The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-04-29
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

DR.. VIM. A. Hammond finds over
heated apartments to .be y potent cause
Of nervous irr;tahility. II we would
preserve onr amiability and onr tran
guilty Of mind we should live in we'll
ventilated rooms kept at a temperature
Of about sixty FIVE degrees.
OF the sense of taste, Prof. Mckentlrick
states that the base Of the tongue is most
sensitive to litters, and the tip to
] sweets. A substance aaast be soluble in
the fluid of the mouth to create taste,
but 10 definite relation has been found
between the chc.nical condition Of bodies
and their taste.
| Modern improvements have increased
the power Of the microscope SO greatly
that il is now made to magnify about
100000 diameters. The best nnaided
| human vision can see no objects much
| smaller than the INTERCHANGEABLE Of al
inch i'll diameter; but the most skillful
microscopes, with their best instru-
ments, are able to examine monads q
hundred thousandtll Of an inch in diam
| eter. Beyond this minnteness is OBJ
scurit,. It has been estimated that the
ultimate PARTICLES or atoms Composing
all matter can be no more than one
| twenty millionth of an inch in diameter,
| SO that it seems hardly probable that
| they will ever be revealed to human eye.
DR.. j. sterry Hunt has calculated that
the amount Of carlsenic acid stored in the
limestones Of the earth would form not
less than two hundred atmospheres
equal in weight to our own. This,
together with tile carbon Of the coal
beds, must have been drawn from the
air, which he believes gradually receives
its supply Of the gas from interstcllar
space.
If the astronomical view that the moon
was once q part of the earth's mass he
true, the moon in its early age must have
revolved much nearer to the earth than
now and must have caused prodigious
tides upon its parent planet-as recently
shown by Prof. Ball. Prof j. S. New
berry finds in geological evidence a
refutation Of this theory-to the extent,
at least, Of proving conciusively that no
such tides could have existed since the
commencement Of the geological record.
He does not hesitate to assert, therefore,
that the astronomers are in error in
regard to the moons genesis; or that if
it was once portion Of the earth, the
separation took place at u period SO
remote that it had receded to nearly its
present distance before the dawn Of life
OIL the earth.
Explorations by a Russian party show
that the eastern shore of the Gulf of Obi,
in northern Siberia, is nearly fourteen
miles west Of the place assigned to it by
existing maps.
A successful operation, during which
the patient was kept immersed in water
for sixteen days, was recently performed
10y DR.. Langenbeck, of Berlin. Among
other applications, these "pernanent
baths " are said t" be especially valuable
in cases of burns.
The aur"ras observed by Baron Nor
denskjold at the winter quarters of the
Vega, in latitude 81 degrees minutes
north, were mostly feeble and lacked the
t;ay-like formation SO often characteristic
OF these phenomena. A simple luminous
arc, low in the sky, was most common
and this distinguished navigator's theory
IS that the arc forms portion of
permanent luminous crown above the
earth's pole.
In researches upon the pctroleums Of
the Caucasus. N. Schutzenberger has
observed that, although conducted with
the utmost care, his analyses frequently
showed more than one hundred per cent.
of matter. A like result was obtained
with two other substances. Following
up the investigation, lie has found that
sodium AID copper appear to SO affect
certain products as to produce the
anomaly observed while if the articles
SO affected are exposed for IL short time
to sunlight they give a normal analysis. |
1t is suggested, as IL possible explanation,
that the weight of atoms may vary
within certain narrow limits, and that
in the case of the hydrocarbons it NAV be |
modified by the action Of sodium or by
light If confirmed, NJ Scl,utzenberyer,s
discovery will have ali important bear
ing upon the fundamental principles of
chemical science.
German measurements give the follow
ing as among the greatest daily quanti-
ties OF rainfall recorded in Europe: AT
Colberg, Sept. !, 1880, four inches of rain !!
fell iii seven hours. At Breslau, August
6, 1853, four and Il half inches fell, At
Klausthal, in the Harz, the daily maxi
mum observed is four and a half inches:
and 1T Hocllensclwand, in the Black
Forest, it is five. inches.
A new white metal and malleahl. !
bronze is produced by the decoloration
of copper by means of ferro-manganese |
The composition gives II metal as white |
as silver and us malleablc as the German
silver obtained with nickel. For !,
laminable white metal in plates zinc or
brass is added to the composition.
In recent lecture, Prof. Edward
Frankland stated that six millions of