Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-17
BITS OF SCIENCE.

Profs. Ayston and Perry are of the opin-
ion that gas engine will be the motive
power of the vessel of the future.
In India cats are sometimes attacked
by cholera, according to French au-
thOrity, and may communicate the disease
to man.
A new theory of the causatiOn of vol
canic eruptions attributes them to the
formation of axes or cores of molten mat
ter by atmospheric pressure.
Able Renard, after making a close eX-
animation of the dust found in the snow
on the top of Ben Nevis, Scotland, has
come to the conclusion that it contains
too much organic matter to be of cOsmic
origin.
An ingenious microscopic has been
trying to compute the amount of infuso-
rial life inhabiting the bricks of old build
ings long exposed to the weather. The
principal forms he has discovered consist
of large bacilli and VibriOs, some of the
latter being peculiarly marked by lOngi-
tudInaI lines. He found myriads of these
organisms in a single deep-seated micro
scOpic cavity.
An interesting question was raised re-
Gently by DIR. Odling, +. r. S., in a lee
ture before the Royal Institute Of London.
1t appears that the Thames river, in pass
twelve and thirteen tons of oxygen; but
the cause of this rapid deoXidatiOn is not
settled. Are the Hudson, the Seine and
other large rivers passing through cities
subject to the same process?
DIR. Brown Sequard believes that the
conversion of venOus blood into arterial,
accompanied by alteration of color and
plentiful admiXture of oxygen, which
takes place in shock, is due to a nervous
ip1bi n f ora nd
their passage from tissue to tissue. Pos
sibly the habit of blushing at every slight
surprise, common to many people, may
find its explanation in the same fact.
The deep-sea fishes taken by the United
States Fish Commission steamer during
its late cruise in the Caribbean are eX-
citing much interest at the Smithsonian.
Curiosity is intensified by those specimens
of deep-sea fishes which are nearly or en-
tirely blind, the eyes becoming atrophied
or obsolete from disuse, like those of the
fish inhabiting the Mammoth Cave of Ken
lucky, while others have large eyes, and
the blind fish of the cave are allied to
some superficial marine fishes that have
well-deYelOped eyes.
A novel process for bleaching cotton,
linen and vegetable fbres generally is
being experimental on by Horace Koch
lin. Of LOrrach, Bavaria. He impregnates
aIkali, or else with alkaline earths, either
alone or mixed with caustic alkalies.
Then follows a treatment with hypOchlO-
rites and acids, the heating being entirely
done by means Of steam or hot AIR. In
stead of making the treatment with hypo-
chlOrites a separate process, the same may
be added directly to the impregnating sub
stances.
Describing the feats of Miss Hurst, the
''electric girl" in conversation the other
evening a prominent physician related
some curious experiments OF his own in
charging his body with electricity. By
placing thick disks of glass under the legs
OF wooden stool, upon which he was sit
ting, with his feet resting upon one of the
cross-bars, he was able to accumulate in
a few minutes a charge capable of pro-
ducing sharp detonations in table upon
which he placed his fingers. By sprin-
king fine sand upon the table he traced
the lines of vibration from his finger tips
to the points Of explosion, where the sand
was arranged in the form of rings.-Nelo
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