The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-02-17
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Mons. Fayol has found that the dura
tion OF oak timber used in eollieries i.
increasing and sometimes doubted by
treatment with tar. The same substance
has, however, little influence upon the
durability of pine.
The listinctness with which small
stars appear in photographs of the grea
comet of last year leads Mr.. Gill, astron.
omer of the Cape of Good Hope observa-
tory, to suggest the possibility of making
star-maps by direct photography of the
heavens.
Sir George b. Airy thinks it probable
that the tides can have no beneficial
effect upon the climate of London, ex-
cept that the agitation produced may
destroy injurious stagnation Of the air.
The sanitary action must be slight, Us
about all the matter carried out by the
ebbing tide is returned ut the next flow.
Mons. Brown-Sequar.l recently dis
| covered that carbonic acid has remark
able anBsthetic action when blown into
the upper opening of the larynx, insensi-
bility being produced not only in that
organ but i'll the entire body. 1t is
found that the effect is not due to the
passage of carbonic acid into the blood,
| as might be supposed, but to an influence
exerted ON the nerve centres by irrita-
ton of the sensitive nerves Of the larynx.
Good reason exists for believing Tint
hay-fever is caused by pollen, according
to Mr.. c. B. Plowright, III English mi
croscopist, who says the pollen rapidly
begins to throw out polen-tubes when
brought into contact with the warm and
moist mucus membrane of the bronchial
tract. Similarly, he thinks that the
spores Of some fungus growing OIL grasses
must enter the bronchial tubes of sheep
and germiate therein to produce the
"shecp cough known to English sheep
growers.
The readiness with which certain
solids conduct sound is a familiar fact of
physics which Mons. Goblin mentions as
having long had a curious application.
on the Rhone. Considerable quantities
of gravel are carried down tho river by
current, and, by placing one end Of y
cane in the water and applying the other
to the ear, the clash of the moving peb-
bles as they strike together is distinctly
heard by persons in boats ON the surface.
Tihe seelnd is cracking like that pro-
ducel in frying.
A Vienna chemist has made q new
glass, which seems TO be an interesting
production. It's composition is not given,
but it is SAID to contain neither silex,
potash, soda, lime, nor borax. 1t is per-
fectly clear and transparent, and can be
cnt and polished, while it is reported to
be moro brilliant in appearance than the
common crystal. 1t is completely in
soluble in water, and is not effected by
~ AC1u, buG H1 uAOJAboiiC tltIlC
acids corrode it. When fused it adheres
to iron, bronze and zinc, and. would prob
ably form valuable protective conting
for those metals.
Lockyer's snpposition that part or all
of the so-called chemical elements are
really compound bodies is based upon
spectroscopic observations ofthe sun ana
stars. 1t appears that the supposed
hottest stars-Sirius, for ihstance-give
spectra showing only very thick hydro
gen lines and IL very few thin metallic
lines characteristic Of elements of low
atomic weight; while tho cooler stars,
like our sun, indicate by their spectra IL
much larger nnmber of metallic elements,
but none of II non- metallic character {;
and the coolest stars afford evidence of
compounds of metallic with non-n,etallic
elements. These observations are very
simply explained by considering that, as
the temperature increases, the compounds
are first broken up into the constituents
which we have been accustomed to
regard as their elements, and that these
substances then undergo decomposition
into lighter clements.
In he white sand Of the Ergent Moun-
tains .at Sarcptn, Asiatic Russia, are
fonnd some curious stoies. They have
round, cylindrical and t,,rget-sh.s,el
forms, and range in size from Jumps
smaller than walnuts to masses of more
| than fourteen inches in length and from
| two to seven inches in thickness. Each
of the cylindrica! etones-whiclI are of
ten forked and root-fike in appearance
is found to contain brown kernel with
white spGt in the centre. These singu.
lar formations have rerplexed many
persons, including Alexander Won Hum.
boldt, who, while declaring tho stones
to be of recent date, could not explai,
their origin. Alex. Becker now believes
that he can with certainty assert that
they have been produced around tlls
roots of plants containing milky juice
Several such plants grow abundantly i,
the white sand. The long oroots ar.
larcsrated by insects, and the milky fluit
! flows continually from the wounds
sticking the clalky sand firmly arount
disappear, leaving in their places whit
often h"llow-kernels, together will
the brown color of the rOot-cortcx. TIL