St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1881-04-16
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

pool during thunderstorm on
.a.y -, 1884, The camera was pointed
10 t'e sky over church.. and The fash
~n'ch photographed itself by its own
: $50 appeared over the church at the
instant the bell-tower was shattered to
pieces 1t exactly resembles tho zip-zae
spark OF an induction coil, and is esti-
.'a,eo 10 have been about fifty-on
inches broad.
what seems to be a remarkable dis
.u'ery IS announced by Mr.. E. T. Sachs,
VINO says: "On the island of Billion, l
nave round a fresh water fish which
produces It's young living from its
mouth. am quite prepared for the cry
VI 'ncrednllty that will be made; but
conducted my observations with living
nsh and closed doors, and what I assert
Is undeniable. The eggs are Matched in
the lower portion of the head of the
hsh' and are projected out of the mouth
and from nowhere else"
M. j. Delaunay proposes the novel
theory. that earthquakes, as we'll as
many other meteorological phenomena,
are produced by the passage of the
planets through masses of meteors.
The more severe seismic tempests,
he believes are caused by the pas
sage of the larger planets
through the cosmic groups, par
tlcuiarly through those which appear to
give rise to the August and November
meteors. The passages Of Venus, the
earth and Mars through the groups
seem to occasion only earthquakes of a
secondary order; but each of these
planets produces on its passage an in
crease of shocks in the months of Au-
gust and November. The most violent
and long continued commissions, NJ. De-
launay believes, take place when two
large planets pass by the cosmic groups
at the same time. OF this cllara cter
were the earthquakes of 1855, 1888, 1899
and 1841.
The handling of petroleum in any
considerable quantity is, as is we'll
known, attended by much danger on ac-
count of it's explosivcness and the ra-
pidity with which fire ia spread thereby.
Mr.. 1chlumberger, whose mind has for
some time been occupied with this sub
ject, has finally proposed a plan by
which he believes that all fire following
an explosion may be prevented. His
method is the placing of u moderately
large bottle of aqua ammonia upon
every barrel or keg of petroleum.
Should an explosion occur, the shock
will slatter the bottle, spread the
fumes of the ammonia in the atmos-
phere, and produce an automatic and
infallible extinction of the flames. M.
Icl,lumberger is very confident of the
efficacy of this plan, and believes it
would also prove valuable for extin-
gushing the fire caused by explosions
in mines.
NJ. larry is reported to have recently
made discovery of much interest in
the Algerian Sahara. Having noticed a
mound of sand in the neigliborllood of
Wargia. he caused an excavation to be
made, when, to his surprise, a spherical
dome was unearthed. The digging was
continued, and complete mosque was
at length revealed, while several houses
have since been discovered, together
with a subterranean watercOurse OF
great size. 1t is we'll known that the
Sahara was at one time much more
populous than now, but no one seems to
have supposed that cities had been
buried under its sands SO recently as
| since the introduction of Mohamm ed
ism, as the discovery of the mosque
proves to be the case.
Prof. Palmieri, of Naples, has con-
structed an apparatus by which the pu.
rity of oils may be determined by the
resistance that they offer to the passage
of electricity. Olive oil, the poorest
conductor, is taken as the standard fol
comparison. The apparatus may alst
serve to reveal the presence of cotton il
silk fabrics.
The interesting experiment of
SUNDAY science school" has beer
made in Edinburgh, with very
satisfactory results. Ninety-twt
pupils were enrolled, with an aver
age attendance from November to July
of sixty. The pupils were mostly those
Of the artisan class and yonths who
owing to late business hours, could no
avail themselves of evening classes.
| Probably no man has more thorough
| " explored or moro carefully studied
the ancient caves Of Great Britain ant
their contents than Prof. W. Boyt
Dawkins, r. Il. g., who recently lee
tured in London upon the early inbab
itapts whose traces are found In These
eaverns. Among the Interesting re
! suits of his Investigations he mentioned
that the horse was used for food b,
tssa a4sa.itixe u. ss' n
also the dog. The dog of those times
appears TO have been nucl, larger AMI
NAL than the average dog Of the present
day. Fire was obtained by strjkiag a
light from the familiar mineral. iron py-
rites. The potter's wheel does not seem
to have been known, but pottery was
made by hand. The cave implements
show that the prehistoric inhabitants
ground corn. and engaged to some cx-
tent in mining operations.