The Red Cloud chief., 1879-05-08
USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.

The place Of manufacture Of paper nap.
kins b not divulged. They are said TO
be al imported from Japan, bot . sus-
picion prevails that some Of them are
produced by ingenious Yankee paper.
makers, who are we'll content TO monop.
Ollie their manufacture for the present.
The napkins are wholesaled II from %
TO 80 per thousand, and are retailed a
81 To $50 . hundred. A party OF 200
or 800 can be supplied with them Al
less expense than would be requisite "a
wash and iron . similar number Of nap
kins. By their use, also, o host OF
hostess is relieved OF al fear Of having
the table linen stolen !; and il IN absent
minded guest does happen TO put his
napkin in his pocket after he has finish.
ed eating, he need not suffer any more
remorse than il he had pocketed an ap.
ple-core or . nutshell.
A New AxAsrHETrc. - Nitrous
oxide OF laughing-gas, a. it il
commonly called, was discovered To
have the power Of producing insensi.
bility by Sir Humphrey Davy, at the
end of the last century, and since that
time it has been widely used by dentists
and chiropodists in the painful opera.
tiOns of extracting teeth or corns. The
process consists in causing the patient
to breathe the pure gas until he becomes
insensible. Nitrous oxide is not 80 dan
gerous as chloroform, nor 30 exhsusting
to the system. Chloroform associates
itself chemically with the body, but the
gas merely remains dissolved in the
blood, and when it is no longer inhaled
it is quickly breathed out again by the
lungs. But there is one serious draw.
back to its use-namely, the fact that its
application can not be prolonged for
fear of asphyxia or fainting being in
CURED. Now, however, this defect has
been overcome by a French psychologist,
M. Bert, and insensibiiity induced by its
can be indefinitely extended.
The patient is caused to breathe, not
pure nitrous oxide, but q mixture OF
equal parts of nitrous oxide and air,
under . pressure of two atmospheres.
BY this device the normal quantity OF
air is supplied to the patient as well as
the requisite dose of gas. The results
obtained from experiments on dogs
show that the breathing and circulation
goes on normally while the animal is
rendered quite insensible by this meth
cd, and on Withdrawing the gas it re-
covers all its faculties after q few
br aths. This is an important discov-
cry, but it has the practical failing of,
at present, at least, requiring q special
chamber to be constructed for the Ope.
ration. In the case of hospitals, how
ever, this will not be difficult to obtain.
-CasseU's Magazine.
AGE OF THE WORLD.-Geologists,
and physicists alike have
hitherto been bafled in their attempts to
set up any satisfactory kind of chro-
nometer which will approximately
measure geological time, and thus give
some clew to the antiquity of our
1t is therefore worth noting that
Mr.. Mellard Reade of Liverpool has
contributed to the Royal Society
a very suggestive paper. in which he
endeavors to grapple with the question
by employing the limestone rocks of the
crust as an index of geological
time. Limestones have been in course
Of formation from the earliest known
periods, but it would appear
that the later-formed strata are more
than the earlier, and that
there has, in fact, been q gradually pro-
gressive increase of calcareous matter.
The very extensive deposition. Of car
Donate of lime over wide areas of the
bottom at the present day is sui.
iciently attested by the recent sound
Ings Of the Challenger. According to
he authors estimate, the sedimentary
crust of the earth is at least one nile in
average actual thickness, of which prob
one-tenth consists of calcareous
In seeking the origin of this
matter, it is assumed
hat the primitive rocks of the
crust were of the ma
ure of granite or bssaltic rocks. BY
he disintegration of such rocks, calcare-
,us and other sedimentary deposits have
been formed. The amount of lime-salts
water which drain districts made up
# GRANTEES and basalts is found, by q
comparison of analyses, to be or an
'verage about 1913 parts in 100000
PARTS of water. 1t is further assumed
hat the exposed areas of igneous rocks,
aking an average throughout all geo.
ogicl time, viii bear to the exposures
sedimentary rocks a ratio of about
me to nine. From these and other da-
. Mr.. Reade concludes that the elimina-
ion of calcareous matter now found in
u the sedimentary strata must have oc-
upied at least 600,OOO,0OO of years.
This, therefore, represents the mini
mum age of the world. The author
nfers that the formation of the Lauren
ian, Cambrian, and Silurian strata
must have occupied about 2OO, 0OO, 900
f years; the old red sandstone, the
arboniferous, and the poikilitic sys-
ems, another zoe, COX 900, and
II the other strata, the re-
200, 600, 600. Mr.. Reade
J, therefore, led to believe that geolog.
al time has been enormously in excess
I the limits urged by certain physi-
and that it has been ample to al
w for all the changes which. on the
ypothesis of evolution, have occurred
the organic world.--TAe academy.
DOCTORING IN THE DARK.-In many
iseases several organs are more OF less
IMPLICATED, and what seems . primary
lment may be one only remote. For
stance, q severe headache may have
. origin in q disturbed stomach. On
" other hand. sickness at the stomach
lay be caused BY q blow on the head.
oils and other eruptions on the surface
ten result from the imperfect action
the liver in eliminating effete matter
ON the system. So, offensive excTe.
ons Of the skin, are caused by this lat
r organs throwing of what the kid
,ys or bowels had failed to do. A Sc
ne pain in the lower part of the spine