The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-10-31
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
MANS ANCESTOR.

MANS ANCESTOR.
DE Mortillet declares that there is sufficient
evidence to show that animals less intelligent |
than man. but more intelligent than existing apes,
lived during the tertiary period of geology. The |
anthrOpethique, or ape-man, was an ancestral
form of historic man whose skeleton has not yet
been discovered. This assertion was made at the |
late Grenoble meeting of the French Association
for the Advancement of Science, and from the
discussion which followed it appears that the
opinion is almost unanimously shared by the
scientific men of France.
PNEUMONIA.
German See, the French Psychologist. has
found that pneumonia may be epidemic, but that
it is always due to a specific parasite, and never
to cold. In this it differs from such other forms
of acute Inflammation as bronchitis or broncho-
pneumonia, in which cold is the first cause and
microphytes play but secondary role. Parasitic
pneumonia has a regular and definite course, ex-
tending over not more than nine days.
THE SCIENCE OF CRIME.
The science of criminal man will receive espe-
cial attention at the Astrological Congress which
is shortly to be held at Rome, and curious fea-
Lufo OF Jue moolluS VIII W Ill AA-~SN-~~
ing this, subject. Here the student will find
a collection of 700 classified skulls of criminals,
with the photographs of 5000 convicts and
the brains of more than $50. Wax masks
of large number of criminal celebrities will
also be shown. To these will be added many
specimens of the literary and mechanical work OF
criminals a record of physical and moral OBJ
seryations on 500 criminals and on 300 ordinary
men; graphic maps of crime in Europe with ref
erencs to climate, food, institutions, suicide, etc.,
and tables of the stature of criminals in relation
to the length of the arms, and of crime in towns
compared with that in the country.
FIXING THE LAND.
The dunes of Gascony, according to recent
report by the Inspector of French Public Works,
cover surface of more than 100000 acres, and
are more than $50 feet high and three or four
miles wide. The fine sand composing them was
formerly pushed constantly inland by the wind,
covering fields and villages, and even burying
churches up to their towers. Since l7SO the dill
fcult task of fixing the sand hills by creating a
growth of vegetation on them has been IN pro-
eress, and has at length resulted in avertlng a
great public danger and forming a fine forest
The formation of new dunes is prevented by the
building of wooden palisade, against which the
sea raises so steep bank that no sand can DE
blown over the incline.
THE coLoRs OF WATER.
The ocean is blue where it is deep, but green IN
shoal places Some lakes are blue, others green
others yellow, and some are almost black. Rivers
differ still more widely in tint. For instance,
the Rhine is green, while the Danube and hhone
are deep blue, and in the Adirondacks are streams
which are black, brown, yellow and coloriess.-
The tints and hues are notcaused by mud or sedl-
ment. but belong to the waters and do not impair
their transparency. A plausible explanation OF
the difference is afforded by the theory OF Prof.
Spring, of Belgium, who has found experimentaily
that pure water is blue when seen in deep mass,
and considers that all the tints arise from the
presence in the water of mineral salts IN varying
qualities and of different degrees of solubility.-
The green tinge he attributes to an imperfectiy
soluble proportion of carbonate of lime, which
would not appear in deep ocean.
A STRANGE FOE TO PIscIcULTURE.
Mr. C. II. Murray has reported to Prof. Baird
a remarkable slaughter of young trout which was
witnessed in the Gunnison valley, Colorado, the
destrovers being-mosquitoes. Occasionally
tiny trout was noticed to come to rest-possl2y ior
more air-with its head level with the surface OF
the stream, when a mosquito would instantly
aght and insert its proboscis into the ishs brain.
In the space of half an hour some twenty trout
were thus dispatched and their bodies sucked dry.
Mr.. Murray is satisfied that mosquitoes seriously
diminish the supply of trout if not of other varie-
ties of fish.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The electric light has been successfully applied
at Woolwich, England, to photographing the IN
terror of cannon. Such pictures are expected TO
reveal the presence of flaws.
ASwedish engineer has produced new explo-
sive, which he calls ''romite," and for which ne
claims great strength, cheapness, and impossible
ity of explosion except when ignited.
Prof. Kaltenbach, of Giessen, has mentioned
two instances in which immunity from contagious
disease-imparted by an attack of the disorder
has been transferred from parent to offspring.
Ireland's first deep-sea exploring expedition
was recently fitted out at the expense of the Royal
Irish Academy, and has been at work in the At
lantic about 100 miles west of Cape Clear.
Dr. Ernst Fuchs, author of prize essay on
blindness and its prevention, states that short
sightedness, which is increasing SO alarmingly
among reading people, is the cause of ten per
cent of all cases of blindness of one eye, and that
the immoderate use of tobacco gives rise to partial
blindness.
prize of 5000 francs has been offered by
Baron Leon de Lenval, of Nice, for the best in
for improving tie hearing Of partially desf per-
sons, all entries to be made by Dec. 81, 1887.
Two cases of mercurial poisoning from the use
of Eliminating caps in shooting galleries have
been reported. Such resorts should be well ven
tilated.
The Towering plants and ferns of CeylOn, ac-
cording to DIR. Trimen, embrace 1,O7i genera, or
3,249 regular species. There are also 4OS varie-
ties, of which some may prove to be distinct
species.
Tromholt endorses the view, said to have been
first advanced by Weyprecht, that the zone in
which the aurora borealis appears is changing
periodically, being farthest south at the equinoxes
and farthest north at the solstices. Observations
made in many places to prove the correct
ness of the theory.
The director of the Buda-Pesth Bureau of Sta
tstics, Josef Koros has calculated from carefully
prepared mortality tables that the possession of
wealth, and the resulting exemption from priva-
ton, lengthen the average life nearly ten years.
Bromine exposed in a closed room over night
is said to eectualy destroy all insects and disease
germs.