The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-02-09
SCI ENrIFIc MISCELLANY.

laid when placed in this solution, sink
at once to the bottom, while those three
DAYS old sink just below the surface, and
those FIVE days old float on the surface
like so many corks.
Tactic acid is known to possess the
power of removing or destroying the
incrustations which form on the arteries,
carriages and valves of the heart, and as
buttermilk abounds in such acid and is
an acceptable kind of food, its habitual
use. it is urged by NJ. Robrieg, French
chemist, will free the system from these
affections and permit every body to be-
I Asyrfter in the Westminster Review,
in commenting upon the folly of prefer
ring the whitest kinds of bread, says he
was once told by an able medical prac-
titioner that the decay of modern teeth
is due to the exclusive use Of white
bread, because flourine, an element pres
ent in the teeth, is to be found in the
/ husks of wheat and other cereals alone.
He wisely adds, however, that he does
not know how his friend accounts tol
/ the seundness of the teeth of dogs and
tigers
A paper upon the currents at mouths
of rivers remarks that where these fall
into the sea under-current of perfectly
salt water, according to the depth, the
nature of the bottom, &c, runs up to q
greater or less distance in the opposite
/ direction The Gotha, for instance, half
(Swedish) mile before its entrance into
the sea, has water at the depth of two
/ fathoms Of almost the same sadness as
seawater at a similar depth a mile and
three-quaters from its mouth. Currents
in general are caused not only by the
distribution of rainfall, evaporation,
heat, &c, which produce surface changes.
Much interest has been lately attached
to the Investigation of the zoology of tie
region which embraces the Aral, Caspian
and Euxine seas with their atfiuents /;
and, as a summation of what is now
known, it is stated that about two hun
dred and eighty species of fishes are now
known in these waters, of which eighty
are marine, one hundred fresh-water,
forty brackish, twenty inhabit various
water and forty are migratory; one hun
dred and fifty species belong exclusively
to the region and ten have spread out
into neighboring regions at comparatively
recent times. OF the one hundred and
twenty other species, about twenty-five
have a wide range of distribution, about
thirty have migrated into the Black sea
from the Mediterranean and fifteen have
penetrated into the North. Out of the
one one hundred and sixty zpeeies- Limited ee4 SIX
found in the Black sea, ffty-four in the
Caspian, and twenty-six in lake Aral.
Only six inhabt all of them, four species
ares common to the Caspian and Aral
basins, and twenty FIVE to the Black sea
and the Caspian.
The annual report of thestate fish COM
missioners Of Virginia has just been pub
lished, containing an account of what
they have done in carrying out the trusts
confded to them by the legislature. As
might have been expected, the first eff
forts were directed to the propagation of
the sbad, but they found it extremely
difficult to obtain spawners in sufficient
number to furnish a satisfactory supply. !
Only 100000 young fish were obtained |
and planted in the Rappahannock, and /
about 100000 in the James. About |
800, 900 eggs of the California salmon
were received from the United States
commission and of these about 100. 600
were hatcled out and planted in the
various waters Of the state, especially
those Oftht James and Roanoke. OF the
land-locked almon furnished them. the
greater part were Matched out and
planted il saitable waters. Something
was done as0with the red-eyed perch,
the bass aid the brook trout.
Proffessr Lebert has addressed a COM
70 the Swiss society of natu-
raj sciences upon the nature of the amber
Of Mount LebanOn-a SUI bstance known
to the ancents and probably used by the
PhpniciaI5 as an article of commerce.
This subssPce is found in Ignite, the
black cobr of which penetrates to a
greater or less degree the resin itself,
what is known as the black
mber. quite different from that of tho {
3altic. some specimens have the bril-
liant golden color of true amber. Some
re of reddish-brown, and throw pecu-
ar striatedand concentric layers. The Il
OnsistencyOf this resin is less decided.
re fractuN more brilliant and more
's'7sy tina that of the 4. -, ..s..l,.,.. No o
lcclnic aid was found in it by heating Z
Close tube. 1t was furthermore ascer- u
lned that heat causes the powdered o.
nber to swell in distillation without "
~ Crystalline spicula, and with no g
action of iron. The liquid was of a NJ
eenish color, and of a very disagreeable -
or, that of succinic acid, as might be
pected, being entirely wanting. From
csc and other observations it was
termined that this resin was not gem l.,
lie amber, but differs very considerably. ~
'bably forming a new species, and =.
'sibly the oldest fossil resin known, as a.
geological relation is in the:cretaceous, 70,
ite amber is in the miocene tertiary. III,