The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-05-02
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
A Weekly Summary .f Current Events iu
all Departments ofscience.
An equivalent of $500 has been offered
for safe substitute for gunpowder i'll
coal-mining.
The only land from which the total phase
of the solar, eclipse of Sept. 8th can .he seen
as New Zsaland.. The totality lasts only
two minutes and half. An expedition
will be sent from Melbourne to observe it.
Mounds resembling those of Ohio exist
near Kalgan, China. and in one has been
found stone hatchet which is said to be
undistinguishable from those shown as the
work of the mound builders" !" of ancient
America.
The presence of even l,gQ:o00 Of pound
of antimohy in a pound Of melted dead in
creases the rafHlity with which the lead
oxidizes aad burns, and lead containing
moze than q-14OO of its weight of copper
! has been found to be unfit for the manu.
facture of white lead.
complete collection of the native woods
of the United States is being prepared for
the New York Museum of Natural History.
It will .eeN prise 36 varieties of oak, "a of
| pine, 9of fir, 5 of spruce, of hemlock, II
of ash, 3 of hickory, 18 of willow, 3 of cher
ry, of poplar, of maple, 2 of persimmon
and 5 vf ceder. Each specimen will display
both longitudinal and transverse grainings
of the wood, as well as the log in its patur-
al condition, with the bark attached
| The light of tbe spp is estimated to equal
in quantity ,575, 600 OOO OO0 600 OOO. COO OOO,-
coo candles; the lights intensity on the suns
surface being 10000 that of candle flame,
1900 times that of metal in Bessemer
| converter, LAG tikaas that of acalGium light,
or 3-4 times than of an electric ARG. The
temperature, according to Rosetti. is about
1900 degrees Fahr. The mechanical equiv
alent of the solar radiation, continuously
acting, is nearly 10000 horse power per
square foot of solar surface.
1t has been source of much surprise to
Prof. Nordepslsad that, during his nunser-
Gus expeditions within the Arctic circle,
in regions where animal life is abundan
he has found only very few remains OF
animals which died natural death. No
one has any idea of what becomes of the
bodies of such animals, and it is indeed very
strange, as he remarks, that on Spitzber-
gen it is easier to find bones of gigantic
lizard of remote geological time than those
of 80 self-dead'' seal, walrus or bird. The
same is also true of some places not so far
north.
Anoxagoras, the Rhodian, held that
earthquakes are nothing buta sort OF cos
mic f1atulence winds which have strayed
into caverns, where they cannot find an
outlet. Aristotle ascribed them to vapors
generated by the infiltration of water
through the assures of rocky sea-bottoln;
and Pliny, to the pressure of air III deep
caves, confined and reacting against the
collapse of superintendent rock -strata.
But the Iaost ingenious explanation was Of
fered by ST. Thomas of Aquinas, who sug-
gested that earthquakes may he caused by
struggles of defunct misbelievers trying to
escape (by simultaneous stampede, rtr-
haps) from Il pit OF torment.
Shakespeare betrayed an Ignorance of
:. insect anatomy when he wrote, 1.-The poor
beetle that we tread upon, in corporeal suf-
.. ferance feels pang as great rs when a
giant dies.' Minute dissections have proven
that insects, though possessed of nerves,
have no well-detined organs representing
= the brain, the seat of concentrated feeling,
where all the nervous connections meet
: They have, instead, chain of ganglia oil
bundles of nerye-substance, from each OF
= which nerves branch out to contiguous
> parts: 40 that the sensations are not all car
ried to one grand focus of acute sensibilitI
as with US, but form in fact seperate sys
. tens, any one of which might be destroyed
u without disturbing the sensation of tht
9 others. Sleeping moths may be pinnedest
trees without feeling pain enough +
= awaken them: and it is related that drag
= on-fy, whose long abdomen an entolpee
l. ogist had accidentally severed from Thy
ICSA VI y4lO bbStes SuhCEOA ~ AiSfS AAASSAA
> venience or loss Of appetite that it at ono
: .greeGily devoured two small flies.
n "Men of SCIENCE says Proctor anent re
Is cent speculation OH supposed organic re
mains found in a meteorite. "may anus
d themselves by speaking of life bein. broue
n to the earth by the arrival of a meteor, i
n reality fragment of some once people'
as world which has been destroyed by con
,s fict with another Or by internal disturb
~ ance. But this Is more a scieutifc jes
- than grave reality. Astronomy know
- nothing of worlds coming into confiic
=, On the contrary, the laws of motion aSsur
. US thatsI altyt.iing Is 80 unlikely that
- may be regarded as absolutely impossible
- :, it is the encounter Of two orbs i'll mid spac,
:, nor have we any reason to suppose that ,
:, planet can be sent into fragme4ts 10y ii
~ ternal ca2sy1laiol.s;. If we had, we ha,
not the slightest reason for supposing tlii
,orbs thus unfortunate would be more liks
ly to be inhabited than their more luck
r. worlds. If these were inhabited alre;Yl.
r.. we gain nothing by bringing to them II
=; fragments Of other worlds which have e!
e ploded: and if they were not iuhabitee
-, whilst the burst or shattereT asyotlds wef'
we are called on to imagine the absurdi'
- that only inhabited worlds are liable
-. destruction, for the benefit Of those whic
y, are without inhabitants. To which absu
~ dity this is superadded, that the seeds
IT, life would survive the destruction of the.
,,1,,.t l,o,.,o aud the iournpy ft;rOc,