The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-02-17
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

THE long Arctic night is of 145 days
duration. What gloomy idea!
The outside fiber of the cocoanut is
now used for shoe heels, and is said to
be good substitute for leather.
SOME of the nerves of the human body
are SO fine and small that six of them are
only equal to one hair of the head in
size.
KRANcA, one of the Sadwich Islands,
has crater one thousand feet below the
surrounding land, and six miles in cir
conference.
IT is seriously asserted by French
scientist that the application of mag
netic sand from the Isle of Bourbon
rapidly revives diseased plants.
ACCORDING to an English patent,
mixture of locust beans (Ceratonia
siliquo) and tares (Vicic sativa) may
be made to yield an infusion like Mocha
coffee.
In the South Kensington Muesum is
Edison's original lamp, with the carbon
loop. It is accompanied by certificate
from Edison stating that it burned ], 300
hours.
HERR REULAUx, German writer, has
described an elevated wooded valley in
the Rhine Province, in which the passage
of the wind produces tones wonderfully
like the Ginning of bells.
A SCIENTIST of Japan has found that
the skin-furrows at the tips of the
fingers vary in different individuals: and
he thinks it quite possible markings
may be traced in these burrows peculiar
to different races of people.
A GREAT Russian cavern, one hundred
and forty-ive feet wide and sixty-eight
feet deep, has been explored and found
to contain the remains of a prehistoric
workship for the manufacture of stone
implements, the whole belonging to two
distinct periods in the development of
primeval man.
A PROCLAMATION" from DR.. Salvador
Vinci, of Cantania, announces that a
great revolution in the physical sciences
is at hand, for he will shortly demon
strate, by the most positive and incon-
testible evidence. that the essence OF
heat, of light, of electricity, of magnet
ism, and of life, is-oxygen!
ACCORDING to Mr.. s. E. Peel, several
varieties OF possess the power Of
producing dis. .-4lctly audible sounds He
has heard some of these insects at dis
tance Of twenty or thirty feet, the noise
being produced by the scraping of the
horny apex of the abdomen three times
in rapid succession against the dry leaves
of the nest.
The phenomenon of phosphorescent
fresh meat has been observed in France.
Some outlets of raw pork shone so
brightly in the dark that it was possible
by the aid of the light thus furnished to
tell the time by the watch. The meat
did not otherwise differ in appearance or
odor from common meat. The phosphor-
escence disappeared on the sixth OF
seventh day. Entire freshness seems to
condition of the luminosity, SO that
when the meat began to smell its bright
ness ceased.
HERR BERGEb, of Berlin, has brought
out a curious device by means of which
pictures of various kinds are burnt out
on apiece of ordinary looking rose-col-
ored paper. A glowing match is applied
at the finely perforated points, and the
sparks communicated then begin gradu-
ally to move over the paper, tracing out
the picture. Neither leaves its proper
path or Injuries the paper beyond, and
when the end of the path is reached, the
spark goes out.
A SCIENTIFIC writer defines instinct as
'snothing else than an obscure remem-
brance of experiences which were made
by earlier generations. A clear remem-
brance which extends over the bound
aries of our individual life has, it is true,
not yet been found among men, but this
does not prove anything against the
above assertion. Such remembrance
we do not possess, even for the complete
period of our present life. Our memory
does not extend back to the first years Of
our infancy. It is interrupted by sleep;
it may be strengthened by exercise OF
weakened by neglect; it may be inter
rupted by many abnormal states by
which life itself is not interrupted
Whether in dreams, or in conditions o.
abnormal nervous excitement, in hys-
terics or other sickness, memory is in
creased SO that it really extends over the
period of our so-called individual life, is
a question which, although much abused
by humbugs and imposters, might still
arrest the attention whether the memory
ofman has such an extension, and though
even for the human race the contrary
might be proven, it nevertheless might
be possible that some animals are en-
dowed with memory which reaches fal
beyond their so-called individual exis.
4 tence."