The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1881-12-10
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SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

~%~A 49,
Prof James Law declares that small.
pox is SO common i'll the poultry OF
Hindostan and parts of Europe as to
constitute veritable plague.
Prof. Stillman has excayatel, at
Gnosso, in Crete, the remains Of what he
supposes to be the historical labyrinth
famous from the story of Theseus and
the Minotaur.
Compressed gunpowder, cut in short
lengths to fit the drill-holes, is found by
experiment to have many advantages,
. among which is a saving of forty per
Q cent. in powder.
In experiments with the electric light
in night military operations, MADE at
Chatham, England, bodies of men were
readily discovered at distance of more
than one thousand yards.
Several lines of electric railway are
proposed by siemcns & Halske, tho
Berlin electricians. They are about to
investigate the problem of electric trac-
ton in the St. Gothard tunnel.
Signor Lorin, Of Milan, has offered
twenty thousand francs to the munich
pal authorities for the purpose Of main
tanning mortuary gand post morton
room wherein the bodies of all persons
dying of unexplained causes shall under
20 rigid examination before being Gre
mated.
An electric signal apparatus on a
French railway causes the blowing Of a
steam whistle upon a locomotive ap-
preaching a danger signal. The engi-
neer is thus warned. This apparatus is
found valuable in fogs and snow-storms,
when ordinary signals often escape
notice.
Two Leipsic chemists have patented
process for obtaining liquid sugar which
does not crystalline. This result is said
to he effected by adding to q purified
sugar solution small quantity of crys-
tallized citric acid, which combines with
the sugar and deprives it of its tendency
to crystalline.
The number of varieties of insects is
rastly greater than that of all other
living creatures. The oak supports $50
species of insects, and 200 are found in
the pine. Humboldt, in 1849, calculated
that between $50, 900 aud 900 species
were preserved in collections, but recent
estimates place the present number at
about 100000 species.
Various cases Of poisoning from the
use Of perfumes have been reported. In
one instance some heliotrope perfume
applied to the face of little girl pro-
duced all erysipelas which lasted for
some time. It was found on investiga-
ton that the scent was not made with
the odoriferous principles Of plants, but
with some of the products of coal-tar.
It is very general belief that great
burial places exert asnoxious influence,
which must render che localities very
unhealthy as places of residence. This
idea is shown to be mistaken one by
the results Of an inquiry into the salli-
tary condition of the cemeteries of Paris.
The composition of the air in the ceme
teries is reported to he indistinguishable
from that of arabic lands.
Thomas and Lugel recently exhibited
On apparatus for measuring the rapidity
of growth of a plant. The plant itself
ia connected with an index which ad-
xances visibly and constantly, exhibiting
the growth OH scale fifty times mag
pitied. When, the index is connected
with an electric hammer, the current Of
which is interrupted as the index passes
over the divisions of the circle, the
growth Of the plant becomes not only
visible, but also audible to the ear. In
this way it is now possible, literally, to
!" hear the grass grow"
Mr.. Muybridge, the eminent San Fran
cisco photographer, has exhibited his
Photographic marvels to Prof. Marcy, in
Paris. He is now able to take photo
graph in the hundredth part Of second.
During clowns leap he obtained six
photographs, showing different positions.
by means of an improved zoetrope, he
projects such figures on a screen, thus
exhibiting the motions of Il clown in his
somersanlts, horse at gallon, a hare
coursing, and even birds at flight, etc
the pictures of the various positions, as
they pass in rapid succession across the
screen, uniting to form the moving fig
nres.
The President of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers, Mr.. r. H.
Thurston, points out three fields for
invention, in which success must mean
fame and fortune. The first is some
plan for producing electricity, without
loss, directly from burning coal, with no
intervention of special and costly appa-
ratus such as is now employed. The
worker in the second field must find
plan to produce the soft light of the fire.
fly in such a manner as to be practical
and commercial success. Recent prs
gress has nearly solved this problem
The third great field for invention is the
navigation of the air.
Some time ago Prof. Forel, experiment.
ing with the albumenized paper of pho
tographers, reached the conclusion that
light can not penetrate in water to
greater depth than about l25 feet. More
recently, however, NJ. Asper has exposed