The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-12-25
SCIENTIFIC xuscF:.s.SY.

A bequest of $lO. 600 has Seen left TO
the Paris Geographical society for the
purpose Of providing an annual prize
for the best geographical work-either
map or book-published during the
year.
Arsenic having been found to net ns
a preventive OF malariai fever. Mr.. w.
Mattieu Williams has suggcste'i That
the generally condemned arscnical.
wall papers may be useful a. u pro-
lection against the dangers Of regions
subject 10 malaria.
A singular case in charge OF DR..
Strumpeil. Of LeipSic, \ few years ago.
was that Of a young man in whom
brain disease hu,i destroyed all sensi-
bility to touch. and also the functions
of one eye and one a The youth
was wide awake, conscious and intelli-
gent when the remaining eye and ear
were open. but ut nee became uncOn-
scious when they were carefully
closed.
In u new French apparatus the heat
OF the sun failing upon metallic plates
tightly covering "A thin layer of Il VIOLA
tile liquid, like ammonia, Is combined
with tho natural GOODNESS OF water to
generate power for pumping. With
plates having Il surface of forty square
yards such an apparatus would hourly
raise 1872 gallons of water 65 feet in
warm climates, aud at Auteuil raises
over 800 gallons per hour.
While only z25 miles long and IS
wide, the island OF Formosa, just con.
quered by the French, is very valuable
for its richness in animal and vegeta-
BILE life. One OF its products is am
phor, of which it is the worlds chief
source of supply, although the tree
Taurus camphora) also grows in
BorneO, Sumatra,- Japan and China
The camphor is distilled from the fine
ly cut wood in gently heated crucibles.
the vapors being condensed upon q
network of rice stems.
Man is not the only animal that sui
cides. Herrings and other fishes have
sought death by rushing ashore in
myriads; regiments Of ants. by delib-
crately marching into streams; swarms
of rats. by migrating in the face Of
their deadly foes; and even butterflies,
by flying in i'm ense clouds straight
out to sea. 1t wOuId be interesting to
learn the causes Of such cases of APP
parent wholesale and deliberate self
destruction. Is the act a purely con-
scious one, or are The creatures victims
OF disease-mental Jr physicalp
There is abundant reason for believ-
ing that the carth's crust is very thin.
asserts MIR. j. Siarkic Gardner, and il
,., ,sli, t..t $3.50 D,nn
may be devised for utilizing the intense
heat of the molten mass below. This
Is already being done, in fact, to some
extent, an artesian we'll having been
bored at Pesth TO obtain warm water
for public baths, etc. From Il depth
OF about 5000 feet II large quantity Of
water heated TO l6I degrees Fahrenheit
pours forth. and The boring is to bt
continued until water Hi l1S degrees il
yielded.
The odoriferouS particle, which attec
the organs OF smeil must Dn inconceiv
ably small. Especially is this true O
musk, which constantly emits q pow
erful odor for many years, and is sale
to show no apparent loss OF weight
Papers perfumcd with Il single grain o
ambergris were kept by Halter for for
ty years, when the odor was rs strong
as ever. The molccule of camphOl
sensible to the smell has been estimat
ed by Bordenave to weigh n 2.262.
584, OOOth of Il grain. Keil has conclud
ed that a drachm of asafetida exposed
to the open air loses II ~, l2Oth of
grain in weight each minute, or ON
2,88Oth of its entire weight in a day.