Morris tribune., 1883-03-28
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

! A French and ali American party
the latter accompanied by two English
astronomers-hope to witness the total
eclipse of May 9th from small islands
| in the South Pacific. 4 special effort
will he made to discover any planet
! which may exist nearer the sun than
| Mercury, and the unusual duration of
| this eclipse-neariy six minutes-will
greatly favor the observers in their
| search.
! After series of interesting expert
| ments in Paris, Mons. p. z. Deherain
has concluded that while the radiation
from an electric arc lamp may main
tain mature plants in vegetation for
considerable time without aid from
the sun, the light is not sufficiently
powerful to cause the growth of ger
minating seed Or to allow of the ma
turing of fruit on the older plants.
Mons. Jansen has found the high
desert plateaux of Algeria to have an
atmosphere so remarkably clear that
the moons of Jupiter are visible to the
naked eye.
A new book Of Siberian travels men-
tions that the native winter fishermen
stir up the surgeons, which lie con-
gregated in the muddy hollows of the
river Irish, by dropping red-hot Jumps
of clay through holes in the ice. The
heat rouses the fish, which rice, swim
up the stream, and are caught by
spring-lines previously set for them,
\ prize of about $3.50 has been offered
by the Agricultural Society of Breslau
for cheap, easily applied and effec-
tive destroyer of field-mice, proposals
to he sent in before September.
Baron Nordenskjold is to undertake
an Arctic expedition to North Green
land this year.
The excavation of Pompeii was be-
gun in 174S, and about twO-fifihs of
the city have since been brought to
light, giving to the modern world a
remarkable monument of ancient
civilization. This work has also
shown something of the nature and
extent Of the catastrophe which over
whelmed Pompeii. The destruction
was not caused by lava, but by burial
in rain of ashes and cinders from
Vesuvius. The larger part of the in
habitants had time to escape, but there
is good reason to believe that st least
100 perished, about $50 bodies having
thus far been found. 1t was u happy
thought of Florelli, some twenty years
ago, that by pouring plaster of Paris
in the moulds left in the soft ash casts
might be made of the victims in the
attitudes in which they met their
death. This plan has been carried
out since then whenever human re-
mains have been discovered, and the
result is that an extraordinary collec-
ton of portrait statues of the men and
women of eighteen centuries ago is
now being made. The archaeologists
are not only restoring the stage but
they are also bringing before us the
actors i'm the terrible Roman tragedy
of August, 70.
Herr Wagner has found that the
application of phosphoric acid to soils
already rich is not always desirable;
and an excess of the acid may-especial-
ly in dry soil-prove actually injuri-
Gus, probably by Fastening the death
of the plants organs of nutrition.
Tyndall has supposed the color of
the sea to be due to reflection by the
water of the blue rays of sunlight, red
rays being transmitted. Were this
view correct the light which passes
through the water must be red, but
Mons. Spring of the Belgian Academy
finds that such is not the case, a dis
tinctly blue color being seen through
a Longitude of pure water.
Attempts have been made by vari-
GUS delicate experiments to measure
the time which elapses between the
| moment when a PERSONS sense OF