The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-02-21
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
CHEMISTRY FOR THE KITCHEN.

Mr.. W. Mattien Williams states that he is max
ing experiments to learn the efficiency of the di
astase of malt, and also that of various a,iis in
converting vegetable tissue into dextrine and
grape sugar. When a process for effecting such
conversion is made generally available, our food
supplies will be greatly extended. Turnips and
similar vegetables will become delicate diet for
invalids horse-beans will be better than beef ;
and delicate biscuits and fancy pastry, as we'll as
ordinary bread, will be produced from sawdust
and wood shavings plus little leguminous -four
This may be done now. Chemists have long been
able to transform old shirts and rags into sugar
in their laboratories. 1t has yet to be done in
the kitchen.
NEW FOOD.
In the seed of the cotton-tree, of which several
varieties are cultivated in Bolivia, correspondent
of the French Academy announces the discovery
of the richest of all known grains in heterogeneous
substances. He is convinced that the flour of this
seed is destined to become important article of
food. A paste made from it may serve as sub
stitute for milk.
PROMPTING EYE GLASSES.
The "micro photoscope," devised by school
master of the Isle of Nan, is pair of spectacles
in the rims of which several micro photographs
each provided with little magnfying lens. The
instrument in worn as an ordinary pair of spcta-
Giles, and the wearer may at any time see the pic
lures by slightly turning his eyes. public
notes; traveller, maps or tables of information;
detective, a list of criminals sought and so on.
TEMPERATURE PERCEPTION.
A German Psychologist, Prof. Gutenberg, has
found that different parts of the body are very
unequally sensitive to differences of heat and cod
the sense of temperature being most acute in the
forehead and the back of the hands, and least
tive in the back and the upper part of the aldo
men. At the former spots differences of about
third of Fahrenheit degree distinctly per-
ceived but at the other two points differences were
only detected when reaching nearly two degrees.
A QUININE SUBSTITUTE.
7 The doundake plant (Cephalina esculents,
Schum) has been described to the Paris Acadenye
Sciences as an astringent and febrifuge capable oi
replacing quinine, as well as q dye yielding a
beautiful yellow color 1t grows in West Africa
and resembles the Morinda OF the South Sea
Islands quite closely in many respects It's active
principle is doundakine.
LACUsTRINE REVELATIONS.
Since 1873 no less than l9 500 relics Of the PrOto-
Hevetians, the prehistoric lake-dwellers of
Central Europe have been dug from the beds of
lakes Neuchatel and Benne Swiss museums have
received 1868 of these objects, while DR.. Goss,
of NeuvevilIe, has nearly 5000. Dr. Goss finds
evidence that the progress of this vanished race
marked by three successive stages-an age
of stone, an age of bronze, and an age of ir0n.-
There may also have been an age of copper, pre-
ceding that of bronze Remains of villages of
the stone age are ost abundant thirteen having
been found in Lake Bienne, with only two of the
bronze age-but those belonging to the era of
metals are much more extensive. Besides the
stone and metal implements, various wooden OBJ
jects have been found such as canoes, an OK yoke,
fragments Of tables and benches, toy boats, ham
mers and spades. No complete dwelling has yet
been found among the villages Of the lakes, but
charred panks and tmbers remain to tell of the
mysterious conhagration in which persisted re-
markable and ancient civilization.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The number of fossil plant species now known
is estimated to be not less than 1000, aud may be
considerably greater catalogue of all which
have been described down to the present year is
being prepared at the National Museum. "a
The discovery was recently announced of
fossil air breathing animal of an earlier age than
any before known-a scorpion from the upper
Surian deposits of Sweden. A cockroach's wing
dating from still more remote period-the mid
die Siurian-has since been found in France.
In Brming Cham, England, company has been
organized for the novel purpose of distributing to
the manufacturers of the town air strongly COM
pressed at central station.
1t has been recently proven that earth-worms
are capable of regenerating tissue, large pieces
cut from their bodies being replaced by new
growths.
new spider, the female of which measures
six and half inches from tip to tip of the fore
and hind legs, has been discovered in cave of
Tasmania.
Flying fish do not fl Dis the assertion of DR.. X.
Mobius, German zoologist. The muscles of
their pectoral fins are too small to sustain the
weight or the body in the air. The impulse to
which they owe their long shooting passage
through the air is delivered, while they still in
the water, by the powerful masses Of muscle on
both sides of their body,
A German ornithologist, DR.. A. c. L. Baldamus,
has specimens of the nests and eggs of 1000
species of birds, mostly European.