Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-16
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

TOE considerable time the hope has;
Deen warranted that the principle Of vac
cinat1on might soon be put into practice
~ ounnoatnng various diseases of man
Klna besides smallpox. The report now
comes Irom Brazil that five persons have
oeeh Vaccinated" with the virus of yellow
,eYer ny LIE. Oomlngos Fre1re, who late
~ aioooVereo the germs peculiar to this
malay: line strength of the virus was
reduced oy successive civilizations in geIa-
tine, and the material derived from tho.
sixth generation was used for the ioocpla-
tions. The inoculated individuals vera.
attack with mild form of synntons
characteristic of yellow fever. InocnIeted
| guinea pigs and rabbits had the mild
symptoms, and were subsequently proof
against the disease in any degree of vim
| lence.
| AS machines animal bodies are greatly
superior to artificial engines. The steam
engine, according to Mr.. e. Jouffret, is
capable of converting into work less than
! ten per cent of the total energy represent
| ed by its fuel; the cannon gives seventeen
per cent; the human body twenty-one per
cent; and the bodies of some of the lower
animals, especially of insects, much
greater percentage.
The lncandescent electric light has been
very successfully employed by London
surgeons In performing delicate opera
tions upon the eye.
list of the reptiles and batrschians of
Illinois. prepared by Messrs. N. s. Davis
and +. Il. Rice, includes seventy-four
species OF the former and thirty-two of
the latter, or nearly one-third of the
forms found in the United States.
coating of peroxide of lead is found
by M. G. Widemann to give cheap, perfect
and durable insulation TO telegraph and
telephone wires.
A study of Vesta in the light of present
knowledge leads Prof, W. M. Harrington,
| of Ann Arbor, to infer that this body, the
largest of the minor planets OF asteroid
has diameter of more than 500 miles;
| that it's power of rejecting light is like
that of the moon, which is probably re-
sembles IN lacking an appreciable atmos-
phere and water; that to account for OBJ
served Irregularities of it's light we may
assume that 1t has a very rough surface
1 and rotetes on its axis, the time of rota-
ton being short; and that what is true of
lVesta is likely to be true, with the neees-
| sary changes, of the other asteroids This
view of Vesta's size greatly exceeds the
estimates of other astronomers. 1t has
been supposed. in fact, that if all the
known asteroids-about 24O in number
were made into single planet its diam
eter would be less than 400 miles.
| During the last few years some curious
discoveries have been made in France, and
various other parts of the world, proving
that trephining the skull was quite extern
| sively, and often successfully, practiced
by the barbarous, ignorant and super
srltious men of the age of polished stone.
| Prof. Broca finds that superstition led to
| the operation, as it seems to have been
performed IN cases of epilepsy OR insanity
| for the purpose OF opening q way of es-
| cape for the confined demons probably
/ supposed by those ruGe people of several
thousand years ago to be the cause of the
disease Considering the class of case.
| the desperate nature Of the operation, and
| the barbarous method OF performing it
with sharpened fints, to say nothing of
the after consequences, Dr.. t. T. J..
| Baker, an English surgeon, remarks that
it is wonderful that any ono patient re-
covered. Yet Dr., Pranieres claims to have
/ twenty skulls which were trephined during
| life and of which nineteen bear evidence
Of recovery from the operation
| A chronometer borrowed from the Brit
lsh government by Major General Ten
nant has shown changes in its rate of run
ming which have not been produced by
| variations OF temperature, but which
| prove to have been coincident with chanees
IN the humidity of the atmosphere. In
rainy weather the rate has been considera-
| bly, slower than during dry periods, and
| General Tenant supposes that the mois-
ture hes thinned the oil on the axles of the
balance, reducing friction, and causing
the wheel to swing through larger arc.
Another view is that-the chronometer not
| having been very clean-the dust and dirt
about the sXles, and not the oil, have been
affected by the humid air.
DR.. James Croll opposes the theory
that the ice-sheet which perpetually covers
SO large part of Greenland, is a conse-
quence of the elevation of the land, as
no interior mountain range, nor very high
| land has been reported. He regards az
very probable the opinion, expressed by
by Giesecke and by DR.. Robert Brown.
that the country is really collection of
islands fused together by ice. He also
considers that the Antarctic "contlrent,n
like Greenland, comprises a number of
~" ioioho9, oouho IoSeIner Dy an
lce-sheet covering an area of about
100000 square miles.
The earth's magnetic pole, according to
a recent lecture at Glasgow by Prof.
Thompson, is now more than 1000 miles
west of the geographical pole, near the
peninsula of Boothia Felix, the most
northern part of the mainland of North
America. The magnetic pole, moving from
point to the eastward, reached the true.
north in 1867. Continuing westward, it
reached its farthest limit in 1916. It ia
now moving eastward, and in 1876 the
magnetic needle may be expected to point
again due north.
The General BreaH; Up.