Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-06-03
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
[Compiled for the SPECTATOR. !

Compiled for the SPECTATOR.
A CHINESE INDUsTRY.-The British con-
sular agent at Chung King, Mr.. Hosie, has
made tour through certain districts OF
China for the purpose of gaining informa-
ton concerning insect white wax. He has
found the substance to be the product of
minute brown lice-like insects, which exist,
together with small black beetle. in ex-
crescences or gals attached to the boughs
and twigs of an evergreen, called by the
Chinese s'the insect tree" Early in May
these gals are collected and placed on the
wax-t tree, usually stump from which rise
numerous sprouts. The creatures soon de-
post white coating on the boughs and
twigs, which often reaches a thickness of a
quarter of an inch in ninety or hundred
days. The branches are then Topped of,
and the wax is carefully removed by scrap
ing and boiling. The material is then pour
ed into moulds, and becomes the white
wax of commerce, used chiefly for candles.
1t appears that an alloy of copper, plati-
mum and tin has been extensively used in
Great Britain for iewelry with the object of
deceiving pawnbrokers. The fraud has
been very successful, as the compound re-
sistS the usual nitric acid test for gold. The
alloy has even been used for counterfeiting
English coin.
Mr.. Lennox Browne, an English physiol-
ogist, finds that drinking and smoking af-
feet the vocal organs, statistics furnished by
no less than $50 professional vocalists hav-
idg shown him that a singer should avoid
all stimulants.
The latest report of the Russian Geogra-
phical society makes the Lena delta extend
nearly half degree farther north than on
the best maps. The northern cape of Dan
ube (Dounay) Island is placed in 73o So
north latitude, while on the Vega map it is
in 73O 81.
Weather-vanes illuminated by electricity,
so as to be visible at night, have been sug-
gested.
GEOGRAPHY IN PLEASURE PARKs.-At a
conference in Madrid Prof. Escriehe, of
Quadalajara, has described project for
making familiar in an interesting way the
dry details of geography. His plan relates
to the formation in cities and towns of 'tgeo-
graphical parks" each to be a public gar
den reproducing on certain scale, accord
ing to its extent, the geographical features
of a country. The park would be a kind of
map in relief, the principal towns being re-
presented by places surrounded by trees,
the main highways by winding paths, and
the rivers by streams of water. The clumps
of trees within the network of roads would
form varied pastures, in which the natural
products of each locality would find place
among the flowers; and in the centre, where
the towns should be, would be placed small
structures in which would be Photographic
views of the principal monuments and, es-
pecially, the most important astronomical,
geographical, historical and artistic in
"a
THE SCIENCE OF DEEP PLowING.-A
German agricultural chemist, Prof Helm
itch, concludes that plants are best nourish-
ed when the plant-food in soil or water
reaches certain concentration, not the alb
solute quantity of plant food but its con-
centration determining the fertility of a
soil. Deep tillage without q Simultaneous
ly increased application Of manure is hurt
full, since the plant-food is thus diluted and
the nutrition of the crop rendered more diff
ficult. Deep tillage ensures, but heighten-
ed concentration of plant food increases, the
harvest.
During the summer season of this year,
thunderstorms will form subject of special
study by the newly organized New Eng
land Meteorological Society. Observa-
tions, divided into several classes to bring
in it, will be taken whenever thunder
storm can be seen or heard.
Bacterial germs, supposed to be capable
of producing disease, have been found in
the air of Switzerland at heights as great as
$500 feet above sea level.
CHINESE MINERAL WEALTH.-The coal
fields of China proper, according to paper
read before the Philosophical Society of
Glasgow by Mr.. A. Williamson, have a to-
tai area of about 400, 600 square miles. Both
the Shansi and Heenan coal-felds are great
er than that of the aggregate of the princi-
pal coal producing countries of Europe, and
in other districts of North China the coal
fields are said TO be seven times as large as
all those of Great Britain. Tho coal is of
various kinds, and iron ores are in all parts
found in close proximity to the coal.
From experiments made in Germany by
Prof Z. Wollny, it appears that the air is
considerably cooler over a field under crop
than over a fallow field, and that the tenn
pelature fuctuates less in the fnrmer case
than in the latter. The maximum of air
temperature travels with the course of the
sun, from eastern slopes y. the morning to
the 9ntl lfeeffr, at noon and to the western in
the evening.
A peculiar black paper of Siam and Bur-
nah, made from the bark of certain trees,
is used very much as are states in Europe,
and America. The writing upon it may be
rubbed out by the application of bete leaves,
just as slate-writing is erased by means of a
sponge.
Several Spanish doctors have been prac-
ticing vaccination" with cholera virus. 1t
is reported that SO much faith is placed in
these experiments by people of all classes
that 300 individuals were inoculated in
Valencia in single afternoon. A commits
sion from Madrid has been sent to report On
the result.
An electrician asserts that in bodies in
which life is not extinct the temperature
rises upon the application of an electric cur
rent, but never in the case of actual death.
This fact supplies test for use in cases
where life is suspected to remain in persons
apparently dead.