Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1884-05-15
Scientific Miscellany.

The kola nut, the stimulant so high
ly priced among African tribes that in
times of scarcity slave has been given
for single kernel, is the product of n
tree of the family sterculiacea. Four
or five of the seed, or nuts, grow to-
gether in u rough brown pod. Each
seed has q red or white color, OF both,
and contains kernel somewhat like
that of peanut and about two inches
long. The taste of the nut is sweet,
astringent and bitter in succession.
The kola crop is gathered twice year.
When fresh the nut is chewed rs if it
were tobacco; when dry it Is powder
ed and eaten. Its effect is remarkable,
rs it sustains the system for Il long time
under the greatest fatigues, even with
out food, while it is considered n GER
tain preventive of dysentcries, and is
said to make foul water drinkablc and
harmless. With the African tribes the
kola nut is in order on all occasions,
and is almost Indispensable in impor-
tant business transactions, in treaties,
in declarations of war. rs 4 present at
weddings, in religious obscrvances and
in judicial proceedings.
In the last ten years relics of the in
dustry of the early inhabitants of Swift
zerland known ~ the lake-dwellers
have been accumulated in great quanti-
ties. DIR. Victor Gross states in re-
cent work that the articles of bronze
alone which have been found in the
lakes OF Bienue and Neufchatel number
-, 500, of which more than 5000 are in
his own collection. Many articles of
stone, pottery and iron have been
brought to light in addition. In these
archaeological discoveries DIR. Gross
finds evidence that the period in which
the prehistoric Swiss inhabited the
dwellings built on the lakes was one of
long duration, covering the successive
stages of civilization from the primitive
age in which metals were unknown and
mans implements were rudely formed
in coarse pottery and rough stones,
through the age of tinely-worked stones,
followed by the age in which stones
were still used and metals Were intro
duced, then by the age of fine bronze
and highly-devcloped state of the arts,
10 the age in which iron appeared.
A single plant of new species of
potato-which has received the botani-
cal name of Solanum Ohroudi-was
some time ago discovered on small
uninhabited island at the mouth of the
River Platte in South America. The
tubers. about the size of hens eggs.
were carried To France and planted.
The IL &c of the tubers was bitter, with
n chestnut flavor, but under cultivation
the qu lily is reported to be improving.
The yield is abundant, and rs little la
Dor is required 10 raise the crop. it is
thought that the new potato may fur
nish esirable food for cattle even if
it does rot become sufficiently improv-
ed for able use.
The International Bureau of Weights
and Measures, at Paris, whose object
is to V rify tn. metric standards of the
world according to one universal stan
dard. is able 10 perform work of really
wonderful accuracy in its comparing
rooms. With the means there provided.
it is possible, according to Mr.. Ii. j.
Chaney, TO ascertain difference be-
tween two kilogram weights not great
er than IA northumberland part
of one of the weights; and in the
comparison oil two meters difference
so small as MISREPRESENTATION of
an inch (or one ten-thousandth of a
millimeter) can be determined.
For several years a record has been
kept of the health of six hundred and
seyenty-two persons employed in the
aniline color works at Hochst-on-the-
Main, in order to ascertain the extent
to which aniline colors are liable 10 in
jure people handling them. The re-
suit has shown that the more poison
Gus compounds have caused few mild
cases of ailmcnt, but Doctor Grand
homme finds that the average mortali-
ty of the work-people has been low.
1t happens therefore that users of coal
tar colors have little to fear from pois-
oning.