The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-02-17
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

4
THE long Arctic night is Of 145 days
duration. What a gloomy ideal
TIE outside fiber of the cocoanut is
now used for shoe heels, and is said to
be a good substitute for leather.
SOME of the nerves of the human body
are SO fine and small that six of them are
only equal to one hair of the head in
size.
KRANoA, one of the Sadwich Islands,
has a crater one thousand feet below the
surrounding land, and six miles in cir
conference.
IT is seriously asserted by a French
scientist that the application of a mag
netic sand from the Isle of Bourbon
rapidly revives diseased plants.
ACCORDING to an English patent, a
mixture of locust beans (Ceratonia
siiiQua) and tares (VSciG sdtiUG) may
be made to yield an infusion like Mocha
coffee.
In the South Kensington Museum is
Edison's original lamp, with the carbon
loop. 1t is accompanied by a certificate
from Edison stating that it burned 1900
hours.
HERR REULAUx, a German writer, has
described an elevated wooded valley in
the Rhine Province, in which the passage
of the wind produces tones wonderfully
like the Ginning of bells.
A SCIENTIST of Japan has found that
the skin-furrows at the tips of the
fingers vary. in different individuals; and
he thinks it quite possible markings
may be traced In these burrows peculiar
to different races of people.
A GREAT Russian cavern, one hundred
and forty-fve feet wide and sixty-eight
feet deep, has been explored and found
to contain the remains of a prehistoric
workshop for the manufacture of stone
implements, the whole belonging to two
distinct periods in the development of
primeval man.
A PROCLAMATION" from DR.. Salvador
Vinci, of Cantania, that a
great revolution in the physical sciences
is at hand, for he will shortly demon
strate, by the most positive and incon-
testible evidence, that the essence of
heat, of light, of electricity, of magnet
ism, and OF life, is-oxyGen!
ACCORDING to Mr.. s. E. Peel, several
varieties of : 8 possess the power OF
producing dik--lctly audible sounds. He
has heard some of these insects at a dis
lance of twenty or thirty feet, the noise
being produced by the scraping of the
horny apex of the abdomen three times
in rapid succession against the dry leaves
of the nest.
The phenomenon of phosphoresceni
fresh meat has been observed in France.
Some outlets of raw pork shone sc
brightly in the dark that it was possible
by the aid of the light thus furnished to
tell the time by the watch. The inca
did not otherwise differ in appearance o.
odor from common meat. The phosphor
escence disappeared on the sixth o.
seventh day. Entire freshness seems tx
q condition of the luminosity, SO tina
when the meat began to smell its bright
ness ceased.
HERR BERGEL, of Berlin, has brough
out a curious device by mean of which
pictures of various kinds are burnt on
on piece of ordinary-looking rose-col
ored paper. A glowing match is appliet
at the finely perforated points, and tn
sparks communicated then begin gradu
ally to move over the paper, tracing GU
the picture. Neither leaves its prope
path or Injuries the paper beyond, an
when the end of the path is reached, tb
spark goes out.
A SCIENTIFIC writer defines instinct q
'snothing else than an obscure remem
brance Of experiences which were mad
by earlier generations. A clear remem
brance which extends over the bound
aries of our individual life has, it is true
not yet been found among men, but thi
does not prove anything against tn
above assertion. Such a remembrance
we do not possess, even for the complet
period of our present life. Dun memoir
does not extend back to the first years {
our infancy. 1t is interrupted by sleep
it may be strengthened by exercise
weakened by neglect; it may be intel
rupted by many abnormal states b
j, which life itself is not interrupted
: Whether in dreams, or in conditions {
! abnormal nervous excitement, in hyt
. terics or other sickness, memory is il
creased SO that it really extends over th
: period of our so-called individual life,
: q question which, although much abuse
!, by humbugs and imposters, might sti
: arrest the attention whether the memor
ofman has such an extension, and thong
, even for the human race the contraI
= might be proven, it nevertheless migl
be possible that some animals are Ell
: lowed with q memory which reaches fl
. beyond their so-called individual ext
tence."