St. Landry democrat., 1884-03-15
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


it to be his increasing conviction that
there are earthquakes" of so slow pc
Rod that neither observers nor ordinary
instruments record them. He is urging
upon the japanese Government the inn
portance of establishing series of oh
seryatories for studying earthquakes
and allied phenomena.
The accidental discovery has been
made by French surgeon that lower
ing the head and raising the feet Of pa
tients who have been treated with chic
reform will cause a speedy return of
consciousness; and it is thought that an
observance of that simple fact will
greatly lessen the danger attending the
use Of an8sthetics.
An English tramway has commenced
running by electric accumulators-or
Storage batteries"-a car capable of
carrying forty-six passengers. The ac-,
cumulators- fifty cells of eighty pounds
each-are placed under the seats Of the
car, and so arranged that any part Of
the current required may be used or
the whole of it may be switched off.
The car is provided with electric bells
and four incandescent lamps, all oper-
ated by the current which drives the
motor. A full charge of the accumula-
tors runs the car, when heavily loaded
seven hours; equal to half day of
tramway service.
Baron NordenskjoId considers that
vast regions covered with perpetual ice
are physical impossibility on our globe
south of the eightieth degree Of north
latitude. His proposed exploration of
the interior of Greenland is expected to
give evidence confirming this view.
In a recent lecture, Rev. w. II. Dali
linger, F. R. S., remarked that modern
inquiry had shown that two microscop-
ic organisms may have the same forms
but totally unlike functions the one
being harmless and the other deadly. |
This explains how it is that putrefac-
tive germs may be everywhere present
without always causing disease.
There are good reasons for doubling
that the Australian Eucalypti--or "fe-
yer trees" exert any greater influence
upon the healthfulness Of marshy tracts
of country than do other trees. Rev. y.
E. Woods, a Queensland botanist, re-
fers to certain mining district which I
is famous for fever and ague despite
the fact that species Of Eucalyptus
abound in the locality.
AS marine plants do not exist at
depths Of more than $50 feet, or there
abouts, M. A. Milne Edwards concludes
that the plant-eating animals of the
deep sea wastes must live upon food
produced at the surface and gradually
dropped into the depths beyond the
region of plant-growth.
Prof. Binz, of Germany, asserts that
chloride of lime has given good results
as an antidote to snake-poison when
under the skin near the
wound. In cases where the patients
failed to recover, the fatal effect Of the
poison was evidently retarded by the
of lime solution.
Spectroscopic observations of comets
have yielded results, which, in Berthe /,
lots opinion, indicate that the light of
those bodies has an electric origin.
Mr.. A. A. Common, the English as
believes it to be possible !
to photograph stars not visible to the
eye in the telescope with which the
are taken.
Among the grants of the Swedish
this year is one of $500 to
IN entomologist, whose duty it will be
to advise farmers as to the best means
of destroying troublesome insects.
Carefully recorded observations ex-
tending over a period Of twenty years
have shown DR.. G. G. Abbott that the
storing of nuts by squirrels,
he building of winter houses by musk
ats, and other habits of these and
DtheT animals, or the absence of such
habits, have no relation to the mild
less or severity of the winter which E
ollows. 1t thus appears that such 4
Features are no more reliable as
heather prophets than the human char
atans who claim go foresee storms
months ID advance, and another wide I
pread and deep-rooted lotion is PROV
n to be groundless.