The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-03-07
The New Religion.

analogous to the sequence of pitch in the musi-
cal gamut. According to Newton belief there
might be correspondence between the length
OF spectrum colors and the vibrations of must
esi SOUND, but the true relationship is between
eue sip.a'ins pitch of color and the vibrating
pitch of sound. An octave in mp.;c ia am
braced in the extreme limits of the snoc,rrr,
| Ine IoHoWing will show the striking anaIoov
| between music and color; Calling red IoO Ihss
| proportlonate vibration of orange is so: that ~
yellow 81; Of greco 20; of blue SO; of indigo "a;
OF violet 90; of ultraviolet SO; and an obscure
or extreme violet, 80. The vibration of c in
| music corresponds to that of red in color and
| taxing Q as 100, .he vibration of ID is SO; OF e
oQ; OF 70; of G 67; of A 60; of B SO; and that
| An English paper observes: perhaps the
strangest fact in Messrs. Behm and Wapper's
statistics is that the area of the globe seems 10
be gradually growing less. If we are to be
guided by their fisures it must have decreased
o3,349 square miles. The diminution in ques.
ton is owing to no depudng or sbradipe aeen-
c'es, but merely to more accurate aud tended
surveys which have been made 10 America and
other newly settled portous of .he ear bis sur.
| race S'miiarly, the enormous increase of 81
O0OO In the population Of the world, which
| apparently has uccarred since Drs Babm and
wagner report was Issued last wear ia du. NOT
10 fdDio MULTIPLICATION, but 60 the results of
more exact aOd panstsking CT nsuses than have
heretofore Oeen made ia Iudia and in some
parts of Europe
A writer 10 the American Journal of Science
aud Arts throws grave doubts upon the idea
| OF an ''inter-Mercurial plauet." Referring to
LIE VerrieI's theory he says; In his discus sion
Mr.. LIE Verrier expressed belief in the exis-
tehce OF planet revolving around the sun
within the orbit Of Mercury. At hfs request
the sun was observed early in October, both IN
shis country and in Europe, bot without result.
de thinks q transit possible on tbs o9d ~
March next, if the orbit is one of 1902 davs
NO other spring traust occurs with that sun
position before 1885. For an October transit
We must wait till about 1884, None of the oh.
snn se,va,ons MADE use OF bS LIE Verrier, however.
appear 10 De 80 fres from doubt as to establish
tne existence OF planet within the orbit of
Mercury.
An idea is gaining ground with aeronauts
that the solution of the polar problem now rest,
with them. Captain Cheyne, retired British
naval officer has volunteered to conduct bal
loon party over the four hundred miles or there.
abouts which have not set been traversed, and
the project finds warm supporter in Mr..
Coxwell, who deems such an expedition quite
feasible. The only trouble an Tive ss,s&a . e -
L ssss,suussl Hkis, kswserrf he thinks NAV be-
gotten over by the use of 6re-halloons. He
recommends the use of ''very large Montgol-
fiers,'' in which it would be possible to stow
away o couple of sledges with dogs, and ''boats
fit for con tention with polar sea q forlorn
hope' -Four hundred miles at the average rate
OF atmospheric speed would not in his opinion,
occupy twenty-four hours. Mr. Coxwells plan
IS well calculated to startle the uninitiated in
aerostatlcs.
Scientific men appear to agree, for the most
he N;n;o hot tha ata1
| by the sun and other canses, as well as by the
moon, but that the moons influence on the tide
is about double that of the sun. The calculated
| effects on the tides. therefore, would he that,
when the sun and moon are on the same or op-
posite sides Of the earth, the water would be
three feet deeper, while it should be one foot
deeper when they are at quarters; their forces
act together in the first case. and against each
other in the latter In regard to the Oft re-
peated question as TO why the whole earth does
not yield to the influence of these forces and
get squeezed out of shape, the most plausible
reply IS that which contradicts the geological
hypothesis that the earth is merely solid
crust and is molten in the interior; it is argued
in fact, against the latter theory, that If it
were true, the shell would have to be perpetu-
ally rigid in order for it to keep It's shape, and
that unless it were scores of times more rigid
than steel 1t would yield to the forces, and tax.
course, be no such phenomena as tide.
distinguished English physician, in q re-
cent exoeriment, has furnished, as he thinks.
another interesting proof OF the sanitary iufiu-
ence of sunlight. The poison of the cobra,
which be received from India on ivory points,
was exposed in glass bottle to the sunlight, q
portion of them being wrapped in paper. He
found that on some Of the points that had been
exposed to the light, the poison had become in
| ert, while on those in the same bottle that had
been wrapped in paper the poison still retained
| its fatal activity. He argues from this that
sunlight might, in the same way, destroy the
poison OF small pox, scarlet and typhoid fevers.
Whether this is SO or not there is no doubs
about the healthfu power of sunshine. 1t 10
upwlse TO shut it out of our dwellings, Ipva-
| lids especially need its cheerful Influence At
this time the air from out of doors should be
| ieely admitted to our dwellings,. IL 70 the opin-
Ion OF some OF our physicians that the diseases
| that are prevailing among the children in this
town are IN part, at least, occasioned by the air
| from sewers or cellars under the house,. The
ROOMS should be freely ventilated during these
| pleasant days.
What comets mag really in structure aod
character be, remains almost as difficult conf
| IDENTIFY TO state as it was two centuries ago.
| That they are Lot solid masses every one is
agreed. 1t seems probable that even the nu-
cleus when brightest and apparently most con-
densed is, if single body, quantity of glow
| ing gas, not a solid or even liquid substance.
1t is remarkable that not only the tail, so called
but even the nucleus itself is as a rule so thin
that bright star can be seen through it
| scarcely dimmed What the tail may be is
| even more perplexipg than the question
| Of what the head and nucleus of the
| comet may consist. The tails have some
| times extended over more than a quarter
| OF the heavens; that is to say, have
| reached from the zenith to the horizon, and
IRON their ascertained distance have been CAL
culated to occupy length of not less than
ninety millions of miles. or very nearly the dis
| tance OF the earth from the sun; so that when
the heap of the comet was passing the sun in
| his immediate neiRhborhoOd, the extreme end
| of the tail might be almost in the immediate
vicinity of our planet
In a recent lecture delivered in,Edinburgh on
The S.ars," Professor Grant gave graphic
idea of the immensity of space. He said that
a railway train travelling night and day at the
rate of fifty mile, an hour would reach the
moon in six months, the sun in two hundred
years, and Alpha Centauri, the nearest of the
fixed stars, in forty-two millions of years. A
bal from gun, travelling at the rate of nine
hundred miles an hour, would reach Alpha
Centauri in 100000 years; while light, travel
ling as it did at the rate of $4,000 miles in
| a second, would not reach it in less than three
years. Light from some of the telescopic stars
would take $3.50 years to reach the earth; and
from some of these clusters the distance was so
| great that light would take half a million of
years to pass to the earth, so that we saw OBJ
jects not as they really are, but as they were
half million years ago. These stars might
have become extinct thousands OF years ago,
and yet their light might present itself to US.
AS TO the magnitude of the stars, he noticed
that it was computed. that Alpha Lyra was one
hundred billions of miles distant from the
earth, and its magnitude and spendor were as
20 to 1 When compared with our suu. Similar
Investigations brought out the fact that our
sun was neither vastly greater nor vastly less
than the great majority of the stars
An Indian correspondent writes to Nature
There is popular belief that it is dangerous to
sleep in full moonshine, as it is supposed to
produce some injurious effect called moon
stroke. A clear sky admits of rapid radiation
and any person exposed to such radiation is
sure to be chilled by rapid loss of heat. There