The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-05-02
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
ANIMAL VACCINATION IN INDIA.


Pasteurs system of vaccination for anthrax, OF
which French farmers have eagerly availed
themselves, has been most successfully tried by
the government of India-ponies, donkeys, COWS,
bullocks, buffaloes, elephants, sheep and guinea
pigs having been efectually protected against
fatal attacks of that destructive disease. A la
boratory for the manufacture of the "vaccine" has
been located at Bengal, and, if successful, will be
followed by similar establishments in other centres
A veterinary surgeon was some time ago sent to
study with Pasteur, and it is recommended that
others receive similar instruction.
A WEATHER PROPHET.
1t is possible, according to French authority,
to foretell the weather, sometimes ten or twenty
hours in advance, by observing and connected by
leads with two iron bars stuck into the ground a
few yards apart. In case of thunderstorm espe-
cially, noise like that of shriveling leaves in
creases until flash of lightning occurs, when
the sound resembles that of rain hail falling on
grass.
PLANT ORIGINS.
The laborious investigation of De CandOlle into
the difficult question of the origin of cultivated
plants have covered 247 species, of which 1913 are
now known to be wild at the present day, II are
classed as doubtful, and 81 others are not found
wild at all. There is every reason for believing
that at least seven of these last-or nearly three
per cent. of the entire number-are absolutely ex-
tinct "That something like three per cent. of the
species of heterogeneous plants" says a reviewer
of De Candolles work, "have become extinct dur
ing the historical epoch, and this mot in small
islands but on vast continents without any medi-
fcations of climate is perhaps the most impor-
tant general result reached by this investigation.
THE NOISE OF THE JAvAN VOLCANO.
Reports collected since the memorable eruption
of Krakatoa in August, 1883, have shown that
the explosions were heard over a circle of 30 de-
grees radius. A more astonishing announce
ment still is now made by DIR. F. A. Forel, the
wel-known Swiss physicist. He has learned that
on the day of the great eruption startling subter-
ranean noises resembling the rolling of distant
thunder were heard in Caiman-Brac, small is-
land of the Caribbean Sea, near the antipodes of
the volcano of Sunda Strait. These sounds can
not readily be attributed to any neighboring vol
canic disturbance. and DR.. Fore is forced to infer
that they may have been propagated through the
entire diameter of the earth. To test this bold
hypothesis inquiries are to be made concerning
the exact hour at which the detonations were
heard in Caiman-Brac.
MALARIA ATTITUDES.
While malaria belongs chiefly to low-lying dis
tricts it may, under favorable conditions, exist at
great elevations. On the Tuscan Apennines it is
found at height of 1, 100 feet above sea-level !;
on the Pyrenees and Mexican Cordlleras, 5000
feet; on the Himalayas, 6,40O on the island
of Ceylon, $500 feet ; and the Andes, ii 900
feet. Under ordinary circumstances, however,
certain moderate altitude affords immunity from
malaria. The elevation of entire security is not
positively known, but it has been approximated
as follows in Italy 400 to 500 feet in California
1000 feet; in the Appalachian chain ofthe United
States, 5000 feet; in the West Indies, 400 to
to 1900 feet; in India, 1000 feet. In any of
these regions malaria may drift up ravines to an
indefinite height
MISCELLANEOUS.
A new alloy melts at 100 degrees Fair, or con-
siderably below the temperature at which the
magical spoons of long ago melted in a cup of
tea. Its composition is bismuth, As; cadmium,
13 lead, 10; tin, 20. 1t will stand severe pres
sure, and is especially adapted to many important
uses.
1t has been observed in Russia that extreme
cold converts tin into asemi-crystalline con-
tanning large cavities. In one instance the pipes
of church organ were altered by cold to
be no longer sOnorous.
The membership of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, which was
doubled at the annual meeting in Boston in 1880,
has rapidly increased SINCE and has now reached
2,347. It's members are drawn from no less than
597 places.
From an examination of several skulls found
in North and South America, and believed to
have belonged to inhabitants living before the
glacial period, DR.. Kollmann concludes that the
races of that ancient epoch are those of to-day,
the same cranlal ana Iaclal forms being 1OunQ, In
spite of lapse of time and change of environment.
A remarkable property of the EGGPLANT, botoni-
cally known as mesembryanthemum crystalinum,
is its absorption of salt, fluid exuded by its
leaves having been found to contain about 80
per cent. of a-salt. For this reason it is sug-
gested that the plant may be advantageously
grown on lands made unproductive by an excess
of salt.
Several centuries ago the Chinese destroyed
their great forests. Able David, the French nat
uralst, now expresses the belief that they did
this to rid themselves Of tigers, leopards, and
other formidable beasts. AT cent forests exist in
China only among the mountain ranges, and the
plains so completely cultivated that native
plants are seldom found.
The attention Of the French Academy of Sciences
has been called to a new process of hardening
plaster Of Paris. The product is recommended
for floors, being as durable as oak and costing
only one fourth as much.
The Indians, according to Prof J. W. Powell,
we're the "mound- builders" and some build
mounds to the present day.