Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1884-01-03
SCIENTIFIC f1TS cELLhHY.

kind beside, smallpox. IL ri =. har
comes from Brazil la. f9e g.-~l, !.4v.
been "vac,iuatcd" with the WIS o. -
low fever by Dr. Domingo II =. 10
lately discovered The 2 rms Ie-u.i-. :.
this malady. The strength q the s.s,-4
was reduced By Successive civilizations i
gelatine, and the material 1 rived from
she sixth generation was used ior the IL
oculation. The ingcu,a.ci inliyi1u4ls
were attacked with mild form Of symp,
toms Characteristic Of yellow fever. In
sculated guinea PIGS and rabbits had the
mild symptoms, AID were subsequently
proof against the diaease IN any degree
Of virulence.
As machines animal bodies are great
y superior to artificial engines. The
steam engine. according to Nr. l.. Jouf-
fret, Is capable Of converting into work
less than ten per cent. Of the total energy
represented BY it, fuel; the cannon gives
seventeen per cent; the human body,
twenty-one per cent; and the bodies Of
some Of the lower animals, especially of
insects, a much greater percentage.
The ilcandescent electric light has
been very successfully employed by Lon
don surgeons in performing delicate orer-
atoms upon the eye
A list of the reptiles and batrachians
Of Illinois, prepared by Messrs. n. s.
Davis and F. l.. Rice, includes II spo-
eics Of the former and 80 Of the latter,
or nearly one-third Of the forms found
in the United States.
A coating of peroxide Of lead is found
by NJ. c. Widemann to give cheap, per-
feet and durable insulation to telegraph
and telephone wires.
A chronome:cr borrowed from the
British Government by Major-Genoral
Tenant has shown changes in its rate Of
running which have not been produced
by variations Of temperature, but which
prove to have been coin,ident with chang
e. in the humidity of the atmosphere.
In rainy weather the rate has been con-
siderably slower than during dry periods,
and General Tenant supposos tina, the
moisture has thinned the oil On the axles
Of the balantc, reducing fric;ion, and
causing the wheel to swing through Z
larger arc. Another view Is that--the
chronometer not having been very clean
the dust and dirt about the axles, and
not the oil, have been affected by the
humid air.
DR.. James Croll oppes,s the theory
that the ico-sheet which perpetually COW
covers SO large part of Greenland is a
consequence Of the elevation OF the land,
IS no interior mountain range nor very
high land has been reported. He regards
- very probable the opinion, expressed
by Giesecke and by DR.. Robert Brown,
that the country is really collection OF
islands fused together by Ice. He also
considers that the Antartic continent"
like Greenland, comprises number Of
rather low islands, bound together by an
ice-shect covering an area Of about A.
100000 square miles.
The earth magnetic pole, according to a
recent lecture at Glasgow by Prof. Thomp-
son, IS now more than 1900 miles west
Of the geographical pole, near tho penins
ula Of Boothia Felix, the most northern
part Of the mainland of North America
The magnetic pole, moving from point
TO the eastward, reached the true north
in 1857. Continuing westward, it reach
ed its fartherest limit in 1916. 1t is
now moving eastward, and in 1876 the
magnetic needle may be expected to point
again due north
A study Of vesta in the light of pres
cnt knowledge leads Prof, W. NJ. Harrig
ton, Of Ann Arbor, to infer that this
body, the largest of the minos plants or
asteroids, has diameter of more than
500 miles; that its power Of rejecting
light is like that Of the moon, which it
probably resembles in lacking an appre
ciable atmosphere and water; that to ac-
count for observed irregularities of its
ligh, We may assume that i. has very
rough surface and rotates on its axis,
the time of rotation being short; and that
what is true of Vesta is likely to be true
with the necessary changes, of the other
asteroids. This view of Nestas size great
ly exceeds the estimates of other astron.
omers. 1t has been supposed, in fact,
that if all the known asteroids-about
24O in number-were made into single