The Hickman courier., 1881-05-13
SCRAPS OF SCIENCE

A VERY beautiful mineral-to MI.
the name of ''hiddenite" has been %nlcn o;-'Ll
/ was discovered not long ago in Sa'.iI
! Carolinaby w. f. Hidden. 1t i u-1 ~
/ first purely American gem found arJ 'iio !.
very valuable. 1iu IS
The object glass for the Lick Obs,,
vatory telescope is to be three feet
| diameter, and, if successful. viii ba a. ~
most powerful instrument of the ~ sii
! ever made. About three years VIII ~
/ required to finish the telescope. 10
BY means of a strictly vegetable a..
DIR. Hureau de Nilleneuve states tb.t ~, e.,
| has succeeded IN ridding himself of ~ nc
| tacks Of gouty rheumatism, with VIII,
he has been afflicted for years. and 81 -
/ which several of his ancestors had al
AN instrument called the marco,;
| meter has been invented by two PARIS,
chemists, for detecting the presence &c
margarine IN butter. 1t Is based ON +t,1
| different densities of butter and tbo
| greasy substances substituted for :,
mixed with it. -
NJ RoUGER has described 70 +bo
| French Academy a violent storm -
Laigle in September last. Betwoo,,
! $50 and II p. m, there were at leost
1, 200 flashes of lightning; sometimes
there were as many as three flashes NOR
second. The thunder was almost con
tinuous-hke kind of buzzing inteI-
rupted 10y heavy roihngs.
CRoIL has calculated that the Amount
of heat conveyed from the equatoriai
regions noBBhward in the Atlantic bv tba
gulf stream Is equivalent to II. 47965O
| 600, 600, 900, 600 foot pounds of energy
! per day, which is equal to all the heat
received 10y 1,560, ,935 square milekA
/ surface at the equator, and mora&tz
! than Is conveyed 10y all the--~-sl zz..>s.<
| rents.
LATE experiments have shown Nst
about twenty per cent. of the pupils in
| the deaf and dumb schools of London
/ are, by means of the audiphone, enabled
| to hear sufficiently well to take Their
| places in the classes of ordinary schools.
/ 1t Is known that III cases of deafness
/ where the auditory nerves are unaffected,
/ the audiphone enables the patient to
/ hear with distinctuess; but where the
! auditory nerves are destroyed or dis
/ eased, no appliance at present known Is
/ of any utility.
MANY people, says the EIechicia''.
| have observed that n blow or other Jar
! ring shock Will sometimes dispel pain;
/ but the importance of mechanical ybra-
/ tions Us an auodyne is now engaging the
/ serious attention of physicians. For
! some years DIR. Mortimer Granville has
! been endeavoring to find a good means
/ of mitigating the pangs of neuralgia by
! recurring series of shocks administered
! the skin over the affected part, and he
I has constructed an apparatus for the
! purpose which has been employed sue
/ cessfully on various occasions NJ.
/ Boudet, of Paris, has, however, quite re
! Gently developed the subject still fnrther,
/ and applied the ordinary tuning fork 10
! the purpose in question. He was led to
/ do this by the experiments Of NJ.
/ Nigouroux, who provoked contnctiOns
/ IN hysterical patients. and subdued the
/ pains of a nervous cripple by causing the
! sOnorous waves from a vibrating tuning
/ fork and sounding board to impinge upon
/ his limbs NJ Boudet improves upon this
/ treatment by bringing the vibrator into
/ actual contact with the surface Of the
/ body. He does this bya tuning fork kept
in constant vibration through the attrac-
| ton and repulsion of an electro-magnet,
IN whieh an electric current flows, and
rod having one end connected to the
fork and the other applied over the
nerve. So etlicacious does it appear TO
be, that certain kinds of neuralgia,
especially in the less deep-seated nerves,
are charmed away after few minutes
use. The subject is vet in its infancy,
but 1t Is probable that other kinds OF
physical suffering may be soothed by
the vibratory influence, and it is not un-
likely that complete anesthesia, similar
to that produced bv chlorofoTLl, may
result from tremors Of the Uranium: for
when the fork is applied to the walls of
the skull, a swimming of the head fol
lowed by desire to sleep, is frequently
induced There are good reasons for
believing that chloroform acts through
mechanical disturbance Of the sensory
nerves