St. Landry democrat., 1882-01-07
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

ana.sthetics. Among other results, he
finds that the fatal dose is just about
double that which is sufficient to pro-
duce insensibility, and dose about
midway between these two extremes
will very readily produce annsthesia.
Of the anasthetics in common use he
finds chloroform the most dangerous,
ether ranking next, and protoxlde OF
nitrogen being safer than any other
tried by him.
II, lecture upon the "great comet
of 1887 the Astronomer Royal for Ire
land, Prof. r. S. Ball, states that coils
ions of the earth with comets have
often occurred, and others will doubtless
occur in the future. The last Of these
collisions was in June, 1861, when the
earth passed through the tail Of large
comet. Had the earth passed through
the densest part Of the nucleus he did
not know what the result would have
been, but thinks the consequences
would not have been serious. On the
occasion mentioned the only indication
that collision had taken place was the
peculiar appearance Of the sky as OBJ
served at what was probably the very
time when the earth was enclosed IN
the tail of the comet.
It has been discovered by M. Tom
mast that surrounding the electric arc
by tubes filled with cold water produces
a great effect upon it, the luminous
power being much weakened, and the
arc itself so much affected that slight
puff would extinguish it.
4 Vienna chemist has made a new
glass, containing no silica or other in
gredient Of ordinary glass. Its most
important property is that it may be
used to glaze iron and other metals.
On recent occasion the bread dis
tributed to cavalry detachment at
Aran, Algeria, was found to be moldy
although made only forty-eight hours
before. Refusing to eat it, the men
threw it to their horses. Two of the
latter ate each about a pound Of the
bread, which resulted in true poison
ing, seriously injuring one Of the ami.
mails. The bread was investigated by
NJ. Megnin, who found upon it two
kinds of mold, the sporules of which
he believed to have existed in the -four
before the bread was made. One mold
Ascophora migricans, formed a faky
sooty -colored cover; the other, Oidian
aurantiacun, existed in spots Of sal
mon color, which multiplied very rapid
~. Tried upon dogs, the former wat
found to produce a much more violent
sickness than the latter, although consi
derable action was produced in boil
cases.
From 5000 hypsometrical measure
ments, DR.. Chavanne has calculated
the average height of the entire con
tinent Of Africa to be not less thar
215O feet. This high figure is evidently
due to the great extent of the higl
plateaHx in that country, SURPRISING
even ClaG OF ASIA.
Experiment has shown NJ. Maicht
that sounds Of different characters pro
duced from two separate sources can bt
sent simultaneously on one wire ant
received separately. At the receiving
station he used two telephones Of differ.
ent resistances, and at the transmitting
end caused music box to operate upor
microphone while an induction tele
phone transmitter was spoken into a
the same time. The musical sounds
were reproduced in the telephone O
least resistance, and the vocal sound
in the other, so that with the two tele
phones to the ears the listener coult
hear the music by one ear and thu
speech by the other.
In recent address to the Balloon
Society of Great Britain, Mr.. w. B
Woodbury. predicted that photographer
will be able at no distant day to obtain
from balloons bird's-eye views of an,
city or town, photographed true to ma
ture and showing every detail will
sufficient clearness to serve many pur
poses. The motion to which the Gamer;
must be subjected is the chief obstacle
to the successful practice Of balloon
photography, but he believed that thu
extremely sensitive plates now pre-
pared must serve in a considerable de
sgree to overcome this difficulty. HI
hoped that another year would show
some advance in this particular branchs
of science.
Some time during the coming year
L.. I, IL Da.Ex, ~