Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1882-02-16
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC M1SCELLANx.
The remarkable discovery has beer
made by two German chemists that
the life principle is capable of produc
ing chemical effect upon salts Of silver
They report that living organic cells
readily reduce solutions of silver, bu,
tho action ceases when dead cells are
substituted for the living ones.
Insects are endowed with much
greater muscular energy. in proportion
to their size, than other animals. Had
. man Of six feet muscular power pro.
portioned to that of flea, he could
leap more than 800 feet, and lift q
weight Of 10000 pounds. A species
Of beetle supports 500 times its own
weight; and another has been discover
ed which is stated, on good authority,
to have gnawed hole Of an inch in
diameter in the side of an iron canister
BY the power Of ito jaws.
II has lately been noticed that liqu.
orr kept in colorless bottles exposed to
the light soon acquire . disagreeable
taste, while those contained in brown
or green bottles remain unchanged
sven if placed 10 direct sunlight. The
effect is due to the chemical action Of
light, and liquids liable to similar
change should be preserved in red, or
Ange, yellow or green bottles-these
colors excluding the chemical rays.
Observers Of the sun believe that
the maximum Of sun-spots in the "elev-
en-year period" will be reached during
tho pressn: year, although NJ. Dupon-
chsl thinks it may be delayed until
1890 or 1899 en- account of planetary
influences.
The use Of gas al fuel il suggested
~ means Of freeing London from the
intolerable smoke with which it is now
afflicted. 1t is thought to be not alto
gsthsr improbable that, with the gen.
sral adoption Of electricity a. q source
OF light and the employment of gas for
heating purposes, the dream of smoke
less London may be realized at no very
distant period.
By the adoption of preventive meas
nrss to guard against expected epidem-
fcs in certain English towns. Mr..
Edwin Chadwick estimates that three
fourths Of q million lives and three mil
lion cases of sickness have been saved
This seems somewhat startling state.
msnt, but the figures arc the result of
statistical comparisons, and are prob.
ably correct.
DR.. Won Fritsch, Of Halle, maintains
chat the cause Of earthquakes must
exist near the earth's surface, and does
not reach greater depth than ten Or
fourteen miles. They must be FRO
duced, he believes, by the increase and
decrease Of volume Of rocks under tho
influence Of chemical and physical forces
and BY conclusions due to the opening
ct assures in the rocks.
In 1850 the Hoang- Ho river, OF
China, smptled into the Yellow sea;
now this mouth is dry, and the river
has new channel opening to the Gulf
OF Pschsle, nearly 800 miles north of
its former outlet, and the stream turn
cd aside from its old bed at distance
OF more than 800 miles from the coast.
This u the last Of many changes, back
and forth, recorded by the Chinese dur.
Ing tho past 5000 years. The change.
being in floods caused by rain in the
distant Kuenlun mountains.
Among the results Of a journey across
tho Sahara, DR.. Oscar LEM reports
that no depression below sea-level could
20 found. The schemes entertained
tor flooding the desert with water from
the ssa are therefore hopeless and mis-
leading.