St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-24
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

cording to Mons. DecauX, but has only one
fourth of the power.
THE dried leaves of the Japan allspice,
CIinaoa,aaat'aus t1agrans, have tea-like flavor,
and are said to be superior to much of the
green tea sold. The plant is
grown in England as a towering shrub.
STRONG evidence that cannibalism was
practised among some of the prehistoric in
habitants of Europe has been discovered in
cave near Brunswick, Germany. In Belgium
and Spain similar evidence had been found
before but had been dismissed as doubtful.
COLD winters are not certain destroyers of
caterpillers. The eminent lady entomologist
of England, Miss T. A. Ormerod, states that
many caterpillers can resist very low tenn
perature when in their winter quarters, and
may even be frozen hard without suffering
any permanent injury.
AT Kalmar, Sweden, the moons color was
lately observed to change to an emerald
green on the passage of light haze over its
disc. The phenomenon occurred during
brilliant purple sunset, and lasted about
three minutes. Near Stockholm a similar
appearance was witnessed at about sunrise.
THE objects collected by the French scien-
licly exhibited in Paris In addition to
large number of meteorological, geological
and geological specimens, the collection in
cludes living plants, and it is proposed to ac
climatize these as far as possible in French
forests.
Two German chemists have investigated
some cases of poisoning by asparagus which
had been put up in tin cans. They were
surprised to find that the juice, which had
been in contact with the cans, contained no
tin, while the vegetable itself yielded about
one twenty-fifth Of one per cent. An analy
sis of canned appricots and strawberries gave
similar results, showing no tin in the syrups
but a small proportion in the fruit They
consider that the tin is injurious to health
if the use Of the canned substances is long
continued.
THE cuselessness of excluding American
pork from French markets has been recog-
nized by the Paris academy of medicine by a
nearly unanimous vote against prohibiting
the sale Of such pork. Mons. Colin stated to
the academy that trichinosis in man is ex-
tremely rare, at least in France. Trichin-
GUS pork, is, moreover, rendered harmless by
sailing and by cooking. By experiment he
has ascertained that the trichnoe are com
pletely destroyed within an average time of
fifteen or twenty days after the sailing of the
pork, although in large pieces they may live
two or three months.
THE CHOLERA GERM.-It is reported that
most interesting and important discovery has
been made by the German doctors who have
been investigating the cholera epidemics of
Egypt and India. In a water tank near Cal
cutta, these scientists have found miscropic
organisms, or baciUt, which they had already
proven to exist in all cases of cholera, and
in no other disease. The tank was used by
persons among whom the cholera appeared,
and it has been shown that the organisms
diminished in numbers as the disease died
away. 1t now remains to determine Wheth-
er the 6aciM of the tank were the cause of the
cholera, as it has not yet been proven
that the organisms produce the disease.
THE ELECTRICITY OF THUNDER STORMS
1t has been recently shown, experimentally,
that atmospheric electricity is not produced
by the evaporation of water, or by the con-
densation of vapor. A German investigator,
L. Zehuder, now expresses the opinion that
it is caused by the friction of air currents on
the surface of the earth. At the equator the
positively charged air rises and becomes dis
tributed throughout the upper regions of the
atmosphere. The tension of the electricity,
according to this theory, is at first slight, but
it is increased by the inflow of slightly
charged air until it becomes so great that the
positive electricity is discharged by combin-
ing with the negative electricity of the earth,
thus giving rise to thunder storms, aurora
etc.
THE WORLDS WATERs.-A work by DR..
Otto Krummel, of Gottingen, gives the fol-
lowing calculations of the extent of the diff
ferent seas of the globe: Atlantic ocean, 49,
429, 46S square miles; Pacific ocean, $780,
GIT square miles; Indian ocean, 45, 1892, 04O
square miles; Arctic ocean, 6, 4S1, 1894 square
miles, of which an area of 663, 249 square
miles is covered by Hudson's bay and 7,715
square miles by the White
sea, The Australian sea, covers
SLIP, 491 square miles; Mediterranean, l.
7S9,029 square miles, Baltic, 1859 square
miles; Red sea, 27S, 944 square miles; Per
sian gulf, 1868 square miles. Of those
bodies of water which may be termed coast
seas, the North sea has a superficial extent
of 339, 526 square miles, the Irish sea, 1885,
900 square miles; Sea of st. Laurent. 170,-
100 square miles; China sea, 761, 632 square
miles; Japan sea, 647, 10 square miles;
Okhotsk sea, 9,s4,717 square miles;
Behring sea, 1, 44O, 1913 square miles; Sea of
California, 103,67S square miles. DR.. Krum-
mel estimates that the total sea area is 231,
915,905 square miles, while the total area of
the continents and islands of the globe is
only 81, 354, $50 square miles. 1t will be
seen that the three great oceans have more
than five-sixths of the total sea area, their
combined extent being 194,7S9,425 square
miles.