Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-12-02
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
lCompiled for the spEcrAroR.1

! compiled for the SPECTATOR
| INDIA's ICoNoCLAsT.-A curious destroy
| er of human works in India, according to
DR.. K. F. Hutchinson, is the peepal tree
| This is a kind of fig, which multiplies be-
vond the power of man to destroy, its little
seeds being sown h~oadcas. over tho land
in the droppings of the birds and psts which
feast on its fruit. The peepal rises every
where, and its effect is the disintegration of
rocks and buildings, the danger being SO
great that the keepers of large structures
are constantly on the watch during g-time
for bird-droppings. AS an illustration of
what the tree may do and of it's wonderful
vitality, it is stated that on the summit of
the northern minaret of the great mosque
of Bareilly, $50 feet high, a peepal flourish
es grandly beyond reach, and its ever-active
roots are gradually breaking up the cupola
of the minaret.
DURABILITY OF WooDs.-Recent tests
with small squares of wood buried one inch
in the ground have given these results:-
Birch and aspen decayed in three years;
willow and horse-chestnut in four years;
maple and red beech in five years; elm, ash,
hornbeam and Lombardy poplar in seven
years; oak, Scotch fir and Weymouth pine
decayed to the depth of half an inch in sew
en- years; and larch, juniper and arbor vitae
were uninjured at the end of seven years.
The pains-taking researches of Prof. s.
P. Langley have caused him to reject Lord
Rosse's assumption that the temperature of
the moons surface rises to 200 or 300 de-
grees Fahrenheit during the lunar day, and
falls about as far below zero in the lunar
night. Prof. L. finds that the temperature
can never rise above point where every
thing-perhaps even the gases-is frozen
solid
Measurements by Capt. Noble have shown
that explosion is transmitted through trains
of dynamite at the rate of 10000 to "a, 900
feet per second.
TELPHERAeE.-The telpherage system
of Ayrton and Perry, the English electri-
clans, has for its object the conveyance of
any kind of goods divisible into parcels of
two hundred-weight at a speed of four or
five miles an hour. The motive power is
electricity, which drives the carrying buck
cts along cable suspended on posts. A
telpher line has just been established at
Glynde, in Sussex, and the system has
proven success from a scientific point OF
view, the commercial value of such a means
of carrying light freight remaining to-
determined.
A STUDY OF CANCER.-A committee of
eminent physicians has been appointed by
the International Medical Congress, which
lately met in Copenhagen, to inquire into
the causes of cancer, and to investigate par
ticularly the supposed association between
the disease and the use of certain foods, the
influence of worry and depressed state of
the health in producing the malady, and
I, 20 10 A
port is to be made at the Washington meet
ing of the Congress in 1887.
The esparto grass of Spain has been ex-
tensively exported to England for paper
making It has now been successfully in
troduced into South Australia, where it is
expected to become profitable product.
Few countries are as greatly interested in
science as Norway. At Bergen an associa-
ton for the advancement of science has
just been established, with a membership
of one hundred persons.
A colossal plant specimen exists in the
garden of Mr.. j. B. TORY, at Sunningdale,
England. 1t is a vine or tree of Wistara
which covers wall nine feet high for dis
tance of $40 feet.
A list of the plants of Japan has been
published at Toxic in three languages
Japanese, Chinese, and Latin. More than
2, 400 plants are enumerated.
The STAFF OF LIFE.-No date can be
assigned to the first bread, specimens hav-
ing been found among the remains of the
mysterious people who lived on the Swiss
lakes before tho dawn of history The
bread of the lake-dwellers was made from
wheat, barley, and even poppy-seeds, and
was baked between rsd-hot stones. By
Chinese writers Ching Noung is reputed to
have been the first who taught men-about
1900 B. C.-the art of husbandry, and the
method of making bread from wheat, and
wine from rice. The baking of bread was
known in patriarchal ages-see Exodus xii:
15-and became a profession at Rome in
40 B. c. Barley-bread was used in Eng
land in the time Of James l., potato bread
is now eaten in Ireland, and powdered cod
fish is made into bread in Iceland.
A MAP OF LOST ATLANTIS From Cen
tral America Mr.. Meyer, distinguished
arch9ologist, reports remarkable discov-
cry. Some forty feet beneath the surface
of an ancient cemetery on the island of
Zapatera be came upon o figured rock and
two stone tablets. The former seemed to
be record of astronomical observations;
while one of the tablets bore representa-
tion Of the world, including a continent
which is supposed to be the lost Atlantis of
certain old authors. Inscriptions partly
Phenician-were cut on the other tablet.
LAND AND SEA.-The continents, accord
ing to Mr.. John Murray, of the great
Challenger expedition, have an average
height of about 900 feet above sea-level,
and occupy ive-sixteenths of the earth's
surface. The seas ''abysmal regions" oc-
cupy about half of the earth's surface, and
have an average depth of three miles. In
the Pacific the greatest depths are to the
south and east of Japan, where there are
abysses of over five miles; and in the At
lantic the greatest depression of little over
four miles is to the north of the Virgin Is
lands. The great ocean basins-Once so
dark and mysterious-have been rapidly
becoming familiar to man during the last
twenty years.
DIVIDING ON the CoLoR-LINE.-The YER
dict of the Jury at Roanoke, in the case of
the alleged murderer of Lizzie Wilson,
will attract attention. The crime was
double one, and of peculiar atrocity; and if
there was not reasonable doubt of the i
guilt of the prisoner, he should have been
subjected to the severest penalty Of the law.
1t is remarkable fact that the seven white
men, who may be presumed to possess su-
perior intelligence to the five colored jurors,
were unanimously in favor of conviction,
while their colOred associates were as unani-
mously in favor of acquitting the prisoner;
to send him forth again upon his fell mission
of rape and murder-two of the highest
crimes known to our laws.
This decision, on the color-line, is one of
the worst signs of the times that we have
seen, since it is impossible that it could
have been the result, without bias, of a diff
ference in Judgment touching the guilt or
innocence of the prisoner at the bar.
We trust that no evil will come of it,
though it will prove, we fear, to be an in
centiye to Lynch law and venreance-