The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-10-09
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


to form a true ink.
in many marshy, feyer-plagned dis
tricts Of Europe and Africa the expert
ment Of planting in large numbers the
Eucalyptus, OF fever tree, has been tried
for some years, and late report shows
that the result is the almost total ban
islmcnt OF fevers from these regions.
During series of photometrie OBJ
servations, Prof. W. FL. Pickering has
found that the total brilliancy of the
sun is equal to about $50 900 full moons.
To better illustrate this relation, it may
be stated that if the whole visible heav-
ems were turned into one full moon it
would give rather less than one-fourth
of the light of the sun.
-Bisset, the animal trainer of Perth,
taught an orang to wait on the table and
perform other domestic duties. A Chin
panzee has been trained to feed and tend
a fire under a bakers oven. A female
cl,inpanzee in the London Geological
Gardens could lock and unlock door OF
drawer, aud thread any needle. In tax
ing her meals she used knife, fork, spoon
and drinking-cup with as much ease as II
human being.
In Scotland considerable interest is
| taken in new method Of tanning Kides,
effected not by means Of tannin in any
form, but of chrome. The new process is
said to be cheaper and more expeditions
than the old, and to produce leather
stronger, more durable and especially
less pervious to moisture. About three
hundred chrome-tanned hides have
lately been exhibited in Glasgow, some
Of them made into betting, harness,
| boots, etc.
g Female torpcdoes" are an attrac-
ton at Belgian fairs. In the centre of Il
| booth is a pit which the spectators en-
circle, and in this pit woman, attired
| as a gymnast, walks about on a platform.
Now and then she touches ii spectator on
| the hand or cheek, and the latter receives
a smart electric shock, but the woman
feels nothing. She is evidently highly
charged with electricity by means of an
induction coil, and the platform en- which
she stands is one pole of the coil. The
electrified nymph is great success, and
| her singing caresses elicit roars of
laughter from the visitors.
| An experiment made in the port of
Kiel proves that heavy weights may be
readily lifted from the bottom OF The sea
by means of O balloon. The balloon is
made of canvass and metal plates, with
an attached cistern containing carbonic
acid gas compressed to 81 liquid state.
When made fast to a sunken object, the
sunken vessel, or whatever else it may
be, is lifted, and can he lowed away at
pleasure. In the experiment at Kicl, an
anchor stone weighing fifteen tons was
thus lifted from a depth of thirty-tw
feet. The lifting power of a balloon ten
feet in diameter is said to be more than
one lntndred tons.
| Perhaps the most remarkable opera
ton hitherto recorded in the history of
submarine telegraphy is that which has
attended the work of the Eastern Tele-
graph Company's steamship Chiltern.
| In 1870 q cable was laid from the coast
Of Portugal, and recently persevering
efforts have been made to grapple and
raise this old cable at a point where it
lay in 1000 fathoms of water. The gem
eral idea is that cable must be rotten
after so long an immersion and can not
lie raised, but this cable has been
brought to the surface, and was found to
be rs good and as strang as when laid
ten years ago. To grapple a mere thread
i'll 10000 feet of water is a triumph even
in this age.
The human body contains several
metals, and other substances which per-
form important Offices in the world of
science. Nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen
are its chief constituents, but it holds
besides about two pounds of phosphorus,
upon which the health of the bones and
vigor of the brain depend. This pl1os-
phorus, if extracted and put to use,
would suffice for about four thousand
packages of friction matches. The body
also contains Il few ounces of sodium and
half an ounce of potassium, which school
boys know as curious metal that burns
brilliantly on the surface of water or
when touched by al icicle. In addition
to sodium and potassium, there are a few
grains of magnesium-enough to create
q brilliant light visible twenty miles
away. Who knows but some reckless
chemist may undertake to drive profit
able business by extracting these valu-
able materials from dead bodies
In taking account of the differences
in the skulls of the various nations, at
tention is at present directed to the cubic
capacity Of the great cavity of the skull,
excluding the cerebcllum. BY means of
this method some interesting facts have
been revealed. On the west coast of At
RIGA there exists a race with long, fiat
heads, whose skulls have the greatest
capacity yet known. The Laplanders
and Esquimaux have highly developed
skulls, their mean capicity being 1916
cubic centimeters. The lowest stage of
centimeters. The skulls of the inhabi-