The Opelousas courier., 1883-10-13
SCIENCE AND ART.

GLASS while at red heat is plunged into
bill and made so hard that mortars and
pestles may be manufactured in that
way.
PROFESSOR NEWTON, Of Yale College,
estimates that the matter of the earth
Is Increasing by 10000 900 meteoric
masses falling upon its surface every
year.
TIE discovery of uranium in Califor-
mia is reported. This mineral is valued
at 81, 900 per ton, and has never before
been found in this country. 1t is much
used in coloring glass.
A RUSSIAN officer has devised a very
simple but ingenious system of night
signals on board vessels. 1t consists in
lighting the smoke Of chimneys by
means Of refectnrs. The various colors
Of the light are interpreted by IN estab-
lished signal code.
ELECTRICITY has been applied in
France, by M. Dalmas, to the destruc-
ton Of ~phylloxera. Through a copper
wine wound around the stems of the
vines a powerful current is sent, with
the effect of destroying the insect in its
various stages of development.
NoRDENsKJoLD is to make another
voyage Of exploration, departing from
the River Lena to the New Siberian
isles as soon as he conveniently can, in
order to obtain the data necessary to
render the coast of Africa on the north
safely accessible to maritime commerce.
SOME time ago it was noted that the
experiments of Grandeur and LIE Clerc
on maize and tobacco appeared to show
that the withdrawal of atmospheric
electricity was injurious to vegetation.
Naudin has made similar experiments
on kidney-beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and
the herbaceous cotton plant, and found
that they were benefited by the with
drawal of electricity. He concludes
that the action of electricity, like that
of light, heat, and moisture, varies
upon different species of plant.
In noticing the labors of the Interna
tional Bureanof weights and measures
Able Moigno regrets the choice, as
unit of measure, of the ter-millionett
Of a meridianal quadrant, "a a uni
fatally indeterminate," since the merid
ians vary in length. He suggests. q
a better standard, the cubit of the grea
pyramid, which represents the ten-nll
flonth of the earth's polar axis. 81
/ John Herschel made the same proposal
nearly thirty years ago, and it is some
what remarkable that his views shoait
be advocated now by q leading Frencl
scientific journal.
The perfection to which modern in
genuity has brought all useful lnstru
ments. is almost marvellous, SO that evel
the interior and most hidden 0iScerG Q
the human body are rendered visible b
the aid of electric light. The patholos
ical changes in the blood corpuscles al
: exactly noted and classified; the amour
of heat throw out in any given time b
the human body, is accurately measure
and noted; the beating Of the heart
pulses rendered distinctly audibly {
t long distances, in one case ten miles, D
g e Of the ~microphone. DIR. Nest
: has lately invented an endoscope, wit
which the interior of the bladder an
Q stomach are seen, while M. Trouve,
e Paris, aecomplishes the same by meal
g of his electrical polyscope.
PROF.. TyNDALL asserts that diseas
|, are ~propagated not by ef1uvia or sewe
gas. but BY solid particles discharged |
Currents Of air or gas. This he prove
by the following experiment: He CT
up q piece of steak, stepped it in wateI
y heated it at a little above the temper
y ture Of the blood, then strained off Il
= Iiouid: in a short time this liquid b
came turbid, and when examin.
! drought a microscope was found to
1t swarming with living organisms;
e the application Of heat these were kill
It and when the solution wasfltered he Q
d tanned pure liquid, which, if kept fr
= from particles Of dust, would rema
" pure for an unlimited period; but i
ay were to dip its leg in fluid containh
e living organisms and then into pu
70 LIQUID, the whole would be swarmil
with animalcule in forty-eight hours.