The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-04-29
SCRAPS OF SCIENCE.

MIX little saltpetre or carbonate of
soda with water, and it Will preserve
flowers for two weeks.
ERNEST RENAN, writing from the re-
gion of the Nile, claims to have discov-
cred little model of sewing machine,
supposed to have been made over six
thousand years ago, by an Egyptian,
named Zynger.
PRUssIC acid remains for a consider
able time in the bodies of animals ppis-
oned with it, and arrests their decay.
NJ. Brame killed a rabbit and a cat by
administering 20 each a gramme of this
acid. A month afterward the bodies
were found perfectly preserved, the dose
being sufficient to perneate the tissues
and to become intimately Incorporated
with those of the stomach.
TIE subsoil of Paris contains abund-
ance of sulphur now in course of fornla-
ton, as was recently proved IN making
excavations in the Place de Ia Repub
hque. NJ. Daubree says that this ma
tive sulphur has nothing to do with the
escape of gas from the mains, but that
its origin is due TO the simultaneous
presence of various kinds of organic sub
stances and of gypsum IN the soil.
PRoF. CARNE1LY. of Sheffield, has
shown that liquids can be reduced to a
solid, or frozen state, and Still retain
their heat In order TO convert a solid
into liquid the pressure must be above
a certain point As long, therefore, as
the necessary pressure Is maintained, no
amount of heat will hquify 1t BY OBJ
serving this law Prof. Carnelly sue
ceeded in freezing some water in glass
vessel which remained so hot rs to burn
his hand
ACCORDING to Prof. Tyndalrs definl-
tion, the brain is the organized register
of infinitely numerous experiences re-
ceived during the evolution of life, or
rather during the evolution of that series
of organism through which the human
organism has been reached; the effect of
the most uniform and frequent of these
experiences has been successfully be-
queathed. principal and interest, and
have slowly mounted to that high intelh-
gence which lies latent IN the brain of
the infant.
MANY readers may know the expert
ment in which a lighted match or candle
being moved about near the side of one
of the eyes in dark room, reveals the
network of blood vessels in the retina.
curious phenomenon of the same
order has been lately observed by NJ.
Charpentier Looking at sky uniform
" illuminated with diffuse white light,
he made the two fingers of his right
hand (separate about 0.1 to 0.2 NO.,
to pass rapidly to an fro before his eyes,
and in about half minute the uniform
aspect of the sky was greatly changed
On white background appeared mo-
sale composed of hexagons of violet pur-
pie color, separated by white lines.
Other persons, he says, have repeated
the experiment with success. He gives
reasons for thinking that the hexagonal
images correspond to the cones in the
fovea and yellow spot, which cones,
pressed together, form a sort of heXa-
gonal mosaic The white lines probably
correspond to filaments charged with
crystals of pigment, which descend from
the chorodian cells.
DIR. LIE Box continues his researches
regarding the products of tobacco. The
new alkaloid found in tobacco smoke
with other aromatic principles, and
prussic acid as we'll as nicotine) Is a liquid
of very agreeable and very penetrating
color, and as poisonous as nicotine, the
twentieth part of one drop sufficing to
paralyze and kill frog 1t is the prussic
acid and the various aromatic principles
llldb CttlSS ntdNdClcs SluulneSS, ana
nausea, in smoking certain tobaccos that
contain little nicotine. Other tobaccos,
rich In nicotine, have no such effects.
The tobaccos containing most prussic
acid and collidine are those of Havana
and the Levant The dark, semi-liquid
matter which condenses in pipes and
cigar-holders contains all the substances
mentioned, as well as carbonate of am
monia, tarry and coloring matter, etc.
1t is very poisonous. Two or three drops
of it will kill small animal The com
bustiOn of the tobacco destroys but a
small part of the nicotine, and most of
this appears in the smoke. The proper
tion absorbed by smokers varies accord
ing to circumstances, but hardly ever
falls below fifty centigrammes for every
100 grammes of tobacco burned. About
the same quantity of ammonia is alb
sorbed at the same time. Naturally,
more of the poisonous principles are
absorbed when the smoked is breathed.
as in room; less in the open air. A
frog placed in receiver containing q
solution of nicotine, with about drop of
that substance to little water, succumbs
in few hours. Tobacco smoke contains
about eight millilitres of carbonic oxide
per 100 grammes of tobacco burned.
The poisonous properties of tobacco
smoke are not due to this gas, as has
been maintained in Germany.