The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-04-02
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

on the question whether birds of pre-
, are guided to their food by sight o
smell. Mr.. Ashton w. Dixie, th
Siberian traveller, recounts his expe
rience in the intensely dry climate o
/ Central Asia as tending to show tina
! the guiding power must lie in the eyes
In the clear atmosphere, almost FREE
from moisture, which there prevails
the process of animal decomposition il
exceedingly slow ; and he has observed
that game when covered over by bushes
will remain for long true untouched
by birds of prey, while on broad plains
destitute of vegetation the vultures
will swoop down on an animal almost
before it is dead. Mr.. Dixie states also
that the vultures are invariably the
first species of bird to appear about the
dead creature; their presence around
the prey seems To attract the condors
and the bear-coots, on the arrival OF
which the vultures retire for the time
being. Mr.. Dixie is the first traveller,
we believe, who has noticed the exist
ence of the largest of flying birds, the
condor, in Central Asia.
A VERY simple thermometer has been
suggested by A. Jaksch, of Bohemia.
after the following plan: An ounce bot
| tie is to- be two. thirds filled with glyc-
crime of any desired color, and placed
in freezing mixture of sal ammonia,
saltpeter, and water so as to cool the
liquid to thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit.
A glass tube, twelve to fifteen inches
long, is passed through n good-titting
cork, so as to dip nearly an inch into
the bottle and rendered air-tight with
sealing wax or cement of vlrnish and
chalk, and the thermometer is then
ready to be graduated. On inserting
the cork the liquid rises in the tube a
few inches. The bottle is placed in
melting ice, and the level of the liquid
marked thirty-two degrees, if the scale
is to be Fahrenheit's. 1t is next placed
in warm water, say 1872 degrees, and
this point marked. The space between
these points is divided into 100 equal
parts, and this division carried down to
the Fahrenheit zero, and upward to the
tubes.
RECENTLY the bones of mastodon
were discovered on the farm of a Mr..
Isaac Wardell, in Camboro, near Dun
vile, Canada. The parts shown are an
immense tusk or horn, weighing more
than two hundred pounds, and part
of tusk, weighing about seventy-fve
pounds. There are also, in n perfect
state of preservation, short rib, five
feet long, several vertebre, parts of II
skull, and two pieces of the under jaw.
The animal had two teeth on each side
of the jaw, which weighed five and one
half pounds. Practical anatomists who
have seen it say that it must have
weighed over one hundred tons, and
stood eighteen to twenty feet high.
URAsTERALLA sELwYNII appears to be
the first fossil star-fish found in Au-
stralia. These star-fshes, like many
other Australian fossils, are almost
identical with British types. There is
no more remarkable fact in the history
and distribution of life than the affinity
that seems to exist between the forms
of life over two areas 80 old aud so
vastly removed as that of Britain and |
Australia, antipodal to each other +; |
universally might almost be applied |
through Homotaxis tc the geographical |
which comprise the periods even strait |
graphically and lithologically as well
as the existence in common of numer- |
tive and some even identical species |
between the two countries.
AUSTRALIA seems to be even more
fatal to explorers than Africa. 1t has
been ascertained that Hume, who, with
two others, went to the rescue of Clas-
san, a supposed survivor of the LEIGH
ardt exploring expedition, has perished
from lack of water only fifty miles from
the Wilson river. Another of the party
is supposed to be dead, but the third
succeeded in reaching the river.
PROFESSOR DOVE has published an
article ON cool Mays after mild January,
in which he confirms the popular i'm
preston that a mild winter is followed
by a cool spring. The rule is not gen.
eral, however, for he finds that a mild
January is followed 10y mild May in
the interior of continents, by cool
May in the north and east coasts, and
by milder May then usual on the At.
lantic cost, in Europe.
A BEAUTIFUL and easily-produced ex-
Of crystal formation may bs
seen under the microscope, as follows
Upon slip of glass place drop OF
liquid chloride of gold, or nitrate of
silver, with a particle OF zinc in the
gold and copper in the silver. A growth
Of exquisite gold or silver ferns will
spring up under the observers delig GIFTED
eye.
The objection which many persons
urge against using tincture of iodine on
the skin IS. that the stain is ineradica-
BILE, except after considerable time.
If a few drops of carbolic acid be
added to the tincture," says a medical
cit will not stain; more
over, the tincture itself is more eflica-
,ious."
DEL GRECO recommends, in cases of
auterization-after applying nitrate OF
silver in the usual manner-the passage
Of a small cylinder or pencil of polished
zinc several times over the surface al.
ready whitened by the caustic. The
parts Immediately blacken, and the
action becomes deeper.
As an illustration of the speed at
which the electric current travels, a
message sent from the observatory of
Harvard college direct to San Francisco
md back by way of Canada, over thir-
,een railways, occupied only two-thirds
IF a second.
ZENGER has succeeded in obtaining
proofs of the sun and
noon no less than nine feet two inches
N diameter. He used concave mir
-or instead of the ordinary object glass.
AT the iron works belonging TO Sir J.
Browne & Co., at Sheffield, England,
ron nails are now cut by means OF a
circular, tooihless disc of iron, which
Is driven at the rate of from 1000 TO
3, 900 revolutions per minute.
A NEW proof of the persistent vitality
Of seeds is given by the Towering of
some that we're dug up from the old
,lag heaps of Laurium in Greece, and
hat must be two thousand years old.
They belong to the genus g'Gucjnunl,
out are of an instinct species.
The great Lick telescope, which Pro-
lessor Newcomh is now negotiating for
n Europe, is to have a diameter of
,hree feet if 1t is possible to make a
perfect lens of that size.
A FLORAL OFFERER.-A Liverpool
paper says that an action involving the
question of the right mot to hiss butt
% throw bouquets to actresses, is about |