The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-03-03
POPULAR SCIENCE.


ARTIFICIAL essence of almonds may be
made from benzine
EVIDENCE is brought to prove that the
antiquity of man can not be less than
200, 600 years.
THIRTY per cent. of forest is considered
the best proportion for the most bene-
fetal effect on climate.
AGAssIZ says The pupil studies
nature IN the school-room, and when he
goes out of doors he can not find her,"
STBYcHNIA acts only on certain por-
tons OF the spinal marrow, and opium
on parts of the cerebrum.
NEXT to the diamond. the ruby is one
of the most remarkable stones for the
exhibition of phosphorescence under
electricity.
In COLD water frogs will breathe en-
tirely by the skin, and can not be killed
by immersion as long as they are pro-
vided with food.
MASY butterflies take no foodan have
no digestive organs. The eating and
storing of nutriment was performed in
the earlier Iarva state.
In FOREST beds near the delta of the
Mississippi are found cypress trunks
twenty-five feet in diameter, and one
containing 800 annual rings.
REMAKKABLE transformations have
been made in the Algerian Sahara by
irrigation. Under Its operation a soil
has been formed in which plants grow
with great vigor.
By AN experiment made with chest
nut tree thirty-five years old, to calculate
the amount of moisture evaporated from
tie leaves, it was found to lose sixteen
gallons of water in twenty-four hours
THE vegetation on Behring Island is
exceedingly luxuriant The sea in the
neighborhood is especially rich in ale@.
Forests of it from sixty to one hundred
feet high render dredging exceedingly
difficult in some localities.
AS test for the coloTing matter in
red wine it is found that, on mixing an
equal quantity of nitric acid with the
wine to be tested. the color will remain
unchanged for hours, if the wine be
pure, while if artificial, it is changed IN
minute.
BY registering apparatus, contrived
for the purpose, the frequency of the
wings of the different insects has been
determined. 1t is found that while the
common fly vibrates its wings $50 times
per second, the honey-bee makes 100
strokes, and the dragon fly only twenty
eight.
IT is maintained by some scientists
that the aroma of fruits increases with
the latitude, while the sweetness de-,
creases. Many herbs, such rs caraway,
are richer in essential oils in Norway than
in more southern regions. This effect is
ascribed to the influence of the pro-
longed light of the summer months.
ATTEMPTS have been made in Spain to
substitute orange for grape juice in wine
making. Four kinds of wine, one
sparkling wine, have been successfully
produced They are all of an attractive
color, perfectly clear, of an agreeable
sweet, slightly acid flavor, and of an al
coholic strength of about fifteen per
cent
THE effect of lightning on trees near
telegraph wire is thus described by
French sGUdrt:: "The line under obser-
vation runs east and west. OF the pop
lars bordering ON the road those on the
north side suffered most, those on the
other side being rarely struck. Eighty
out of 500 trees were destroyed. The
instances multiplied with increased ele-
walton, and in the plateau at the highest
point of land reached the maximum.
The injury was mostly opposite and
under the level of the wires. 1t is sup
posed that while the wire is strongly
electrified by induction, the lightning
does not strike it, but strikes the neigh
boring poplars directly, which, wet with
rain, afford an easier passage for the
electric fluid to the ground"