The Penn's Grove record., 1882-03-04
The Field of Science.

" 90 ~ ~ hAB
occur in 1883, but the great probability
is that it will present itself in 1892.
A locomotive provided with an cleo
trio headlight has been placed OF the
French Northern Railroad. The
electricity is furnished by the spplics-
ton Of the surplus power of the en-
CINE.
A series of experiments Is in pro-
gress at Portsmouth, England, in order
to determine the selection of the best
dynamo-electro machine for the work
ing of search" lights ON board of wal
vessels.
A prize of $3.50 is offered by the
Royal Italian Scientific Institution,
at Venice, for q statement of the
hypothesis recently advanced by
physicists on the causes of the pheno-
mena Of light, heat, electricity and
magnetism
The New York State Medical So
ciety condemns the use of the ~so-called
" " AttC9O iBOu6 Il
sold in large quantities, although
nothing is known of their composition,
or whether they are not worse than
useless.
A thick vein of a peculiar substance,
which, according to local chemists,
contains so per cent. of pure raraffine,
has been discovered at Hawkes. Bay,
New Zealand. 1t is said to be worth
5000 per ton, and to exist In enormous
quantities.
Professor Palmieri, Of the Mount
Vesuvius Observatory, has in the
course of his spectro-anslytical exami-
nations of lava just discovered a new
line which corresponds exactly with
that of helium, the famous element
hitherto seen in the solar spectrum
only.
DIR. Stephan, Secretary of the I'M
perial Post Office, Berlin, does not
believe that houses are endangered by
overhead telephone wires, but he a y
that 1t is important that in arran ing
the wires due provision be made that
atmospheric discharges of electricity
find a ready path to earth.
1t is recommended by M. Duboscq
that the carbons In the electric arc
lamps should not be placed exactly in
the same line. When they are so ar
ranged he says tina; the posib We carbon
is formed into a depression, at the
bottom of which, and masked by its
edges, In found the most intense light.
Messrs. Howard and Hodgkin have
extracted from the bark of China
cuprea an alkaloid resembling qulnine
in its general properties. 1t differs
from quinine In the solubility of its
salts and in the readiness with vhich
the alkaioid crystallizes from ether.
homoquinine.
Why should not the "Glasgow
(Scotland) Health Lectures be imi-
tated in the large cities here? These
addresses are stripped of all technicali-
ties, and deal with sanitary matters in
a plain, common-seuse way. When a
l. cture is delivered it is printed and
sold to the audience attending the
n KIT lecture at the low price of 2 cents.
The Sanitary Engineer gives this
valuable piece of advice to house
keepers: Beware of disused ICON
veniences," and don't trust to the
memory of any IN for filing the
Wis bic trap with water. Better re-
u owe the whole fixture and seal up its
outlet if not wanted for frequent use.
Moreover, don't you put such an
antiqusted device as a p~an-eloset in a
frstclass house anywhere. Even If
its receiver be ventilated, the vent-pipe
may work the wrong way and deceive
you.
AT q meeting Of the Academy of
Sciences, Paris, on December s, M.
Faye criticised the proposal to establish
meteorological stations in high lati-
tudes. He does not think that much
is TO be learned at these places in the
cause of science. 1t is simply a matter
Of conjecture whether the ice of the
polar regions Ii the regulator of
climates of the temperate zones.
Modern science shows the regulator to
be rather in the vast equatorial zone,
whence storms travel over the two
hemispheres. Instead of organizing
a mete geological station at Cape Horn
the French Government would do
bet, or to found one in the Azores.
In a very interesting article on tele
graphs in China the Nature says: 1T
is worse than useless TO thrust our
improvements by force or threats on
the Chinese. When left themselves
to the results of their own experience
and slow methods of thought their
advances, though occasionally tardy,
are surer and more satisfactory. Ii
can hardly be a matter for wonder that
q people who have been taught to
revere the teachings of their sages fol-
nearly 5000 years as the highest pro-
ducts of human wisdom, and whose
minds have been cast in the same
mould from q period long anterior t.
our era, should look sskance at the
inventions of the modern man Of
science who knows nothing of the
system of ethics and politics of Con
fueius and Mencius and the Other
sages of antiquity.