St. Landry democrat., 1882-06-24
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Grapes exposed to sunlight contains,
according to DR.. A. S. de VillanOva,
three and three fourths per cent more
sugar and more than Oneper cent less
acid than those which have remained
in the darkness.
The city of Paris has granted a
piece Of ground in the park OF Mont
souris for school of insectology. The
useful insects such as bees and silk
worms, the auxiliary insects Cor those
useful to plants), and the noxious in
sects will all be studied. ......
The gathering in of cloth stretched
in large bleach fields is a new European
application of the electric railway. The
branches, each about third Of a mile
in length. The pieces of cloth are con-
nected at the ends so as to form long
lengths, and the railway trucks roll up
as much in half an hour as could be done
by the old method in an entire day.
The present increase of the pOpuia
ton of England from excess OF births
over deaths is about one and half per
cent year; and Proctor computes
that if the world had started with one
million inhabitants five thousand years
ago Gan estimate probably far too low
and had made uniform increase at
that rate, the earths present pOpula
ton would be 213,SO0,O00, 900, 000, 900, 900
O0O,0OO,O 900, 0OO, 100000. Even if the
worlds population had been only ten
four thousand years ago, and the same
rate of increase had been kept up that
SC -, L Gland f1,a
Der would now be so great that 122, 00O,-
100000 such globes as this earth would
only give standing room for the vast
population suppOsing the entire surface
OF each globe to be occupied.
French Government commissions
seem to favor attempting the formation
of an Algerian sea by flooding the Sa
hara, Notwithstanding objections, made.
The fifty-second annual meeting of
the British Association for the advance
ment Of science will commence at
southampton August twenty three; the
French Associations eleventh meeting
at Rochelle August "a and the Amer
lean Associations thirty-tirst meeting,
at Montreal August 90. Some OF the
most remarkable discoveries OF the
year are usually announced at these
SlCdU VI SdsdutSs
The failure OF seeds to grow during
the cold season proves that a higher
temperature is necessary for their ger
mination, and it is very natural suppo-
sition that the best results are to be
obtained when the heat has been raised
to as high a degree as possible without
destroying the seeds. Prof. H. Bail
Ion shows that this is far from being the
H. Ill To-,
repeated several times he has obtained
mond and Walnut seeds in house kept
at temperature varying during the
twenty-four hours from forty-n to
fifty nine degrees Fahrenheit than in
house heated to SO to n degrees. Fur
thermore, the plants started in the
warm house were earlier arrested in
their development than those from the
cool house. A further study OF this
subject might lead to valuable results
in showing the most favorable tempera-
ture for hot houses for the various
kinds of seeds and in pointing out the
plans which cannot be proftably forced
p bot houses.
Plateau, the eminent French natural
st, finds that Junebug can exert as
great force according to its size as a
locomotive. r
English microsc0pists have given va
'ious facts showing that human subjects
rave been in many cases infected with
ilaria, much dreaded worm parasite,
~ mosquitoes. These parasites breed in
countless numbers in the human body, :
Usually invading the circulation in tie
vening, increasing till midnight, and
hen retiring to other parts of the sys-
EN-.
NJ. Renan has expressed the belief
hat century hence mankind will
tudy little else than physical science.
phenomena entertained by the Japan
SO few decades ago are illustrated by
work teaching Of Heaven and EARTH
written in 1891 and just translated into
English. According to this work, the
arth and the heavens are governed
y male and female principle Rain
) a changed form of the male principle
nd the vapOr under the earth of the
emale. When the rain sinks into the
arth it pursues the female principle.
he earth is the mother of all things.
nd heaven is the air or wind in which
he shining sun, moon and stars are
ung. The heavens move from east to
,est,-contrary to the motion of run
ing water, which flows from west to
asst. Some of the water in the earth
ows to the north, where it is turned
ito vapor by the earth-air, and forms
ouds which are in turn changed to rain
Y the the wind. In the male season,
, summer, the quantity of water in
eases; while it diminishes in winter
le female season. Thunder is pro-
iced by mingling of the male and
male principles. A kind of beast is
under, which is not considered
range, because at certain island
,ont ten thousand miles from Japan
ere is certain bird which is covered
. :. FIR inStnad Of foafhorc and onfc