The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1880-01-18
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


DiiCh sea W Jnt SdSpldu sea, lS dtlracl-
ing attention at st. Petersburg.
Bas-reliefs and statues, one of them
of colossal size, have been found at
Marathon, near the site Of the Temple
of Nemesis. The inhabitants have re-
fused their removal to the Athens
museum.
A tree grows in Cypriis which is
thought by monks in the vicinity to be
identical with the chitim-wood of the
Bible. Specimens examined are said
to closely resemble the cedar of Leban-
on, having, however, smaller leaves
and other slight differences.
DIR. Royston Pigott has found that
objects as minute as the millionth of an
inch in diameter can be seen with the
microscope. 1t has been generally be-
lieved by opticians that microscopic
vision could not be extended to objects
smaller than the hundred-thousandt
of an inch in diameter.
The long-pending lawsuits against
the Lick estate in California have been
finally decided, and 100000 is now
ready for use in carrying out the OBJ
servatory project. The trustees are
directed to provide the most powerful
telescope in the world, and are now
investigating the relative merits of re-
Electors and refractors.
Signor Parnetti has been analyzing
the debris and dust of the streets, with
the result of finding large percentage
of iron and glue contained therein.
He proposes making practical use of
this discovery by establishing blast fur
naces and glue works in London to Sc
cure the valuable products from the
waste material of Metropolitan streets.
A cast-iron gas main at Saarbrucken
was lately taken up, after having been
laid for ten years, and when removed
was found to be converted into soft
substance which could be cut with
knife, and, on anylysis, was found to
contain only fiftytwo per cent. of metal
lie iron. The pipes has been covered
with coal ashes which were found to
contain much sulphur, and the destruc-
tion of the pipes is supposed to have been
due to the sulphur in the ashes and the
oxygen of the atmosphere.
The national board of health recon-
mends these disinfectants: First, roll
sulphur (brimstone) for fumigation;
second, sulphate of iron (copperas) dis
solved in water, in the proportion of
one and a half pounds to the gallon, for
soil, sewers, etc.; third, sulphate of
zinc and common salt dissolved togeth-
er in water, in the proportion of four
ounces to the gallon, for clothing, linen,
etc. Carbolic acid, most valuable
agent in the hands of scientific men, is
excluded from the list on account of
the difficulty in procuring it of fixed
strength and proper quality. Towels,
clothing and bed-linen should be plung-
ed at once into the zinc solution heated
to the boiling point. Pure air and
cleanliness are among the protective
agents recommended, and the most i'm
portant of all.
Some months since Mr.. Muybridge,
of San Francisco, surprised and de-
lighted the scientific world by the pub
lication of series of twelve instantane-
GUS photographs of galloping horse,
showing the animal in as many different
stages of a single leap. Some of the
positions recorded were most ungainly
and appeared almost impossible, but
they were nevertheless real. The cam
era had copied faithfully the postures
changing far too rapidly for the eye to
detect them. Mr.. Muybrige has now
extended his Photographic observations
to the spring Of the greyhound, in this
manner: The dog is got at speed by
releasing him on one side in pursuit of
a rabbit which has just been made to
pass in front of the camera, the moment
the dog leaps past the camera, the series
of fine wires is broken, the electric cir
cult is closed, and the trustworthy col
lodion has put the heeting vision on
permanent record. These pictures hard
ly reveal the grace and symmetry of
movement with which we are accustom-
ed to associate the greyhound, but il
lustrate the science of motion rather
than its poetry.
Concerning the possibilities Of death
ca r.
says: 81 have received several rather
anxious inquiries respecting the dangers
to be feared from meteoric downfall,
the death of David Miesentalter having
apparently suggested that such dangers
may be greater than has heretofore
been supposed. If we knew the aver
age number of meteoric masses which
break their way through the earth's
armor-that is, through the air--it
would be very easy to calculate the ex-
act chance of death by meteoric down
fall. AS matter of fact, we have no
satisfactory evidence on this point, be-
cause most of the meteorities which
fall upon the earth escape attention. /
suppose, however, that if Prof. New
ton, of Yale college, rightly assumes
the number of falling stars of all orders
to be 400, 900, 900 yearly, we may fairly
assume that about 1000 mett orites fall
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