The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-09-08
SCRAPS OF SCIENCE.

In SIX years, trees of the Eucalyptus
qlobuLus planted in Jamaica have be-
come one foot in diameter and sixty feet
in hight.
IT HAS been affirmed by DR.. Arnott
that no wave Of the ocean rises more
thar ten feet from the ordinary sea level,
which, with the ten feet its surface after
wards descends, gives twenty feet for
the maximum height of the entire ave
IT Is noticed that various substances
are formed during fires in coal mines.
Among them M. Daubree has discovered
at Commentry a new magnetic mineral
which contains phosphorus and small
quantities of arsenic and sulphur. b
substance resembles various natural
minerals and some meteoric stones.
AN for the instantaneous
extinction of fire has been successfully
tried in Paris. One of the most remark
able experiments of the trial in the
Champ de Mars, was the putting out in
in less than q minute, of an incandescent
lake of tar containing 1000 pounds OF
reached the height of the third story.
P1INY states that the coffin of the
ancient Romans was generally of stone.
LII SOulo ChSSS IL WIS udu0 u b CcT Odlu
stone in Troas, which had, or was be-
ieved to have, the peculiar faculty of
destroying all the body, the teeth ex.
cepted, in forty days, Hence the name
"sarcophagus," which literally means
hesh-eater. This stone was probably a
species of limestone.
BALFoUR STEWART, in a recent lecture
on "Sun Spots" says that the spots are
probably caused by inrushing of cool
matter toward the interior, while the
facula or bright spots are Furnishings
of heated matter. If some circulation
of this sort did not continually go on,
the suns surface, according to Sir
William Thompson, would probably cool
down to darkness in a very few minutes.
The old a~lchemists, in their search
for the philosophers stone, left no mix.
ture of familiar or unfamiliar ingredients
untried. An ancient work, called "The
Gold Makers Guide" contains this
promising formula: "Take of the gall
of a black tomcat, killed when the night
approacheth, part of the brains o.
a night owl, taken from out its hea6
when the morning dawneth, five parts
mix in the hoof OF an ass when the tide
turneth; leave it until it doth breed
maggots, place it on thy breast-bont
when the moon shineth bright-and-
thou wilt see a sight which the eye O
mortal man ne'er beheld afore."
MANY strange sounds, real or imagin,
airy, have been heard in the working o.
Natures processes. There has been re.
ported to exist on a distant island in the
Bay of Bengal a phenomenon known a.
the "Barisal guns" which is Otter
heard at the beginning of a rainfall, ant
is like the sound of the firing of cannon
An observer has decided that thes,
sounds are atmospheric and in some wa,
connected with electricity. Mr.. Horne
reporting On the villages of the Himala
vas, describes exceedingly powerful
noises heard in the highest mountain
peaks, to which the natives can ascrib'
no cause. Above the town of Keimba
tur, in Madras, is a pond which the ma
tives carefully shun because frightfu
noises issue from its depths.
The many unlikely methods by whicl
the seeds of plants are diffused over Ian,
and sea until they at length find a cor
, genial spot for development, form an in
teresting and curious study. It is wei
known that bees carry pollen fror
flower to flower, and thus act not onl
as sewers of SEED but also as fertilizer
of the female plants. A curious instanc
of this kind has been given by a scier
tific man, who states that attached I
the skin of a panther recently shot j
India he found numerous seeds, each
which had two perfect hooks, appearin
as if designed to attach themselves
foreign bodies. AS the panther move
about it collected the seeds on the ski
and carried them wherever it went bl
when it rubbed against the shrubs, th
seeds were brushed off and thus distril
uted.