The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-10-14
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Of the recorded cuses in which. the treat
lnent has been tried.
Analyses By n. F. Reyer Indicate that
the lrOnzes used by the ancients con-
tanned neither lead nor zinc, but were
alloys Of copper and tin, with small
quantities Of NICKEL, iron, phosphorous
and occasionally cobalt.
Microscopic vision has separated ruled
lines as fine as 1l36Qo to the inch, but,
according to Prof. Rogers, the evidence
that finer lines than that lnye been re-
solved under the microscope is not con-
elusive.
A French physician, NJ. Laveran, be-
lieves he has discovered the cause Of ma
larial diseases III u very minute organ
ism. These lDicrybes resemble necklaces
OF black beads in appearance and are
located in the red blood-corpuscles Of
malarial patients.
BY thrnsting the ends Of green scrnb
wood" malice scrub lin the fire and
catching in a bark trough the sap driven
out at tue other end, an Australian sup
piled himself with water and saved his
life while crossing Il waterless region.
Prof. Proctor says: az do not insist
OH the suns being inhabited when cool
enough. Without special warmer and
light-giyer he might not be very COM
Portable world. Perhaps there might be
inherent warmth enough for all practical
purposes, and u proper amount Of light
might shine from his interior, through
snitable al,ertures; on large masses of
floating cloud"
N. Regnard has been utilizing dried
blood from slaughter houses for the rear
ing of lambs. He made experiments on
six lambs deserted by the ewes. Three
were fed with the usual diet Of beet root,
hay, ETC., and to three the dried aud pow
dered blood was given with the other
food. The first'steadily lost flesh, while
the other lot rapidly increased to three
tunes the original weight, and were con-
sidered pl,cnomenally ii:,e lambs. A SIM
liar diet is to be tried upon calves.
The fest, Of different animals has been
analysed by p rof. C. Virchow to. deter
mine the amounts Of water and EXTRACT
contained therein, as it was thought that
the relatiye value of meats nigh t be
thus shown. The di tfere noes, however
are fonnd to be too slight to be of any
Importance. Veal contains more water
than beef, lean beef less than we;l-1,d
beef, aud unhealthy meat u greater q,au
tity than sound meat.
Prof. German See has called the atten-
ton Of the Paris Academy Of Medicine to
a new medicinal alkaloid said to resem.
bic digitalis in it's action but having
none Of the Objectionable properties Of
that drug. The new substance is called
cOnvallarine, aud is obtained from the
lily OF the valley. It acts powerfully OH
the heart and lowers the pulse very de-
c'dedly. The plant itself is said to have
been long employed by Russian peasants
for drcpsical affections.
Herr Fuchs is inclined to divide the
animals of the sea into fauna, of light and
fauna OF darkness, the former being fonnd
little below depth of thirty f:,thoms,
and the first specimens Of the latter type
appearing ut about fifty f:lthoms below
the surface. He is led to make this dis
tinction from the fact that III some places
where the light limit is higher tho deep
sea fauna rises higher, and in fresh water
lakes where the light penetrat.s to
greater depths the shore fauna extends
further down.
In paper read before the American
Association for the Advancement Of Sci
ence, Dr.. Haushton of Dublin disagreed
with those biologists who believe the
earth and moon have been gradually
cooled from ;rn intensely heated liquid
mass to their present state. According
to his views, the moon formed Il part Of
ti'c earth ut a remote period-;,s calcutta
ted by Mr.. Geo. II. Darwin-but the
earth itself was formed by the ag.res;,-
ton Of separated masses of meteoric mat
ter cast off by the sun and cooled to
about the temperature of interstellar
space-probably 460 degrees below the
freezing point Of water.
Recent evidence seems to Indicate
that, under certain conditions, vegeta-
ble matter may be converted into coal in
much less period than many yeoloyists
have believed to be necessary. At least
an approach to such conversion has been
discovered in the mines Of the Upper
Hartz, in Germany, where some of the
timbcrs originally used in timbcring
have been transformed into what APP
pears to be d genuine Ignite, or brown
coal. The time occupied by the process
can not, it is believed, have extended
beyond fonr centnries-a very brief
period compared with that usually as
signed to coal formations
Prof. COLLATION. Of Geneva las described
Il cnrions experiment which he has been
III the habit Of showing to his classes.
lie fully charges an air gun with com
pressed air and Introduces lead ball
nearly filing the bore, but small enough
tn move freely He then x4.u.ls Tia nun |