The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-06-27
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

seeing it grow old In the service.
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.
Starch is now manufactured in the
south of France and the neighborhood
of Paris from the horse-chestnut. The
nut yields about sixteen or seventeen
per cent. of pure starch. If it is to be
used as food it must be treated with
water containing carbonate of soda to
remove all the bitterness, and then the
starch must be washed repeatedly with
pure water.
RAPIDITY OF MUSCULAR CoNTRACTIoNs.
A dragon fly balanced on its wings at
the side of car speeding its way over
the rails, at the rate of forty miles an
hour, appears to be almost motionless
But to keep up with the car, its wings
must vibrate many thousand times a
second The eye cannot detect their up
and down action, SO exceedingly rapid
are the contractions and relaxations of
the muscles acting upon them. All at
once they dart on at right angle so
quickly that the refine can not have an
impression remaining long enough to
retrace their course. Therefore, those
same muscles, too small to be seen but
by powerful microscopic assistance,
must be urged to still more rapid
action. Such intense activity far ex-
ceeds the wharton of musical chords,
and therefore exceedingly perplexes
entomologists, because the nervous
system of insects is so extremely minute.
The question is: How much power is
generated for keeping dragon fy's
wings in uninterrupted motion for many
hours in succession without apparent
fatigue?
Professor Daniel Draper, director
of the Central Park Meteorological
Observatory, takes occasion, in his last
annual report, to correct false impress
sion very generally entertained by the
public-that the clearing of the land
diminishes the fall of rain. Compar-
ing the reports of rainfalls from the
years 1885 to 1872, it appears that, while
during this period the average annual
rainfall was 57.62 inches, the average
for the last three years of this period
was 47.06 inches. These results appear
fully to justify Professor Craper's con-
clusion that the widespread public
impression that the clearing of land
diminishes the volume of rain is not
founded on facts. He adds, further
more, that, although in the last thirty
six years great changes have been made
in all these portions of the United
States intervening between the Missis-
sippi and the Atlantic ocean, large sur
faces having been cleared of forests,
and their physical aspect essentially
altered, no corresponding elimination
in the mean amount of water that has
fallen can be traced. This opinion
seems also in accord with that Euro
pean meteorologists, who assert that the
mean rainfall on the western portion of
that continent varies little, if at all,
when periods of many years are consid-
cred. These opinions seem deserving
of especial consideration, owing to the
fact that the records upon which they
are based extend back to the year 1877
in England 1871 in Scotland, and 1871
In Ireland while in Paris the annual
rainfall was not found to have altered
In one hundred and thirty years.
We believe that it has already been
announced to our readers that dredg-
ing party, while off the coast of Florida.
secured an old anchor-chain, to the
sides of which were attached specimens
of coral of such a size as would seem to
have justified the conclusion that they
were the growth of many centuries, and
yet the conditions of the discovery were
such as to prove beyond all apparent
doubt that they were of very recent
formation. The significance of this
discovery, in modifying certain theo-
ries regarding the rate at which coral
deposits are formed, is evident. An
other argument advanced by biologists
as conclusive proof that certain fossils
found in the caves and caverns of Eng
land were of enormous antiquity, was
based on the fact that the remains
obtained from these caverns were found
beneath stalagmitic layers of so great
depth that their age was beyond COM
putatiOn /; or, in a word, were " Prehis-
tOric." 1t now appears, however, that
nature has been more active in its work
than was supposed possible, and Mr..
Boyd Dawk1ns, is the result of observ-
ations in the Ingleborough cave, known
as the Jockeys Cap, Yorkshire, Eng
land, reaches the conclusion that so far
as the recent stalagmetic deposits are
concerned they must have been growing
at the rate of 0.2946 of an inch per an
mum, rate, which, if constant from the
first, would make the stalagmites and
stalactites in this cavern no older than
the time of Edward ILL.,, A. D. 1927.
Should subsequent observation confirm
these calculations, it is evident that
these deposits, like the coral growths,
must be used with caution as evidence
of the actual age of fossils, or so-called
prehistoric remains which may be found
beneath them, or to which they may be
attached.