Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-06
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.

of carbon to grape vines infested with
phylloxera has proved entirely successful.
The plants are affirmed not to be injured
by the application. He declares that dis
eased vines which were treated with this
compound two or three years ago bear even
better now than before they were attacked.
Lontin has been exhibiting in the build
ing Of the Industrial Exhibition In the
Champs Elysees, Paris, circular electric
light. formed by four voltaic arches. He
uses four carbons placed radially, the two
which are in the same diameter being con-
nected with the same pole. so that an arch
extends from each of the carbons OF its
neighbors. These four arches unite to
form a complete circle and produce light
OF extraordinary brilEancy.
In recent papers before the French
Academy NM. Gaussin, Faye, Chase and
Schotel have discussed various indications
OF law in the arrangement of the planets
and some of their bearings upon the nebu-
lar hypothesis of Laplace and Herschel.
The indications which were given by Prof.
Chase were the closest and most striking,
furnishing numerical evidence of pro-
jectile force connecting the solar system
with the fixed stars. Complies Rendus.
Fouque and Levy note in the Complies
RenduS Of the French Academy of Sciences
a peculiar occurrence of diamonds. Between
Kimberley and Wal, in South Africa, are
rocks resembling serpentines and some
o ais, which are looked upon as the pro-
ducts OF metamorphism of younger dolerites
aud other rocks of the diorite group, SINH
lar to those found in the Pyrenees. In thin
sections of these opals minute diamonds
have been found. They were recognized as
such by their power of refractory hight and
by their hardness.
When balloon is borne along by rapid
current calculations of it's altitude are not
trustworthy. When the velocity is very
great, the error may be as great as one
third of the estimated hight. Kaemtz,
from the study of barometrie observations
at Paris, Zurich, Berlin and Halle, found
that the readings were effected by the
directi OF the wind. Montigny has dis
covered similar influence at other stations,
but at Brussels and Namur the influence is
directly opposite to that at Antwerp. VI Les
Mondes
Lung and liver complaints are certainly
benefited, often cured, by free consump-
ton of onions, either cooked or raw. Colds
yield to them like magic. If this esculent
be taken at night all offense will be want
ing by morning, and the good effects will
amply compensate for the trifiing annoy
ance. Taken regularly, they greatly pro-
mote the health Of the lungs and digestive
organs. An extract made by boiling down
the juice of onions to syrup, and taken
as a medicine, answers the purpose very
well, but fried, roasted or boiled onions
are better.
Ditto has shown that in cases where
reduction of temperature follows the mix
ing of a hydrated salt with an acid, an
anhydrous salt has been produced, and
large amount of water, previously existing
combined in solid form, IS set free and is
iquehed. This view presents satisfac-
tory theory of freezing mixtures. The
water of hydration in passing from the
solid to the liquid form, abstracts considera-
BILE heat from its surroundings, which
would account for the diminution of tenn
perature accompanying the reaction.
Steel ioists are being made at few fac
tories in England and on the continent, |
but certain difficulties attend the rolling, !
which as yet prevents their manufacture on
a large scale Steel plates for bridges also |
are not as yet used to the extent antici- |
pated, and the long span bridges in which |
their utility is undoubted, do not often &C.
eur. For boiler plates the considerable adj
vantsges which steel offers are being
awaited of, and for Hanging and other treat
ment, where high quality Yorkshire iron
was formerly used exclusively, steel is, says |
Messrs. Matheson and Grant in their half
yearly engineering trades report, found |
to be considerably cheaper, especially for |
plates of large dimensions The Engineer.
A medical exchange says: We have
heard a great deal about the diseases of |
overwork, and it would be interesting to
see if something cannot be said now re-
garding the disease of underworld. That
man is naturally lazy animal is a propo.
sition often made and never refuted. We |
have great many lazy people even in this
country, 1t is to be hoped that some en-
terpriisiing path6iosist mag make a special
study of these. He may find new dis
ease. There are certainly cases of adipos.
thenia and gastrosthenia. Who will be
the first man to write book on the sub.
ject?
The popularization Of science has its
drawbacks and, perhaps, not the least of
them is the sort of worship, analogous to
that of very young ladies for the curate of
the parish, which is offered by silly people
to those who are, or more frequently who
are supposed to be, the chief representa-
tives of scientific learning. The absurdi-
ties Of the so-called aestheticism are not Pc |
culiar to gentlemen who lunch upon the |
sight of lily, but have their close analo- |
gies among those who profess to be seien-
tific. There is a scientific jargon as well |
as an art iargon, both of them, in the lips
of most people, concealing, or it may be |
even exposing, the most profound ignorance
of the respective subjects of discourse and
there is widely spread want of knowledge
that the writer who has most successfully |
populari8ed given question is not of me-
cessity the one who is best acquainted with
its depths. Even in the serene atmosphere
of scientific coterie there may be rival
ries and debates are not unknown which
appear, to say the least, to have for their
object the REPUTATION of an opponent rather
than the discovery of truth. Such things
as these, however, are no more than trivi-
alities in comparison with what science has
done to prolong human life, and to surround
it with comforts and conveniences.- Lon
don Times.
Drs. Turnbull and Lewis of Philadelphia
have lately brought to the prominent no.
tice of the medical profession the merits
of a new sn@sthetic agent, for which they
claim advantages which give it precedence
over the old stand-bys of the profession
ether and chloroform. This new agent
is ethyl bromide-the hydrobromio ether
of the old chemsts-and was discovered |
in 1927 by Serullas, shortly after the dis
covery OF bromide itself. The importance
of new agent of this kind, that shall be |
free from the disadvantages Of ether in its
uncertain and tedious action, and of chic |
roform, in its dangerous effects on the &C.
ton Of the heart and respiration, has been
long acknowledged by the medical profess
sion; and at the last meeting of the British |
Medical Association, this want of the pro-
fession was recognized by the appointment |
of o special committee to investigate and |
report upon the subject TO the general |
body. The results of this commissions |
study of the subject we deemed sufficiently
important to notice at some length in this |
department of the Journal Doctors Turn
bull and Lewis, it appears, have given
Inuch attention to the special properties of |