Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-03-19
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


Of the week and month and each
phase Of the moon.
A remarkable peculiarly OF the
natives Of Southern China is ,ha; the
great toe Of each foot Is separated
from the others like tie thumb Of
tie hand, aud can lie used IL much
the same manner, although Eo. TO
al equal extent.
Tie toIopboue i new scientific
instrument for determining the di-
rect.On irom which SQUAD waves
come Aside from It's value III acous-
tic Investigations, II m:st prove
practically useful al sea in locating
fog signals.
Carbonic acid when pure, Is
most active and fatal poison, destroy
ing life and exiting flame, not
from tie absence Of Oxygen as Is OF
ten supposed, but from the presence
of active qualities winch are desiruc-
tive to life, aud to combustion. Ii
inhaled pure, distributions death
results.
The surface of Great Salt Lake
has risen eleven feet since 1867.
Prof. King believes the rise to be
due not to the cultivation of the sur
rounding country but to climatic
oscillation that began about 1860,
and which is the first OF its kind and
extent that has occurred within at
least two hun dred and fifty years.
Among some mineral specimens
from South American mine, the
remarkable discovery has been made
of an ammonitc "a fossil shelly trans
formed into native silver. Long
ago the chemical action between the
silver and the silver ore with which
it was in contact resulted in the
gradual disappearance of the origi-
nal shell, metallic silver being de-
posted in its place.
A quantity of flour was exposed by
a French experimenter to a pressure
of three hundred tons, reducing it
to one-fourth its original bulk. A
portion of it was then placed in cans
and sealed, the same being done
with some impressed Aoul. A year
afterward the cans were opened,
when the impressed -four was found
to be spoiled, while the pressed was
in excellent preservation.
Ammonia, SO useful in agriculture
and the arts, is compound of nitro
gen and hydrogen; and for long
time some method of utilizing the
nitrogen of the air in it's production
has been sought. The desired re-
suit has at last been attained by two
European chemists, who cause n.y.
drogen to combine with atmospheric
nitrogen in suitable apparatus by
the aid of electricity. The economy
of this process remains to lie shown.
According to DR.. Emil Holub,
relics of an extinct race, of q much
higher culture than now belongs to
any native tribes, have been found
in the interior of South Africa.
the remains are seen work
ings of ancient mines, some even of
gold, and the ruins of rude fortifca-
tons. These evidences remind the
great traveller of the African en-
pire of Monomatapa, as mapped on
old Portuguese charts. .
The original home of various
plants is thus stated: Cabbage grew
wild in Siberia; celery originated in
Germany; the potato, in Peru; the
onion, in Egypt; tobacco, in South
America; millet, in India; the nettle,
in Europe; the citron, in Asia; oats,
in North Africa, rye, in Siberia,
parsley, in Sardinia; the parsnip, in
Arabia; the sunfower, in Peru; the
horse-chestnut in Tibet; the ounce,
in Crete; the horse-radish, in the
South of Europe; and the pear is
supposed to be native of Egypt.
That certain insects possess
power akin to reason is illustrated
by Gleditsch a German naturalist,
who relates that he spitted toad
on q stick which be fixed upright in
the ground. The odor of the decay-