worked
into sheets of different thickness.
AS this paper abs0rbs a great deal Of
moisture and holds it for a long time.
it is capable of important technical
applications. In dressing wounds it
has been used with considerable add
vantage.
M. Marten suggests the plan of at
taChing to vessels a screw propeller,
the motion of which shall be obtain
ed from the movement of the ship.
The author proposes to utilize the
power so obtained in giving motion to
an electromagnetic apparatus, from
which such vessels may be supplied
with the convenience of an electric
light, thus dispensing with the use
of oil, and gaining besides the advan-
tage of the greatly increased illumi-
nation.
M. Panceri has recently given to
the Congress of Naturalist and
Physicists at Tnrin an account of the
Investigations of animal phOsphor-
escence. He concludes that this phe-
nomena is due to the slow Combina-
ton OF oxygen with the adipose
tissue, since it Immediately disap-
pears on placing the phOsphOresCent
matter in any medium free from OK
ygen. PhosphOTesCence commences
soon after the death of the animal,
and when decomposition SETS in it
ceases.
The United States census, when
completed, will fill three volumes Of
the size of Websters Unabridged
Dictionary. The first volume will
contain the tables of the population,
churches, schools, and colleges,
school attendance, libraries, newspa-
pcrs, paupcrism, and crime, and per-
sons of the school. military and cii-
Zcnship ages. The second volume
will contain the tables of NOR
tslity, dumb, blind, insane and idiot
IL nd Nosr
the records of industry and wealth
in the United States, aud also tables
Uf wealth, taxation and general in
Gcbtedness; of agriculture, of manu-
jtcturing and mining industry aud
fisheries, and also the tables of oc-
equations.
One may readily believe that to tel
egr8ph in China Is no very easy matter
seeing that the language has no alpha
Leland is made up Ofabout $4,000 diff
5erent characters and yet the managers
Ut the Chinese Submarine Telegraph
Company have surmOunted the diff
Guilty. Several thousand of the char
"Ctcrs most in use are cut on wooden
locks, representing types, at the re-
verse end of which numbers are en-
graved. The Chinese of Hong Kong
friend at Shanghai hands the mes
FIge, written in Chinese, to a native
clerk, who selects the corresponding
blocks and prints the numbers which
are on their reverse ends. The slip
j. then given to an English clerk,
who telegraphs it to its destination,
where the process is reversed, and the
]lan IL Shanghai receives the message
81 N { oh ~ on hn
paper.
Professor Agassiz writes to the
Boston advertiser to correct some
prevailing misapprehensions con-
corning the Hassler Scientific Expe-
GitiOu. He says The Hassler was
built for the Coast Survey work of
she Pacific shore of tie United
States. Any work undertaken on
board of this vessel is therefore en-
1irely subordinate to that Of the
regular operations of the survey. As
she must, however necessarily make
the tour of the South American con
1inent in order to reach her destina-
zion, Professor Pierce, the Superin-
ICndent of the Coast Survey, has
thought it wise to organize a sCieu
titie party, consisting of men who
might render the voyage in the
highcstt degree useful to science, as
well as to the special Interests of the
survey itself. To this end he has
provided "A dredging apparatus, in
connection with the photographic
operations, that continuing on a
larger scale the work so admirably
conducted under his auspices in the
Gulf of Mexico, during the last five
Gears. The wider range thus given
o these operations will, of course,
greatly enhance the value of the pre-
vioUs work, and lay the foundation
tor much more effective researches
in the future"