Morris tribune., 1884-06-04
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

The first authentic list of the man.
mails of New Brunswick has just been
published. 1t includes 48 species.
By actual count DR.. Wilson, of
England, has found the hairs on a
square inch of a fairly covered head
to number 1.066, from which he esti-
mates that the whole head must have
I27,Q20. He thinks that some heads
might have 100000 hairs.
A quantity of iquifed carbonic
acid gas is kept in the steam fire en-
gineS Of Berlin. On arrival at q fire
it is allowed to escape into the steam
cylinder. when its expansion drives
the engine until a sufficient steam
pressure can be obtained. A gain of
four or five minutes in setting the
pumps at work is thus effected.
Recent chemical investigations has
shown that potato plants do not alb
sOrb and assimilate the arsenic of
Paris green and other preparations
used for destroying the Colorado po-
tato beetle. Fears that the tubers
might be rendered poisonous are thus
proven to be groundless. The pro-
ductiveness of the soil, however, is
impaired by the use of arsenic in con-
siderable quantity.
1t has been proven by Mr.. D. Y.
HulWa that the water Of the Oder,
after receiving the sewage of Breslau,
whose population exceeds a quarter
of million, is completely purified by
the oxygen of the air and the action
of vegetation. At distance of some
nine miles below Bresiau no sewage
matters could be detected, either by
chemical or microscopic means, and
the water appeared to be identical in
quality with that above the town.
In report upon the volcanic erup-
ton which occurred in the Sunda
Straits last August it is stated that
over an area much more vast than in
the case Of any other eruption ever re-
corded, the farthest distance between
the points where the sound was heard
being one-sixth Of the whole circum-
ference Of the earth. Long air-waves
giving no sound we're also felt at great
distances, rending house-Walls
500 miles away. More than two
billion tons Of solid substances were
elected, and the gaseous matter may
have been hundreds of times as great
in volume, furnishing ample cause
for the brilliant sun-glows which
have been observed throughout most
Of the world.
During q recent dicussion of bacteria
in London, MI. Watson Cheyne stated
that anthrax, septicaemia Of the
mouse erysipelas, consumption, CLAN |
ders, and acute pneumonia, had each
been found to have its peculiar organ
ism, which, when isolated and intro
duced into animals, causes the disease
to which it belongs and no other.
Special organisms are also known to
exist in TYPHOID fever, relapsing fever
cholera and ague, but conclusive evil
dence has not been given that they |
are the causes and not effects OF those
diseases. Sir Joseph Lister dwelt up
on the important fact that |
the organisms which produce prticu-
lar diseases are only able to develop
under very special conditions, instan-
cling the bacillus which causes septi- |
caeTnia in the house mouse but fails |
to effect the field mouse. He believes |
that this fact, showing that the very
slight difference in the blood of these
two animals is sufficient to alter the
conditions favorable to the develop
me1at of the bacteria, may prove Of |
yery great interest, as it suggests the |
possibility of finding medicines which
will produce sufficient alteration in
the blood of the human system to
kill off Oh to prevent the development
of any special bacteria on the first ap-
pearance of disease symptoms in the
patient. /