The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-07-08
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,

Fossil remains lately found in France
prove that l. group of mammals which
existed in the lato Eocene period united
many Of the characteristics Of pigs with
those of mOnkeys-an association Of
characters Of peculiar interest 70 students
of evolution. ="
The Eon.lon Society of Telegraph
Engineers and of Electricians have deci-
ded to offer annually three prizes for the
best original papers OIL telegraphic or
electric subjects sent in by any persons
not members of the council of the Society.
The PRICES will consist of scientific books
or apparatus, the first prize having a
value OF f10 and the other two of f5
each. The first awards will be made for
papers sent in before the end of May
next.
Gas and electricity have combined to
produce light in a new system. A strip
of platinum foil is so arranged in connec-
ton 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 temperature and
causing it to be entirely consumed. BY
the aid of Il small current a very brilliant
light is said to be produced with great
economy Of gas. M=.~N@
Vessels il the Atlantic near the Cape
Verde archipelago occasionally encounter
showers Of fine dust, which so often have
a reddish appearance that they are
known to sailors as red fogs." In
Lyons, Genoa, Sicily and other parts of
southern Europe similar phenomena give
rise to blood rains," of which Flamma-
rion has collected a record of twenty
cases occurring iii Europe between 1903
and 1870. Bymicroscopicale examination
Prof. Ehrehberg has found the Atlantic
dust to be rich in infnsorial forms
belonging to the equatorial regions of
South America. s+---
A very curious phenomenon is in pro-
gress OH the eastern coast Of the Caspian
Sea. Tho Kara Boghaz is an estuary
nearly separated from the main body of
the sea by bank through which there is
an inlet. The evaporation from this
gulf is SD great that a current continually
sets i'll from the main body of the Cas-
plan; aud as there is no letnrm current
ahe water Of the gulf becomes more and
more s;.literons, and Il deposit of salt is
IN course of furlllation. In time this
gulf will be cnt off from tho Caspian,
and will then be dried up and become an
extensive salt bed.
Under a common lens IL fly is seen
enlarged to several times its ordinary
size, and it is often inferred that /, mi
cf"sc"pe' having a magnifying power Of
Il thousand diameters must transform the
insect into a winged mastodon of huge
proportions. This is not so, however for
the reason that under a strong magnify
ing power the range of vision becomes
very limited, and It is impossible to view
more than a very small portion ut II time
Of 40 large An object as a fly. Tie diam
'e'tr Of the so-called field Of view Of
various microscope detectives has been
'nrasnre'l by Phin, with the following
'esnlts:' With magnifying power of
twenty two diameters, the field is about
quarter Of an inch with fifty diane
Ts'gs, it is one-eighth of All inch with
ons hundred diameters, ope-sixteentl, of
an inch; with five hundred diameters.
"'ie-eightieth of an inch !; and with one
Thousand dianieters, the Que. hundred and
fttieth of an inch-a space which is
ordinarily invisible to the naked eye.
With the most powerful microscopes,
therefore, it is useless to expect to
examine all 1T once any object visible to
Tho u'ldi,fed eye.
D.
Nervous debility, melancholy, catarrh of
the bladder. lencorrhea, ETC.. are quickly