The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-01-02
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

No storm has been found crossing the
Atlantic from east to west, or moving
from our Atlantic coast to the plains be-
You'd the Mississippi.
A new glass invented in Vienna is
transparent, and more brilliant than
common crystal, can be cut and pol
ished, and when fused, adheres to iron,
bronze and zinc.
Many quadrupeds, as the cat, have a
membrane lining the bottom of the eye
ball with a brilliant yellow %lustre, usu-
ally green or pearly. 1t is this which
makes the eyes of such animals luminous
in the dark.
Black walnut sawdust, formerly
thrown away, is now mixed with linseed
gum and nodded into head and flower
pieces for the ornamentation Of furni-
ture. When dried and vanished it is as
handsome and much stronger and more
durable than carved work.
The temperature of the bee is from
three degrees to ten, and the earth worm
and snail from one and a half to two
degrees higher than the air. The mean
temperature of the carp and toad is fifty
one degrees; a man, ninety-eight; dog,
ninety-nine; cat, 101; squirrel, 105, and
of the swallow, III.
The migration of birds in North
America is to be studied Systematically
by nearly 1000 persons, who have en-
gagged to act as observers, according to
a plan proposed by the Ornithologists'
Union. About 800 of these persons are
the keepers of lighthouses and light
ships in the United States and Canada
and the other British possessions on this
continent.
A foreign paper describes a case Of
removal of the spleen on account of a
chronic enlargement of that organ. The
functions Of the spleen, if it has any,
are not clearly known, though an emil
ncnt physician recently said that its
chief use seemed to be as a repository
for the germs of malaria. In this case
of removal the patient shows no signs of
Inconvenience from the operation.
DR.. j. G. Booth, of the United States
mint, states that the metals of
commerce have greatly improved in quail
ity in the last few years as a result of i'm
provement in the work of publication.
MUCH copper uOW averages ulncly-ulue
per cent. pure, while a large proportion
of the silver from the mining regions
contains ninety-nine and nine-tenths per
cent. of the pure metal, Concerning the
waste in working precious metals, DR..
Booth remarks that, while a loss of ten
per cent. is tolerated in working iron in
the fire, the government holds the mint
responsible for a greater waste in work
ing gold than one-tenth of one per cent.
and the actual loss is usually far less than
this.
Mr.. w. Mattieu Williams states that
he drew attention in 1877 to the fact that
the North Cape is not the northernmost
extremity of Europe, as it is generally
believed to be A low tongue of rock,
called Knivskjaelodden, about a mile to
westward of North Cape, projects farther
north than the cape itself. This insignif-
cant appearing rock hardly seems to de-
serve the name of ''cape" in the presence
of the magnificent capes about it, North
Cape presenting a perpendicular face 974
feet high, and Others having a height Of
over 900 feet. at should not be for
gotten, Mr.. Williams adds, that neither
North Cape nor this little ambitious out
poke is the n%orthernmost point Of the
European continent. This distinction
belongs to Nord Kyn, the North Cape
and Knivsk jaelodden being on Magero,
an outlying island"