Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-02-25
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

practicable method of manufacture.
ing artificial indigo.
The French Government has allot.
ted NJ. Pasteur 80, 600 francs to ena.
BILE him to carry out his researches
on the contagious dis Ease of animals
According - Chicago diamond
expert, mary Of the so-called soil.
taires, sold as single stones, are
made up of small stones put togeth.
err. tIe further af1irms that very few
first water diamonds are sold in this
country.
The Caspian Sea is gradually be.
coming lower. A portion of the
eastern shore is now transformed
into series of lagoons separated BY
muddy spaces, and measurements
have shown that in 1887 the level
was nearly four feet higher than in
1861. A similar diminution OF water
seems to be in progress in all Asiatic
lakes.
Letters from Senegal state that
the survey of the country between
the Senegal and the Niger is in &C.
tive progress, with the prospect of
completion by the month of May,
1881. Three Typographical parties
have been formed to determine the
position of the intended ports and
route of railway by which it is pro.
posed to connect these rivers.
The chief obstacle to the success
of Edison's electric lamp has been
the speedy destruction of the deli
cate carbon threads which furnish
the light. Mr.. Swan, of Newcastle,
England, claims to have removed
this difficulty. He exhausts the air
to high degree in the glass con-
tanning vessel, or globe, and heats
the carbon to higher temperature
than it is likely to ever again ex-
perience, Dramatically sealing the
lamp while the carbon is hot.
1t is the general practice to judge
of the wholcsomeness of water by
the quantity of organic matter which
chemical analysis shows it to contain.
Hence the opinion expressed by
Prof. Huxley is somewhat startling.
He says that ga water may be as
pure as can be, as regards the hui
man body, be as deadly as prussic
acid: and on the other hand may be
chemically gross and yet do no harm
to any one." That is, much organic
matter is harmless, while tho particu.
lar germs which produce disease
may exist in very foul water or in
that in which the chemist can discov-
er no impurities.
The threatened collapse of the ST.
Gothard tunnel, in the part known
as the windy Stretch" is due to its
passing through aluminous and cal
careous strata, which absorb water
with avidity and swell enormously
on exposure to tho moist atmosphere.
1t was at first believed that con-
siderable portion of the tunnel would
have to be rebuilt, and q detour
made for q long distance to avoid
these strata. The expcdient finally
adopted is the strengthening of the
masonry by the construction of an
| immense granite tube, the wall OF
which is to be in places not less than
ten feet thick.
A very interesting archaeological
discovery was lately made in Nor.
way. From a burial mound nearly
$50 feet in diameter was bug well.
preserved viking ship, in which
some chieftain had been entombed
centuries ago. The craft is the larg.
estancient vessel now known to exist,
It being "a feet long and 1G feet
wide, with twenty ribs. Along its
sides a row of circular shields ex-
tends completely around it. The
mound is now nearly mile from
the lea, but it is evident that in
olden times the waves washed its
base and that the vessel was drawn
out of the water and buried at its
edge.
In San Salvador more than GOU
shocks of earthquake were felt DUR
ing the last ten days of 1879. They
were the heaviest December rs, IN
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