Morris tribune., 1883-04-11
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


, Prof. Milne, seismulogist. declares
it to be his increasing conviction that
there are earthquakes of SO slow pc
Rod that neither observers nor OrJli
nary instruments record them. He is
urging upon the Japanese Government
the Importance of establishing u series
of ohservatories for studying earth.
quakes and allied phenomena.
The accidental discovery has been
made by Il French surgeon that lower
ing the head and raising the feet of
patients who have been treated with
chloroform will cause speedy return
of consciousness. and it is thought
that an observance of that simple fact
will greatly lessen the danger attend
ing the use Of anaesthetics.
An English tramway has com
menced running by electric accumu-
lators-or storage batteries ID car
| Sti'StbiS VI Nttil ioLG pftS1tIl-
gers. The accumulators-fifty cells of
eighty pounds each~~are placed under
the seats of the ear, and so arranged
that any part of the current required
may be used or the whole of it may be
switched off. The car is provided
with electric bells ans! four incandes-
cent lamps, all operated by the cur
rent which drives the motor. \ full
charge of the aeoumuiators runs the
car, when heavily loaded, seven hours.
equal to half a day of tramway ser
vice.
Baron Nordenskjold considers that
vast regions covered with perpetual
ice are physical impossibility on our
globe south of the eightieth degree of
north latitude. His proposed explora-
ton of the interior of Greenland is
expected to give evidence confirming
this view,
In q recent lecture, Rev. w. H. Dali
linger, T. r. S., remarked that modern
| inquiry had shown that two micro
SCOPE organisms may have the same
forms but totally unlike functions
the one being harmless and the other
| deadly. This explains how it is that
putrefactive germs may be every
where present without always causing
| disease.
There are good reasons for doubling
that the Australian Eucalypti-or
''feqer trees exert any greater in
fluence upon the healthfulness of
marshy tracts Of country than do other
trees. Rev. J. E. Woods, a Queenland
botanist, refers to a certain mining
district which is famous for fever and
ague despite the fact that species of
Eucalyptus abound in the locality.
AS marine plants do not exist at
depths of more than $50 feet, or there.
abouts, E. A. Milne.Edwards con-
| cllldes that the plant-eating animals
of the deep-sea wastes must live upon
food produced ut the surface and grad
ully dropped into the depths beyond
the region of plant-growth.
Prof. Binz, of Germany, asserts that
chloride Of lime has given good results
as an antidote to snake-poison when
introduced under the skin near the
wound. In cases where the patients
failei to recover, the fatal effect of the
poison Was evidently retarded by the
chloride of lime salntian,
speetroseopic observations of
comets have yielded fessilts which, in
Berthelot's opinion. indicate that the
light of those bodies has, electric
origin.
Mr.. A. \. Cyns,aa the EaElish as
.rono AR, hel W. + ~ ~ posi- ala to
photograph stars not visible to the
we III the telescope with which the
photographs are aiken,
Among tha grant OF the Swedish
Government this year is one of $50 To
IN entomo'ogist wl4nsa duty it viii fe
advice IA aess ss to III" hest mems
iastroy n i.
Carefully recorded observations ex-
Guiding over period of twenty years
lave shown DR.. G. G. Abbott that the
autumnal storing of nuts by squirrels.
the building Of winter houses by musk
rats, and other habits of these and !
other animals, or the absence of such
habits, have no relation to the mild
ness or severity of the winter which
follows. It thus appears that such
creatures are no more reliable as wea-
Their prophets than the human char
latans who claim to foresce storms
months in advance, and another wide
.spead and deep-roote notion is proven
to be groundless.
Comparatively few plant, were
known to the ancients, progress in bo-
tanical knowledge having made womb
erful additions to the catalogue in re-
cent years. According to German
authorize, Hippocrates described 234
species, Theophrastus followed with (
500, and, us nearly as can be ascer-
tanned Pliny knew 800. Even as re-
Gently as the date Of Linnaeus' death
l77S--only 1904 had been described,
although Tournefort had claimed TO-
l46. Early in the present century De
Candolle made 10000 named species;
and Lindley, in 1853, placed the num-
Der at 02,920. At the present time