The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-01-02
SCIENTIFIC mIscELLANY.

use OF leaLnefs diOnt tuIuc W Do uAo-
carded, as they were found too pliable,
and the idea WIS copceiyed of placing
between each pair of feathers a thin
strip of wood. Fans are often men
toned in Latin authors. Plautus
refers TO the JlaJeliferrae, or female
slaves, who carried parasols and fans
to shade and drive away flies from their
mistresses. Fans of ~peacock's feathers
remained in fashion through the middle
ages up to the seventeenth century, not
only IN Italy but in England and
France. Fans of ostrich feathers came
into favor gradually, excluding those
of peacock feathers, and such fans APP
pear in Titan's pictures. Leaves Of
palm trees, reeds and odoriferous
woods are among the substances of
which fans are now made in foreign
countries.
Herr Reulaux, a German writer, has
described an elevated wooded valley in
the Rhine province, in which the pas
sage of the wind produces musical
tones wonderfully like the Ginning of
bells.
II is seriously asserted by a French
scientist that the application of a mag
netic sand from the Isle Of Bourbon
rapidly reyives diseased plants.
According to Mr.. s. E. Peel, several
varieties of ants possess the power OF
producing distinctly audible sounds.
He has heard some of these insects at a
distance of twenty or thirty feet, the
noise being produced by the scraping of
the horney apex Of the abdomen three
times in rapid succession against the
dry leaves of the nest.
The solar engine, invented by NJ.
Mouchot, has been 30 improved by NJ.
Pifre that eighty per cent. Of the SUMS
heat is made available for use, while
NJ. Mouchot has never been able to
utilize more than fifty per cent. This
increase of efficiency is due to change
of the forms of the refectors and the
heaters. With q receiver having a
surface of about one hundred square
feet, under a clear sky, NJ. Pifre boils
twelve gallons of water in less than
forty minutes.
The phenomenon of phosphoresent
fresh meat has been observed in France.
Some outlets Of raw pork shown 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 appear
ance or odor from common meat. The
phosphorescence disappeared on the
sixth ors eventh day. Entire freshness
seemed to be a condition Of the lumin-
osity, so that when the meat began to
smell its brightness ceased.
A scientist of Japan has found that
the skin-furrows at the tips Of the fin
gers vary in different individuals; and
he thinks it quite possible markings may
be traced in these burrows peculiar to
different races Of people.
Alate scientific writer defines instinct
as something else than an obscure
remembrance of experiences which
were made by earlier generations. A
clear remembrance which extends over
the boundaries of our individual life
has, IL is true, not yet been found
among men, but this does not prove
anything against the above assertion.
Such a remembrance we do not possess,
even for the complete period Of our
present life. Our memory does not ex-
tend back to the first years of our in
fancy. 1t is interrupted by sleep; it
may be strengthened by exercise or
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 Of
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 of man has such an extern
sion, and though even for the human
race the contrary may be proven, it
nevertheless might be possible that
some animals are endowed with a mem
DRY which reaches far beyond their So
called individual existence.
A great Russian cavern, las feet
wide and 6S feet deep, has been ex-
plored, and found to contain the re-
mains of a prehistoric workshop for the
manufacture of stone implements, the
whole belonging to two distinct periods
in the development of the primeval
man.
An electric -railway experiment is
proposed for Paris.