Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-07
BITS OF SCIENCE.

In sick rooms where there is diphtheria,
measles, scarlet fever, ETC., the air should
be impregnated with the odor of equal
parts of turpentine and carbolic acid.
Half a teaspOOnful in kettle Of boiling
water from time to time will be sufficient.
1t will be found to relieve the sufferer and
prevent the spread of the malady.
Bisulphide of sodium, which was re-
commended by Prof. Lunge as a neutral
izer of chloride of lime, or, in other words,
as ssantichlor," is finding its way into
many industries-for instance, that of the
paper manufacture. 1t has been found
that one part of this salt can neutralize
about as much chlorine as five parts of
crystallized hyposulphite of sodium Cor
antIchlor).
Paper bottles are now made on large
scale in Germany and Austria. The paper
must bewell sized. The following is said
to be good recipe for the paper: Ten
parts of rags, forty of straw, fifty of brown
wood pulp. The paper is impregnated or
coated on both sides with sixty parts of
defibrinated fresh blood, thirty five parts
of lime powder, five parts Of sulphate of
aIumina. After drying, ten or twelve
rolled leaves are coated again, placed
over each other and then placed in heated
molds. The albumen in the blood forms
a combination on pressure with the lime
which is perfectly proof against spirits,
etc. The bottles are made In two parts,
which are joined afterward.
The simplest method of taking nourish-
ment by animals is by absorption through
the skin. The tapeWOrm, for example,
has neither mouth nor stomach, but i'm
bibes the digested food of the animal it
infests. Many other animals, especially
insects, live upon liquid food, but obtain
it by suction, through a special Orifice or
tube. Thus we find a mouth or sucker
of animals, as in the leech; bristle-like
tube fitted for piercing, as in the mosquito;
a sharp sucker armed with barbS, to fix
it securely during the act of sucking, as
in the louise, and a long, flexible probos-
els, as in the butterfly. Bees have hairy,
channeled tongue, and files have one ter
minating in a large, heshy knob, with or
without little knives at the base for cut
ting the skin; both lap rather than suck
their food.
The London Times cites as one of the
most startling features of modern French
life the rapid increase of insanity, the
number of cases of which, and especially
those induced by alcoholism, is, it says,
becoming larger each year. During 1882
the number of admissions into the asy-
lums is given at 13,434, of which 10, 1874
were new cases, the total number under
tree tment in the year being IS, 100, of
which about $4,000 were men and 81, 900
women, showing that females are most
liable to the disease; that they are also
less influenced by treatment is shown by
the fact that the average duration of treat
ment for men is 276 days, while for women
it is 295. The character of the brain dis
eases and the average time required by
each class in the asylums is: Simple in
sanity, SO, 629 patients, 2S7 days average !;
softening of brain and paralysis, 8,665,
$50 days; senile dementia, 4, 495, 2S9 days;
idiots and cretins, 5,377, 29o days.
Mr.. W. H. Huddleston has recently ad-
vanced an extraordinary theory to ac-
count for the origin of the diamonds of
South Africa. AS is well known, the dia-
moods occur in q sort of soft, earth brec-
cha, made up Of fragments Of many kinds
Of rock and evidently of comparatively
recent origin. A great part of the pebbles
consist of basalt and other igneous rocks.
Pieces of coaly matter and fossil shells
also occur in the dIamantiferous breccia,
the matriX of which is a soft bydrated
silicate. Dykes of volcanic rocks form
the walls of the diamOnd-be lIing torma-
ton. The author maintains that it is GER
tain that the whole matrix flowed up
ward, and that it is impossible to doubt
the eruptiVe character of the diamond
rock. He thinks that superheated steam
was the eruptiEe agent and suggests the
analogy of mud volcanoes. Since no dia-
monds have been found except in this soft
breccia, he suggests that they were formed
in the breccia itself at a considerable
depth and then carried upward. The car
bon is supposed to have been driven from
certain carbonaceous shales, which were
distilled under enormous pressure, when
the carbon had no choice but to assume
the crystalline form. Unfortunately this
latest theory cannot be applied to any
other diamond field.