St. Landry democrat., 1881-09-03
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

made by the director of the Vienna
Statistical Bureau. Out of 1O2,S31 in
<lividuals who have passed the age of
ninety years, only 1888 are men, and
20. 3O3 are women. He also finds that
there are but al male centenarians to
241 women who have reached hundred
gears of age.
The attempts to explain the tails OF
comets have been various. A new
effort to solve the problem has been
made by M. Picart, as follows: The
sun, the stars, nebulae and comet, are
composed not only Of ponderable mat
ter in the gaseous state, but OF impon-
derable matter-the luminous ether"-
revealed, in the case of the sun, by the
zodiacal light, and in that of nebulae,
by their irregular forms contrary to
cravitation. A comet far from tue sun,
appears in sphel oidal form, due to
yravitation of it's ponderable matter
its luminous ether being then invisible
because OF it's distance and feeble
light. But on nearing the sun, repul-
sion being characteristic property OF
luminous ether, the ether of the sun
repels that of the comet, and thus forms
the tail. The form and direction of the
tail are thus quite independent OF grayl-
tation and the comets enormous velo-
city ceases to be difficulty, as it is in
theories which suppose the matter of
the tail to be ponderable. This expla-
nation may account for the comets
tails, but the mystery Of the luminous
ether remains.
Some remarkable and suggestive
Deculiarities are found in a human jaw
bone from the Schipka Cave OF Moravia.
Stone implements found with the bone
indicate that it belongs to the stone
age. In development the jaw is that of
a child, but it is of great size. Its
shape indicates the absence of any
chin and has other peculiarities found
in greater degree in the higher apes.
Physically, the nearest approach to
man in the lower animals is the anthro-
poid ape; but in intelligence ants seem
to rank highest in the scale below man.
Reference has often been made to the
habits Of species of these insects in
conducting battles, capturing slaves;
and their power of recognizing friends
and of communicating among them
selves. Various entomologists have
shown them to possess reasoning pow
ers quite surprising. One Of their most
remarkable habits is the practice Of
many species of keeping aphides, as
men keep milch-cows, to supply nu-
tritious secretion. Huber first observed
this habit, and noticed that the ants
collected the eggs of the aphides and
treated them with as much apparent
care as they treated their own. When
these eggs hatch out, the aphides are
usually kept and fed by the ants.
Sometimes the stems and branches on
which they live are encased by the ants
in clay walls, in which doors are left
large enough to admit the ants but too
small to permit the escape Of the
aphides. The latter are therefore i'm
prisoned in veritable stables. The
sweet secretion is yielded to the ants
by process Of milking" which con-
sists in the ants stroking the antennal
OF the aphides. Sir John Lubbock has
found that the eggs Of the aphides are
laid in October on the food plants Of the
insect, when they are carefully collect
ed by the ants and protected in their
nests from the cold Of winter. The
newly Matched insects are then, in May,
restored to the plants on which they
feed and closely tended by the ants.
Cyclones are observed to extend over
circle from 100 to 500 or, sometimes,
1000 miles in diameter. In the West
Indies they are sometimes as small as
100 miles in diameter, but dilate to 900
to 1000 miles on reaching the Atlantic.
They sometimes, however, contract,
increasing greatly in violence during
the process.
According to French entomologist,
the wool Of different countries may be
distinguished in market by the varieties
of beetles which inhabit the bales. He
has identified Al species in Australian
wool; SO in South African wool; 80 in
South American wool; is in Spanish
wool and in Russian wool.
Experiments by NJ. Pasteur in vac
cination for splenic fever have proved
entirely successful. The new vaccine
matter can be cultivated at pleasure,
transported without injury, and pre-
serves the animals into which it is in