The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-06-17
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

dence disproving the existence of th
, supposed new metal phillippium.
Herr Kohlrausch has recently mad
experiments disproving common notiol
that sunshine affects the draught of ,
chimney.
} An Antarctic expedition to Cape Horl
is being fitted out by the French Govern
ment. 1t will be furnished supplies TO
eighteen months.
In several instances, the last in Feb
ruary of the present year, an extraordi
narily high deatb-rate has been recorded
in London during periods of exception
ally dense fog.
| The number of lions and panther.
killed in Algeria is diminishing very
rapidly every year, and these animal.
will probably soon disappear entirely
from that country.
| The wrecks of vessels on British coast.
have shown a steady reduction in mum
Der from 1905 from the year ending with
June, 1877, to 891 for the year ending
June, 1880. A large share of this graft
flying result is believed to be due to q
gradual improvement in weather. fore.
casting and to a more Intelligent atten.
tion to storm indications.
An examination Of dogs after the
administration of arsenic showed DR.. +,
Ludwick seventeen times as much of the
poison i'll the liver as in the brain. He
has concluded that in all cases the liver
absorbs more of the poison than any
other organ, from which it would appear
that the liver is the best part to examine
in cases Of criminal poisoning.
The electrical piano of Boudet is a
recent novel application of electricity.
An ordinary instrument is provided with
two sets of hammers, the upper or cleo
trical series being brought into action
by pressing certain keys. An organ-lik
effect is produced by the electrical ham
mers, which continue striking the wires
rapidly so long as pressure OIL the cor
responding keys is given.
In his tribute to the memory of Darwin.
Huxley says: "Acute as were his rea-
soning powers, vast as was his knowl-
edge, marvellous as was his tenacious
industry under difficulties which would
have converted nine men out of every
ten into aimless invalitls !; it was not
these qualities, great as they were
which impressed those who were admit.
ted to his intimacy with involuntary
| veneration, but certain intense and
almost passionate honesty by which all
his thoughts and actions were irradiated
as by a central fire."
From Broca's tables, including large
number of cranisl measurements, the
average weight of the brain is found to
be about AZ ounces in men and 40 ounces
in women. The greatest weight is at
tained between the ages of thirty and
thirty-five among men, and little
earlier among women. After the age of
fifty-five the weight rapidly diminishes,
and at the age Of eighty the average
decrease has amounted to three and one
half ounces. although the loss sometimes
amounts to as much as nine ounces.
Br0ca considered form to he of more
Importance than weight in estimating
the comparative intellectual capacity of
individuals.
Kaltenbach has described an astoDish-
ing number of insects as found on some
kinds of forest-trees in Europe, only
comparatively few of which are particu-
larly destructive. Thus, 537 species are
injurious to the oak, and 1O7 are obnox-
ious to the elm; the poplars afford a
livelihood to 264 kinds; the willows
yield food to 396 species, the birches
harbor $40, the alder 119, the beech 154,
the hazel-nut 81, and the hornbeam SO.
Among the coniferous trees, the jumpers
feed 33 species, and 2e9 species prey upon
the pines, larches, spruces and frs col
lectively. Little is known of the num-
Der of insects which attack the trees of
the United States, but it is undoubtedly
large.
The great earthquake record of Mallet
catalogues between 5000 and 1000 earth
quakes between the years 1906 B. C. and
A. d. 1542. Probably the most memora-
BILE of these is the terrible earthquake
which destroyed Lisbon in 1855. With
scarcely moment of warning rumble, a
violent shock came which overturned
the city, and in six minutes 10000
persons had perished and portion of
the town was permanently engulfed at a
depth of 600 feet below the surface of the
bay. The shock was felt with greater or
less severity over great erea, extending
from the Baltic to the West Iudies and
from Canada to Algeria. Humboldt esti-
mates that a portion Of the earth's.
surface equal to four times the size of
Europe was affected.
Prof. Hofer states that the heat in the
deepest workings of the Adalbert silver
mines in Bohemia-about 34OO feet below
the surface-is far from being excessive.
The temperature of the rock is but about
76 degrees Fahrenheit, while that of the
atmosphere is a small fraction of q degree
higher. In some parts of the Comstock
IL Sc -,
157 degrees at depth of 1900 to 1000