The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-02-02
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

llby EtpOLb Iuat hNibk OIBaiiS SDiiS
readily reduce solutions of silver, but
the action ceases when dsad cells are
substituted for the living ones.
Insects are endowed with much great
or muscular energy, In proportion to
their size, than other animals. Had a
man of six feet muscular power proper
toned to that of a flea, he could leap
more than three HUNDRED feet, and lift
a weight of ten thousand pounds. A
species OF beetle supports i've hundred
times Its own weight; and another has
been discovered which Is stated, OIL
good authority, to have gnawed Il hole
Of a inch In diameter In the side of al
iron canister by the power Of its jaws.
1t has lately seen noticed that liquors
kept In colorless bottles exposed TO the
light soon acquire a 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, and liquids
liable to similar change should be pre-
served In red, orange, yellow or green
bottles-tbese colors excluding tn.
chemical rays.
Observers of the sun believe that the
maximum of sun spots In the ~''eleven-
year period" will be reached during the
present year, although NJ. Duponchel
thinks 1t may be delayed until 1890 OF
1892 on account of planetary influences.
The Use of gas as fuel is suggested as
means OF freeing London from the In.
tolerable smoke with which it is now
afflicted. 1t is thought to be not al
together improbable that, with the gen
eral adoption OF electricity as a source
II light and the employ ment OF gas foI
heating purposes, the dream OF a smoke.
less London may be realized at no very
distant period.
BY the adoption of preventive meas.
ures to guard against expected epidemics
in certain English towns, Mr.. Edwin
Chadwick estimates that three .tourths
Of a million lives and three million cases
Of sickness have been saved. This
seems a somewhat startling statement,
but the figures are the result Of stats.
ical comparisons, and are probably cor
rect.
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 produced,
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 u.s.
sures in the rocks.
In 1850 the Hoang-Ho river, of China,
emptied into the Yellow sea; now this
mouth is dry, and the river has a new
channel opening to the Gulf OF Pechele,
nearly 800 miles north Of Its former OUT
let, and the stream turned aside from
its old bed at a 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.
Among the results of journey across
the Sahara, DIR. Oscar Lenz reports that
no depression below sea-level could be-
found. The schemes entertained for
hooding the desert with water from til.
sea arc therefore hopeless and mislead
ing.
Natures fat that soon or late all
men must die, fails to satisfy a vast
number of discontinued human crea-
lures who hasten the execution of tn.
stern decree by prematurely cutting
short their W existence. DIR. Morsel
II, Of Turin, has given some curious and
interesting facts and statistics concern
ing suicides, from which 1t appears that
the victims of self-destruction are rap.
Idly becoming more numerous In nearly
all civilized countries. In France, for
instance, during the qu~arter-century
from 1927 to 1852 the annual number
of suicides gradually increased from
forty-eight to nearly eighty.three per
million OF Inhabitants, and the number
In later years Is stated to be 100 per
million. The causes which lead to sui.
eide arc OF course varlous-climate, re-
ligion and family relations being condi-
lions which exert n marked influence
DIR. Morselli nnds that during the
change from cold to heat In spring
suicides are more numerous than at 9TH
err seasons. Very c~uriously, suicides
are more frequently everywhere during
the FIRST third Of any month than In the
second, and during the second third
than In the last. Protestants are far
more inclined to self-destruction than
Catholics, than women; unmarried,
than married; the young, than the old
Suicides are most frequent among brain
workers, such as professional men;
soldiers ranking next. Drowning and
hanging are, most often the means en-
ployed by suicides.
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