Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1883-06-28
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

the dust storms of northwestern India tc
be due to an excess of atmospheric elec-
tricity. He believes the furnacc-like blast
Of the simoom--whch is accompanied by
. sulpurous odor-to be very conccn-
trated form of ozone. generated in the
atmosphere by some intensely marked
electrical condition.
Mons Parize has discovered that the
crunbling of imperiectly baked bricks is
caused by the growth in them Of micro
scopic organisms, and not by exposure to
the weather.
The singular faculty possessed by some
animals-such as cats, dogs and pigeons
of returning in direct course to a
point from which they have been taken
b puzzle to naturalists. 1t has been
referred TO instinct, to intelligence or reas-
oning power, and to peculiar bodily func-
tions. Wallace supposed smell to enable
an animal to return over a course which
It had traversed in a basket; Toussenel
believes that birds have an idea of direc-
zion by recognizing the north as the cold
quarter, the south as the warm, the east
Tin Franco as the dry, and the west as
the moist; and now Vignier suggests that
che faculty depends upon perception
Of magnetic currents.
DR.. Clousten an Edinburgh physician,
says: "All acute mental diseases, like
most nervous diseases, tend to thinness
Of body ,Iand therefore all foods and all
treatments that fattcn are good. To my
assistants and nurses and patients | preach
the gospel Of fairness as the great antidote
TO the exhausting tendencies of the dis
ease We have to treat, and it would be
well If all people Of nervous condition
would obey this gospel
FOR several years Mr.. j. Z. Suitterlin
Of New York has given attention to the
treatment Of stammering, and with a
simple and philosophic method he has
been very successful in removing the
trouble. His system does not rely upon
medical aids, but comprises chiefly care
full drill of the vocal organs and such
medical discipline as may seem desirable,
the principal object Of the latter being
the diversion of the subjects attention
from himself. Statistics collected by Mr.
Suitterlin show that the habit Of STAN
mcring is very seldom contracted at a
later period period In life than the tenth
year.
Speaking at Milan of the great comet
Of 1882, Prof. Schiaparelli, the eminent
Italian astronomer, remarked that such
body is very small in the cold of distant
space-so small as to be Invisible even in
the most powerful telescopes As it APP
proaches the sun it gradually becomes
heated, and its solid, or fluid matter is
largely converted into gaseous state,
causing it to swell enormously in size 1t
then develops tail of very ditl'use sub
stance, the immense tail which stretched
ACROSS the eastern sky during the morn
ingS Of last autumn having been estimat-
cd by one astronomer to contain only
few pounds Of material, The cometary
body reaches its greatest expansion when
nearest the sun, and as it returns into dis
tant space IL again contracts into insignif-
canoe. No exact calculations have vet
been made Of the orbit Of the great comet
Of 1882, butftom observations in Sep
tember, October and November it is as
sumed that its period is included between
800 and 900 years, that its apheliou is
170 times ~ far from the sun as the earth
It It's mean distance, and that its velocity
y $1,000 times Is great when nearest
The sun Is when farthest away.
On the Government cinchona plan,a-
lions in Jamaica the highest meteorolog
cal observatory in the British Empire
has just been established At this~pot
- 900 feet above sca-level--the mean
annual rainfall is 1856 inches, and the
mean annual temperature is 60 degrees
Fahrenheit. ,
Under the illumination Of an electric
mp photographs have been made of the
human vocal organs in the act of singing.
he pictures obtained are to be used bv
NO European writers-Herr Behnke
nd Mr.. Lennox Browne-for illustrat-
~ forthcoming work on the mechan-
IN Of the human voice.
Prof. Pfiiger states that in some Ger d
ian schools from 20 to so per cent. of
le scholars are suffering from defective ),
'sion, while not single pupil at the 5
gymnasium has perfect eve -