The star of Pascagoula. [volume] (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1873-1878, 1877-01-12
Scientific Miscellany.

In a recently opened mine near Gaines
vile, Ga, have been unearthed gold
silver, copper, iron, zinc, titanium, nickel
tin, moly bdinum, lead, stealite, kaolin|
mica, rock crystal, lumber, asbestos, ru|
bies, diamonds, garncts and %corundum
An advantage oyer ordinary tea, at
tributed to mate tea of Paraguay, Is thai
its excessive use does not occasion any
nervous disorder. A beverage superior
10 coffee rs usually prepared is said ID
have been introduced into Australia
lately. 1t is made from the leaf of the
coffee shrub, instead of from the berry.
NJ. Beckerlinn, of the Vienna academy
has lately demonstrated that nitro
glycerine when frozen is not so sensitive
to shocks or blows az the same substance
is when in the ordinary liquid state
Until now the crystalized form has gene
rally been looked upon as far more eS1
plosive than the other, when subjected
to any sudden impact,
The attempt to grow India-rubber and
vanilla in Bengal has thus far failed
and is probably impracticable, but there
is a good prospect that the cultivation
of the ipecacuanha plant will soon be
successfully established in several parts
OF India. The best quality of ~ipecacu1
anha is native of Brazil, but the last re-
port of the director of the royal botanic
garden at Calcutta states that the India
product is now equal to it.
In the treatment of malarious diseases
in India, it is found that ~quinine loses
its effect after it has been administered
for a short time, although it is extremely
etficacious at first. Liquor arsenicalis
in chronic cases of malaria, and the nitric
bath for children, are the remedies now
in favor among the physicians of upper
India, although they frankly express
that removal from the malarisus district
is the only safeguard.
1t is well known that linseed oil, boiled
until it has lost five per cent. of its weight,
assumes the appearance or condition of
molasses, and when the loss is twelve per
cent. it changes into a mass strongly re-
sembling caoutchouc. To test the dry
ing properties of oils boiled for various
lengths of time, NJ. Saac states that he
applied them 10 Il deal-board the re-
suit was that the oil which had been
boiled for the space of ten minutes be-
came a fine, transparent varnish in
twenty-four hours, that which had the
consistency of mOlasses was not resinfied
in fifteen days, and that boiled to the
consistency of c%aoutchouc remained en-
tirely unaltered. From this it would
appear that the drying property is not
improved by Il concentration OF the oil.
According to DR.. Sturges, an English
physician, whooping-cough is not always
to be escaped by preventing c%ontagiOn,
for at a certain age the disposition to-
ward this disease is 80 great that the
child will originate it. He says :;
I" Whooping-cough is a nervous disease of
sensibility of the bronchial mucous mem
brane. Although possible in a modified
form at all ages, it has its period of
special liability and full development
simultaneously with hat time of life
when the nervous system is irritable and
the mechanism of respiration diaphrag-
matte. A child OF the proper age with
catarrh and cough is thus on the very
brink of whooping cough. A large pro.
portion of such children will develop
the disease for themse yes upon casual
proyocation, all contagion and all epidem.
&c influence apart" Therefore he does
not think contagion plays the important
part generally supposed, and the assump-
ton Of a specific -lHlH0T6id poison is in his
opinion entirely gratuitous. As to
treatment he says: "The specific RENE
dies for whooping.cough (Which have
their season and may be said now to in
cludeall drugs whatever Of any potency,
have all of them a certain testimony in
their favor. They agree in single point;
whatever by thier nauseousness, the
grievous method of their application, or
the disturbance they bring to the child's
habits and surroundings, the best vaunted
remedies emetics, sponging of the lar
ynx, ill-tiavored inhalation, change of
scene, beating with the rod--are all cal
culated to impress the patient, and find
their use accordingly"
A writer in the Scientific Farmer est.
mates the food-value of enc pound OF
eggs as a producer of force, ], e., the
amount of work the pound oxidized in
the bodyis theoretically capable Of pro-
duciDg at 1884 foot-tous, and the value
of one pound of lean beef, from the same
point of view, at 800 toot-tons. As a
tiesh-producer, one pound of eggs is
about equal to one pound Of beef, and is
shown by the following analysis quoted
by the author: