The Hickman courier., 1873-02-15
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

productiveness, and were said to be the
most beautiful in the world. In 1900,
Humboldt visited Venezuela, South
America, and was informed by the ma
tivcs living in the valley of Araguay
that they had noticed, with great aston
ishment, that lake which lay in the
middle of the valley has decreased in
volume every year; the cause of this is
clearly traced to the telling of great
number of trees which grow ON the sur
rounding mountains. In Hungary the
periodical droughts are universally at
tributcd to the annihilation of the
forests. In Cairo, LowI Egypt, great
many years ago, rain fell but seldom,
only once in three or four years but
since -tiie time Of AIoliammed Ali,
ts .sss5.s 8. lFtE live plI lions ri trees have
rainy days every year. Surely these
few of the many examlSes are warnings
sufficient to put us ON our guard.
/ SINGULAR CHANGES IN IRoN.-Prof.
Mayer gives some interesting statements
the result OF careful and prolonged
researches made by regarding the
effect OF magnetism on iron. He states
that he has discovered by means of the
/ Saxton comparator, that rods of iron
suffer Il permanent elongation by mag
netization Of one hundred and fifty mil
/ lionts of an inch. English refined
iron gives the maximum of this elonga-
ton, and scrap IRON the minimum.
Whether the current is gradually in
creased in intensity, or whether it Is
sent full charge at once, it produces the
.same degree of clongation. Prof.
Mayer found. on his experiments, that
with one cell the elongation took place
in six-tenths of a second with twenty
five cells it took place IN two-tenths of
a. second. It is thought that this
elongation of iron under magnetism
being fact, it might make, III its effect
on the earth, an appreciable difference
in the length Of the day. This can be
detected by the means which astronomy
affords: even SO infnitesimal a~change
in the day as that Of scycn-hundredtbs
of second would be perfectly easy to
I discover now.
SOLAR PHENOMENA. One of the most
remarkable phenomena at present en-
gaging the attention of astronomers is
what are known as the solar prominen-
ces. Observations made with the largest
telescopes declare theseaominences TO
, be streams of intensely yAeated hydro
gen. which are elected from the sun
with such velocity that they would
reach the earth IN few hours if of suf1i-
cient volume That there IS enough
hydrogen in the sun to produce such a
volume Is not at all doubtful, if only
, the forces which leads to the eruptions
Moveover, 'sucn ar'rfli1Is5, - t.-~s-,-' ti.o a
: precedent. In May, 1868, the star L
1 of the constellation Corona Boreails
' which had not been visible to the unas
g sisted eve, suddenly frightened up to
star of the second magnitude. An ex
t animation showed that it had becom
enveloped in a vast atmosphere of heat
cd hydrogen. which extended from 1t a
S far as from the sun "a the earth, an'
I subsided in about tk4-e days. 1t
argued. therefore, that our sun Is es
/, sentially of the nature of that star, ant
: that such an event is as possible ther
as it was in the other case.
/ IMPROVED INDIA RUBBER TUBING. =
| If is we'll krown that ordinary vulcan
t lied india-rubber tubing becomes satu
g rated with gas, which again evaporate
Il at its outer surface, causiag mos
offensive odor. An invention for pre-
venting this. by coating the india-rut
ber with varnish, has lately bee
/, brought forward in England Ih
l. principal feature in this method is, th'
:, the varnish is easily made, and it rel
Il ders the substance of the tube lmpel
! vions to gases. The varnish is con
; posed of linseed oil and fine litharg'
e or white lead, in the proportion OF on
, quart of oil to one of litharge. Ihe'
1 substances are well boiled together III
= til brought to a proper thickness
i BODY. and. while hot, the composite
y is applied by running 1t through Il
l. tube TO be coated or lined. The va
is nisb for tie outside is made by mixlr
90 one quart of hnseed oil with ha
T. pound of litharge and adding to II
N same about a gill of gold size The
ID ingredients are well boiled togethc
Sc and, while hot, are applied with brui
- or sponge.
he A STRANGE phenomena has, 1t seem
~ been discovered by the British surve
ing ship Shearwater, which vessel, Ia
% ing accomplished her task for Il
OF season. has Lately returned to Gallipo
oW The labors of the surveying parties
lo heard have. saws the Dardanelles cS
nu RESPONDENT of the Levant Herai
u been crowned with satisfactory resul
'h- and one highly Interesting fact has be
Q" ascertained of which the existence
never before surmised. 1t was fou
IS that the proveYbially rapid cure
ior which runs from north to south both
ok tbe Dadanelles and the Bosphorus
Us, only superficial, for at the depth OF
,t ot fathoms the surveying party discover
90 90, in the course of their soundings, Il
ion there exists an under current runnl
nal with prodigious force into
OF BLACK Sea. So test the strength OF {
ay, ;4o under current special apparatus
rn, constructed and attached to the SIN
hat boats. when astonishing TO relate
ms; boats were in many places driven aid
est est against the upper current with velot
80 greater than that of the steam lau
- belonging to the Shearwater
cot THERE was once an old woman
,bo in answer to a visiting almoner's in'
East ries as to how she did, said; 20,
had the Lord is good to me; I've lost
II husband and my eldest son, and
I 70 Youngest daughter, and I'm half bli
and I can't sleep or move about Tor
rheumatism but I've got two teeth
rate in my head, and, praise and bless
ally holy name, they are. opposite
but other y 1t has been said that this
ron, woman was thankful for small mert
been Oats should be bruised for an
,1c \ - f<r a vor10o one bpc.