Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1883-09-19
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

AS evidence of the rapidity with
which interest in scientific reserch is
now extending it is noted that the
gain of membership in the American
Association for the advancement of
science has been as great within the
last four years as in the previous
thirty-one years.
In judging of the value of an article
of food, Herr Mayer would consider,
as the principal points to determine,
its harmlessness, it's taste, and its
physiological utility. In the first two
respects there is, he thinks, no ap-
preciable difference between genuine
and artificial butter. The third point
depends chiefly Oh digestion, and he
as proven by experiment that the
genuine butter is the more readily di-
gested of the two, The difference,
even in this respect, is not great, but
is especially noticeable when the inn
itation butter is used with potatoes.
The just completed mortality re-
turns for England in the year 1881
give some cases of extreme longevity.
Twenty-Five men and siXty-siX women
were registered as 100 years old and
upward when they died. Nine of the
men were 100, five 10l, three 102, one
103, two 104, three los, one los, and
one 112. OF the women twenty-fOur
were 100, fifteen 1O1, eight 1O2, five
103, six 104, two 1O5, three IO6, and
three 107.
1t has been recommended by Mons
Schlumber that bottle of ammonia
be placed in each barrel of petroleum
in oil regions. If the oil should then
| ignite from any cause the bottle
would break and the ammoniacal va
pors would at once eXtuinguish the
fire. DR.. Petra Santa proposes APP
plying this plan of protection from
fire to collieries liable to fire-damp.
By impregnating textile fabrics
with an oil distilled from birch bark,
Mons. Piron claims to make them
impermeable to fresh or salt water,
acids, alkalies and mildew, without
imparing their fiexibility and softness.
The treatment prevents rotting, and
adds to the durability ofrope, cordage,
etc., as we'll as of woven fabrics.
The Importance to vegetation of an
abundant water-supply is shown by
consideration of the amount of mois-
ture which is perspired by healthy
plants. A sunflower, only three and
half feet high, with 5,616 square
inches of surface exposed to the air,
gives off as invisible vapor from
twenty to thirty avoirdupois ounces of
water every twelve hours. This is
more than passes through the skin of
man. Most OF the common cultiva-
ted plants-such as wheat, beans,
pease and clover-eXhale during five
months of growth more than two hun
dred times their dry weight of water,
while twice its weight of water passes
from the Comedian cherry in twenty
four hours.
Among the great refracting tele-
scopes of the world-completed or in
process of construction-may be
mentioned the following. The Lick
telescope, for which all object glass So
inches in diameter has been COM
menced by the Clarks of Cambridge,
Mass, the Pulknowa telescope, which
boasts the largest lens thus far COM
pleted-30 inches in diameter, the
Vienna telescope, with an object glass
of a inches, the Mccormick telescope
of 26I inches, the Washington tele-
scope, of 26 inches, the Newall tele-
scope, of Is inches, the Princeton tele-
scope, of % inches, the Buckingham
telescope, of 81 inches, the Chicago
telescope, of 1877 inches, the Wash
burn and the Warner telescopes, of Is
inches each, and the Harvard tele-
scope, of Is inches.
Mature" says Goethe, "will be re-
ported. All things are engaged in
writing their own history. The planet
and the pebble 60 attended by their
shadows, the rolling rock leaves its
scratches on the mountain, the river
it's channel in the soil, the animal it's
bones in the stratum, the fern leaf it's
modest epitaph in the coal, the falling
drop makes its sculpture in the sand |
or stone. Not foot slips in the snow
or long the ground but prints, i'm
characters more or less lasting, map
of its march. The air is full of sounds,
the sky of tokens, the ground of all
memoranda and signatures; subjects |
covered with hints which speak to the
intelligent" ..
At a high temperature bricks alb
sorb fifteen or twenty per cent of |
asphalt, and become converted into |
an elastic and very durable material. |
In Berlin pavement of bricks thus |
treated has been laid in street where
neither granite nor compressed asphalt |
and hitherto withstood the wear.
Bakers have been suspected of using
sulphate of copper to whiten their
bread. Mons. Gallfppe, however, points
out that the detection of copper i'm
bread is no proof that it was i'm
introduced, since copper ex-
lists normally in all plants, and par
ticularly in wheat.
According to Mr.. d. B. Dott, of
Edinburgh, the principal acid of opium
Is not rneconic acid, as has been gen.
orally supposed, but sulphuric acid.
Russian biologists consider the
GRANTEES of the Dnieper TO have been
iormed by the action of water, instead
If having had the igneous and erup-
i've origin usually assigned to such
rocks.
Prof. Milne, of Toxic, calls atten-
ion to hitherto almost overlooked
class of phenomena which he terms
earth pulsation,n He refers to
of the earth's surface so
low as to escape ordinary observation,
The meagre evidence thus far col
ected makes it appear probable that
variations of atmospheric pressure
,ause motions of the earth's crust,
while it has been calculated that the
ides which twice load our shores pro-
luce risings and fallings of the land
n similar manner. 1t is quite GER
ainly proven that such slow and i'm
,erceptible pulsations are often spread
rom earthquake centres.