The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-11-07
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Mr.. Lewis Swift, of Rochester. writes TO
Nature confirming the observations Of
Prof. Watson with regard to the new
planet Vulcan.
The appearance Of the Colorado beetle
at Jaratschervo, in the District Of Schrimm.
in the Prussian Province of Posen, has
been officially reported.
They make up furs without sewing now,
by applying solution of india rubber and
benzine with stiff brush and passing the
material between rollers.
1t has been discovered that wasps and
bees when subject to chloroform invaria-
bly, bring their sting to their mouths and
suck the drop of poison at the end.
There has been dispute in the French
Academy Of Sciences about the phonO-
graph, certain number of the members
contending that the instrument was ex-
hibited by a ventriloquist.
The scheme for an observatory on the
summit Of Mount Etna is again pushed In
the English scientific journals. The at
nOsphere there Is peculiarly clear, and 1t
Is thought some important results might
be arrived at by series of daily observa-
tions.
|
is closed, and gives total canning OF
49,, 900 cases-about 10000 cases short Of
the canning of the past year. As yet it Is
too early to estimate the outside canning,
but present advlces are favorable to the
opinion that it will not be more than last
year, if not considerably short. The quail
ity, too, will be below last year, owing to
more canning in Alaska, where the fish
arc moor and Of inferior onalltv
A thorough canvass Of Chicago indus
every man who will work; but wages are
not high. A factory superintendent said
that there are some idle grumblers who
day. This leads to the inquiry: Have
men who, hereafter, and in prosperous
times, will have become so unused to
work that habit will preserve them as
vagabonds?
At the congress of German naturalists
last month, Professor Oscar Schmidt, OF
Strasbourg, read a paper ''On the Rela-
tions of Darwinism with social Democra-
cy, this being an answer to q discussion
which arose at Munich last year. 1t was
then urged that owing to the active prop
agation Of the principles of Socialism the
doctrine Of Darwinism, if sufficiently
developed, would manifest many undesir-
able features. Prof. Schmidt desired that
it might be possible to propagate the
whole truth OF the Darwinian doctrine Of
development among the masses as safe
guard against the penicious reasonings
of socialistic philosophers.
The so-called geode bed of the Keokuk
formation (subcarboniferous) occupies a
region about keokuk, Iowa, a hundred
miles long and sixty miles wide. This
curious geological deposit is characterized
by the abundant occurrence in it of large,
hollow stone balls set inside with myriads
Of brilliant crystals, and known as
goodies. In paper contributed to the
last number Of the American Journal Of
Science and Arts, Mr.. s. W. Wallace Of
keokuk says the goodies themselves arc
merely crystalline shells formed from per
coiating water arounds the walls Of vacant
cavities Biologists, however, have been
puzzled to account for the origin Of these
cavities. The idea that they originated
in animal remains was thrown out in the
Indiana Geological Report for 1853. This
has been confirmed by MIR. Wallace's own
researches. A study of thousands Of
specimens has convinced him that the
cavities were formed by the decay Of
sponges which had become covered by de-
posts. He thinks these spopges resem-
bled the present horn sponge Of trade, but
had no sten1S