The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1881-01-08
SCIENTIFIC.

Kcd INK Is q solution OF alum coloreu
with Brazil wood, or an ammoniacal
solution OF cochincal
Split timber is more durable and
stronger than that which is sawn, from
the continuity Of the iibres,
Plate glass is formed Of silica seven
ty-eight parts, potash two, soda thir-
teen, lime five, and alumina two parts.
The recent scientific exploration Of
the Lake Of Liberals by Mons. Lortet
has resulted in the discovery of several
new forms Of fish and new species OF
moIlusks in this celebrated lake.
Old wine, says Macagno, owes its
mellowness more TO the increase Of ely
cerine than to Il decrease of tannin in
the liquid. The excepting" OF the wine,
he maintains, depends upon the proper
ton the alcohol bears to the tannin.
Dr. Julius Schmidt has lately pub
lished that he finds from the obserya-
tons Of the red spot on Jupiter during
period extending from 1879 to 1880,
that an interval Of hours, 50 minutes,
3i,4 seconds represents the rotation Of
that planet upon its own axis. But he
is not quite sure about the matter after
all, and like wise and prudent man
wants coniirmatory evidence.
Herr +. Schone, in the Bcrichte, does
not attach any scientific value whatever
70 the ordinary potassium iodine paper
tests as ozone measures. A small
amount Of ozone in most air produces,
he says, a greater degree Of color on
potassium iodide papers than larger
amount Of ozone in dry air. The hui
midity Of the air, and the microscopic
character Of the material from which
the paper is made, therefore largely in
huence the depth of the color produced.
He even goes so far as to assert that the
actual presence Of ozone in the atmos-
phere is at present an open question.
The minute lines and burrows on per.
sons hands are likely to receive far
more useful attention than the observa-
ton Of the great lines by fortune-tellers.
There is reason to believe that the spiral
whorls on the thumb and finger points
are peculiar to individuals and races,
and may be as certainly used to define
the chronological class or positive iden-
LITIGATION Of the being possessing them
as the measurements of the skull or eX-
animation Of a photograph would be.
DR., Henry Faulds, Of Tsukiji hospital,
Toxic, Japan, in an interesting letter
in Tie Nature, directs attention to this
subject in a way which will attract the
notice of natuIalists and students of the
theory Of development and heredity.
1t should be widely known, because
Of evident importance, that at the inter-
national geological congress to be held
at Bologna, in 1881, prize will be
awarded of 5000 francs for the best in
ternational scale Of colors and conven-
tional signs for graphic representation
of formation on geological maps and
sections. Many of our geologists might
90 in for the prize, not for its money
value, but for the sake of making a GER
tain department of geology ineligible
when presented to the eye. The Babel
of coloring in geology at present here
and in other countries is enough to
cause 4 dispersion Of those that come
to learn, and depart in disgust when
they find that very important means
Of conveying knowledge is in itself con-
fictatory.
All the work in recent chemical re-
search, says Mr.. Pattison Muir, in a
paper just published, points unmistaka-
bly, toward the conclusion that chemis-
try is rapidly passing out Of the natural
history stage Of progress into that stage
where her facts will be accurately
grouped under general laws, which
laws will admit Of quantitatiye state
ment and OF cumulative deductions
being made from them. The recent
work in chemistry also illustrates the
need Of a wide training in the methods
| of various sciences for the investigation
of this branch of natural phenomena.
! One man begins with purely chemical
| investigation, another with what APP
pears wholly physical; before long they
| find their paths meet, and that the prob
lem which each had attacked without
thought Of the other can, it is seen, be
solved, and even then solved but par
italy, only by the efforts of both.
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