Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1885-03-26

Scientific Misea,,anv

Scientific MISCELLANY.
Many clay and iron sewer p,,es ara
Ioina 70 be pervious to sewer-gass.
Painting is recommended.
IL has been proven to the French As.
sociation for the Advancement OF sci.
enees that the surgical operation az
trepanning was practiced in prehis.
toric ages. ~
DIR. Sophus Tromholt, of NORWAY ia
aoout preparing a catalogue of ali the
auroras which have been observed in
Northern Europe from the earliest
The r~e-planting Of forest trees in
north ':cstern India has already made
itself benefcially felt, according TO Sir
"; birdwood. in increasing the rain
fall OF various districts.
The deep sea crustacea, according
70 pIof. Moseley, either have very
large eyes or are eyeless, and there
must be a source of light in the deem
sea. That source, he claims, is phos.
dim. way
The little living worms which have
Deen most Unexpectedly discovered in
ice are described by Prof. Leidy as be-
ing whte or colorless, and from one.
iourtn 20 one-siyth Of an inch long by
one-seventy-tifth of an inch in thick.
ness the species being unknown.
A Swedish naturalist, DIR. Wills, has
Investigated the strength of various
Kinds OF sea weed to resist strains,
such as are caused by the swell of the
sea. dc tiEds that sea weeds are yery
strong and elastic, the parts which
ordinarily lie lowest in the water
being capable of bearing the greatest
strain.
According to SIR Trevor Lawrence,
nj. T., there is a collector of orchids
IN England who employs fourteen
persons-.nearly all German natural
ists' and each costing about $1,000 a
year-to search for different species
and varieties in different parts of the
world. lie has two acres Of the plants
under glass, and his total annual ex-
penditure on orchids is nearly $780,
900.
To prove that DIR. Koch's "comma
bacillus" IN not the cause of cholera,
and that the vomit of cholera patients
Is not infectious, a French physician
has swallowed some pills made from
the vomit of a person who died from
cholera. He was only slightly affect
ed, If at all, but two guinea pigs and a
dog which were inOculated with the
same vomit succumbed at once.
In a communication to the French
Academy of Science, Mons. A. II. dc
Villeneuve has urged the Importance
Of using distilled water for drinking
purposes, and has suggested that the
cost may be greatly reduced by using
that obtainable from steam engines.
He asserts that it is not unpalatable
and contains sufficient air, while the
absence of lime salts is an advantage.
A German experimenter, Prof. Il.
Wollny, has found that soil covered
with living heritage or dead vegetable
matter is colder in summer and warmer
in winter than bare soil under other
wise similar conditions. The differ
ence of temperature is greatest in sum
mer and least in spring and autumn.
Bare soil heats more quickly in the
{ SBAluE blu NOOIo lhOlo NulNhAN III du-
tumn than that covered with living or
dead vegetable matter.
IL has been demonstrated by DIR.
Hans Molisch that the roots of plants
may be detected from their normal
direction by exposure on one sIdo TO
certain gases. If such gases are in
moderate quantities the roots bend
away from their source; if in larger
quantities, toward such source. The
side of the root exposed to the action
of the gas grows more strongly than
the ether.
In experiments by Profs. Milne and
Gray it has been determined that nor
NAL earthquake waves are transmitted
through hardened mud at the rate Of
437 feet per second, and transverse
waves at 357 feet per second. Mallet's
earlier experiments showed that earth
uuakes traverse sand at a speed of S35
feet, iointed granite 1905 feet, and
solid granite 1865 feet per second.
Prof. Ewing considers the last number
TO be very much too small.
During last summer fifteen per'Ons
we're killed in France by eating fungi
which were believed to be the edible
mushroom. The fungus eaten in some
of the cases was of a kind which is or
dinarily wholesome, but which devel-
ops poisonous qualities under certain
conditions. In cooking a common test
for poison is a piece Of silver, which
I theory asserts will become blackened
when placed in the vessel containing
the poisonous forms of fungi. This
test has proven to be unreliable, as in
several of these French cases it was
applied aud the silver remained unaf-
fected, while the mushrooms killed
those vino ate them.
Besides the vast quantities of solid
particles which are washed from the
land into the sea-reducing the height
of the entire Mississippi basin at the
estimated rate Of n foot in 5000
years-much matter is dissolved by
the water, and carried away in a state
in which it ordinarily escapes notice,
From data furnished by the Missis-
sippi, the La Plata, the Amazon and
the st. Lawrence, Mr.. T. Mellard
Reade. an English g~eologist who has
1 devoted much attention to the chem
ical foundations of the earth's surface,
has calculated that the whole Amer
lean continent is losing in this way an
average of 100 IONS per square mile
each year. Similar results have been
obtained for Europe, leading Mr..
Reade TO infer that the whole of the
land draining into the Atlantic ocean
from America, Africa, Europe and
Asia contributes matter in solution
which, If reduced to rock at two tons
to the cubic yard, would equal one
cubic mile every six years.
A Celebrated ThOrOughfare.