The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-03-29
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,


SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Compiled for the Leader.
A very beautiful mineral-to which
the name of "h~iddeniten has been given
was discovered not long ago in North
Carolina by W. Z. Hidden. 1t is tie
first purely American gem found, and
is very valuable.
Prof. Klebs, of Prague, has discoy-
cred a peculiar microscopic growth in
the remains Of patients who have died
OF typhoid fever. 1t is not found in the
bodies Of persons whose death has been
caused by other diseases.
BY means of a strictly vegetable diet,
DIR. Hureau de Villeneuve states that he
has succeeded in Kidding himself of at
lacks Of equity rheumatism, with which
he had been afflicted for years, and of
which several of his ancestors had died.
The object-glass for the Lick Observ-
atory telescope is to be three feet in d.
ameter, and, IL successful, will be the
most powerful instrument of the kind
ever made. About three years will be
required to finish the telescope.
An instrument called the margari-
meter has been invented by two Paris
ian chemists, for detecting the presence
of margarine in butter. 1t is based on
the different densities of butter and the
greasy substances substituted for it or
mixed with 1t.
NJ. Rouger has described to the
French Academy a violent storm at
Laigle In September last. Between
$3.50 and II p. m. there were at least
400 flashes of lightning ; sometimes
there were as many as three flashes per
second. The thunder was almost con-
tinuous, like a kind of buzzing, inter-
rupted by heavy rollings.
Croll has calculated that the amount
Of heat conveyed from the equatorial
regions %northward in the Atlantic by
the Gulf Stream is equivalent to 77,479,-
$50, 600, 600, 000, 900 foot-pounds of ener-
gy per day, which is equal to all the
heat received by 1850. 935 square miles
of surface at the equator, and more heat
than is conveyed by all the aerial cur
rents.
Late experiments have shown that
about twenty-five per cent. of the pupils
in the deaf aud 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 in cases of deafness,
where the auditory nerves are unaffect-
ed, the audiphone enables the patient to
hear with distinctness /; but where the
auditory nerves are destroyed or dis
eased, no appliance at present known is
of any utility.
Some curious phenomena-electrical
shadows SO called-have been lately
described by Herr Holtz to the Coffin
gen Academy. They are obtained by
fixing to one rod of an electrical ma
chine a large concave disc having a
piece of silk without wrinkles adhering
to it ; at the point of the other discharge
rod-placed opposite-appears, when the
machine is worked, a small, feeble, lum-
inous star, and on the disc a circle Is
When objects are i~nterposed the
shadows appear on the luminous circle.
They are not optical shadows, as is pro-
ven by the fact that all Opaque objects
do not give them. They are produced
in general only by conductors and semi
conductors of electricity, and insulating
bodies give little or no shadow. A
glass rod with one end made conducting
by heat gives a partial shadow, which
gradually disappears on cooling.
Many people, says the Electrician,
have observed that a blow or other jar
ring shock will sometimes dispel pain !;
but the Importance of mechanical vibra-
lions as an anodyne is now engaging the
serious attention of physicians. For
some years past DR.. Mortimer Granville
has been ~endeavoring to find a good
means of mitigating the pangs of neu-
ralgia by q recurring series of shocks
administered to the skin over the affec-
ted part, and he has constructed an APP
paratus for the purpose which has been
employed successfully on various occa-
sions. NJ. Boudet, of Paris, has, how
ever, quite recently developed the sub
ject still further, and applied the ordin-
ary diapason. or tuning fork, to the
purpose in question. He was led to do
this by the experiments of NJ. Vigour-
oux, who provoked c%ontractions in hys-
terical patients, and snbdued the pains
of a nervous cripple by causing the So
norous waves from a vibrating tuning
fork and sounding board to impinge
upon his limbs. NJ. Boudet improves
upon this treatment by bringing the