St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-02-25
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

occupies the summit OF one OF the
khasia Hills, at an elevation of 400
feet. These hills rise abruptly from
low plains, and lie directly in the course
of the southwest monsoon from the
Bengal coast. Surcharged with mois-
ture, the air currents sweep across the
lowlands and are detected upward by
the hills, the expansion 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 an
nual rainfall Of Cherrapunji is 493 in
ches, or more than al feet. AS a COM
parison, it may be stated that the an
nual rainfall Of the United States is
from 10 to so inches, being greatest
near the sea-board.
In late paper, DR.. James Geikie
shows the great size Of the Gulf stream
and it's vast influence upon northern
climates, and concludes that the open
ing 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 teapotful of boiling
water into the Arctic Ocean would have
in raising the annual temperature in
Greenland.
A French manufacturer claims the
discovery Of making use of leaves OF
the eucalyptus tree as a substitute for
tobacco leaves in cigars. The eucalyp-
tus leaves emit delicious odor in
burning.
A European observer, M. de Mere
jowsky, has lately studied certain of
the lower crustaceans with view of
deciding whether or not those creatures
are able to distinguish colors. As a
result of his experiments, he has con-
cluded that, while the crustaceans are
fully alive to the difference between
sight and darkness, it is solely the
quantity of the light and not the quail
ty which affects them, for they cluster
in nearly equal numbers around two
rays of equal intensity, whatever may
be the colors. There appears to be,
then, a wide difference between the
lower crustaceans and man in the per-
ception Of light. While we see differ
emit colors and their different intensi
ties, the crustaceans see only one color
with variations Of intensity. We per-
ceive colors as colors; they only dis
tinguish them as light.
According to the recent calculations
Of Mr.. G.. H. Darwin, the earth and the
moon must have formed only one body
some fifty-four million years or more
ago, and at time when this body was
rotating at the rate of about one revo-
luton in five hours the mass now form
ing the moon became separated from it.
Thus was the moon born; and Prof.
Ball, in his exposition Of Darwin's
views, concludes that in time the wound
on the earth became entirely healed,
leaving no scar to testify to the mighty
catastrophe. To this final conclusion
Mr.. O. Fisher now offers an amend
ment. He believes that the scars yet
exist, and that those scars are the ocean
basins. When the moons mass was
thrown from the earth, the liquid inte,
rior must have risen to fill the hole, and
portions of the granite crust must have
been borne toward the cavity. The
hole only partially filled up, and the
crust became broken into the frag-
ments which now form the continents.
us the human skull growing thin
ner ?" is question raised by Mr.. W. B.
Cooper, who endeavors to prove by
generally accepted laws Of evolution
that such must be the case. These
laws teach that the stronger organisms
must survive the weak in the struggle
for life, and that all living creatures
possess the natural tendency Of becom-
ing accommodated to altered circum-
stances within certain limits. Mr.. !
Cooper argues that when barbaric war
fare and the dangers of the chase were
common occurrences the law of natural
selection must have operated to elimi |
nate individuals with skulls too weak
to withstand the severe shocks to which
they were exposed. Adaptation, also,
must have exerted an influence in caus-
ing the bony armor of the brain to be-
come thickened to serve as protee-
ton for that delicate organ. With
civilized man change is found. Nat
ural selection no longer has special occa
sion to remove persons of weak crania,
as the skull is seldom exposed to viol-