River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-12-04
POPULAR SCIENCE.

| PiazziSmyth suggests the construction
of an imperial observatory on the
heights of Cyprus, where the sky is
clear and the climate mild.
Near Sabastopol the pedestal OF a
bronze statue has been dug up. II is
covered with Hellenic inscriptions be-
longing to the second century before
the Christian era.
Among the articles exhibited at the
general congress of German apothe-
carries HELD at Hanover on Sept. 4. were
specimen of genuine oriental bezoar
a goblet of metallic anthony formerly
used for imparting purgative effect to
| wine or beer, a venerable sample of
Album Grecum, and selection Of
chemical apparatus inscribed with al
chymistic symbols.
M. A. Dupre has published a letter
challenging the claim of M. L. Bechamp,
as to the discovery of the presence Of
alcohol in animal tissues during life.
He says: Years ago the late Dr.
/ Anstie and myself showed that animal
/ tissues, when distilled with water, yield
a distillate containing traces of sub
stance which gives all the characters
| tic reactions of alcohol. In our re-
searches on the elimination of alcohol,
we had not only recognized this, but
made allowances for the presence of
| this natural alcohol"
A remarkable case of surgery has
been reported to the French Academy
of Medicine. A carpenter nearly cut
/ of N e IL. ~
axe.- The toe was held to the foot by
a small thread of skin only. DIR. Ganey
detached the toe completely, and hav-
ing washed it and the wound ON the
foot, brought the surface together again
and held them in place by strips of lint
soaked with collodion. When the
collodion had set another strip was
wound round. An apparatus was used
| also used to keep all parts of the foot
immovable. Twenty-four days after
the accident cicatrization was perfect.
India ranks fourth among the coun-
tries of the world for the extent of coal
deposits. She has $4,000 square miles
of coal fields; the United States, 100000;
China, 400, 1000; and Australia, $4,000
Only 500, 900 tons of Indian coal are now
consumed annually, and this quantity
is mined at Rapigunj, Kurhurbali, and
Datonguni, in Bengal, and Mopani and
Warora in the Central provinces. But
there are 100000 tons used every
year for locomotives and factories, the
other 100000 being imported, mainly
from Europe and Australia. Indian
coal is almost all bituminous, and its
structure is Illuminated, presenting
alternately bright and dark layers. Its
heating quality is inferior to English
coal, but the native coal gives good
results when mixed in equal proper
tons with the latter.
Charcoal as an agent for the purifi-
cation of water not only holds back
coloring matters and decomposes ana
partially retains most mineral salts and
gases, but it absorbs and detains the
most varied organic compounds, nj
trogenous and non-nitrogenous. Claude
Bernard first demonstrated its import
ant power of absorbing albumen, a
power which increases with the 9uanti-
ty of the latter, with the time of con-
tact, and with the concentration of the
liquid to be filtered, and which is the
more important as the arrested body
is held so firmly as not to be removed
by solvents. One especial drawback
of charcoal is its ready saturation with
impurities, SO that it requires to be re-
vived or freed from the retained mat
tiers, or if this is impracticable, to be re-
newed altogether. AS substitute for
charcoal, various substances have,
therefore, been proposed and among
these spongy iron. DIR. L. levin has
subjected spongy iron to elaborate ex-
periments which show that, when used
as filter, it neither decomposes nor
holds back heterogeneous su stances in
such manner that they may not be
washed out again. The filtrate in one
kind of experiment contained numer-
Gus bacteria. Olors of putrescent
matter we're but slightly removed by
spongy iron, and plumbiferous waters
underwent very little improvement
through contact with it.