Morris tribune., 1883-08-15
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

an important part of the work done at
the Harvard Observatory. A region
of the heavens fifteen degrees square
is photographed at single exposure,
stars down to the fifth and sixth mag
nitudes being shown and eighteen
of these pictures may be taken on a
single plate, forming a map of section
of the stellar vault ninety degrees long
by forty-five degrees wide. Smaller
stars, down to the eight magnitude,
are shown in photographs of smaller
areas. The magnitudes indicated by
he photographs do not always corners
pond to those recorded as the deter
limitations of eye observations. This
is due to the effects of different colors
among the stars. A red star, which
NAV appear very brilliant to the eye,
produces only faint impression on
the photographers plate.
Mons. Cornevin places the time of
the first appearance of the horse as a
domestic animal in the bronze age
contemporaneous with the bronze bit.
Mons. Pietrement and Mons. Pictet
proved that the horse had been utilized
in Asia while Europe was in the stone
age, and Mons. Faure objects to Mons.
Cornevin's conclusion with the re-
mark that while the bronze bit is good
proof of the domesticatiOn of the horse,
the latter may have been tanned long
before bronze was known. Which
ever view may be the correct one, it
is certain that man has enjoyed the
services of the horse for a pretty long
period.
The total number of species of
Towering plants in the world is rough
ly estimated by Bentham and Hooker
to be 95, ,620.
In the opinion of DR.. Burg, copper
in the body exerts a protective in
fluence against infections diseases.
This view has received renewed con-
firmation in the results OF an inquiry
concerning the deathrate among
copper-workers during the last epi-
demic of typhoid in Paris. To test
his theory that copper prevents the de-
Yelopment of the microbes Ofinfectious
diseases, Dr. Burg proposes studying
the action of copper salts upon the
microbes cultivated by Mons. Pasteur.
Herr Heinrich has made some eX-
periments with peat, in which he OBJ
tanned the largest crop when the peat
derived from the soil sixty per cent of
the total quantity of water which it
was capable of containing. No crop
was obtained when the moisture of
the peat fell below twenty per cent of
it water-capacity, except in sand,
where small yield was secured which
contained not more than ten per cent
of the water it could have contained.
At the Paris Observatory Admiral
MoucheZ has been experimenting for
some weeks with small captive
balloon for obtaining records of me-
teorogical phenomena at some dis
tance above the earth. The real value
been determined, as ballooning for
scientific purposes is a quite new
subject of study.
An Irish physician, DR.. Henry
Macaulay, has made the unique sug-
gestion that the intense heat
of the sun in tropical
countries be used as an agent for cool
ing building. He would use Mouchot's
sun-engine for pumping cold air into
factories, dwellings, ETC., as in this
way the temperature of the rooms may
be reduced from 100 degrees to so.
This plan is only available where ice
may be obtained.
The Russian Geographical Society
has received list of the localities
along the coast of northeastern Siberia
where human beings may be found at
different seasons of the year. 1t is
hoped that the use of this list by
future explorers may enable them to
escape the sad fate of Lient. De Long
and his companions.
According to writer in a Partisan
journal, Tonquin, a province of Anam
in southeastern Asia, possesses a re-
markahle wealth. The production of
it's gold mines, this authority
states, can be made to rival that of
California and Australia while it's
coal mines are even more important
than the gold mines. Silver, copper
and tin are also abundant, and zine,
| lead iron and biSmouth are known.
A catalogue IS being prepared of the
stars which were observed from the
Paris Observatory during the forty
| five wears from 1887 to 1881. The stars
about 10000.
A composition has been produced
by Messers. Dankworth and Landers,
| of st. Petersburg, which possesses the
properties Of India rubber, and is suit
able for most of the purposes for which
i that substanceis used. The new pro-
duct is composed Of wood and coal
tar, linseed oil, ozokerit, spermaceti,
and sulphur, which are thoroughly
mixed, and heated for s. long time in
large vessels.
A scientific voyage round the world
is to be undertaken by the Swedish
frigate Vanadis. The expedition will
be absent about eighteen months, anc
is to include the Duke of Gothland
King Oscars youngest son, anc
several eminent Swedish savants.