St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-14
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Hydrophobia is said to be unknown among
the dogs of Australia, which circumstance is
supposed to explain the action of New South
Wales and other colonies in forbidding the
importation of dogs from Europe and
America.
The period of the great comet Of 1882 has
been variously calculated at zeal, 1888, and
S43.1 years. If it were given a period of
Isl years it would appear to be identical
with the bright comets recorded in the year
$40 B. c., and in A. d. 1882.
During years travel in Bolivia, Signor
F. P. Moreno, of Buenos Ayres has found
many relics of the early inhabitants, has
madeplans and photographs of the remains
of ancient villages, and has secured, as he
believes, abundant material for a study of
the people who lived in that part of South
America before the Spanish conquest.
When heated in forge fire in contact
with charcoal, platinum becomes fusible.
Boussingault has supposed this to be due to
a chemical union of the metal with the silica
of the impure carbon but the same phenom
enon has been produced by two German in
vestigaters by heating to wilderness thin
slip of platinum enclosed in lamp-black free
from silica.
In a recent address before an English in
stitution, DR.. T. Hudson stated that a very
remarkable thing about the ''rotifera," or
wheel animalcules, is that under certain con
ditions they may be dried and kept for three
or four years and then brought to life again
by moisture. The world of the rotfera, he
Z, fell Of yrnle no
seen with microscopes of small power.
1t is usually supposed that dew is the
moisture of the air condensed by contact
with objects which are colder, and that it
does not form until radiation has reduced
the temperature of the earth and other
objects below that of the atmosphere. Late
observations, however, indicate that the pro-
cess is really the converse of this, viz: that
the dew is formed by vapor which rises from
warm soil and is condensed by the cooler
air. Probably both theories are correct,
neither being true in all cases.
In consideration of the effects of climate
in India upon disease Mr.. s. A. Hill has
reached the conclusion that crimes of vio-
lence in that conntly are largely results Of
weather influence, being proportional in
frequency to the tendency to 'prickly heat
that excrutiating condition of the skin in
duced by high temperature combined with
moisture" He believes that any person
who has suffered from this ailment, and
knows how it affected his temper, will readi-
" understand how the conditions which pro-
duce it may sometimes lead to homicide
and other crimes.
THE BRIGHTNESS OF Speaking
at Edinburg upon thunderstorm phenomena,
Prof. P. G. TAFT remarked that lightning is
100, 900 times as brilliant as it appears to us,
since the eye requires one-tenth of a second
to receive the full light of the fash, while the
flash itself lasts only about one-millionth OF
a second. As we see the landscape under
the light of a spark from the clouds, it is one
thousand times less bright than when illum-
mated by the sun, but if the lightning lasted
one-tenth of a second-so that we could re-
alize its full intensity-it would blind US
with the brilliancy of one hundred suns.
rlMEDIcA1. PHoToGRAPHY.-Itis 1stated that
Photographic studious are now connected
with most of the French hospitals, and GER
tain classes of patients are photographed on
their entry into the hospitals, and at regular
intervals after. The pictures are preserved
in albums, and are valuable aid in the study
of disease. An electrically operated camera
has been devised for this class of work. and
it enables the photographer, when desirable,
to take a series of views in rapid success
ion. The photographer of microscopic OBJ
iects is also valuable branch of hospital
service, the importance of which is rapidly
gaining recognition.
A DILUTED ANAEsTHETIc. For producing
anaesthesia Mons. Paul Bert has found great
advantages in mixing chloroform with air in
the proportion of eight grams of the former
to one hundred eliters of the latter (about a
fourth of an ounce to four cubic feet). The
administration of the mixture is said to be
not disagreeable, and to be unattended with
struggling and sensations of suffocating.
Complete insensibility is produced in six or
eight minutes, and in one difficult surgical
operation it has been continued for an hour
and quarter Chloroform has been sue
cessfully applied in this way to persons of
both sexes, all ages, and in all states of
health.
FLORAL WREATHs 5000, YEARS Old
DR.. George Schweinfurth has made an in
| teresting discovery of plants in the coffin OF
| an Egyptian princess who died about 1100
wears before the Christian era. The find
comprises numerous wreaths, in which are
| leaves of the willow, leaves of the date-palm,
corn-poppy flowers and corn flowers. The
| inner parts of the peoples are so won
derfully preserved that DR.. Shweinfurth
declares that botanists rarely succeed in get
| ting such perfect specimens of those fragile
flowers for their herbaria, while the color-a
| dark brown reds maintained in as higf
degree as in the dried specimens of the pres
emit day. Pine cones must have been EN-
ployed as funeral offerings at Thebes 100 o.
| 1900 wears earlier are now to be seen in mu
scum at Cairo, together with variety OF seed:
grains, tubers and fruits which we're found
/ in the same tomb.