The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1882-10-07
For the Carbon ADvocers1
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

1t has been demonstrated al Havre
that the trse Of the telephone between
ships in the hnrbor ard the town is prac-
tlcable even in rough weather,
The fifteen years rcse arch Of the Brit.
ish Associations Committee on Under
ground T mperature shows az the main
result attained, that Il Temperature, on
wide nv erage, increases 6ownwards at
the rate of one Fnlrenh,it degree for
every sixty.four feet
With a new apparatus for sscertain-
ing the velocity Of railway trains. train
weighing % tous aud travelling at speed
OF torty-fve miles an hour has been found
to ruu II few fee' more than Ave miles af-
ter st,Gin bad been 81 ut Of. The track
was level and the day calm.
The Constant app, arance Of minute
quantity of copper in Lrea led Euro.
pean chemist to make careful examina-
tiun of wheat wheh iu million parts of
the grain he found nine and one-tourth
PARTS Of metallic copper. A somewhat
lnrger proportion of the metal was found
in oats
A Belgian physicist, Mons. Melsens,
proposes forming cage OF rods over
buildings to ensure absolute safety from
lightning. He las shown by late cxperi-
ments that the most powerful discharges
from LeyGt battery could not iniure
n living animal enclosed i'll a hollow
sphere Of metallic links.
"A stndy of old records has shown d
Roman sanitary engineer that the malar-
ial region now surrounding the city of
Rome was once healthy and populous.
and his Investigations have convinced
him that a restoration Of the ancients'
system of deep draining would free these
lands from their fever-tnint.
AT the summit of the RIFF IS, 500
feet high) Capt Abney has found the
spectrum Of the sun to be the same as in
London, but Shere isa vast diu1inution.
of light as well rs of aqueous varor. The
quantity OF alcohol and benzine In the at
mosphere was found to be much greater
at that altitude than at sea-level, which
leads Capt. Abner to conclude that these
substances come to us from space.
MIR. w. b. Wicken says that the large
wart-like glands ON the head and back of
the toad secrete thick. yellowish- white
hnid of an exceedingly acrid and cffen-
sive nature. II these glands are squeezed
Of handled roughly, the secretion is exI
ided through number of pin-like pores
in the surface of the glands THIS fact
is ddhbtless what gave the toad it's repus
talion as venomous reptile.
From experiments made with various
di'iniecting substances upon vaccine vi
rus, DR. G. NJ. Sterhberg, U. S. A. sur.
geon. has concluded that chlorine, sulph-
urous acid and nitrous acid are reliable
disIniectants in the proportion of one
volume to one hundred volumes of air!
In moist atm )spbere considerably
smaller proportion might be effective.
He considers the use OF carbolis' acid as
disin ectant to be impracticable on ac-
count Of the high cost OF the pure acid
and the large quantity necessary to en-
sure thorough results.
The soy bean(Soja hispida) approach
es more nearly to animal food in its proxs
innate composition than any other known
vegetable production, being singuh,rly
rich In fat and in albuminoids. This
bear forms an important article of food
in japan and China, where dozen or
more varieties are known. Oh late it has
attracted considerable attention in Eu-
rope, and numerous attempts have be.n
made to acclimatize it in several Euro
pean countries, some of the experiments
being reported tolerably successful.
An English clergyman. Rev. W.
Houghton, bus maze study of the stom-
/ achs OF STA fishes with a view of lear1fine
the It tAtions which exist between the food
OF the various species aud the quality of
their fl sh, aS w,ll as The bearing OF their
food-supplies uron distribution and mi
! grafton. His Investigations have thus
tar been Chi fly c"nfiued to North Sua
fishes. He fncs that whiteJait and Luack-
ertl live largely upon small crus.seeans,
and believes that the rich qaahty of the
htrring'S flesh is due to the sulne nutri-
tious food.
AT meeting Of the Association of
Swiss Geographical Societies lately held
in G-utvs. Hon Rniker vanctd the
opinion that forests may serve as safe4
guard against hailstorms Ia support OF
tuis theory he ajduced rem rkable OBJ
serYation to the effect that hail WAS un-
k 'own in the vsll' US at the foot of the
W 'od-covercd Lindenberge mountains
un ii two wide gaps were made in the
forest about taenty years ago; hailstofms
then became frequent, but ceased TO ap-
pear after the open spaces were closed by
new lot of trees. As an explanation of
the phenomenon, Herr Riniker suggests
that, as hailclouds are saturated with
positive electricity and trees conduct
from the earth negative electricity, the
meeting of the Two currents develop.
sufficient heat 10 either prevent the form
aiUn OF EallstGIes or to melt them in lie
c'o"ds.
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