Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1884-01-23
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

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of 1882 is that of Fabritius, who makes
it 1923 years.
Renewed investigation Of the claims |
made for salicylic acid as harmless
food-prescrver has led a French COM
mission to declare its general and fire.
quent use to be unsafe.
The experiments of Herr J. Wort
mann show that the stems of growing
plants may become bent from their
original shape by the influence of
heat applied at one side, the inclina-
ton being sometimes away from? it.
Mons. Cartaihac has given the
FRENCH Academy of Sciences de-
scription of some old flint mines near
Murde-Barrez, Aveyron, which yield
evidence of working by miners of the
stone age. This is mentioned as the
first discovery prehistoric mines in
FRANCE.
According to Prof. hoomis, of Yale
College, the average diameter of
violent storms in the United States is
1887 miles, and OH the Atlantic Ocean
2022 miles. Severe storms in the in
terror of Europe have nearly the same
geographical extent as those which
occur on the Atlantic.
A Bombay physician, W, g. Bal
four. recently pointed out that the
use of certain kinds of fish in some
seasons of the year seemed to play a
part in the production of cholera. He
has since discovered in the blood of
one these fish bacterial organisms re-
sembling those found by Dr. Koch in
the intestines of cholera patients in
Egypt. =
Sir Samuel W. Ba.ker-Ai1e African
! EXP orer. statexthat the camel will
Icross the deserts with a load of 400
pounds at the rate of thirty miles a
day, in the burning heat of summer,
and require water only every third
or fourth day. In the cooler months
the animal will work for seven or
eight without water; and if grazing
on green foliage without labor viii
drink only once a fortnight.
The discovery of a white sparrow at
Passingham has brought to notice the
occurrence of white birds in other
parts of Great Britain Mr.. Rowland
Ward, member of the London Zoo
logical Society, mentions that e pair
of pure white house-martens have
been in his possession for consider
able time, and asserts that albino
plumage is less rare among common
BIRDS than is generally supposed.
Electrical science has furnished q
novelty for ladies in the form of series
of luminous jewels-which has been
produced by Mons. CASTOR Trouve Of
Paris. These ornaments consist of
glass ealareI and cut to initiate
rubies, diamonds, ete., and eacn
mounted in an envelope containing a
tiny incandescent lamp, which Is fed
from a small battery carried about the
person. The light gives the glass
through which it shines the brilliant
appearance of the stone.
Mr.. s. r. Canestrini has found that
butterflies may use their wings eigh-
teen days after being beheaded, crick-
cts may leap on the thirteenth day
after their heads have been cut off,
and signs Of lifs may still be given by
:, {" h"dv Of the preying mantilla on
the fourteenth day after aecap..,
This experimenter has made still
more striking observations which
tend to prove that the head in insects
has much less to do with guiding the
motions of the body than the head in
mammals.
Birds have wonderful appetites. 1t
has been calculated that q redbreast
requires daily aa amount of food equal
to an earth worm fourteen feet long;
Assuming q sausage nine inches in
circumference to be q fair equivalent
for man of the earthworm for the bird,
Prof. Wood finds that man would
have to consume sixty-seven feet of
such sausage much in proportion to
his bulk as the red-breast. Prof.
Wood offers this ag an illustration of
the amount of work which is done
by insect-eating birds.
Dust-either volcanic or cosmic--is
the rejecting medium to which the
brilliant sunsets witnessed in Novem-
Der from large part of the world
seem to be quite generally attributed.
Some scientists suppose that the dust
had drifted with the air currents from
the Java volcanoes, and others believe
that the earth encountered a dust
cloud in space. In this connection it
may he noted hhat o fall of dust
covered the snoW of q valley in Gen.
trail Norway on the pigaat of Noyem-
her 18th. 1t will be interesting to /
learn how this DUST compares with |
that from Krakatoa, which has been |
chemically and microscopically ex-
amined.