Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1880-12-04
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Some Curious Facts.

through spiracular tubes in their sides.
Scientists believe that the lightning
rod principle was understood and ap-
piled 500 years before Christ.
To purify the river Thames large
quantities of lime are daily thrown into
it near where the London sewers enter.
Scientists have discovered that the
mummied null in the Egyptian museum,
London, is specie of our common OK.
An ingenious instrument has been in
vented by the use of which the action Of
the pulse is accurately measured and
photographed.
There are some very large animals in
the new aquarium at Manchester, Eng
They comprise sturgeon six feet long,
three monk fish, each over five feet in
length, and numerous conger eels longer
still than these.
The English alphabet has twenty-six
letters, the French. twenty five, the
Italian, twenty, Spanish, twenty-seven,
German, twenty-six, Slavonic, forty
two, Russian, thirty five, Latin, twenty
three, Greek, twenty-four (sixteen until
4O3 b. c., when the twenty four Ionic
characters were introduced), the He
brew, twenty-five, the Arabic, twenty
eight, Persian, thirty-two, Turkish,
twentY-eight Sanscrit, forty-four,
Chinese 2l4.
A plant of remarkable properties is
described by Major Stuart in his report
on Hayti. Its narcotic properties are
so powerful that they can produce coma
of any desired intensity and duration.
A priest putting himself under the influ-
ence OF an extract of this plant can simu-
late death and resurrection.
For the last fifty years record Of
hailstorms in Wurtemburg has been
kept at Stuttgart, the capital. From a
study of these observations it appears
that there is decided difference between
forests of beech and forests of pine in the
liability to be visited by hail. The
former suffer greatly, the latter hardly
a. all.
Butter is mentioned several times in
the Old Testament, but it is now gene-
rally believed by the best authorities
that the article there alluded to was not
butter in our sense of the word, but only
cream or sour milk. 1t is highly prob
able that butter was not known in that
early age of the world. The oldest men
tion of real butter is by Herodotus.
Plutarch tells story of two noble
ladies, one of whom smelled so strongly
ofsweet ointment and the other of but
ter that they could not endure each
others presence! 1t is said that butter
was scarcely known to the Greeks and
Romans during the second century.
The Greeks learned its use from Thrace,
Scythia and some Of the regions of Asia
Minor. The Romans obtained their
knowledge of it from the Germans.
Pliny and Others say that the Germans
used great deal OF milk, and also made
it into butter and cheese. Butter was
used, however, among the Romans
more as medicinal ointment than as an
article of food. They used olive oil
more rs we use butter, and this is still
largely the case in the countries of
Southern Europe.
In our own day the manufacture of
butter has become Il thriving industry
in many countries, and busy dairies
with their golden products girdle the
world. AS q general thing butter is
made from cows milk, though the milk
of sheep, goats and asses is used in some
countries. That obtained from cows
milk is considered the best, and that
from asses milk the poorest. The but
ter-making capacity of milk varies, in
asmuch as some cows give n richer
article than others, and even the milk of
any given COW will vary in excellence
from time to time according to the sea-
son and food. The total amount of hut
ter made in the United States in 1870
was somewhat in excess of 257, 900 tons.
OF this amount New York State made
more than one-ffth-a much larger
quantity than any other State in the
Union. The six largest butter-produc-
ing States in the year above mentioned
were us follows: New York, Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and Michi-
gan.-ITov Times.