Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1884-09-04
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

with an apparatus III WIN" wv nfNN
are overlapped so as to produce various
mixtures of colors. which are examined
aud described by the person under test
One Of the things he has shown is that
the majority Of people require only hall
as much red in the mixed spectra to turn
yellow into green as he does himself. By
far the most common form Of color blind
ness to red. DR.. Guthrie, who Is 50
afflicted, Is more than usually sensitive
to blue light; and others have been found
with al abnormally acute perception of
red. One person appeared who suffered
from the very rare defect Of being color
blind to green. These results have led
an English astronomer to suggest that
some Of the startling changes Of color
alleged to have been noticed among the
heavenly bodies haze really never taken
place, the supposition Of such changes
having probably arisen from the different
color perceiving power of different Oh
servers.
The temperatures at which the com.
mon gases become liquefied are given as
follows by Prof. Dewar, the numbers ex-
pressing degrees below zero Fahrenheit:
Carbonic acid, ll2; nitrous oxide, 1870;
ethylene; the chief illuminating constitu-
ent of common coal gas, l54s; oxygen,
299; nitrogen, 800; air, 3l4; carbopic
oxide, 1854. The greatest cold yet pro-
duced by man-32S degrees below zero
was obtained by two Russian physicists
by the use Of liquid oxygen.
An establishment in the HebIides
which treats sea-weed for its iodine, ac-
cording to Mr.. Edward Stanford, F. c.
s., obtains an illuminating gas as bye
product. The process also yields very
light and porous charcoal ammonia and
tar.
An English writer declares that there
is now no reasonable doubt that the old
Arabian alchemists and others derived
their ideas on the transmutation of met
ais into gold aud the belief in immunity
from death by the use Of the philosopher $
stone from China. Mercury is stated to
have been the philosophers stone Of
which Gebcr and others wrote, and Gin
nabar-red sulphuret Of mercury--wa,
known to the Chinese as early as tn,
seventh century before the Christian era
its occurrence on the enrths surface be
ing said to indicate gold beneath. Mer
curry was excessively employed BY tn
Chinese as medicine, and in the nintl
century an Emperor was killed by al
overdose Their medical books say i
takes 200 years to produce cinnabar; it
300 years it becomes lead; in 200 year,
more it becomes silver; and then by Oh
tanning Transforming substance callet
"vapor Of harmony it becomes gold
This doctrine Of the transformation o.
mercury into other metals ia 1000 year
old in China. The Chinese contend tina
when mercury is taken into the ANNA
system it not only prolongs life but ex
pels bad vapors, poison and the gloom o
an uneasy mind.
Some remarkable photographs Of
pistol bullet in its Highlander the illum
iDation Of an electric spark-havc bee,
secured by Prof l.. Mach, of Prague
He has also photographed the air stream
which one may see over Bunscn burue
placed in sunshine; and has even obtainc,
pictures Of waves Of sound, these last be
ing made visible by method in which
advantage is taken Of the irregular reirac
ton Of light by the air set in vibratio,
BY sound.
A simple sunshine recorder is mad,
BY Prot. H. Macleod by placing glob
ular bottle on water before camera il
such . position that the focused ray
falls on sheet Of 81 nsitized paper in tn,
camera box. Az the sun makes its daily
journey it produces a curved white line
on the paper, and when clouds cross tn.
sun the line stops.
That the cause Of cholera il a micro.
scopic organism was first recognized in
1854 BY Filippo Pacini, Of Florence, the
parasite being in 1882 classified by Tom
mast. Crudeli among the schizomyceti, OF
germs which multiply by simple division.
Pacini supposed that the organism at
tackled the mucoui membrane Of the in.
testines, but his doctrine was ridiculed or
disregarded until the same conclusion
was reached BY the commission Of emi.
nent German Psychologists which has just
investigated the subject in Egypt. The
cholera germ multiplies in the soil where