The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-22
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

muscles are arranged TO move q Q1Gl
finger or a sixth toe where an excess of
such organs exist Those who treat ex-
clusively of the mind can not always
explain eccentricities satisfactorily, how
ever successful in recording singular
deviations from a normal standard
Physicians entertain the opinion that
when any one portion of the brain is
intensely active in aparticular direction,
| to the exclusion of such motives as gov
ern well-balanced intellects, the indi-
vidual thus distinguished is deranged.
Avarice, therefore, degenerated into an
all. absorbing love of money, is an in
curable form of insanity, intensified bv
success in it's accumulation. Lord
/ Chancellor Hardwick, when worth 81
900, 900, was as saving of half crown
as when worth only one hundred pounds.
The celebrated duke of Marlborough,
in the last stage of life, walked in q
dark, cold night to his lodgings at Bath
| to save six pence, leaving more than
million and half pounds sterling to a
scapegrace relative who had always
| been an enemy. Sir James Lowther,
whose income was $240, 900 year, old,
lame and infrm, went some way back to
coffee-house for better half penny
that had been given him in change. He
| looked about for an heir. Sir William
Smith of Bedfordshire, vastly rich
Englishman, totally blind, agreed to
give an oculist sixty guineas if he re-
stored his vision. The operation was
successful, but the old miser pretended
it was not exactly perfect, although he
ever after could read and write he got
off with thirty. A rich New Yorker,
not many years in the grave, who left
reputed fortune of SIG, 100000, was in
the habit of buying single muffin for
breakfast, which he carried home from
the bakers in bit of newspaper.
A REMARKABLE FLOWER. is a
flower in the city of Constantinople be-
longing to the narcissus family, bull
bousrooted plant that has most marve-
lous flower. It is exactly in the form
and color of humming bird, so plainly
marked that person at first sight is
disposed to believe it is veritable bird
at rest upon the plant. This wonderful
flower is in the possession of but half a
dozen persons, and they utterly refuse
to part with bulbs or seed. It's bloom
remains fresh for two or three days, and
is always replaced by another before the
first begins to fade. 1t does not con-
tinue in bloom more than three weeks,
when the leaves fall and the stem dies
away, to again throw up its stem with
the bird flowers the following year.
This most wonderful curiosity is repre-
sented to have been found growing near
the city named, in an old lot in an out
of-the-way place. The statements OF
responsible persons, who have seen this
wonder, verify all we have said of it;
and from gentleman who has seen it
our statements are taken. COLn1an's
RawaJ World.
THE Echo OF LARGE RooMs.-The
use of wires for correcting reverbera-
tion in interiors has been subject to
some very recent experiments in the
cathedral of st. Fin Barre, Cork, Ire
land The nave of the cathedral is of
exceeding height and very narrow. The
point whence the sound started, where
the desks were, was at the intersection
of the nave and the transepts. The
organ was ill gallery at the west end,
and the organist there seated had always
been able to hear more distinctly than
the people sitting two-thirds the way
down the nave. Those sitting close to
the pillars heard with special iHdistinct>
ness. These were the conditions of the
problem. Wires were first strained at
the level of the triforium, but produced
no immediate effect. A double course
of wires was then strained about the
piers of the central tower at the height
of twelve or fifteen feet, with the result
of considerably improving the acoustic
properties of the interior. The wire,
which may be so minute as to be scarcely
perceptible, breaks the sound-waves,
and thus corrects the reverberation.
ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. = Recent
studies has done considerable to deter
mine what the action of electricity real
" is in the excitation of muscular irri-
liability in dead bodies. The continuous
current seems to act on muscular fiber
after the manner of heat. If dead
muscle be exposed to cold, the current
restores contraction for a considerable
period but finally destroys it by induc-
ing persistent contraction. If, on the
other hand, the dead muscle is left at
its normal temperature, the current
merely shortens the period of irritabil-
ity by quickening contraction. Expert
ments lately made with the Leyden jar
demonstrate that, with sufficient cur
rent, small animals and birds can be
made absolutely rigid for the moment
in the position in which they stand
and so suddenly is the work done, so
completely is the posture of life pre-
served, that nothing but actual examina-
ton with the hand can impress on the
mind the fact that the creature has with
that sudden shock passed from the
living.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE Sexes. num-
bers the two sexes are very nearly equal
in the United States: Males, 19, 493, 505-
females, 19,O64, 806; but the distribu;
ton is not even. The greatest excess
of males is found in Idaho, 1854 to
1876 females Montana, Is, III to g.,
824 Wyoming, 1919 to 1,799; and
Nevada, 80, 379 to 1912. Females are
in excess in Alabama, 504, $50 to 482, 40;
District of Columbia, 81, ,287 to "a, 159;
Georgia, 600, ,856 to 572, 1876; Louisiana,
1886, ,345 to 328, 742; Maine, 100000 to
287, ,434 Maryland, 365, ,546 to 342, 1856;
Massachusetts. 568, $50 to 535, ,852; New
Hampshire, lat, 698 to 140, 991 /; New
Jersey, 361, ,668 to 358, 485, and New
York, 1,647, ,214 to 1897, 1872. Virginia,
Vermont, Tennessee, both Carolinas,
Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio and
New Mexico show a like excess of female
population. In Utah there are more
males than females, %, 1894 to $4,000.
A New ExPLosIvE.-Dr. Sprengel, an
English chemist, introduces a new kind
of explosive and new principle at the
same time. He takes some oxidizing
agent and places it in the chamber pre-
pared for its reception he then adds
his fluid combustible substance, and
explodes the mixture with detonating
cap. Neither of the agents is explosive
when they are separate they become
violently so after being united. Good
results are obtained by adding to 100
parts of chlorate of potash 90 parts of
bi-sulphate of carbon, or by mixing
nitro benzole with nitric acid. By fol-
lowing out the indications of DR.. Spren-
gels patent we have no doubt but ex
plosive agents of extraordinary puwer
may be used by the miner or quarry
man with the utmost safety.
INvIsIBnITY OF PERFUME. No one
has yet been able to analyze or demon
strate the essential action of perfume.
Gas can be weighed, but not scents /;
the smallest known creatures, the very
monads of life, can be caught by micro