The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-03-26
Scientific Miscellany.

Scientific Miscellany.
Many clay and iron sewer p,pes are
found to be pervious to sewe,-gass
Painting 10 recommended.
1t has been proven to tho French Az.
ISOLATION for the Advancement of Sci
ences that the surgical operation Of
trepanning was praotioed in prehis.
torio ages.
DR.. Sophus Tromholt, of Norway, is
about preparing catalogue of all the
auroras which have been observed in
Northern Europe from tho earliest
times.
The re-planting Of forest trees in
north western India has already made
itself beneficially felt, according to Sir
G: Birdwood. in increasing the rain
fall of various districts.
The deep sea orustacea, according
to Prof. Moseley, either have very
large eyes or are eyeless, and there
must be a source of light in the deep
sea. That source, he claims. Is phos-
phoresence, but its light must be very
dim.
The little living worms which have
been most unexpectedly discovered in
Ice are described by Prof. Leidy as be-
ing white or color1ess, and from ono.
fourth to one-sixth 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. He finds that sea weeds arc very
strong and elastic, tho parts which
ordinarily lie lowest in the water
being capable of bearing tho greatest
strain. e
According to Sir Trevor Lawrence.
NJ. p, there is q collector of orchids
in England who employs fourteen
persons-nearly all German natural
lists, and each costing about $1,000 q
year-to search for different species
and varieties in different parts of the
world. He has two acres of the plants
under glass, and his total annual ex-
penditure on orchids is nearly $780,
600.
To prove that DIR. Koch's "comma
bacillus" is 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 person who died from
cholera. He was only slightly affect
ed, ii at all. but two guinea pigs and a
dog which were inoculated with the
same vOmit succumbed at once.
In a oou,D,ur;oo< ;ou IN %ho E.o~oh
Academy of Science, Mons. A. H. do
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. E.
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
spring and cools moro quickly in au-
tumn than that covered with living or
dead vegetable matter.
1t has been demonstrated by DIR.
Hans Molisch that the roots of plants
may be detected from their normal
direction by exposure on one side 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 other.
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
quakes traverse sand at speed of 985
feet, jointed 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
were killed in Franco by eating fungi
which were believed to be the edible
mushroom. The fungus eaten in some
of the cases was of kind which is Or
dinarily wholesome, but which devel.
ops poisonous qualities under certain
conditions. In cooking common test
for poison is a piece of silver, which
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 and the silver remained unaf-
fected, while the mushrooms killed
those who 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 one 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 geologist who has
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 tons 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 Th0r0ughfare.
The famous shell road of New Or
leans is boulevard of almost snowy
wilderness, nearly 200 feet in width and
8 miles it length, extending from the
western limits of the city to Lake Pont-
chdrtrain. A summer evening drive
along this road, through the forests of
cypress and oak, the black moss hang