St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1881-11-26
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Francisco photographer, has exhibited
lis Photographic marvels to Prof. Marcy
in Paris. He is now able to take pho
tograph in the hundredth part Of a sec
ond. During clowns leap he obtained
six photographs, showing different posi-
tons. BY means of an improved zoe
trope, he projects such figures on
screen, thus exhibiting the motions OF
a clown in his somersaults, horse at
gallop, hare coursing, and even birds
at flight, etc.-the pictures Of the vari-
Gus positions, as they pass in rapid
succession across the screen, uniting to
torn the moving figures.
The value of the new underground
telegraph system of Germany was
shrinkingly demonstrated during late
disastrous gale. While business in
England and on the Continent was
largely suspended in consequence of
Interruptions in the telegraph service
bv Frustrated wires, German cities were
able to communicate with each other
as usual.
in experiments with the electric
light in night military operations, made
at Chatham, England, bodies OF men
we're readily discovered at distance of
more than one thousand yards.
Compressed gunpowder, cut in short
lengths to fit the drill-holes, is found
by experiment to have many advan-
tages, among which is a saving of forty
per cent in powder.
Several lines of electric railway are
proposed by Siemens e. Halske, the
Berlin electricians. They are about
to investigate the problem of electric
traction in the St. Gothard tunnel.
Two Leipsic chemists have patented
a process for obtaining liquid sugar
which does not crystalize. This result
is said to be effected by adding to a
purified sugar solution small quantity
Of crystallized citric acid, which COM
bines with the sugar and deprives it of
its tendency to crystalline.
Various cases of poisoning from
the use Of perfumes have been reported.
In one instance some beliotrope per-
tune applied to the face Of a little girl
produced an erysipelas which lasted for
some time. 1t 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.
cit is a marvellous circumstance"
says DR.. Bancroft, that the black man
of Australia should have dropped upon
the same narcotic principle (nicotine)
as the red man of America" Pituri is
a plant of Central Australia not far re-
moved from the tobacco plant. The
leaves of the plant ARE chewed by the
aborigi les, who trade with it extern
sively. Chemical analysis shows that
that the alkaIoid in which the peculiar
poisonous properties depend is nicotine,
the same substance to which tobacco
owes it's effects. Pituri is eagerly sought
purpose of exciting their courage or
combativeness, but to produce dreamy,
voluptuous sensation, such as is ex-
perienced by the opium eater. 1t is
often taken by the natives on their long
marches to deaden the cravings of
hunger and to support them under ex-
cessiye fatigue.
Prof. James Law declares that
smallpox is so common in the poultry
Of Hindostan and parts of Europe as to
constitute ver1table plague.
--Signor Lorin, of Milan, has offered
twenty thousand francs to the munich
pal authorities for the purpose of main
tanning a mortuary and post norton
room wherein the bodies of all persons
dying of unexplained causes shall un-
dergo rigid examination before being
cremated.
Thomas and Lugel recently ex-
hibited an apparatus for measuring the
rapidity Of growth of a plant. The
plant itself is connected with an index
which advances visibly and constantly,
the growth on a scale fifty times magni-
fed 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"