Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-07-29
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
[Compiled for the SPECTATOR. ]

flowers are furnished by very small num-
bsr of pigments, which he classifies into
three groups: frat reds; second, yellows;
and third, blues and violets. He omits |
chlorophyll green, because it is compare |
lively rare III flowers. Orange is produced
by thickening of a deposit of the funda-
mental yellow pigment, the colering matter
being the same in the rind of an orange and
in yellow buttercup. Roses and carnations |
show the characteristic red pigment in
which variations are produced by the pre-
sence of acids.
UNIVERSAL COLOR-BLINDNEss.-C
blindness, as usually understood, is a blind
ness to red, to green, or to blue or violet;
and about one male in every twenty-five ap-
pears to be unable to discriminate between
the principal colors of the spectrum. In a
stricter sense, all persons are color blind,
| for, although Chevreul is said to have been
able to distinguish IA, 420 tones of color, it
has been proven that the human eye is total
ly incapable of receiving all the vibrations
of color which must exist in the spectrum.
Not only may the amputated parts of
certain low organisms be re-grown but the
pieces removed may themselves become
complete animals Gruber, in Germany
has succeeded in dividing and re-dividing
infusoria until sixteen perfect individuals
were produced from the original subject.
| A French Investigator, Witt, believes he
has discovered an ntagonism between ozone
and cholera, the proportion fthe former in
the atmosphere of Paris last year having
been in inverse ratio to the mortality from
the disease.
The fermentation of malt liquors has been
found to turn 25 ZOO, 900, 900 gallons of car
bonic acid yearly into the atmosphere of
Great Britain.
EARTHQUAKE CAUSES phe-
nomena appear to result from variety of
causes, which are thus briefly summed up
by Mr.. Ralph S. Tarr: In volcanic regions
earthquakes are part of an eruption; in
limestone country the falling in of cavern.
walls may account for some; in regions
where the mountains are of recent forma-
| tion the sudden release of tension causes
many; the pressure of pent-up gases on the
surrounding rocks, which are finally burst,
may produce large number. more espe-
cially those which are followed by a long
series of shocks; and finally, in any one of
these regions either or all of the other causes
with the exception of volcanic in nom
volcanic reglons-may enter into the pro-
duction of earthquakes.
| uO uOulo " CUnOdlu LuC OO-iuCu lCloSCOpC
of the new Bischoffsheim observatory at
| Nice of the largest revolving dome in the
world, having an internal diameter of 72t
| feet and weight of nearly 81 tons. Yet
the great structure can be easily turned
completely around by a small wheel in four
minutes. 1t floats in trough-rim contain
| ing non-freezing solution of chloride of
| magnesium.
the fossil remains of the great creatures
which lived in earlier geological ages, Mr..
r. A. Proctor concludes thatit may well be
doubted whether at any time in the past his
tory of the earth the average size of the ten
largest creatures by sea and land exceeded |
the average size of the ten largest species
now existing.
Biniodide of mercury, according to Mig
uel, is the most powerful antiseptic known,
solution of one forty -thousandth strength |
| rendering life impossible to any form of
microbe or germ. Iodide Of silver is next
in destructive power, and bichloride of mer-
curry requires strength of one fourteen
thousandth.
Crookcs has found that the presence of
one part of samaritan affects the spectr um |
of 2, 500, 900 parts of calcium, so great is the
delicacy of spectrum analysis.
| PROGRESS OF MEDICAL sCIENCE.-Physic
appears to have been praotised first by the
| Egyptian priests. Pythagoras endeavored |
to explain the philosophy of disease and the
action of medicine about 500 B. G. Hip
pocrates, the father of medicine, hourished
about 422 B. c., and Galen, born 131 A. D.,
was the oracle of medical science. About
$50, Avicenna, an Arab, wrote system of |
medicine. The dogmatic age of medicine
| lasted until the Reformation, when it was
attacked by Paracelsus and Vesalius early |
in the sixteenth century. An entirely new |
system of physiological and pathological |
speculation was furnished in 1923 by DR.. |
| Haryey's discovery of the circulation of the |
blood: and since 1900 medical practice has |
been completely transformed by physiolog |
ical and chemical research. The past de- |
cade has given us the beginning of a now |
epoch-that of the development of the germ
theory of disease-in which science is called |
upon to defend our bodies from the micro
scopic parasites which prey upon them and
produce our most dreaded ailments.
A means of determining and automatical- |
| ly recording the exact amount of energy |
stored in electric accumulators, or storage |
batteries, has been discovered by Crova and !
Garbe, French electricians. They claim
| that they can also ascertain the quantity of |
electricity still held in reserve at any given
moment
According to Ptolemy, the irsteclipse re-
corded-one of the moon-took place March |
| 10Th, 721 B. c., at $40 P. NJ, and was ac-
curately observed at Babylon. The Egypt |
ians claimed to have accurately observed |
373 eclipses of the sun and S32 of the moon
in the period from Vulcan to Alexander,
who died in 1923 B. G. The theory of eclipses
is said to have been known in China before
100 B. G.
Italian officers are being taught how to
collect and preserve specimens of marine
animals, and it is expected that the navy
will thus be enabled to make scientific col |
lections of great value from various parts of
| the world.