The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-02-13
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

1890
and dogs.
Four-fflhs of the atmosphere is nitro
gen, and 1t has beer asserted by an agri- |
cultural chemist that the man who first !
makes the nitrogen of the air available |
as "a fertilizer at a small cost will be the !
greatest material benefactor the world
ever produced.
Prof. Proctor thus sums up the effect
of climate upon mortality: Fewer per
sons than usual die after il bitter winter,
not because such winter is favorable TO
life. but because it kills off many of the
weaker lives during its progress; and
more than usual die after mild winter,
not because such winter is unfavorable
to life, but because it leaves alive many
who would have died during its progress
had it been of the average Sort
4 fact probably but little known is
that the L. S. nicklc five cent piece furn-
ishes key TO metric measures and
weights This coin is two -eentimetres
IN diameter and its weight Is five
grammes. Five of them placed in Il
row will give the length of the decline
tire, and two of them will weigh Il deca-
gramme As kilolitre is cubic me
tire, the key to the measures OF length
is also the key to the measures of capacity.
The uniform green color of the vegc-
table world is due to chlorophyll. This
substance however exists only in min
ute quantity IN plants, the leaves ola large
tree containing perhaps not more than
one hundred grasns. 1t appears to be a
direct product of the action of the sun
light upon vegetation, as it does not OK
list in plants kept in darkness. The
changes in the color of leaves IN autumn
are supposed TO be due to the oxidation
of their chlorophyl.
1t is stated that new Photographic
process has Just been discovered in Jap,
an. One of the substances employed in
the manufacture of japanese lacquer has
the property of becoming almost rs hard
rs stone, under the action of light. y
slab covered with this material and duly
exposed behind Photographic negative
for some twelve hours, was scraped an1
rubbed with spatula and brush, leaving
the hardened portions raised in low re
lief, and capable Of being used rs Il blocl
for printing.
A curious belief among the natives o
Burmah is that flre-flies are employed a
: lamps by the weaver birds, the insect
being caught by the birds and glued t.
their nests by pieces of soft mud Nj
= E. s. Layard finds this belief q supersti
: ton. He says, however, the bits Of mu
J, are always to be found in nests of til
weaver birds, being probably used
: cleanse the birds bills. During tn
: cleaning process it is probable fire-h
r is occasionally removed from II bird
N mouth and stuck in the mud, beng thu
II unintentionally made to serve as lam
instead of as a breakfast.
'e For several years the attention of pin,
" sicians and scientists has been directe
Ii TO learning the nature of the poison pr
ducing those remittent and intermitteI
diseases variously known as marsh eve
malarial fever and fever and ague. II
III problem is at last solved. After eXposiI
themselves for three weeks in that fevC
le stricken district, the Roman Campaign
ne Signor Tomasi, of Rome, and Pre-
10 Klebs, of Prague, have discovered Il
&c source of mecaria TO be a micruscop
lS fungus The next step for the beenfit
III mankind is to find some means of {
stroying these fungi, or rendering the
S. innocuous.
Observations of snow collected
mountain tops, and within the Are
circle, far beyond the influence of fac
-, ries and smoke, confirm the suppositi
- that nrinute particles of iron float in I
atmosphere, and in time fall to the ear
Many scientists believe these tloati
IS particles to bear some relation to
~ phenomena of the aurora. Gronemann,
Gottingen, for instance, contends Il
streams of the PARTICLES revOlyc arou
the sun, and that, when passing
J., earth, they are attracted to the po
"a thence stretching forth as long tilamcl
~ into space; but, as they travel with pl
10 etary velocity. they become ignIted
=. friction with the earth's atmosphere, a
:. in this way produce the well-knO
-. luminous appearance of the auro
- Prof Nordenskjold found minute ?
10 ticles of iron phosphorus and cobalt
the snow of the far north.
The minds OF thoughtful people of
revert with curious speculation to L
period long prior to historic times WI
the first primitive types of the hun
race peopled the earth What was
nv world like then? is II question of gr
,n, interest In a recent lecture, Prof. b.
me- Dawkins pictured London as IL pro
nod bly, existed in the days Of the cave m
HE While the-riycr-drilt men and the G
he men were living in Britain, the hills ;
valleys in The south of England pres,
.en ed the same outlines as nov. Could
re-. take our stand in those times On the
tie sex heights and look over the Than
q, valley in the direction of London,
F should see dense forest of oak, ash ;
nd Scotch fir, and the course of the Than
,lv marked. by willows and alderS.
few thin columns of smoke ris
ton over the tops of the trees would IN
sb. the camping places of primeval III
M In the forests wild bears, mammo
ma and rhinoceroses, wild horses, stays
DOL Irish elks would meet our eyes; ana
ms the summer countless herds Of bisc
we like those now ranging over the pla
tho of northwestern America. In the VIII
., there were vast numbers of reindeer
~, a few musk sheep In the rivers "
80, offers and beavers, and the expl'
Leo would be startled by the snort of
"a, hippopotamus in the reaches Of
nar Thames near Brentford. Beasts of p
also abounded-lions, lcoparCls, hyeI
Ike grizzly bears, wolves and foxes. If
cv penetrated 10 one Of the camp fires,
Sos should have seen the river-drift hun
chipping or using some of those r
fer flint implements which lie buried in
,ost London gravels along with
he. remains of the animals which
of hunted This rivcr-draft n
IN the long course of ages, was succe
:, ed by the man of the caverns, like hi
hunter, living on the same animals
the more highly equipped for the battle
res. life. In time the cave man disappear
the climate and geography of Engl
became nearly what they are now
the hunter stage of civilization was
lS4 cecded by that of the herdsman and
tiller of the ground, and the manu-
aat- tuner of the neolithic age. From the
He'd oliilIic age through untold centGrie:
al. historic and modern times, the prog
emit, of man in Britain and in Europe