Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1881-01-13
POPULAR SCIENCE.
THE fuel of the living body is food.

IHE fuel Oh tne living DouY ID toou.
SALIcYbIc acid is much used in Ger
many to keep water free from impurities.
A METEoRoLoaroAL station is to be
established Oh the celebrated Scottish
mountain, Ben Nevis.
THE metals which are found to longest
retain heat are brass and copper; next
iron, and lastly in order lead.
IN new electric battery one Of
the elements is composed of sheet-iron
less than the ten.thousandth part of an
inch in thickness.
SCIENTISTS have declared that the Blue
Hill Range of Massachusetts, is older, IL
geological point of view, than the Alps
or the Pyrenees OF Europe.
WATER filtered through charcoal be-
comes perfectly pure, the charcoal alb
sorbing all disagreeable tastes and
smells, whether they arise from animal
or vegetable impurities.
The great glacier which gives rise t,
the Zarafshan River in Central Asia has
been explored and recently described by
Yr. Mushketof, Russian geolo9ist. Ii
is fifteen miles long. and mile wide.
IT is known as fact in geology that
below the depth of thirty feet the earth
becomes regularly warmer as we descend
On an average the increase is at the rate
Of one degree of Fahrenheit for every
fifty feet
A JOURNEY across Africa from south TO
north is to be undertaken by DR.. Emil
Holub, Of Prague, under the auspices OF
the Vienna Geographical Society. He
Al L
lengthwise IN three years.
In his new scientific treatise on island
life, Mr.. Alfred r. Wallace, the eminent
|! English naturalist, estimates the period
embracing the formation of all the fossil.
bearing rocks, since the Cambrain, at
twenty-eight millions of years.
A BAvARIAN chemist is reported tc
have invented an enameling liquid
which renders any species of stone or
cement harder than granite, and gives it
the indelible appearance of any min
eral that may be desired.
The leading peculiarly OF rice is the
very large proportion of starch and the
very small proportion of gluten which il
contains, there being but one part OF
gluten to thirteen parts of starch. In
wheat there are two parts of gluten to
every nine parts of starch.
SULPHIDE of carbon has been used
with complete success III France for the
purpose Of DISCRIMINATING wasps. A
small quantity is introduced into the
aperture by which the insects go in and
ont Of their nest, and the result is the
immediate destruction of the entire
colony. The aperture should be closed
after pouring in the liquid or forcing it In
| with q syringe.
ACCORDING to DR.. Edward Smith, an
egg contains 15f per cent. of carbon,
and 2 per cent. of nitrogen. Another
writer estimates that the value of one
| pound of eggs as food for sustaining the
active forces Of the body, is to the value
of one pound of lean beef as 1854 is to
900. As hesh-pro lucer one pound Of
eggs is about equal to one pound %
| beef
:. ONE of the leading chemical manufac-
tories of Germany employs six regular
| chemists with salaries ranging from 81 :
500 to g, 500 yearly, and in addition en-
| cages the services Of an eminent chemist
for theoretical work exclusively, paying
him nearly $4,000 per annum. 1t is
/ doubtless TO this liberal patronage o.
qualified scientists that the superiority
of German chemical manufactures i
! due
SOME support to the theory that moi
| the brain alone, but the whole nervous
system may really be the seat of the
mind, is afforded by Prof o. G. Marsh'f
latest researches concerning the extinct
reptiles of the Rocky Mountain region.
One mammoth skeleton belonging to a
creature which he has named Stegosau-
rus, must have been clothed with body
as large rs that of an alligator, while the
brain cavity corresponds in size to thai
of dog.
The sources of petroleum are found il
almost every part Of the globe, and the
use OF thearticle would seem well nigh coe.
val with civilization. There is spring
i'll one Of the Ionian islands. which has
| yielded petroleum more than 2, 900 years
| The city Of Genoa was formerly lighted
by oil from the wells of Armenia, ON the
banks Of the Faro. In Persia, also, neal
the Caspian Sea, at Baku, numerous
springs of petroleum have been known
from the earliest time; and those o.
Rangoon, on the Irawaddy, are said Il
have yielded, before the general intro.
duction of petroleum, some 400, 900 hogs.
heads of oil year.