Morris tribune., 1885-12-09
A fine stock of silverware at
WOODWARD'S
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


Labrador and Newfoundland appears
to defect the Gulf Stream from the
shores of the United States and the
British Provinces, interposeng cold
wall of water between the land and
the genial warmth of the current
from the tropics. By building q dam
across the narrow Straits of Belle Isle
about ten miles wide and averaging
$50 feet in depth-Mr. John G. Good
ridge, Jr. suggests that the icy stream
might be turned aside into mid ocean.
Then it is believed, the Gulf Stream
would skirt the American coast and
materially change it's climate from
Cape Hatteras to Newfoundland, free
ing the Gulf of St. Lawrence from
icebergs and giving to Nova Scotia
the mildness of Cape May.
There is abundant reason for believ-
ing that the earth's crust is very thin,
asserts Mr., J, Starkie Gardner, and
it seems not impossible that some
meals may be devised for utilizing
the intense heat of the molten mass
below. This is already being done,
in fact, to some extent, an artesian
we'll having been bored at Pesth to
obtain warm water for public baths,
etc. Froma depth ofabout 5000 feet
a large quantity of water heated to
161 degrees Fahrenheit pours forth,
and the boring is to be continued I'M
til water at 17s degrees is yielded.
In paper on the size of the brain
in extinct animals. Prof. Marsh, of
Yale College, has brought forward
the remarkable fact that in the trace
for life during the past ages the sur
vival of any particular group of ami
mails depended on the size of their
brain as compared with that of their
contemporaries of the same class.
Brains won then, as now, and the
brain of animals crushed out of eX-
istence was always found to be rela-
tiyely smaller than that of those out
Lying them.
Successful experiments have been
made in joining and restoring the
functions of divided nerves, even
nerves of different function being
used to replace those partially de-
stroyed. 1t Is thought that even sight
and hearing may be restored, after
injury to the nerves ON which they
depend, by bringing other nerves in
to ser vice by artificial Union.
Among the flints of the chalk
formations is occasionally found one
which emits clear musical sound
when struck with another flint
Tissandier tells of distinguished
French musician, HI. Baudre, who il
q jealous collector of these musica
stones, and who has just succeeded
in making unique "piano" from
them. I'm this instrument the flint:
are suspended by wires above sound
ing board, and are played upon by
two other flints. The stones of thu
piano number twenty-six, forming
the two chromatio octaves, and were
collected with much patient labo
during period of more than thirty
years, There seems to be no relation
between the sizes of the stones ant
their tones.
Hansen, German chemist, find
that the colors of fruits and flower
are furnished by very small humble
of pigments, which he classifies int
three groups first reds, second yellows
and third, blues and violets. 81
omlts chlorophyll green, because it j
comparatively rare in flowers. Orang
is produced by thicKeningof a de
post of the fundamental yellow pig
ment, the coloring matter being tn
same in the rind of an orange as in
yellow buttercup. Roses and carna
tions show ting characteristic red pig
ment, in which variations are pro
duced by the presence of acids.
/ Color-blindness, as usually under
stood, is a blindness to rod. to green
or to blue or violet; and about Oh
male in every twenty-five appears t.
be unable to discriminate between
the principal colors of the spectrum
In q stricter sense, all persons ar
color-blind, for althoug Ghevreul i
said to have been able to distinguish
1920 tones of color, it has peel
| proven that the human eye is total.
incapable of receiving all the vibra
tions otcolor which must exist in TIL
spectrum. :"