The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1881-08-24
SCRAPS OF SCIENCE.

A CURIOUS instance of the deodorizing
of Illuminating gas was recently cited by
Prof. Rensen. In Dresden quantity Of
gas escaped from a pipe outside Of
dwelling and passed through the earth
into the house, with its odor entirely
gone. 1t was breathed unconsciously,
and several deaths occurred in conse-
quence.
SOME interesting archaeological dis
coveries have just been made in Algiers,
near the sea-coast, on the seat OF the an
cient Utica. The remains of q temple
consocrated to the infant Hercules; q stat
uette of the god in white marble, evil
IDENTITY Greek; Bacchus, life size, also
in white marble; and number of fine
mosaics, seem to indicate the probability
of n great find.
The great telescope just completed by
Howard Grubb of Dublin for the Vienna
Observatory is the largest refractor now
i'll existence. The steel tube is thirty
three and one-half feet in length, and the
instrument weighs near seven tons. The
object glass is twenty seven inches in di-
ameter, while that OF the great telescope
at Washington, hitherto the largest in
the world, measures twentY-six inches.
The use of the electric telegraph in
Arctic exploration seems excellent and
practical. BY such aid sledge parties
could be kept i'll communication with the
main body OF the expedition. The wires
would be made as light as possible, and
| IaII olnnu thn ON 70
ground, either of which would sufficient
ly insulate the wires without the use Of
the usual poles and glass insulators.
AT THE Paris observatory Thollon is
carefully studying the suns surface and
has described number of interesting
hydrogen explosions, appearing like gi-
gantic displays Of fireworks, and some
times remaining visible for two days.
One of them sent forth a stream of fire
to hight Of more than 200, 900 miles
a distance nearly equal to that of the
moon from the earth--while explosions
reaching to a hight of 25, 200 to $4,000
miles are by no means infrequent.
AN ACCOUNT was recently given to the
British Royal Society, of the trans
planting of n bone, the first successful
instance of the kind ever recorded. A
piece OF diseased bone had to be removed
from the arm of boy of three years in
II Glasgow intirmary. Fifteen months
after the operation no new bone forma-
tion had appeared, and the experiment
of bone-grafting was undertaken. On
three different occasions portions OF hui
man bone were transplantca, the gratis
being taken from patients from whom
wedges of bone had to be removed for
the purpose of Strengthening their limbs.
These wedges were divided into many
small pieces and placed i'll the childs
arm. The fragments grew together and
and below, ultimately converting n use
less arm into thoroughly useful one by
the formation Of a complete bone.
SOME conception of the enormous en-
crgy OF the human heart may be formed
when it is considered that good climb
cr can only ascend 5000 feet in nine
hours is, working continuously for
n considerable time, can only raise his
own weight ZOO feet an hour-while
the work done by the heart is equivent
TO raising its own weight (ten ounces) 49,
$50 feet high every hour. A still more
striking illustration of the great power
Of this little organ may be found by
com pairing it with the most powerful en-
ginc ever made by man-the Bavarian
locomotive, of the Vienna and Trieste
Railway-which can only raise itself
through 2,700 feet au hour. That is, its
energy is less than one-ffth that of the
human heart. OF course, the actual
work done, by both engine and climber,
is much greater in amount than that done
by the heart, but relative to the weight,
the energy of the heart far exceeds the
other two.