The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-02-25
NUMBER 25.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

DR.. Won Fritsch, of Halle, maintains
that the cause of earthquakes must
exist near the earth's surface, and
does not reach a greater depth than ten
or fourteen miles. They must be pro-
duced, he believes by the increase and
decrease of volume of rocks under the
influence of chemical and physical forces,
and by conclusions due to the opening
of fssures in the rocks.
1t has lately been noticed that liquors
kept in colorless bottles exposed to the
light soon acquire disagreeable taste,
while those contained in brown or green
bottles remain unchanged even if placed
in direct sunlight. The effect is due to
the chemical action of light, aud liquids
liable to similar change should be pre-
served in red, orange, yellow or green
bottles-these eolors excluding the chem
ical rays.
In late paper, DR.. James Geikie
shows the great size of the Gulf stream
and its vast influence upon northern
climates, aud concludes that the opening
of the proposed canal across the isthmus
of Panama will have as much effect
upon the Gulf stream and the climate of
northwestern Europe as the emptying of
a teapotful of boiling water into the
Arctic Ocean would have in raising the
annualt emperature in Greenland.
In 1850 the Hoang-Ho river, of China,
emptied into the Yellow Sea; now this
mouth is dry, and the river has q new
channel opening to the Gulf of Pechele,
nearly 800 miles north of its former
outlet, and the stream turned aside from
its old bed at distance of more than
800 miles from the coast. This is the
last of many changes, back and forth,
recorded by the Chinese during the past
5000 years. The changes begin in floods
caused by rain in the distant Kuenlun
mountains.
Insects are endowed with much greater
muscular energy, in proportion to their
size, than other animals. Had man of
six feet muscular power proportional to
that of flea, he could leap more than
three hundred feet, and lift q weight of
ten thousand pounds. A species of
beetle supports Eve hundred times it's
own weight; and another has been dis
covered which is stated on good author
| ity, to have gnawed hole of an inch in
diameter in the side of an iron canister
by the power of its jaws.
A European observer, NJ. dc Merejow-
sky, has lately studied certain of the
lower crustaceans with..a view of deci-
ding whether or not those creatures are
able to distinguish colors. As result
of his experiments, be has concluded
that, while the crustaceans are fully
alive to the difference between light and
darkness, it is solely the quantity of the
light and not the quality which affects
them, for they cluster iu nearly equal
numbers around two rays of equal inten-
sity, whatever maybe the colors. There
appears to be, then, wide difference
between the lower crustaceans and man
in the perception of light. While We
see different intensities, the crustaceans
see only one color with variations of
intensity. We perceive colors as colors;
they only distinguish them as light.
The rainfall of Cherrapunji, small
Indian station in southwestern Assam, is
believed to exceed in quantity that of
any otEer known place. Cherrapunji
occupies the summit of one Of the
Khasia Hills, at an elevation of 410o
feet These hills rise abruptly from low
plains, and lie directly in the course Of
the southwest monsoon from the Bengal
coast. Surcharged with moisture, the
air sweeps across the lowlands and are
DETECTED upward by the hills, the e1-
pansion of the currents on rising causing
fall Of temperature and condensation
of the moisture. The effect is surprising,
for, while the low plains have an
average yearly fall of only about 100
inches of rain, the annual rainfall OF
Cberrapunji is 493 inches, or more than
Al feet. As . comparison, it may be
stated that the annual rainfall Of the
United States is from IL to so inches,
being greatest near the sea-board.
Natures fiat that soon or late all men
must die, fails to satisfy q vast number
of discoutented human creatures who
hasten the execution of the stern decree
by prematurely cutting short their own
existence. DR.. Morselli, of Turin, has
given some curious and interesting facts
and statistics concerning suicides, from
which it appears that the victims Of
selfdestruction are rapidly becoming
more numerous in nearly all civilized
countries. In France, for instance, dur
ing the quarter century from 1927 to
1852 the annual number of suicides
gradually increased from forty-eight to
nearly eighty-three per million of in-
habitants, aud the number In later years
IS stated to be $50 per million. The
causes which lead to suicide are of cour.e
yarious-cIi,nate, religion and family
relations being conditions which exert
marked influence. DIR. Morselii finds
that during the ehanse from cold to
heat in spring suicides are more numer-
GUS than at other seasons. Very curious