Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-29
BITS OF SCIENCE.

Any man living in a large city ought to
have in every room, instead of pane of
glass in one of the windows, frame of
serim gauze, but so constructed that in eX-
tremely cold weather it could be closed.
1t would lessen the bills of mortality,
Impregnation of the atmosphere of a
sick chamber when the patient is i'll of
diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, or Of
any allied disease, with the OdOr of a mix
ture of equal parts of turpentine and car
bolic acid is recommended by DIR. Vilandt.
Half teaspoonful of the mixture will be
enough at time if it is put into a kettle
! of water kept near the boiling point. The
odor generally gives some relief to the
sufferer and tends to prevent the spread
of the malady.
For an etching fluid for steel mix one
ounce of sulphate Of copper, half an ounce
of alum and half a teaspoonful of salt re-
duced to powder, with one gill of vinegar
| and twenty drops of nitric acid. This
| LIQUID may be used for either eating deeply
into the metal or for imparting beautiful
frosted appearance to the surface, accord
| ing to the time it is allowed to act. Cover
/ the parts it is necessary to protect from
! its influence with beeswaX, tallow or some
| sipailar substance.
The common cut nail will not usually
clinch, even when the clinch is turned in
| the direction of the grain of the wood I;
| but they may be considerably toughened
| by heating to red, and gradually cool
! ing. A hardware establishment was
burned few years ago, and among the
stores were nearly 100 kegs of cut nails of
| various sizes. The remains OF the fire
were sold to another dealer, and as soon
as the value of the burned nails became
| known he could sell no others until they
| were g9ne.-Scientifc american.
NJ. Gibler recently offered to the French
| Academy of Sciences an account of his
| experiments with rabies. He found that
he could easily inoculate guinea pigs,
rats, etc., with hydrophobia, and all his
cases died of that disease. But the saYant,
according to the report, wound up his re-
marks by first proving that it was impos-
sible for fowls to take hydrophobia, and
then showing conclusively that they are
the only animals who have ever been
known to recover from this disease.
w God is being employed scientifically
in surgery in a different form from ordi-
nary spliDts. A foreigner has introduced
wood wool as a cheap and useful dressing
Tor wounds, and it is being prepared ex-
tensively as commercial staple for sur
gical dressings. 1t is Underground wood,
such as is extensively used in the manu-
facture of paper. 1t is a clean-looking,
delicate-tibred, soft, yel!owish-white sub
stance, having an odor or fresh wood, and
absorbs an immense quantity Of liquid.
1t is at last conceded, even by Putnam
county dairymen, that cows suffering from
pleur0-pneumonia can be MIXED for the
New York market until the last stages of
the disease set in. This is progress. Only
two years ago dairymen held that the Sc
erection of milk in the usual quantity was
proof positive Of perfect health At the
same time movement is on foot in Ger
many to exclude the meat and milk of
cattle suffering from lung diseases from
the market it having been shown that
tue diseases may be impaired to other
domestic animals by mixing such milk or
meat with their food.
The recently completed tunnel through
the Vorarlberg, an Alpine CUTLER, stu
ated on the confines of the Tyrol, Swift
erland and Bavaria, indicates the re-
markable advance that has been made
during the last few years in this depart
ment OF engineering. The tunnel, whose
maximum elevation above the sea is about
1890 feet, is nearly seven miles in length,
or somewhat longer than the Mont Cents,
the pioneer Of Alpine tunnels, and yet the
time consumed IN its construction was
only about three and half years, or one
and a half years less than the time per-
mitted by contract. The rate of progress
was on an average about nine metres
thirty feet per day, or three times that
in the case of the Mont Gents, and double
that of the St. Gothard tunnel. The num-
Der of persons employed in the service
was upward OF 5000, and the total cost
involved in the enterprise, 40, 000, 600 francs,
OF somewhat less than 81 PSI, 900 per mile.
1t is expected that the tunnel railway
viii be in operation about the middle of
the present year.-1he american.