Morris tribune., 1884-07-09

At a recent scientific meeting in
London it was stated that arsenic, in
quantities large enough to poison
beasts, has been known to find its
way through the ground into wells
fifty feet distant.
A committee appointed to investi-
gate the discharge of sewage into the
Thames river has reported that liquid
entering at barking is transported
many miles up river In the face Of the
powerful descending stream of land
water. No one had supposed before
that sewage could pOllute the water
far above the point of its discharge
into rapid river.
Two French chemists have inyesti-
gated the question of the temperature
at which various explosive mixtures
of gas and air become ignited. They
found that a mixture of seventy parts
of air and thirty parts of hydrogen
gas ignited at q temperature between
1926 and 1923 degrees Fahrenheit,
while the ignition point of q mixture
of coal gas with air in similar pro-
portions varied from 1902 to 1915 de-
grees.
Wroblewski's experiments indicate
that pure oxygen bOils-Or returns
from a liquefed form to it's ordinary
gaseous state-at a temperature of
about 300 degrees below zero Faren
heit; nitrogen, at ABOUT BIS degrees
and the air, at 3l4 degrees. The ele-
ments composing the air do not sepa-
rate on being liquified. tits predicted
that liquifed air will be the refrigera-
tor of the future, it's evaporation in a
vacuum causing the temperature to
fall to a point lower than 800 degrees
below zero.
Grant Allen thinks it improbable
that, as is often supposed, the eX-
violent destruction by preying
creatures, except in those cases where
man has been the destroyer. He be-
lieves, instead, that most instinct ami
NAL and plant forms have really been
eXterminated by the severe competi-
ton of other closely-allied forms ad.
dapted to fill exactly the same place
in nature. AS an instance, he men.
lions the black rat of England, which
was once most numerous. but which
seems to have been completely starved
out of eXistance by the superior ener-
gy of the brown rat i'll seeking the
same sources of food,
A banyan tree in itself, giving
shelter and shade to whole villages of
huts. Its wide-spreading branches
are supported by many separate stems
or trunks, formed by defending aerial
roots which On reaching the ground
become fixed as props to the great
leafy roof above. Natives of party OF
India regard the tree as sacred, and ii
is not surprising that the deep twi
light which always prevails under its
dense foliage should impress with
awe the simple Buddhist jewellers in
it's shade. Respecting the size reach.
ed by this tree, it may be stated that
Forbes, in his ''Oriental Memoirs y
mentions a banyan which was nearly
1000 feet in circumference, measured
round its principal stems, while the
ground covered by its branches was
considerably more extensive. The
large trunks numbered $50, and thu
smaller ones exceeded 5000, Ever
! the 1000 feet-~or more than one-third
of a mile-does not represent the full
circumference over which this col
losal plants chief supports had beer
'spread, as Il food had carried away ;
very large part of the tree befor
Forbes saw it, reducing the humble
of larger trunks from 1850 to the 35
now remaining. The banyan belongs
to the genus which includes the com
mon fig, and is known as the Indian
fig (Ficus mdica.)