Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-01-28
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

\ French electrician has devised
an ingenious electrical low-water
signal for steam boilers. which in.
dlcatr, the existing water level at
any distance fyul tho generator
and when H." VIZ has sunk below
a certain point rings Il signal bell,
willie at the s'.lMc time the sign
" low water appears on the indicat-
ing tablet
! Tie elephant hunters of Ccylen
and India corroborate Sinbad's
stor, that elephants, when thew
feel the approach OF death, retire to
IL solitary ana inaccessible valley.
and there die in peace. The Super.
intendent of elephants to the Gov
erument OF India states that no liy.
ing man has come across the corpse
of II wild elephant that has died a
natural death.
1t is stated that the Bank OF
France has almost entirely aban.
doned chemical tests in favor of the
camera for detecting forge,ies.
The sensitive plate not only pro-
claims forthwith the doings of the
eraser or penknifc, but frequently
shows, under the bold figures of
the forger, the sum originally borne
by the check. SO ready is the
camera to detect ink marks that q
cGrte-dc- riSHc enclosed in q letter
may to the eye appear without
blemish, while a copy of it in the
cemela will probably exhibit traces
OF writing across the face, where
it has merely been in contact with
the written page.
Prof. Marsh recently read paper
treating the dimensions of the brain
and spinal cord in some extinct rep
reptiles. He considered that the
cerebral part of the brain in living
mammals showed decided increase
as compared with the size of the ex-
tinct species. The early mammals
had smooth brains, and in the later
ones convolutions appeared. The
brains of birds and reptiles followed
the same law. A large speci-
men of an extinct animal from tho
Rocky Mountains, which measured
thirty feet in length, had a brain
cavity not much larger than that OF
dog. There was, however, a large
posterior cavity toward the spine.
This suggests the idea that it is not
the brain alone, but the whole ner-
vous system, which may be the seat
of mind.
With so simple an article as red
cabbage, very old but pretty little
chemical experiment may be made
by the young people, with the re-
suit of amusing and astonishing
those around them. The effects
may be strikingly shown in this man
ner: Cut three leaves of the cab
bage into small pieces, and, after
placing them in II basin, pour pint
of boiling water over thom, letting
them stand an hour; then pour off
the liquid into q decanter. 1t will
be Of fine blue color. Then take
four wine glasses: into one put six
drops of strong vinegar; into an-
other, six drops of solution Of soda;
into third, the same quantity of
strong solution alum; and let the
fonrth glass remain empty. Fill up
the glasses from the decanter, and
the liquid poured into tho glass
containing the acid will quickly
change to beautiful red; that
poured with tho soda will be fine
green; and that poured into tho
empty glass will remain unchanged.
A late writer has furnished this
simple and lucid definition of space:
" Space is real, objective, imma-
tcrial, extended, continuous, infinite,
immutable, eternal, and absolute
whole of capacity to receive extended
subst nee, existing in trine extension
of infinite length, infinite breadth,
and infinite depth, which is ideally
devisible in each dimension into fin
tie wholes of locality, all OF possible
forms and sizes, possessing the rela'
tons of similarity, difference, ratio,
direction, distance, contiSuity, and
couiuuctihilitv, and COMPRISING unit