Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1884-04-17
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


perceive the remarkable force which il
exerted by magnets. Every sehoolboy
knows how iron and steel are attracted
and Faraday discovered that if piece
of copper is dropped between the poles
of powerful electro magnet it falls slow
" as if sinking through mud. To de
termine how this magnetic force is felt
by the human system, Lord Lindsay and
Mr.. c. +. Marley made an electro magnet
80 large that any person might place his
head between the poles, ia the CEN
ter Of the powerful influence which
resisted the fall Of copper like mud. Sir
VIM. Thomson declares that the result
was marvellous, the wonderful thing be-
ing that not the slightest effect was per-
ceived by the human body. He is un-
willing 70 accept this experiment as con
elusive, and thinks that it may yet be
shown that we have magnetic or electric
sense which, however, has nothing to do
with what he terms "that wretched super
s.ition of animal magnetism, and table
turning, and spiritualism, and mesmer-
ism, and clairvoyance, and spirit-rapping."
A Frenehman, Mons. W. de Fonvielle,
has offered English railway companies a
novel suggestion for detecting the presence
Of internal machines in baggage. All
baggage received should be laid fat on
woodel tables supported by iron feet but
not nailed to them. when the slightest
noise made by clockwork in any Of the
parcels would become audible if micro
phone were placed on each table.
Corrosive sublimate is said to be gain
ing favor among surgeons as an efficient
antiseptic.
Mons. Pastcur has been continuing
his researches on rabies, or hydrophobia
and believes that he has now succeeded
in rendering number Of dogs secure
from future liability to the disease by the
plan Of inoculating them with modified
virus. If immunity from rabies were in
this way secured in the whole species
the human race would have nothing fur
Their to fear from the disorder, since man.
kind is never affected except from virus
proceeding directly or indirectly from
mad dogs.
Besides nitrogen aud oxygen, the all
contains in SMALLER proportion carbonic
acid, ammonia and certain nitrous CON-
pounds--substances which are very i'm
portant to vegetation. Late researches
At the French observatory on the Pie du
Midi, about $500 feet above sea-level,
show that the proportion Of carbonic acid
in the air does not vary perceptibly with
the altitude, as has hitherto been thought
and that ammonia is ~ complstely ditfus-
ed in tho atmosphere as carbonic acid.
By discharging or absorbing these two
gaseous substances, the sea is believed to
oct as great regulator Of their supply,
keeping their proportions in the air re-
markabiy constant and uniform through
out the world although the quantities
withdrawn and added on the land must
be necessarily changing. II has been
supposed that the nitrous compounds are
produced by electric discharges which
cause the chemical union Of tho air g
oxygen and nitrogen, and this view is
confirmed BY tho fact that NO traces Of
these compounds have been found on the
Pic du Midi above the heights reached
BY thunder storms.
According to Archibald Geikie, +. r.
s., q large part Of the east coast Of Eng
land Is being rapidly worn away. In
Holverness strip Of land more than a
mile broad has been carried away in eight
centuries, and in some places as much as
yards is yearly given up to the sea.
In the animal and vegetable kingdoms
are found two distinct forms Of fellow
ship in which d,ssimilar organisms live
constantly together. In one form-that
Of parasitism-one of the associated or
ganisms lives at tho expense Of the other
as, for instance, the smistletoe on the APP
pie tree. la the other form, the advan-
tage Of the compauionship is mutual, as
in the case CT the well-knowu hermit crab,
one species OF which picks up an empty |
shell for an abole and shares this and its |
food with a sea anemone, which in re-
turn protects its host by means of numer.
Gus long threads charged with singing
acid which 1t shoots out on the slightest
alarm. by experiment at Naples it has
been proven that the compact be.
tween these two partners is so close that
oae is indispensable to the other. A