The star of Pascagoula. [volume] (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1873-1878, 1877-04-27
POPULAR SCIENCE.

THOSE who fear the destruction of our
forests resulting from the demand for
hemlock bark, will take comfort in the
success of attempts to obtain tannin
from other sources. 1t has been esti-
mated that one cord OF hemlock bark
produces one barrel of good tannin ex-
tract, worth $50. 1t is now found that
one cord of alder will produce the same
amount and one ton of sweet fern gives
of the best tannin S22 worth, besides a
value of $3.50 in an inferior kind. There
is said to be considerable activity in
Hancock county, Me-, in the new indus
try. of extracting tannin from sweet tern.
IMPORTANT progress has recently been
made in enabling Englishwomen to OBJ.
tain a medical education. Some of the
leading colleges and universities had
opened their doors to women students,
but none of the hospitals would permit
the women to enter for clinical ~instruc.
ton. Nature announces hat the Royal
Free hospital in Gray's Inn road has at
last granted this privilege. 1t is said to
have come just in time to prevent the
breaking upof the London school of med
lNlIiC VI "OIlth. vi lildt
school had resolved to close it unless this
concession could be obtained, to rec
ommend the pupils to seek instruction
elsewhere than in England.
PROF, PoLITzER recently put before
the Medical society of the Vienna Gar.
rison some new proof of the use of both
ears in determining the direction of
sound. People who are deaf in one ear
make strange mistakes when hunting, as
they are apt to suppose that any sound
comes from the direction toward which
the ear they hear with may happen to be
turned. A neat little experiment, easily
tried, is devised by Prof. PoIitzer.
Above the top of the head of a person
whose eyes are bandaged a watch, tick
ing loudly, is to be passed. The blind
tainly whether the watch is above, be-
fore, or behind the top of his head.
When one of his ears is closed, the
watch seems to him TO be nearest to the
other ear, and this impression will still
be p%erceptible even though the bandage
be removed from his eyes. The source
of sound is in general referred to a point
on the right or left, according as either
ear hears most loudly.
THERE has been much said recently
about the powers of potassium xanthate
as an antiseptic. A correspondent of the
Boston Journal of Chemistry makes
some remarkable statements concerning
this salt. = New wine was treated with it,
and some months afterward was found
to possess its original taste and sweet
ppgg Tho wtna uog tbnp GElr,pI- IN
considerable quantity by different per-
sons without the slightest injurious effect
following" Such a declaration as to
any wine may strike believers in total
abstinence with surprise. P otassium
xanthate is said to be easily and cheaply
prepared; only small quantities need be
used, and no harm seems likely to ensue
from taking it, except in the few cases
of disease where any potassium salt
would have a bad effect. Vegetable
juices and saps clarified by means of q
addition of this salt have remained
without mold or fermentation after eight
months exposure to the air.
As an evidence of the efficacy of vac
the experience of a small. pox
hospital at Homerton, England, may be
cited. A lot of new servants (%nurses)
we're engaged, of whom twenty-seven had
previously had smallpox, tw~enty-eight
been revaccinated, and one had not
Deen vaccinated since childhood. The
me last referred to turned out to be the
'nly one in the lot who contracted small
,ox in the hospital service. In a report
the Metropolitan District asylum
,oard, it is stated that of IA, 500 small
OK cases in the London hospital only
our were well authenticated instances
revaccination had been properly
reformed, and the four were light at
acks of the disease. OF three hundred
attendants, the only sufferers
rom small-pox-and they were few
yere those whose revaccination had been
eglected, including one case of a nurse
Tho had previously had small pox, and
it again.
A SOCIETY has been formed which an
ounces as its object "simplifcation of
photography" Among the Of
cersEof this spelling reform association
re- the names-hOnored in pathological
.ience-of Profs. +. A. March, w. D.
and S. s.. Haldeman. The cir.
liar which announces the formation of
le society inclOses a specimen of what Is
lied Revised Spelling" OF this H
ngle sentence may suffice our readers.
Their being so It'll diferens between the
of the fonetic and the ordinary
int and script, thez hoo can reed and
It the later will reed the fonetic and
ript ezily, and the new spelling can be
trodeust gradually without hinderans
biznes or friendship" Ordinary peo-
: will be apt to see in this a remarkable
eness TO the effusion of Nasby and
sh Billings. Before yielding TO the
pc that the new ''spelling" can be in
without hindrance TO friend
p, it may be wei! to recall the clinch-
argument of old Major Pendennis:
yhatl Marry a woman who spellsat-
tion with once f?'