Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-08-25
BITS OF SCIENCE.

headache.
| Light green siderite, found eithe
in crusts or in single crystals, ant
often associated with calcite, occur
on hematite in the Lake Superio
district.
Water used in wood washing yield.
4.50 per cent of very dry potassium
which can be recovered, as M. Delat
tire has shown, at considerable profit
The German Government has re
Gently seen the necessity of introduc
ing electric projectors on board the
navy for signal. search and naviga
tion purposes.
Perhaps the most popular depart
ment of science in Spain at the pre-
sent day is geology, and the Mining
Exhibition at Madrid is considered
to be grand success.
1t appears that alum is sometimes
added to wines to give astringency
and to raise the color. For its de
lection evaporate to dryness, and
then set fire to the organic matter.
A new telegraph system is in
course of construction at Tripoly
from the frontier of Tunis on the
one hand, to Egypt on the other, and
including some lines running toward
the South. The expense is to be met
by the Ottoman Government.
Struve upholds DIR. Biedent's sug-
gestion that only cream should be
used for the earliest nourishment OF
young children brought up by hand,
as the digestibility of any milk is
inversely as the quantity of caseine
which remains in the skim milk.
Drs. Mitchell and Reichert find that
the full grown lizard will bite and
cause wound that may prove fatal.
Unlike that of other. reptiles, its
saliva is alkaline, not acid. A little
injected into a pigeon caused the
death of the bird (which was long, fat
and plump in less than nine minutes.
Writing from British Columbia to
Forest and Stream, j. G. Hughes
says: "Pigs upon the clear water
rivers learn to dive after the salmon
lying dead on the bottom of the
streams, and the interesting sight
may be witnessed of SOW diving for
a salmon, and, having obtained it,
taking it ashore for her little ones"
Among Russian geologists the be-
lief appears to be settled that granite
rocks, once thought to be of igneous
and eruptive origin, are really of
aqueous formation. The GRANTEES of
the rapids of the Dnieper, when
closely examined, show stratifcation,
and under the microscope they are
seen to contain drops of brown water.
In paper on the acids of opium.
read by d. b. Dott before the Royal
Society, Edinburg, it is stated that,
contrary to the general opinion, the
principal acid in opium, judged by
its acidifying powers, is sulphuric
and not meconic acid, considerable
portion of the morphia being always
combined with the sulphuric acid.
G. Won Than, says the American
Journal of Chemistry, has invented a
convenient instrument for estimating
the amount of Illuminating gas that
may be present in the air in any
confined space. The instrument is
in principle porous cylinder, 80
arranged that the diffusion into it
may be measured in an ordinary
manometer. whatever the gas may
be, if it has a greater density than
cor1mon air.
The church can no longer suppress
scientific writings in Russia. Literary
censorship is confined to. political
works. As contemporary remarks,
there will henceforth be an impos-
sibility in that country "of books
being suppressed, as one was by Count
Tolstoi, for inquiring too minutely
into miracles alleged to have been
wrought by bones of saints drawn
from the catacombs of Kieff and sold
to the people by the clergy at high
prices"
More than twenty years ago Hen
messy called attention to the superb
ority of water for the absorption de
rived from the sun. His conclusions
have gradually commanded increas-
ing support. MIR. w. Henel in re-
cent publication has maintained that
the difference in temperature between
the northern and southern hemi
spheres is very slight, and that the
southern hemisphere, which has the
larger mass of water, has the higher
tonparature Of the two.
La Nature describes an electric
curiosity invented by DIR. Claudet.
A flannel to cure or alleviate rheu-
matism is the article. 1t contains.
per kilo, 115 grams of the oxides of
tin, copper, zinc, and iron. A series
of threads of this fabric is impreg-
mated with these metallic products,
and each series is alternately separat-
ed by raw threads. The flannel thus
prepared constitutes a true dry pile.
It is said to develop electricity by
simple contact with the body, or bet
ter still, with the products of perspi-
ration.
A new explosive has been invented
by M. Turpin, Partisan chemist.
It is said to be very powerful, and,
unlike nitro-glycerine, dynamite and
gun cotton, it has the highly import
ant property of not being effected by
concussion. 1t is made by the COM
bination of two LIQUIDS, which can be
transported like ordinary chemicals,
and need only be mixed when the