St. Landry democrat., 1883-08-04
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. I

In the white sand OF the Ergent
Mountains at Sarepta, Asiatic Russia,
are found some curious stones. They
thave round, cylindrical and target
shaped 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 cylindrical
stones-Which are often forked and
root-like in appearance-is found to
contain brown kernel with white
spot in the centre. These singular
formations have perplexed many per-
sons, including Alexander Won Hum
boldt, who, while declaring the stones to
be of recent date, could not explain their
origin. Alex Becker now believes that
he can with certainty assert that they
have been produced around the roots of
plants containing milky juice. Sew
eral such plants grow abundantly in the
white sand. The long roots are lacera-
ted by insects, and the milky fluid flows
continually from the wound sticking
the cllalky sand firmly around the
roots. In time the roots die and disap-
pear, leaving in their places white-of-
ten hollow-kernels, together with the
brown color of the root cortex. The
round and target-shaped stones-Only
few of which have a brown kernel
may have formed where the milky fiuid
ran away into the sand.
The distinctness with which small
stars appear in photographs of the great
comet Of last year leads Mr.. Gill, as
tronomer of the Cape Of Good Hope
observatory to suggest the possibility
of making star-maps by direct photog-
Eaphy of the heavens.
DIR. Oft has learned that the rattle
snakes tail makes sixty vibrations
second.
The readiness with which certain
solids conduct sound is q familiar fact
of physics which Goblin mentions as
having long had a curious application
on the Rhode. Considerable quantities
of gravel are carried down by the cur
rent, and, by placing one end of a cane
IN the water and applying the other to
the ear, the clash of the moving pebbles
as they strike together is distinctly
heard by persons on the surface. The
soundfis cracking like that produced
in frying.
Mons. Fayol has found that the dura-
ton of oak timber used in collieries is
increased and sometimes doubled by
treatment with tar. The same sub
stance has, hover, little influence upon
the durability of pine.
Good reason exists for believing that
slay-fever is caused by pollen, accord
5ng. to Mr.. G. B. Plowright, an English
microscopic, who says the pollen rapid
ly begins to throw out pollen-tubes
when brought in contact with the warm
and moist mucous membrane of the
bronchial tract. Similarly he thinks
that the spores of some fungus growing
on grasses must enter the bronchial
tubes of sheep and germinate therein to
produce the "sheep-cough'' known to
English sheep growers.
Mons. Brown-Sequard recently dis
covered that carbonic acid has re-
1narkable anasthetic action when blown
into the upper opening of the larynx,
ansensibility being produced not only
in that organ but in 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 infu-
ence exerted on the nerve centres by
irritation of the sensitive nerves of the
larynx.
A Vienna chemist has made new
glass, which seems to be an interesting
It's composition is not
given, but tits said to contain neither
silex, potash, soda, lime, nor borax. It
is perfectly clear and transparent, and
can be cut and polished, while it is re-
ported to be more brilliant in appear
ance than the common crystal. 1t is
completely insoluble in water, and is
not affected by fuoric acid, but hydro
.hlorie and nitric acids corrode it.
when fused it adheres to iron, bronze
md zinc, and would probably form a
,alEable protective coating for those
metals.
Leckyer's supposition that part or all
e the so-called chemical elements are
,eally compound bodies is based upon
observations of the sun
I y = :, a., ~, ,nH Tho r,1nrncod