Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-14
BITS OF SCIENCE.

1t takes $50 bushels of potatoes to pre-
duee one ton Of starch.
There are but two living species of ele-
plant, the African and the Asiatic.
A German botanist has given instances
of the modification of plants by insects so
as to produce new varieties.
The heat and mosquitoes at the Danish
| Scientific Station in South Greenland are
suggestive OF tropical climate.
The largest railway station in the world
! has just been completed at Birmingham,
! England, at a cost of $2,O00,000.
A late investigation shows that Austria
liza contains los species Of snakes-35 of
| them harmless and 10 venOmOus.
The fire engines in Italian cities are still
| the same little hand-pumps used in the
| beginning of the century; not a single
steam fire engine exists on the peninsula.
For the forty-lifth time in his lite DR..
! Palisa, of Vienna, has discovered a small
planet, increasing to 243 the total number
of those tiny worlds known to belong to
our solar system.
Experiments in England have shown
that gas and oil are about equally good
for lighthouses, and that the electric
! light is superior to either in fine weather,
but probably not so good in fogs.
Attention has been drawn to tree of
Southern India-the "Tuchmig" of the
Chinese, or Prameria glandulfera of bot
anists-from which it is said large sup
plies of caoutchOuc can be drawn.
HuXley's acceptance of Darwinism is
! given in these words: Il adopt the theory
of Darwin under the reserve that proof
should be given that physi0logic; lspecies
can be produced by selectiTe crossing.V
An application of gun.cotton is said to
! have been made in such manner that it
/ will eventually supersede the use OF steam
! for the purposes Of light locOmOtion and
driving small machinery, Details of the
! invention are not yet made public.
Writing from Lynn, Mass, a correspon-
dent reminds the Scientific american
that, as an instance of remarkable flight
| of an exploded boiler, about two years
| ago a boiler exploded in that city, and the
| flying portion, describing a circle high in
the air, landed 900 feet from where it
| started.
An interesting experiment to ascertain
the effect of az tifcial heat on Vegetatit
has been made by Barthelemy. He ar
ranged a number of hyacinths in glasses
in circle around the pipe of stove, and
after some time he found that the roots
assumed nearly horizontal position. or
direction almost at right angles to the
pipe.
tributing the electric light to great dis
tances have been made in connection with
the Turin Electrical Exhibition. A Sic
mems dynamo of thirty-hOrse power gene
rated current which was simultaneously
used by three electric light systems dis
tributed over a circuit of twenty-four
miles.
A species of ant observed in the Island
of st. Thomas has been described to the
French Academy of SQipnpp 1arUa
fire having been kindled at a certain dis
tance from the ant-hill, the ants were seen
to precipitate themselves into it by thou
sands, until twas complely extinguished
1t is proposed to call the species Formica
ignivora.
After much experimenting, DR.. Rich
ardson has found satisfactory means of
causing painless death, and has intro
duced it into the Home for Lost Dogs, in
London. The animals to be killed are
placed in chamber charged with mix
ture of carbonic oxide and chlOrOfOrm
vapOr, when they TRANQUILITY fall asleep
and wake no more.
From surveys of the Gulf of Mexico it
appears that its area is 595 900 square
miles, and that the area of the surface in
cluded within the 100 fathOm line is $751;
600 square miles-rather more than one
third of the surface having a depth of less
than 100 fathoms. The greatest record
depth IN the Gulf is 2,11O fathoms, the
mean depth being S5S fathoms.
In the majority Of mammals the teeth
are limited in number and definite in
their forms. The number ranges from
one in the narwhal to 300 in the dolphin.
The average is 30, occurring in ruminants,
apes and man., but Al, as in the hog and
mole, is called the typical or normal num-
Der, and this number is exceeded only in
the lower groups.