St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1881-11-19
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

tive power, acting, like the gastric
fluid of the stomach, upon meats and
various other substances. It is pro-
posed by M. E. Bouchut that papaine
be used for dissolving the false mem
branes Of diptheria. In his expert
ments, thick and resisting false men,
brane from the trachea, placed in a
tube with third part Of papaw juice,
was dissolved in a few hours when
cold, and in a few minutes when the
tube was warmed. Since beginning
his investigations Of the subject, he
has employed the substance in the
treatment of thirty-two cases of dip
iberia Of adults and infants, and has
been successful in all but four.
In the British collieries numerous ex-
periments have been made to deter
mine the cause of explosions in the
mines, and these results are now ac-
cepted as correct by most of the ex-
perimenters: 1. Explosions are usually
caused by the presence of coal-dust in
air containing small amount of true
tire-damp, the Dayy lamps serving to
detect the presence Of dangerous gases
when in sufficient quantity to alone
cause explosion. 2. Mixtures of coal
dust and air without tire-damp are not
explosive. The researches have shown
that air containing no more than two
per cent Of fre-damp Ga quantity SO
small as to escape notice. is unsafe in
the presence of coal-dust.
French authorities are investigating
the subject Of the influence of school
room arrangements upon the eyes of
pupils.
Observations by M. Rene Thure show
that the telephone is remarkably sensi-
tive to lightning. He stretched
metal wire between two houses, con-
Meeting one end with the earth and the
other with telephone. During every
thunderstorm since 1879, he has been
able to hear sounds in the telephone at
the instant of the lightning flash, and
this even when the lightning was esti-
mated to be twenty or twenty-five
miles away. At times the sounds be-
came quite loud.
The earliest attempt to obtain light
by incandescence in vacuum was
made by King, in 1S43, who applied con-
tinuous metallic and carbon conduc-
tors, and heated them by the electric
current in Torricellian vacuum, He
was followed in 1848 by Static, who
used an iridium, or an iridium and
platinum, wire, and enveloped the
holder in glass or some other non-con-
ductor. In 1872, Konn employed gra-
phite, and rendered it incandescent in
an atmosphere of nitrogen, in which
there was no wasting away of the car
bon. The same principles have been
followed. but with greater promise of
success, in the more recent attempts of
Edison, Maxim and Swan at producing
illumination by means of lncandes-
cence.
DR.. Danckwortt has just tabulated
the positions Of forty six stars for the
commencement Of each century from
5000 B. C. to 1900 A. D.
The hydro-carbon discovered some
timo ago by Frenchman still attracts
much attention on account Of its pecu-
liar property Of burning at very
slight increase of heat above the aver
age of the surrounding air, so that,
while it's light is very brilliant, it's heat
when burning will not burn the hand
or char handkerchief.
The preservation Of articles Of diet
with salicylic acid has been prohibited
by the French Government, it being
considered that this well-known pre-
Sentative agent is dangerous to health.
A prize Of $1,000, to be awarded in
January, 1884, is offered through the
Brussels Royal Academy Of Medicine
for the best essay on diseases Of the
nervous centres, particularly epilepsy.
A second sum Of $4,000 is to be awarded
the essayist if he makes decided adj
vance in the therapeutics of such dis
eases-such, for instance, as the dis
covery Of a successful method Of treat
ing epilepsy. Another prize Of $4,000
offered by the Turin Academy of Medi-
cine for the best essay on The Physio-
pathology Of the Blood"
In recent paper on the principles Of
copying ink to be used without a
press, Prof. rAttwater, F. R. S., stated
that in practice he found the theoretical
conditions of such an ink best filled by