The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-11-19
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

French authority asserts that the
complaint known as "hay fever" sup
posed to be quite recent origin, can be
traced as fa- back as the sixteenth
century.
A paper on flying machines lately
read before the ROYAL Society of New
South Wales was illustrated with six
teen self-supporting models, varying
III weight from three-fourths of an
ounce to three ounces.
The temperature of the Gulf Stream
has been found by Captain Pillsbury
to range from AZ to 81 degrees The
greatest velocity at the surface is four
and one-half knots, but the fluctuations
are frequent and great.
Carefully collected statistics show
that since 1859 the disasters from
lightning in the kingdom of Saxony
have been becoming more numerous
each year, from which it is inferred
that some cause has increased the
number or severity of thunder-storms
in that part OF Europe.
Water-pipes of paper have been sat-
isfactorily tested by DR.. d. Lewis, a
pipe 1000 feet long and two inches in
diameter having been used for several
years without leaking or imparting
taste to the water. Wound into pipe
form and soaked in tar, the paper be-
comes nearly as hard and strong as
iron.
An attempt is being made to increase
the number of plants grown in Ice
land. Barley, whose cultivation there
was long ago abandoned, has been
reintroduced, and at Reikjavik a bota-
mic garden has been established, in
which seeds of 3S2 kinds of plants
from near Christiania have been plant
ed.
King Oscar of Sweden has notified
the Paris Academy OF Sciences of his
Intention to offer prize of $500
francs, with gold medal valued at
1000 francs, to the author of the most
important contribution to mathemati-
cal sciences, the award to be made on
the kings sixtieth birthday, January
q, 1889.
1t has been generally supposed that
ants survive but single season, and
one interesting result of Sir John Lub-
books study of the creatures is the
finding of unexpected longevity among
them. Sir John has kept workers of
Lasius niger and Formica fusca for
seven years, while two queens of the
latter species must now be nearly
twelve years old, and he hopes 70 keep
them in good health for considerable
time longer.
The careful and laborious researches
of Prof. Fol, of Geneva, have resulted
in proving to his satisfaction that the
human embryo has genuine tail, like
that OF the embryos OF other mammals,
although it disappears in a short time.
The theory of mans descent from the
apes is based upon several anomalies
in the structure and growth of the hui
man body, but this discovery is re-
garded as an important link in the
chain of circumstantial evidence which
makes the hypothesis seem very prob
able to many students in certain
branches of science.
Phosphorescence is observed in a
great variety of marine animals, but
Prof w. c. Mcintosh remarks that the
functions of the luminosity cannot yet
be explained, the conditions under
which it appears being very diverse.
The numerous views which have been
advanced to account for the phosphore-
scence itself range over wide area
from its production by electricity, by
continued agitation of the water, by
inhibition Of light, to its manifestation
as vital action in the animals, or a
secretion of phosphorescence sub