The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1882-05-03
CURIOUS. USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.

The function of yeast is to change starch
into sugar and that into alcohol.
Murder asserts that certain butterflies will
only visit blossoms of primitive tints.
Cords stretched in a network near the
ceiling have been satisfactorily tried for de-
stroying echoes in churches and public
halls.
1t is about settled in the minds of expert
mentors that plants absorb very little moist.
ure through their leaves, by no means
enough to keep the plant alive without the
aid OF moisture at the roots.
DIR. Charles Doremus says the milk of the
elephant is the richest he has ever exami1-
ed. 1t contains more butter and sugar and
less water than any other milk. and it pos
sesses very agreeable TASTE and odor.
Professor Schlager, of Vienna, has been
experimenting for three years on the influ-
ence of of blue light in the treatment of the
insane, and records quieting and soothing
influence in cases of an abnormally excita-
bic temperament. q
The average height of the Japanese is
five feet three inches. Climate can scarcely
account for their smallness, since that is
temperate, though subject to violent changes.
The use of charcoal braziers for heating
may affect their growth by causing them to
inhale the carbonic oxides.
Almost ali volcanoes are found in prox
unity to large bodies of water. The greater
number are situated on islands, and the rest,
with very few exceptions, near the borders
of the sea or Oh lacustrine basins. This
gives rise to the opinion that pressure of
steam is the force which expels the lava tor
rents.
The introduction Of the electric light in
the Grand Opera House, Paris, has, as
might nave been expected, greatly improv-
ed the aceousticsl properties of the building.
Of course, the incandescent system can pro-
duce no disturbance Of the atmosphere and
no heated gases.
A gas we'll in Clarendon, Pa, dug in 1881,
to depth Ct little more than 1000 feet,
now supplies fuel to twenty-six drilling
wells. three pumping wells, l25 stoves, two
machine shops, and two pumping stations.
Recently, on rather cold day, the guage in
the company's Office showed pressure of
seventy-three pounds to the square inch.
DR.. S. Gibbon, Medical Officer for the
Holborn district, London, says in his latest
report, that, whatever may be the cause,
there is no doubt that Jews life in Lon.
don is, on the average, worth twice as many
years as Christians. The Hebrews Of the
metropolis are VIGOROUSLY exempt from tu-
berculaF snd scrofulous faint. Pulmonary
consumption is very rare among them. The
medical officers of one of the Jewish schools
has remarked that their children do not die
in anything like the same ratio as Christian
children. In High street, Whitechepei, the
is occupied by Jews, is twenty per thousand,
while on the south side, which is occupied
by English and Irish Gentiles, it is forty
three per thousand.
DIR. X. Won Fritsch, of Halle, maintains
that the causes of earthquake are much
slighter than has been generally believed,
that they may be sought at depth'of not
more than ten or fourteen miles, and often
of less, and that rather feeble forces may
produce earthquakes which will be felt at
great distances. The hammer in Krupp's
factory, which weighs thousand centners,
and falls from height of ten feet, produces
sensible conclusions over surface five
miles in diameter; and a recent explosion In
dynamite factory was felt at between
twenty-five and thirty miles away. DR..
Fritsch points out how earthquakes might
and must be produced by the increase and
decrease in volume of rocks under the in
fuence of physical and chemical forces, by
concessions, by the opening of crevices in
rocks, and by the subsistence of masses OF
rocks due to these agencies.