Richland beacon., 1880-02-21
SCIENCE AND ART.

GLASS while at red heat is plunged into
oil and made so hard that mortars and
pestles may be manufactured in that
way.
PROFESSOR NEWTON, of Yale College,
estimates that the matter of the earth
Is increasing by 100000 meteoric
masses falling upon its surface every
year.
ThE discovery of uranium in Cal;for-
MIA Is reported. This mineral is valued
at 81 900 per ton, and has never before
been found in this country. 1t is much
used in coloring glass.
A RUSSIAN officer has devised a very
simple but ingenious system of night
signals on board vessels. 1t consists in
lighting the smoke OF chimneys by
means of refectnrs. The various colors
Of the light are interpreted by an estab-
lished signal code.
ELECTRICITY has been applied in
France, by NJ. Dalmas, TO the destruc-
ton of phylloxera. Through a copper
wine wound around the stems of the
vines powerful current is sent, with
the effect Of destroying the insect in lis
various stages of development.
NORDENsKJoLD is to make another
voyage of exploration, departing from
the River Lena to the New Siberian
Isles as soon as he conveniently can, in
order to obtain the data necessary to
render the coast of Africa on the north
safely accessible to maritime commerce,
SOME time ago it was noted that the
experiments of Grandeur and LIE Cierc
on maize and tobacco appeared to show
that the withdrawal of atmospheric
electricity was injurious to vegetation.
Naudin has made similar experiments
on kidney-beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and
the herbaceous cotton plant, and found
that they were benefited by the with.
drawal of electricity. He concludes
that the action of electricity, like that
of light, heat, and moisture, varies
upon different species of plant.
In noticing the labors of the Interna-
tional bureau of weights and measures,
Able Moigno regrets the choice, as a
unit of measure, of the ten-millioneth
of meridianal quadrant, Gas a unit
fatally indeterminate," since the merid-
ians vary in length. He suggests. AS
a better standard, the cubit of the great
pyramid, which represents the ten-mil-
liOnth of the earth's polar axis. Sir
John Herschel made the same proposal,
nearly thirty years ago, and it is some
what remarkable that his views should
be advocated now by leadi ng French
scientific journal.
THE perfection to which modern in
genuity has brought all useful instru-
ments, is almost marvellous, so that even
the interior and most hidden risccre of
the human body are rendered visible. by
the aid of electric light. The patholOg.
ical changes in the blood c0rpuscles are
exactly noted and classified; the amount
of heat throw out in any given time by
the human body, is accurately measured
and noted; the beating of the heart or
pulses rendered distinctly audibly at
long distances, in one case ten miles, by
means of the microphone. DR.. Nestle
has lately invented an endoscOpe, with
which the interior of the bladder and
are seen, while NJ. Trouve, of
Paris, accomplishes the same by means
Of his electrical polyscope.
PROF. TyNDALL asserts that diseases
are propagated not by effluvia or sewer
gas, but by solid particles discharged by
of air or gas. This he proved
by the following experiment: He cut
up piece of steak, stepped it in water;
heated it at little above the tempera-
ture of the blood, then strained off the
liquid; in short time this liquid be-
,ame turbid, and when examined
drought microscope was found to be
warming with living organisms; by
he application of heat these were killed
md when the solution was filtered he OBJ
aimed pure liquid, which, if kept free
rom particles of dust, would remain
,ure for an unlimited period; but if a
ly were to dip its leg in fluid containing
living organisms and then into pure
liquid, the whole would be swarming
With animalcule in forty eight hours.