Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-05-21
sCIENCE AND rNntsrRY.


THE exploration Of the Sahara Dos-
ert with a view 70 the construction
OF railway across 10 has now fairly
begun.
In recent note 70 the Vienna Aoad-
emy Herr Salzer offers an estimate
(based on numeration) that the prob
able number Of optic nerve fibers Is
ASS, 1000, and Of retinal cones 3,360,O00.
This gives seven or eight cones for each
nerve fiber, supposing all fbers Of the
optic nerve to be connected with cones
and equally distributed among them.
NJ PUsTEUR states that the cholera Of
fowls may be prevented from becoming
fatal by incubation. He also suggests
that we should seek the destruction Of
phylloxora by inoculation of the vine
with some microscopic fungus, and he
invites the attention Of naturalists and
others interested in the cultivation of
the vine TO this method Of treating the
subject.
DIR. CARTER says the entire absence
Of sunlight on the deep-sea bottom
seems to have the same effect as the
darkness Of caves, in reducing TO a rudi-
mentary condition the eyes of such of
which ordinarily enjoy visual power;
and many Of these are provided with
enormously long and delicate feelers or
hairs, with which they feel their way
about, just as blind man does with his
I stick.
/ The tree-felling electric battery Is an
/ extension Of a well known and very use
| ful surgical instrument for removing
warts, etc. A small platinum wire IS
drawn tightly around tree and con-
nected with battery, by which the wire
is heated white hot. The wire is kept
taut as it burns into the wood until it
burns through, leaving the tree stand
ing, but needing only little force to
bring it 10 the ground. It is not in
practical operation.
SUICIDES by animals are not uncom-
mon. An old collie in Calthness, trou-
bled with the infrmities of age, includ-
ing deafness and the loss Of teeth, COM
mitted suicide by drowning. A New
foundland dog had his feelings wounded
| by being scOlded. Soon after he was
found alive, but with his head partly
submerged in a ditch. He was dragged
out. But he refused to eat or drink,
and before long he was found in the
same ditch, dead. Captive birds some
times poison themselves, apparently
preferring death to confinement. The
American stag or deer commits suicide
sometimes when seized OF attacked by
the glutton, by precipitating itself
against trees.
POLAR snow is known 10 contain FIVE
fortieths of iron, which must have de-
scended from the atmosphere. In the
snow north Of Spitzbergen, Nordensk-
ioid detected iron, cobalt and phos-
phorus. Facts like these appear to have
suggested theory of the aurora boreals
to Prof. Grinemann, of Gottingen. He
believes that large masses Of iron parti-
cles describe path around the sun, and
when the earth crosses their path some
Of the particles are attracted by it,
especially at the poles. When the par
ticles strike the atmosphere the friction
thus produced causes them to ignite and
become luminous, following exactly the
behavior Of meteOrites.
A NEW miners lamp has been IN
vented in England, which, if it be ade-
quately luminous, ought to be absolutely
safe. The principle Of the contrivance
is the substitution of the light Of phOs-
phorescence for that Of positive ignition,
! and the apparatus is described as being
t something ike tiny meat screen. The
t interior of the screen is covered with a
2 brightly luminous paint, and it is even
( proposed to fit it up with a shelf or two
S so that the pitman might carry in his
] lamp something to eat whenever, during
! the intervals of work, he felt hungry.
&. OF course it will be impossible to use
= this sort of lamp as a pikelighter, so
r that it is not at all likely, if it comes in
- to general adoption, that its inventor
will be very popular among the cOlliers.
DOMESTIC WATER PowER.-Many
household operations might be effect.
lively performed by small water motors
t In Zurich, water is commonly used in
5 this way as a substitute for hand labor
, Fire-wOod, for example, is sawn in con-
+ venient lengths for burning. A small
saving machine on wheels is drawn by
two men to the front of house. They
connect by flexible tube with the near
, est hydrant; the water flows to the ma
' chine; the saw dances, and cuts up thl
wood with surprising rapidity. A port
8 able turbine has also been invented
and employed in many places in the
5 same city, in driving Gramme ma
! chine for the production of the electri,
l light. Water is very abundant in Zu
. rich; but there are other towns in whicl
B., this domestic water-power could be ad
vantageously introduced. Where it i
S any object to keep a record of the waite
= used, an indicator showing the quantit,
} might be affixed to the machine.