Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-02-23
SCIENCE.

A new species of cotton, botanically
know as GoSsgpitIm Kirkii, has been
brought to England by Sir John Kirk
from East Africa, where he found it
growing wild. A number of cultivated
varieties are supposed to be derived
from this species.
A number of so-called safety lamps
have been tested by the Royal Commits
sion on Mines, in Great Britain, by
exposing them to currents of explosive
gas. The gas passed through the gauze
in each instance, and took fire within
the lamp whenever the velocity of the
current exceeded six hundred feet a
minute.
Mr.. J. Birmingham calls attention to
the fact that the new red star which
he discovered in the constellation
Cygnus, on the 22nd of May last, has
declined in brilliancy from the ninth to
the twelfth magnitude. He thinks it
in the smallest red star ever observed,
and one of the most remarkable varia-
bic stars known to astronomers.
The prehistoric remains recently
discovered in the valley of the Marine,
show what vicissitudes of climate that
part of France must have undergone
in the progress of geological time. The
older alluvial deposits contain the
bones of the elephant, the rhinoceros
and the hippopotamus; the later for
nations, those of the reindeer.
One of the arguments commonly
advanced in favor of the electric light
Is that it gives out little or no heat
but this is rather an exaggeration
The Swan lamp, for example, which i,
extensively used in England, is quite
hot to the hand on touching the glass
shade, and must impart considerable
heat to the atmosphere in which it is
burning.
The opinion has long been enter
tanned that carbonic oxide is produced
in such quantities as to be injurious to
health, in. apartments heated by cast
iron stoves. An investigation made
by Prof. Ira RemseD, of Baltimore, at
the instance of the National Board of
Health, shows that the proportion of
the gas evolved under such circum
stances is so minute as probably to be
quite harmless.
The London Lancet condemns the
common talk of the appearance of the
eyes as an indication of insanity, and
says there is incomparably more rest
lessness and vacuity in the eyes of the
sane than in those of the insane. 1t
expresses strong opinion that the evi.
dence of the eyes should be excluded
from certificates of lunacy, and disre-
garded by those who have to determine
the existence or non-existence of in
sanity.
A curious plan for purifying the air
along the underground railways in
London is seriously proposed. 1t is
based upon the affinity of caHstic aka
lies for carbonic acid and sulphur gas
es. The idea is to take an open car
and load it with trays of caustic lime,
so arranged as to be kept constantly
wet; then attach it to train either
next to the locomotive OF at the end.
1t would purify the atmosphere of the
tunnel as it was drawn through.
The Sultan of Zanzibar is said to be
; somewhat displeased at the failure of
Mr.. Joseph Thomson, the young Eng
lish explorer, to discover coal where
the monarch thinks it ought to be, but
7 where, unfortunately, it does not exist
Some idea is entertained by the Roya
Geographical Society of sending Mr.
Thomson to explore the two great
snow clad cones of Eastern Africa
Mount Kenia and Mount Kilimanjaro
t neither of which has yet been ascendeC
10 its summit.
A description of his journey acros:
the Sahara has been contributed BY
d DIR. Oscar LEM to the Proceedings o.
the Berlin Geographical Society. H,
went from Morocco to Timbuctoo anC
thence to Senegambia. He agrees Will
: other observers that the Sahara wa.
once submerged under the sea, bu
l thinks the period is more remote thar
is generally assigned. The sand of thu
i desert. he says, is totally unlike thu
sand of the sea; it has been formed
: from sandstone under the action of thu
weather. He found no depression!
d below the sea.level, and therefore re
CARDS all schemes for flooding the Sa
hara as utterly impr lcticable.
The dangers of electric lightin,
- have been considered by committee
of the Franklin Institute, which ha
recommended the adoption of mum
Der of precautions in the construction
location and management of tn,
= ;. wires. Among other thirgs the repor
> says the wires should be large enough
r. to carry the most powerful curren
= without dangerous heating; the,
should be kept away from gas-pipe
! and metallic bodies generally; ant
they should be placed out of reach, O
heavily insulated, if allowed to remain
: within reach, so as to avoid danger t
life by touch. A cup or pan ought t.
be placed beneath arc-lamps, to catcl
! and hold any heated fragments which
may fall.
: In his new treatise on the statistic.
T of suicide DIR. Henry Morselli, profess
or of Psychological Medicine in TIT
s Royal University at Turin, writes a:
( follows concerning the choice of meth
DDS of death: Each country certain
|. ly has its peculiar predictions, but IL
}. the aggregate of the peoples by whom
suicide is practiced the rope appears t.
be chosen before every other instru
D ment, and Immediately after that wa
ter; firearms follow; then those arms
which cut or stabj falling from ;
g height is preferred to charcoal ant
c poison; and lastly come all the othe
i means" The author has collected
e large number of interesting facts re
: lating to a painful subject, and it is u
! be hoped they may be utilized in som
D way, so as to reduce the mortality oc
J. casioned by self-destruction.