The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-02-28
SCIENTIFIC mnsCnLLArr.

Thinkers are scarce ~ gold, but he
whose thoughts embrace all his subjects.
pursues it uninterrupted and fearless Of
consequences, is diamond Of enormous
siza- [Lavater.
AN instrument, called the margari-
meter has been invented by two Partisan
chemists for detecting the presence of
margarine in butter and the greasy sub
stances substituted for it or mixed with
il.
1.-The object-glass for the Lick Observ-
story telescope is to be three feet in d.
ameter, and, if successful, will be the most
powerful instrument of the kind ever
made. About three years will be required
to finish the telescope.
BY means of strictly vegetable d.
ct. DR.. Hurean de Villenerine states that
he has succeeded in Kidding himself of at
tacks of equity rheumatism, with which
he had been afflicted for years, and of
which several of bis ancestors had died.
lis that wonderful phenomenon, the
aurora borealis, accompanied by sound
Such is the much-mooted question which
is being revived among British scientists.
The evidence of observers and writers
from the time of Tacitus to the present
day is quoted to prove that the mystic
light of our northern skies produces q
decided sound.
The following experiment very pref
tily shows the gain in weight by oxida-
ton. Ahandful of fine zinc filings is placed
on the scale-pan of a common balance,
which is then brought into equilibrium by
weights in the other scale-pan. The ap-
Plication of a spirit lamp now readily in
flames the finely divided zinc, and it is
slowly converted into a cohesive mass of
oxide the scale-pan will descend, showing
that in burning it has gained in weight.
Late experiments have shown that
about twenty per cent of the pupils in
the deaf and dumbscbools of London are,
by means of the audiphone, enabled to
hear sufficiently well to take their places
in the classes of ordinary schools. 1t is
known that In cases of deafness where the
auditory nerves are unaffected, the audi
phone enables the patient to hear with
distinctness; but where the auditory
nerves are destroyed or diseased no ap-
pliance at present known is of any utility.
In the tropics of the old World the
annual rainfall is, according to Dana.
abont n inches, while it is 1875 inches in
South America. In the Eastern United
States, it is 40 to so inches; but west of
the one-hundredth meridian, beyond the
Mississippi to the Sierra Nevada, it is
mostly. IL to Is inches. The annual
amount in Great Britain averages IS
inches; in France, 20 to 81 inches farther
from the coast, in Central Germany and
Russia, only Is to 20 inches; but about
the Alps, it is mostly IS to so inches.
BY keeping the soil beneath charged
with moisture, forest regions tend to make
gradual and constant the supply of water
to the rivers, and give uniformity TO the
fiow; and hence, when forcete arc cut
away, the rains reach speedily the streams,
making them liable to alternate periods
of wasteful violence and worthless feeble
ness. The cutting away of the forests has
led, in the French Alps, to uncomfortable
flood, despoiled fields, and an impoverish-
ed people; and, in America, to annual
seasons of dry mill-ponds. an immense
sacrifice of available water-power, and the
desertion of many a mill-site.
"A pair of Italian twins are now be-
ing exhibited in Vienna. From the sixth |
rib downward these boys are grown to-
gether. They have but one abdomen and |
two feet The upper part of the body is
completely developed in each, and the in
tellectual faculties OF each head are of a |
normal character. All the operations of |
eating, drinking, sleeping, speaking and |
thinking are performed by each child in
dependently of the other. Further than
this, it is quite possible for one to suffer
an indisposition without effecting the 9TH
er. The children are in perfect health,
and are now over three years of age.
Some curious phenomena-electrical
shadows SO called-have been lately de-
scribed by Herr Holtz to the Gottingen
Academy. They are obtained by fixing
to one rod of an electrical machine large
concave disc having a piece of silk with
out wrinkles adhering to it; at the point
of the other discharge rod-placed oppo-
site-appears, when the machine is work
ed, small, feeble luminous star, and on
the disc circle is seen. When objects
are interposed the shadows appear on the
luminous circle. They are not optical
shadows, as is proven by the fact that all
opaque objects do not give them. They
are produced in general only by conduc-
tore and semi-conductors of electricity.
and insulating bodies give little or no
shadow. A glass rod with one end made
conducting by heat gives practical shad-
ow, which gradually disappears on cool