The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-02-28
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
AaTeckly summary of Current Events In
..ll DEPARTMENTS of Science. r5s+e

! AaTeckly summary of Current Events in
! .ll Departments of Science.
| The artificial hea! of London has been
estsmated to be sufficient to raise the tenn
| perature of an air stratum 100 feet thick
over the entire city ~ degrees every hour.
| a large amount of oil exists i'll the stormy
| petrei, aud when fat, according to Brun-
Mich, the inhabitants Of the Farce Islands
use it as lamp, obtaining their light from
wick drawn through the birds body.
/ An English writer points out the prob
ability that q smoky atmosphere Is not
| a wholly unmitlgated evil, since It's carbon
| and sulphur must absorb many germs OF
disease, aud tend TO prevent the spread Of
| epie.einics. ].
A pressure of forty to 120 atmospheres,
exerted during period Of fifteen years,
has been found by Quinke to be incapable
| OF forcing a perceptible quantity of car
bonic acid Or hydrogen gas through a glass
wall one sixteenth of an inch thick.
A collection of skulls from the southern
hemisphere hes; been studied in England,
the most notable conclusion reached beng
that some of the races Of South Africa,
Australia and the southernmost part of
South America are remarkable for the
sinaliness Of their heads.
The oldest geographical society has been
generally regarded as that of Paris, bnt &C
cording to DR.. Ruse that honor belongs to
the Cosmographic Society of Nuremberg.
1t was estabIishef,.ab 174Os while the
Paris society was not. founded until 1921.
A Swiss geographer estimates that the
Worlds geographical societies now con
tain s, 900 members.
A study and :comparisog of the ocean
temperature records of the 'Challenger
exploring expedition have shown DR.. James
Croll that the surface of the Atlantic must
be lower at the equator than farther north,
the maximum height of the North Atlantic
being reached between the fortieth and tif-
tieth degrees Of latitude This difference
is due to the difference in the specific gray
ity of the water. In the latitude of Havana
the Atlantics surface must be two and one
fourth feet higher than at the equator, and
in that of Chesapeake Bay the difference
is a foot greater. -
Encke's comet, which travels around the
sun in about three and half years without
going beyond the boundaries of the solar
yy1,ic|, hos %ba ~ ~,
the first known comet of short period, is
chiefly remarkable on account .of the re
tardation of its motion. TiEishas amounted
to about four days since 1919, and is sup
posed by some astronomers to prove the
existence OF a resisting medium in space.
The date of the comets perihelion passage
this year is March Z, and its return was
first observed Dec. Is. 1t is visible only
with telescope.
1t has been found by DR.. Lawson TAFT
that, az rule, the ear i'll women can per
ceive higher notes-that is, sounds with {.
greater number Of vibrations per second
than the ear in men. The high At limit of
and ability for the haR,a II ear is somewhere
between 4l,Oo0 and 1900 vibrations. The
ears Of most persons seem to be unequally
sensitive to acute sounds, the right ear
usually hearing higher note than the left
To show the ears range, it may be added
that very low notes Of about fifteen vibra-
tons per second may be perceived, but
when the vibrations become a little slower
they cease to produce the effect of con-
tinuous sound, and each gives seperate
impression upon the ear. -~~
cuo. !, 4, 4