The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-11-09
Doings in the World of Science


THE MILKY WAY WITH ITS FIFTY MILLIONS O
BLAZING sUNs--JUPITER's RED sPoT--oRIGI
OF THE GREAT DEssERTs-o TER pHENoMEN,
Frof Feichtlnger of Munich has observes
mat OF various kinds of writing and printing
paper examined, all those that had been size,
with resin had more or less acid reaction
WINE THIS property did not appear in pape
Win animal sizing The acid reaction wa
found to be due to free sulphuric acid. which
must impair the durability of paper in whlcl
IL exists, and must also gradually destroy th,
Diack color of writing on the paper. Resin
sized paper would therefore seem to be unfi
ior records and other writings intended to b.
lasting
HerschelPs labors showed the Milky Way tc
DE great nebula containing at least fifty mil
hons OF huge blazing suns, with our sun and
us attendant planets near the centre of the
system. This nebua is distributed in two
nearly parallel layers having the form of pail
OF mlllstones, being very thin but extending
iaterally to distances OF which we can form no
conception. While with an uninterrupted
track lightning express train might pass
around cur wOrld-which seems large to us
In less than one short month, it could not at
It's highest speed accomplish the distance to
the sun in two hundred years But beam
OF light flashes across that space in eight min
utes. And yet this beam OF light, which vastly
transcends in speed anything we know, re-
OrIr1S than hroo WOO
the nearest nXe' star to Inc earth, and to cross
the extreme width OF the Milky Way itself
must occupy nearly three thousand sears! Even
this expresses no ldea OF the limits of the Wis
IDLE universe. Other nebule than our own are
Visible In space, and if as large as our own
must be SO distant that the light cannot reach
our system IN one million ye1rs!
Experiments by Koch and Wolfhugel to de-
termine the dsinfecting power of hot air have
led to the conclusion that SO high temper
allure and so long anexposure are necessary to
secure dlslniection that most articles-such as
clothing-are liable to serious damage by the
operation.
The great red spot which has been visible
on the surface of the planet Jupiter for sew
eral years is reported to be growing fainter
and the early disappearance OF this remarkable
object seems imminent.
In warm-blooded animals the hearts action
ceases in veryfew minutes'after the destruction
OF the nervous centres or after the circulation
of the blood in it's own vessels is by any means
arrested. Not so with cold-blooded animals
however, as the. heart of one of them may con-
tinue to beat for many hours after il. has been
emptied of blood and even after it has been
cut out of the chest. The pulsations of the
heart of an eel have been seen to continue for
six honrs after separation from the rest of the
body; of torpedo, for nine hours and of
salmon for twenty-four hours 9a
1t has been ascertained that the first exper-
iment with air balloons was made at Ayignon
by Montgolfier the elder in November, 1882.
He sent up in his room paralelopiped of
canvass containing forty cubic feet of air
heated by burning paper inside The room is
still in existence.
Among the special features of the Munich
electrical exhibition is a giant telephone
the entire audience in large hall
1t is held by Mons. P. de Tchihatchef that
the great deserts of Asia ami Africa are not
recently raised sea-beds, but were uplifted at
remote geological epochs, thor sands being
the product OF rocks disaggregated by atmos-
pheric causes, instead of showing marine
origin. The Asiatic deserts are much older
than the Sahara.
Herr Craner has made some experiments on
the nutrition of man In his sixty fourth year
who had practiced vegetarlanism since he was
eleven. He finds that strictly vegetable diet
may maintain the bodily and mental func-
lions, but it only sufices to prolong life when
the quantity Of vegetables is reduced by in
PRODUCTION of animal albumen in the form OF
milk and eggs. Herecommends The less bulky
mixed dict as the more practical and economi-
cal food for man.
The local pronunciation of geographical
names is often different from what would
elsewhere be expected from the spelling. A
congress of French geographical societies has
adopted the principle that geographical names
with few exceptions-should be pro-
nounced in the local way.
In recent paper, Dr. Drysdale, OF London,
showed that it could no longer be matter of
doubt that humanized lymph should be en-
tirely abandoned in favor of calf lymph for
vaccination, as has been done in the United
States. Several physicians of wide experience
testified, i'll 1880, that animal vaccination was
perfect preservative against smallpox but
the lymph taken from human subjects very
often fails to professionalism, (R..) Erum-
amer