The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-10-10
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
THE PLANTS OF THE GUTTER.

After a study of eleven months, DR.. Hugo Win
hacker, of Gottingen, has found that the vegeta-
ton of the stones of street-gutters consists of
green algae and fungoids. The algae are harm
less and even beneficial, for they grow over the
fungoids and at their expense, and help to keep
them down. Most of the fungoids appear to be
harmless, but some of them may be dangerous
disease-germs, to be freely distributed by the
wind when dry and, as it is difficult to distin-
guish their qualities, the growth of this class of
plants should be prevented as far as possible
The character of the gutter vegetation may be
different in different cities.
PHENOMENON IN QUARTZ.
Some silicious pebbles which are quite numer-
Gus in the quarternary gravels of the LONG VAL
ley, France, have been described by Meunier.-
These stones-about inch and a half in diam
eter-are remarkable for being hollow and enclos-
ing liquid water together frequently with loose
stony nucleus. Meunier supposes that the water
must have penetrated the pebbles through their
minute pores, for not sign of crack can be seen
even by the aid of strong glass.
CHEMICAL ACTION OF LIGHT.
Prof. A. Vogel observes that the hemlock plant
which yields conune in Bavaria contains none in
Scotland, and he concludes that sunlight plays a
part in the generation of aIkaloids in plants
This view is confirmed by the circumstance that
the tropical Cinchonas, if cultivated in feebIy-
lighted northern lighthouses, yield no quinine-
The formation of tannin seems to be Influenced
by exposure of the growing bark to the light, the
proportion of tannin in the bark of the beech or
of the larch having been found to increase from
the less illuminated to the more illuminated parts.
EARLY ANAEsTHETIcs.
A French physician, Lagnean, has been max
ing researches into the anaesthetics which
undoubtedly used in early times He finds men
ton by Plny of stone which was treated with
vinegar and used to create local insensibility to
pain. Decoctions of mapdragora and of plant
called "moriom" were mixed with the food of
patients and employed by surgeons for producing
sleep down to the thirteenth and fourteenth CEN
turies Opium was also used before operations,
and in the East the anaesthetic properties of hemp
have been known from the earliest times. Even
anaesthesia by inhalation is no new thing, two
neutrality-suspicious. prepared from opium,
henbane, mandragora, hemlock, and many other
plants, and inhaled from sponge-having been
discovered in the thirteenth century. Sufferings
from the tortures applied by the judicial tribunals
of the Middle Ages were diminished by allowing
the unfortunate victim to inhale liquid contain
ing all the ingredients required for chloroform.
THE NEW ELEMENT.
The new metal gallium melts at ST. degrees
Fahrenheit, becoming liquid when held in the
hand. Its specific gravity is little less than 6,
or about half that of lead. 1t furnishes but slightly
in the air. 1t adheres readily to glass when fused,
forming beautiful mirror. In chemical charac-
teristics the rare element gallum most resembles
the abundant element aluminium.
MISCELLANEOUS.
For the observation of all kinds of subterranean
phenomena, ]. J. Martinez suggests the boring
into the earth of hole 80 by $50 feet in diameter,
the expense of the undertaking to be met by q
universal subscription.
The value of vaccination is illustrated by the
registers of an old hospital in Prague, where the
mortality from small pox from 1870 to 1876
is, in MISREPRESENTATION period-was q per cent,
while from 1915 to 1885 it has been only 4.53 per
cent.
A recent earthquake in France affected only the
chalk-formations at the earth's surface, and was
neither heard nor felt by men at work in the coal
mines beneath.
In countries having marked winter seasons,
earthquakes are found to be more frequent in
winter than in summer. DIR. Knott, of the Seis-
biological Society of Japan, finds only two posi-
bic meteorological reasons for this one being the
stress of accumulated snow, and the other that of
high barometric pressure during the cold season.
A geological commission has been appointed by
the Spanish Government to investigate the Philip
pines The geography and topography of the
archipelago will be studied, as well as the geology,
and map will be prepared to complete and cor
rect existing ones.
From statistics, collected in the abattoirs of
Munich and Augsburg, Strauss has found that not
more than one calf in 100000 is consumptiye.-
The danger of conveying consumption with vac
cine obtained from these animals is therefore
slight.
microscope having bent body tube is a re-
cent scientific instrument. 1t is intended to COM
bine the advantages of keeping the stage horizon
tai and enabling the observer to keep his body in
convenient position.
DR.. Percy F. Fronkland's experiments have
shown that the best filters for drinking water are
made of green sand, coke, animal charcoal, or
spongy iron, but in every case the filter loses its
power to remove all organic particles after being
used q month.
Mr.. Serene Watson Classics the North Ameri-
can roses into eighteen species. s.