Morris tribune., 1884-08-06
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


an Assyrlan record of q transit of
Venus in the sixteenth century be-
fore the Christian ere.
A recent estimate, made by means
of very intricate testing apparatus,
places the rate at which an electric
dot travels over u telegraph wire at
10000 miles per second
The use of arsenical wall papers in
all places where malaria abounds is
advocated by Mr., w. Mattieu Will
ans. He considers slight doses of
arsenic an antidote to malarial poison
ing.
Among some curious results Of
spectroscopic study of gases, the AS
| tronomer- Royal for Scotland mentions
the fact that the spectrum OF nitrogen
| indicates it to be Il compound, while
oxygen and hydrogen act like simple
substances.
After careful and laborous inyes-
tigation, 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 as
life advances.
From careful study of series of
drawings Of Venus, Mons. p. Lamey
infers that a perfectly cir
cular pro Il b IAN C i'll the
southern hemisphere, presum-
ably volcano, has an elevation of
| probably not less than seventy miles.
He attempts to prove that the exis-
tence of so enormous mountain on
Venus is not incompatible with the
volcanic nature of the planet.
Samples of green peas, from u lot
alleged to have caused sickness and
diarrhea, have been found by Dr..
John Muter to be affected by fun
guoid growth on the inner surface of
the outer coating of the seed. When
boiled with water the peas have a
sickly, pale green color, with yellow
spots; but when the water contains a
little soda they show deep violet
brown markings, and emit u fragrant
odor on keeping.
| MI. Edwin II. Evans, of. SDmedang.
Java, reports what seems to him q re-
markable case of snake cannibalism.
On killing one of the most deadly of
Javan reptiles, about yard and q
half in length, he found it to contain
another snake of the same species,
which, although not more than three
inches shorter than the larger snake,
had been completely swallowed, only
part of the tail about two inches
long protruding from the mouth of
the swalloWer.
On walking upon OF distributing the
sand of certain beaches q peculiar
sound is heard, which has beeh de-
scribed as somewhat resembling the
bark of a dog. The sound seems to
arise from the friction of particles of
dry sand. Until recently these So
called singing beaches have been
known to exist at only two places
one in Europe and one in this country
but samples of the singing sands have
now been collected in no less than
twenty-six localities in the United
States.
Physicists agree in declaring that
the presence of solid particles in the
air facilitates the condensation of
vapor, and an unusual quality Of at
mospheric dust might be expected to
cause an extraordinary fall of rain.
In a paper read before the Paris
Academy of Sciences, Mons. Gay
stated that the rain fall of the early
part of the present was very heavy,
and he was inclined to attribute the
circumstance to the same dust-evi-
IDENTIFY of volcanic origin-which is
believed to have given rise to the
brilliant sunrises and sunsets of last
autumn and winter. 1t has been
shown that several other volcanic
eruptions besides those in 1883 have
followed by red gloWs III the sky, and
Mons. Gay thought that it might also
be proven that they have been follow
ed by abundant rains.
A Dutch scientist, DR.. Beijerinch,
has found that the gum which col
lects on the branches Of certain trees
especially the cherry, peach, plum and
others bearing stone fruits-is due to
a disease Of the tree. The disease is
produced by a highly organized fun
gus, whose action causes the fOrma-
ton of the gum, and it is quickly re-
produced 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-growers to protect
their trees from q troublesome con-
tageous disease, while it also indicates
that the product of valuable gums,
like arabic and tragancanth, which
are produced in the same manner,
J may be largely increased by a simple
system of cultivation by inoculation.
To accomplish fight, according to
MI, Richard A. Proctor, advantage
must be taken of motion athWart the
air this motion being in the first place
communicated while the aeronaut OF
flying machine is on the ground.
Given an adequate velocity, with a
sufficient extent of supporting surface
anybody however heavy, may be
made to rise from the gound and
there can be no question that me-
chanicians can produce a sufficient
velocity to raise either a man OF a
flying machine, provided with no
greater supporting surface than would
be manageable in either case. The
real difficulties to overcome are to
maintain In the air the velocity of
motion, attained upon the ground, to
increase the elevation, to guide the
aeronaut's fight, and to preserve the
balance of the aeronaut OF flying. ma
chine. Mr.. Proctor believes That
these difficulties will be conquered.
The mastery of the problem of flight
he regards as q solution ofthe problem
of travelling more swiftly than is now
possible, Iron and steam have ell.
abled man to surpass the speed of the
swiftest of four-footed creatures, and
he has full confidence that the same
useful servants place it in mans
power to outstrip in like manner the
swiftest of winged creatures.
From the pulp room to the vault
tbo ,,raoio,ic nopar il Nyatphp6 opI