River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-10-21
Scientific Notes.


Bricks made of blast furnace Stag
can be produced at low cost, and are
said to be less absorbent than bricks
made of ordinary clay by forty or fifty
per cent.
PRoF GEaENBAUEE, Of Jena, the
well-known comparative anatomist, has
been nominated Professor of Anatomy
and director of the Anatomical Insti
tute in the University of Heidelberg
PRoF. w II. Flower, of Tue Royal
College OF Surgeons of England, has
sent The skeleton of iackal, with all
the modern Improvements m articula-
ton, to the Smithsonian institution at
Washington.
ACCORDING to the report of the geo
logical survey of Newfoundland, vein
of TOMBSTONE, rivalling in texture and
quality the famous Il-stone of Tur-
key, has been discovered on the island.
ltoccurs in great quantity.
ANovEL application OF ice was made
at St Ions the other day,Gwhen forty
five tons were used to cool and thus
contract the iron tubes of the mammoth
suspension bridge across tbs MISSISSIPPI
~ w uuiOW bIit liiHtIblOb VI tho tOuuCCb-
ing tubes. sEroy n ,ege.
ACCORDING to a San Francisco news.
paper, M. Alfred Paraf's. method of
manufacturing butter from fresh fat is
now in operation on a large scale in
that city. The company manufacture
butter outsof Ruet from fresh beef, and
assert that the article will be in every
respect equal TO that made of creum.
1 The bsuet is first ground, and then
thrown into huge tank containing
about one foot of water. The mass is
next raised TO blood heat, and after
half hours stirring is left to settle
hoscraps fall, and The pure fat re-
1 mains. This is collected, wrapped in
cloths, and submitted TO presses of tre-
mendous power. The -oleine oozes
through the cloth and is conveyed into
another tub, where, after the addition
of little milk aud rennet, it is agita-
ted in the ordinary manner OF cream to
produce butter. 'F
In communication to the London
Times, Mr.. Hodgson Pratt, of the
Workingmen's Club and Institute
Union, testifies to the great value to
visitors at the Guildhall Museum of
the Saturday afternoon lectures by
such distinguished men as Professor
Owen, DIR. Sharp, Mr.. Fellowes, and
Professor Plower, who have generously
!, given their valuable time as guides TO
the parties visiting the collections of
geology, of Greek or Experimentation
ties, OF comparative anatomy, and other
treasures in science, art, or nature
Mr.. Hodgson suggests that the govern
ment should provide lecturers mt the
several public museums of art, science
and natural history in England, SO that
ut certain hours weekly each depart
ment should have an able expositor,
who should, in clear and popular style.
indicate the range and value of the
knowledge which such collection illus
trated and founded. At the end of
such exposition questions might be
answered, and the names of books
suggested for those who wished to
pursue the great topic thus opened to
their view.
SINCE the first well-defined Suspicion
of milk as the agent of disseminating
typhoid fever, evidence has accumula-
ted which proves that the subject il
one of importance by no means minor.
DR.. Bateson, Medical Inspector of
Leeds, England, has just added i'm
portant testimony on the subject. To
wards the close of the year 1872, ac-
cording TO him, fever appeared in
Leeds IN isolated places, and in dis
tricts where the sanitary condition was
inetceptionable. The cause Of this
for while completely baffled discov-
cry; but at length il was ipund that a
milk dealer living in the centre of the
town supplied every house in which
fever was present. But the mix dealer
got his milk from a farmhouse some
distance away, and all within his own
house we're well. Upon visiting the
farmhouse six persons were found suf-
fering from the disease, lying in
room adjoining that in which the milk
cans we're kept, and nursed by the
woman who managed the dairy. OF the
eighty persons attacked fourteen died.
Adairyman in Glasgow, having fever
in his house, supplied seventy-three
families, living in five different streets,
and in these families thirty-siS cases OF
fever occurred.
In q paper read before Tire Britipa
Association for the Advancement Os
Science, on the subject of coal, Pro-
lessor Williamson appears'to take the
ground that there were in the coal
period no representatives of the Dicoty-
iedonuus AID Monocotyledonou
plants THAT Is, plants OF the ordinary
lowering types. Several such have
been included in published lists, but,
on Investigation, they all melt away.
One, which has been believed 10 be a
palm, the Professor showed TO be a fern.
Another, regarded rs a near ally of the
broom-rapes, was now known TO be
nothing Of the kind. The evidence
that any such plants existed during
this early age OF tho wofldlwas of the
most unsatisfactory kind, and all the
known carboniierous deposits from
Greenland and Australia told the same
talo Of cosmopolitan vegetation limit
ed TO the Cryptogamic aud Coniierou,s
types Physiologically these fossils
differ from living plants OF the same
= types in the existence of an exygenouss
y procega of prowth in the stems OF