St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-06
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Fellowship IN WHICH QlSSlIn1lar organisms llfc
constantly together. In one form-that OF
parasitism-one of the associated organisms
lives at the expense of the other as, for in
stance, the mistletoe on the apple tree. In
the other form, the advantage of the cOmpan-
ionship is mutual, as in the case of the well
known hermit crab, one species of which
picks up an empty shell for an abode and
shares this and its food with sea anemone,
which in return protects its host by means Of
long threads charged with singing acid
which it shoots out on the slightest alarm.
By experiment at Naples it has been proven
that the contact between these two partners
is so close that one is indispensable to the
other. A still more remarkable Illustration is
drawn from the candle-nut tree of South
America, which forms an alliance with a
species of small black ant, to their mutual
benefit To this curious partnership, which
appears to exist among many animal and
vegetable species, but which naturalists are
only just beginning to study, the name of
symbiosis has been applied. At the last meet
ing of German naturalists, Prof. Hertwig
pointed out that such inter-dependence of
organisms may have played an important
part in the development OF species.
OUR POSSIBLE SEVENTH SENsE.-To the
universally recognized five senses-sight,
hearing, taste, smell and touch-Sir VIM.
Thomson following out suggestion by DR..
Thomas Reid, adds sixth by dividing touch
into the sense of roughness or of smooth
ness and the sense of heat. 1t has been sug-
gested that We should also have sense which
can perceive the remarkable force which is
is exerted by magnets, Every schoolboy
knows how iron and steel are attracted, and
Faraday discovered that if piece of copper
or silver is dropped between the poles of
powerful electromagnetic it falls slowly as if
sinking through mud. To determine how
this magnetic force is felt by the human sys-
tenn, Lord LINDSAY and Mr.. G.. F. Marley
made an electromagnetic so large that any
person might place his head between the
poles, in the centre of the powerful influence
which resisted the fall of copper like mud.
Sir. VIM. Thompson declares that the result
was marvellous, the wonderful thing being
that not the slightest effect was perceived by
the human body He is unwilling to accept
this experiment as conclusive, and thinks
that II may yet be shown that we have
magnetic or electric sense-which, however,
has nothing to do with what he terms ''that
wretched superstition eff animal magnetism,
and table-turning, and spiritualism, and
clairvoyance, and spirit-rapping.
THE AIRS PLANT FooD.-Besides nitrogen
and oxygen, the air contains in smaller pro-
portion carbonic acid; ammonia and GER
tain nitrous onpounds-substance which
are very important to vegetation. Late re-
searches at the French observatory on the
Pic du Midi, about 800 feet above sea-level
show that the proportion of carbonie acid in
a not va i,
altitude, as has hitherto been thought and
that ammonia is as completely diffused in
the atmosphere as carbonic acid. By dis
charging or absorbing these two gaseous
substances, the sea is believed to act as
great regulator, of their supply, keeping
their proportions in the air remarkably con-
slant and uniform throughout the world al
though the quantities withdrawn and added
on the land must be necessarily changing.
1t has been supposed that the nitrous com
pounds are produced by electric discharges
which cause the chemical union of the airs
oxygen, and nitrogen, and this view is con-
firmed by the fact that no traces of these
compounds have been found on the Pic du
Midi above the heights reached by thunder
storms.
''VAccINAT1oN'' For RABIEs.-Mons. Pas
their rabies, or hydrophobia, and believes
that he has now succeeded in rendering a
number of dogs secure from future liability
to the disease by the plan of inoculating
them with modified virus. If Immunity
from rabies were in this way secured in the
whole Species, the human race
would have nothing further to fear
from the disorder, since man
kind is never affected except from virus pro-
ceeding directly or indirectly from mad dogs.
A Frenchman, Mons. de Fonville, has of
fered English railway companies novel sug
gestion for detecting the presence ofinfer-
nal machines. All baggage received should
be laid fiat on the wooden tables supported
by iron feet but not nailed to them, when
the slightest noise made by clockwork in any
parcels would become audible if micro
scope were placed on each table.
Animal life is very abundant in some parts
of the world at great depths in the sea. This
is Illustrated by the fact that during last
summers explorations by the French steam
er Tdlisndn one haul of its net brought up,
from depth Of 800 fathoms, 1000 fishes
and nearly 1000 crustaceans of different
kinds. This capture was made in the Allan
tic, near the Cape Verd Islands.
According to Archibald Geikie, F. R. s, a
large part of the east coast of England is be-
ing rapidly worn away. In Holverness strip
of land more than mile broad has been
carried away in eight centuries, and in some
places as much as five yards is yearly given
up to the sea.
Corrosive sublimate is said to be gaining
favor among surgeons as an efficient antise-
ptic.
Platinum has recently been drawn into
wire so fine as to be invisible to the naked
eye.