St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-03-31
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

A zone of country in Hungary re-
markably affected by metorites has been
noted by Herr E. Doll. OF the eight
known meteoric falls recorded during
the twenty five years up to 1877 six oc-
CURED in this region, and subsequent
ly two more.
The great expense Of the multitude
of expeditions fitted out to observe the
transit Of Venus across the suns lace
an December 9th has been incurred
simply to reduce an uncertainty IN the
SUMS parallax of one-tenth OF second.
Although more than hundredth part
of a whole, Prof. Young finds this tenth
of second to be no more than the
angle subtended by a single hair at
distance of eight hundred feet. The
most probable parallax may be taken
to be $50 seconds, which signifies that
the sun is 92,SS5,000 miles from us. The
best authorities admit that this estl-
mate of the parallax, made from obser-
vations thus far worked out, may be
inaccurate within the limit OF one
twentieth of second either way. This
apparently slight uncertainty, howev-
ever, is not to be overlooked, as the
one twentieth of second corresponds
to about half a million miles. As the
suns distance from the earth is the
unit adopted for measurements among
the stars, it's accurate determination is
a matter of great value to astronomy,
and the Importance of translts OF Venus
and Mercury rests upon the fact that
they afforda means of finding the solar
parallax
In Norway woodpeckers bore into the
telegraph posts, being misled by the
numming Of the wires into the belief
that the wood contains insects; and
bears mistake the sound for the noise
of bees.
During recent discussion at the
philadelphia Academy Of Natural Sci
,ences it was doubted that the odors OF
insects are emitted as a protection from
the attacks Of enemies, as is generally
believed. At least some Of the odors
are very agreeable to man, and it is by
no means certain that scents repulsive
TO us are not delightful to the most
common enemies of the insects emit
ting them. DR.. Joseph Leidy spoke OF
some ants having the fragrance OF a
Eucalyptus tree growing near their
nest instead of the usual peculiar ordor
of formic acid.
An interesting experiment has been
made in Paris by Mons. Mangin. A
Swan incandescent electric lamp was
attached to the inside of. paper balloon
about eight feet in diameter. The ba-
loon was then filled with hydrogen gas
and allowed to ascend, being held cap
tive by rope containing two copper
wires. On lighting the lamp by passing
an electric current through the wires,
the whole balloon appeared like a globe
of fire. By systematic interruptions
of the current it was shown that the
dots and dashes of the Morse code
could be immitated, and the value of
such method of signalling
in military operations will be
seen when the distance to which illn-
minated balloons could be made visi-
BILE is considered.
The energy of the human heart,
working day and night while life lasts,
is enormous. During an average work
ing day a good climber can only raise
his own weight 1000 feet an hour, while
the work of the heart is estimated to be
equivalent to raising its own weight
4(ten ornces) 1880 feet higher in an
hour. This is about five times the ener-
gy Of the most powerful steam engine
ever made.
Writing upon "the doomed comet" Mr..
j. A. Westwood Oliver says that from
Our knowledge of the nature Of come
tary bodies, ETC., we may infer that the
approaching disaster to our present ce-
5iestial visitor will bring to us nothing
more than abnormal magnetic distur-
Dances, auroras, or possibly nothing at
all.
The smallest insects are proportion
ally the strongest of all animals, accor-
ding to some ingenious experiments by
Mons. Pateau. It was found that a
horse can pull six-sevenths of its weight,
q cockchafer fourteen times its weight,
and a bee twenty times its weight.
In the environs of Poitiers Mons.
T4isch has discovered whole Gallo-Ro-