Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-03-07
MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.


French Academy on the planet as
Sumed to exist within the orbit of
Mercury, Nj. Leverrier mentions that
in the elements adopted, or very
similar ones, solar conjunction would
occur on March %, and transit over
the suns disk was possible though I'M
certain. Noticing this matter, Nature
recommends that careful eXamina-
ton should be made of the disk on
March % and %, and remarks that
there is reason to believe that observ-
ers in widely differing longitudes are
| prepared to undertake it, If no tran
| sit should then occur, eight or nine
years may elapse before one is posi-
bic at the spring node.
| The weight of the body, as is well
known, has often been assumed as an
infallible proof of the maintenance of
the condition of the BODY, or of dep
osition of tissue, and the food which
| keeps up mans weight has been re-
| garded US on that account satisfac-
torilv nutritious. Remarking upon
this, in his recent address, at Munich,
| Prot. Volt says that the weight of the
| body is really no criterion of the food
taken, because, while the weight re-
mains constant, or even increases.
water may increase in the tissues and
| albumen and fat diminish; or there
may be an increase of weight and dep
osition of fat, while there is also at
the same time diminution Of the
albumen of the body-the fact being
| that badly-nourished people are usual
| ly not lighter than others, but their
bodies contain more water and Jess
albumen and fat than those who are
well-nourished. Prof. Volt also adds
that the subjective feeling of salts
faction is equally deceptive that the
Irish peasant, who consumes ten
pounds of potatoes in the day feels
quite satisfied, and yet is badly-nour-
ished, in point of fact, though not
| conscious of 1T.
DR.. kayser, of Nuremberg, has
! lately conducted number of expert
ments upon the effects of heating or
binary air, with special reference to
warming of dwellings,. The results
appear in the last report of the Mu-
Mich Industrial Museum, and may
briefly be summed up as follows: Air
| previously free from carbon monoX-
ide was invariably found to contain
this gas after heating. The tests We're
performed with chronic acid, and also
with cuprous chloride. In order to
test the products OF the decomposi-
ton of the dust present in the air,
about sixty litres of air, which had
been heated, were drawn through an
ordinary apparatus for determining
carbonic acid, which contained abso-
lutte alcohol The liquid assumed q
yellowish-brown color, and hakey
masses were suspended in it. The
flakes were found to consist chiefly OF
carbon. After filtration and evapora-
ton of the solution, a brown residue
was obtained. This was insoluble in
water, intensely acrid, and possessed
a resinous, empyreumatic odor. The
estimations Of carbonic acid and wa
ter before and after heating showed
no difference worthy of mention.
In a recent holiday lecture at the
Royal Institution, Prof. Tyndall,
| speaking Of the painless death by cleo
tricity, remarked that Franklin was
twice struck senseless by the shock.
He afterward sent the discharge of
two large jars through six robust men,
who fell to the ground and got VI
again without knowing what had hap.
pened, neither hearing nor feeling the
discharge; and Priestly, too, who
made many valuable contributions to
electricity, received the charge of
two Jars, but he did not find it pain
full. Prof. Tyndall said this expert
ence agreed with his own, that, in the
theater of the Royal Institution, and
in the presence of an audience, he
once received the discharge Of a bat
terry of fifteen Leyden jars. Unlike
Franklin's six men, lie did not fall,
but, like them, he felt nothing. he
was simply extinguished for sensible
interval. This may be regarded a. an
experimental proof that people killed
by lightning suffer no pain. Now, the
measured velocity OF electricity is
many thousand times greater than
the measured velocity of sensation in
the nerves. Hence the electrical con-
cus5iOn reaches the center of life with
out any possible announcement by the
eve OF ear or sense of fesling. There
is abundant evidence that death by a
rifle ball traversing the brain is for the
same reason entirely without con-
/ seriousness or pain. \ rife bali. how
ever, is tortoise compared with the
. ! electric flash