St. Landry democrat., 1882-08-26
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

In July and August q French com
mission is to explore the ocean bottom
dong the coasts of Spain, Portugal and
Morocco.
Renewed confirmation of the infect
lDus character OF consumption has been
.htaned by Mr.. GibouX. In the eXpe-
l!ments made. air which had been eX-
piled by cOnsumptlve animals was m
reduced twice a day for 1O5 days into q
wooden case containing young rabbits,
the case being closed each time for two
tnurs to prevent access OF other ar.
The result was the formation Of tuber-
vles in the lungs Of the rabbits. Other
rabbits, similarly treated except that
the infected air was passed through
,arbolized wadding, remained entirely
unaffected.
Experimenting to determine the or
der in which the action of the various
organs Of the body ceases in asphyXla,
VI. Plot has concluded that the exact
instant of death is very difficult to de-
cermine. The movements OF respIra-
non first cease to be apparent, then the
beating of the heart becomes less fire.
quent, the pupils of the eyes dllate ex-
cessively and the cornea becomes IN
sensible, but these are only apparent
signs of death, for after they have APP
peared in dogs the animals have been
restored to life by artificial respiration.
According to Ralph Abercrombie, F.
z. s., an English metcorologist, more
wind occurs by day than by night in
places having the same Darometrlc
pressure.
4 very curious phenomenon is in
progress on the eastern coast OF the
Caspian Sea, The Kara Boghaz is an
estuary nearly separated from the main
body of the sea by a bank through
which there is an inlet. The evapora-
ton from this gulf is so great that a
current continually sets in from
the main body Of the Caspian -;
and as there is no return current the
water Of the gulf becomes more salif-
elous, and a deposit of salt is in fOrma-
ton. In time this gulf will be cut off
from the Caspian, and then will be dried
up and become an extensive salt bed.
The London Society of Telegraph
Engineers and Of Electricians have de-
cided to offer annually three prizes for
the best original papers on Geographic
or electric subjects sent in by any per-
sons not members of the council of the
Society. The prizes will consist of sci
entific books or apparatus. the first prize
having value of i10a and the other two
Of 50 each The first awards will be
made for papers sent in before the end
of May next.
Fossil remains lately found in France
prove that a group of mammals which
existed in the late Eocene period united
many of the characteristics of pigs
with those of mOnkeys-an association
of characters Of peculiar interest to
students OF evolution.
Gas and electricity have combined to
produce light in new system. A strip
of platinum foil is so arranged in con-
Dection with burner as to be heated
when the gas is ignited, the platinum
then offering so much resistance to an
electric current passed through it as to
be raised to incandescence and in turn
giving to the gas very high tempera-
ture and causing it to be entirely con-
sumed. By the aid Of small current
very brilliant light is said to be pro-
duced with great economy of gas.
Under common lens fly is seen en-
iarged to several times its ordinary size,
and it is often inferred that micro
scope having a magnifying power of a
thousand diameters must transform the
insect into a winged mastodon of huge
proportions. This is not so, however, for
the reason that under strong magni-
tying power the range of vision be-
comes very limited, and it is impossi-
bic to view more than very small por-
ton at a time OF so large al object as
fly. The diameter Of the so-called field
OF view of various microscope objec-
tives has been measured by Phin, with
the following results: With magni-
tying power of twenty-five diameters,
the field is about quarter Of an inch
with fifty diameters, it is one, eighth of
an inch with one hundred diameters,
e-sixteenth of an inch with five
hundred diameters, one-eightieth of an
inch ; and with one thousand diane
ters, the one-hundredth and fiftieth Of
an inch-a space which is ordinarily in
visible to the naked eye. With the
most powerful microscopes, therefore,
1t is useless to expect to examine all at
once any object visible to the naked eye.
Vessels in the Atlantic near the Cape
Verde archipelago occasionally encoun-
ter showers OF fine dust, which so often
have reddish appearance that they
are known to sailors as ssred fogs." In
Lyons, Genoa, Sicily and other parts of
southern Europe similar phenomena
give rise to "blood rains," of which
Flammarion has collected a record of
twenty cases occurring in Europe be-
tween 1903 and 1870. By microscopical
examination Prof. Ehrenberg has found
the Atlantic dust to be rich in infusori-
al forms belonging to the equatorial re-
gions of South America.