The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1882-09-09
For the CARBoS ADvooArE.1
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

"A london architectural authority at-
tributes the great durability IF mortar in
Italy TO the fact that the lime remains
covered with water in q pit f>r two years,
whereas in England it is applied at once
after shaking.
The delicacy of the spectroscope in
chemical analysis is rcmarlahlp. Swan
found that the sodItim lines are visible
| when a solution il employed containing
less than two. .millionth part Of grain
of sodium.
A new method of utilizing certain
marine plants has been devised in France,
GUM being extracted from them which
is found to be valuable in the arts in var
ious ways, faficr tafly in the manufac-
ture of a substitute for lenther.
According to Prof +. G. Phillips,
healthy plants may absorb through their
roots small quantities of Load, zinc, cop
per and arsenic. The lepd and zinc may
enter the tissues In this why without
harming the plants, bnt the compounds
Of copper ard arsenic exert a distinctly
Poisonous Notwithstanding TO kill the
plants when present IN the SOIL in consid-
efable quantities;
An experiment by Mr. John Eitel, q
Sacramento chemist, proves that only an
exceedingly small supply of oxygen is
nt tessary TO the life of toad. After be-
ing kept for three or four days under the
receiver Of an air.pump from which the
air had been exhausted as nearly as prac-
ticable, one of these reptiles appeared to
have suffered no injury. A mouse, put
under the same receiver. was qnicl ly sufs
focated at the third OF fourth stroke Of
the pump.
! 1T has fecentIy been pointed out that
the migration of insect pests, like that of
men, ia chiefly from east 10 west. Noxi-
ous insects of innumersble species have
crossed to America from Europe, those Of
the Eastern States have found theft way
to the Pacific coast-but very few have
traversed the opposite course, the only
considerable pests which have crossed the
Atlantic from America being the grape
ply lloxera and the Colorado potato
beetle.
Recent evidence seems to indicate
that, under certain conditions, vegetable
matter may be converted into cosl in q
much less period than many geologists
have believed 10 BE necessary. At least
an apptoach to such conversion has been
discovered in the mines Of the Upper
Hariz, in Germany. Where some of the
timbers originally used in timbering have
been transformed into what appears to be
genuine Ignite or brown coal. The
time occupied by the process cannot, it
is believed, have extended beyond four
centuries a very brief period compared
with that usually assigned to coal form :
ations.
German statistics concerning the
Vitality of children under different meth
DDS Of feeding have shown that 19 per
cent. of the infants nursed by their ftioths
ers have died the first year; of those
died; ofthose ariificially fed 60 per cent
died and of those reared in institutions,
80 per cent died. tNurtBer statisticAf
comparisons show that poverty has d
smaller chance for life than competence.
Taking 1000 well to-do persons and 1000
poor persons there were living at the end
of five years 943 Of the prosperous and
and only G55 of The poor; after Atty yenrs
557 were left of the prosperous. and only
2S3 of the poor; at seventy years Of age
295 Of the prosperous remained, and but
1 65 of the poor. among the well-off class
the average length of life was fonnd TO be
so years, anh among the poor only 80.
q Throughout the universe are scatter
, ed myriad of star-systems. each appear
lug to the tlnaided Eye as single poitt
0 $50 gFeat is the distance from us-but
each consisting Of two or more great blaz-
q Ing stins, widely separated, but revolving
about common centre of gravity. and
doubtless attended by planets trayersing
y bewilderingly complicated orbits. Oh
i the double stars many systems have com.
porents Of different colors, The colors be-
irg Complementary. This peculiar fes-
= ture must produce a striking effect upon
= the planetary attendants of the colored
d suns. "What," says Mr. W. Doberck in
J recent paper on double stars, must be
the nature of thosa worlds illuminated
by two different suns. one yellow and an.
other purple? Now rises the one and all
' is clothed in yellow. now the other, and
illuminated from Complementary sources,
every object appears in its natural color.
=, Then sets the yellow sun, and what must
be the diversity OF the effects as il APP
proacbes the horiziu! Aud, behold, ma
ture pats on purple mantel. Then also
that sun sets, and in the darkness OF
night, thongh there is 81 ldOm night where
: there are two subs, the starry heavens are
seen there much the same as here, except
p rhaps for moons rejecting light from
tue differently oolored suns. But stars
! that seem large to us ars hardly visibls
l ther-, while cur sun is perceived in the
telescopes Of the mysterious beings that
! inhabit those strange globes as only q
iaiat star, and metarhysieians there prove
from priori considerations that no life
, could ba,k ia the Feeble glare OF single
70 suu-how all would hmish ont for the
opposite Effects Of two suns. Aud no
doubt life there is heightened. seeing how
2 glorious is the creation on tins poor orb
;, that is kept alive by but one sun"
. Paris consumed the flesh Of GOO
horses last year That's the ~ay some
FfeDeh horses win the steaks
q "A ladies journal annonuees that q