The Ottawa free trader., 1884-10-25
Scientific Miscellany.

Professor A. II. Sayce has decipher-
ed an Assyrian Record of transit Of
Venue in the sixteenth century before
the Christian era.
Some experiments in getting coal
without the use of explosives are to be
made in England by mem bers of the
Royal Commission on accidents in
mines.
DR.. V. Poulain believes that cows
milk disagrees with children because
cane sugar is used 10 sweeten il. With
sugar Of milk he gets the best possible
results.
A recent estimate, made by means OF
very intricate testing apparatus,
places the rate at which an electric dot
travels over a telegraph wire at Is, 900
miles per second.
Meteorological observations from
captive balloon, which ascends to
heighth Of from 600 to 1000 feet, have
been organized by Father Denza at the
Turin exhibition. ....
An apparatus has been employed
at Harvard college for recording every
change in the electricity OF the air,
and the degree of change. The obser-
vatiops are expected to furnish valua-
able indications of weather changes.
Among some curious results Of q
spectroseopic study of gases, the as
tronomer-royal for Scotland mentions
the fact that the spectrum OF nitrogen
indicates it to be = compound. while
oxygen and hydrogen act like simple
substances.
According to DIR. Spencer Cobbold,
many "scares' have been originated by
writer's unfamiliar with parasites who
have described as triching some Of the
vast number Of comparatively HARM
less little worms which live in birds,
beasts and fishes.
After a careful and laborious investi-
cation, DR.. Edgar Holden concludes
that death from consumption, instead
of being, as is almost universally sup
posed, most prevalent in early adult
life in this country, Is in reality not so,
but grows relatively more frequent rs
life advances. - l.'... '...
The Importance Of the analyses made
at the Paris Municipal Laboratory is
now so well appreciated that forty per-
sons are required for testing samples
of food, liquors, etc. for adulterations
or impurities, while similar institutions
have been established in other French
cities, with central administration in
Paris. .tI,....... .|r
Naturalists have long known Of car
nivorous plants that entrap insects. 1t
is now stated on the authority Of Pro-
fessor Baird, that bladderwort which
has been hitherto carefully introduced
into the Governments carp ponds as
food for the fish has, very curiously,
turned out to be a iish-eating plant,
devouring the very animals which
were expected to feed upon it, on.
Pyramids of instruction, so called,
have been erected at Weimar, Munich,
and other German towns. The faces
show the elevation of the place, the
Inference of local time from that of
the chief cities of the world. the popu-
lation, and variety of statistical in
formation, while there are also exposed
to public view, a clock. thermometer,
barometer and wind-vane. ..t s.u .
Gum.-A Dutch scientist, DIR. Beijer-
inck, has found that the gum which col
lects o.. the branches Of certain trees
especially the cherry. peach, plum and
others bearing stone fruits due to
disease of the tree. The disease is
produced by highly organized fungus,
whose action causes the formation OF
the gum, and it is quickly reproduced
in sound trees when they are inoculated
with pieces of the gum containing any
of the fungus. This knowledge of the
nature of gum may enable fruit-grow-
ers to protect their trees from a roub-
lesome contagious disease, while it also
indicates that the product of valuable
gums, like arabic and tragacanth.
which are produced in the same man
ner, may be largely increased by II
simple system of cultivation by inocu-
lation.