The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-03-28
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
FISH IN WARM WATER.

Anexperiment has been made at South Kensing-
ton to determine the degree of heat which various
fishes may endure. The water containing them
was slowly warmed when individuals of the several
species were Frustrated at the following tempera-
lures: Perch, $50; roach, S230; salmon, $50;
minnow, $50; gudgeon, $50; dace, $50; common
tench, $50; golden tench, $50; carp, 9l0. Bran
dy-about which as q fish restorer much has late
ly been said-seemed to have good effect in restor
ing to animation the exhausted objects Of the ex-
pertinent.
MORE WORK FOR ELECTRICITY.
One by one the instruments and processes of our
fathers are being relegated to the domain of the
Anticipated. Now the churn must go. According
to French patent, the passage of suitable cleo
trio current through milk causes the rapid separa-
ton of the butter and renders churning unneces-
sary. The manufacture of cheese and the re-
moval of rancidity from butter by electrical aid
are also claimed.
SHAPE OF THE EARTH's ORBIT.
Proctor remarks that common error is the
supposition that the earth moves in an obviously
eliptical path, whereas it really appears to travel
in circle. Taking the earths orbit when its
eccentricity was very nearly at its greatest-SSO,
900 years ago-the numbers S25 and 324 represent
the actual proportion between the greatest and
shortest axis of the figure described by our planets
motion around the sun. So that if circle is
drawn with radius of three and one-fourth inches
it nowhere departs more than the hundredth part
of an inch from the ellipse which would represent
with perfect accuracy the orbit of the earth $780,,
600 years ago, when it was SO much more diverg-
emit from an exactly circular form than now.
POTATO cELLuLoID.
A material possessing the properties Of celluloid
is now made from potatoes, and is being used in
France for imitation meerschaum pipes and for
billiard balls. The substance is prepared by boil
ing the peeled potatoes in dilute sulphuric acid
eight parts of acid to one hundred parts of water
for thirty-six hours, and then drying between
blotting paper by pressure.
PLANT PARASITES.
Almost every sort of plant furnishes a living to
its own peculiar species of Aphis, or pant-louse,
by which great destruction is occasionally wrought.
DIR. ]. Sibley Hicks, an English entomologist,
states that the Hop Aphis caused loss in 1882
amounting to nearly 100000. This enormous
damage is explained by the fabulous rate of in
crease of the Aphis it being possible for a single
female to see in her lifetime progeny OF over A.,
500 million individuals. Another destructive
species known as American blight, occurs on APP
Die trees, and was first observed in 1885 in an or
chard near London. The Vine Aphis (Pholtyrera)
has done immense damage in the vineyards of
France, where it was first found in 1865. Fortu-
nately, the Aphides have numerous enemies, es-
pecially active being the caterpillars of the
lady bird, the lacewing fly and its grub, and the
ichneumon fly. A lady-bird caterpillar will de-
YOUR forty or fifty daily.
MISCELLANEOUS.
An opportunity of studying case of leprosy has
been afforded DR.. P. Guttman, who assures the
Berlin Medical Society that there can be no doubt
that the living bacilli found in the system of lep
rous patients are really the cause of the disease.
Evidence of the sanitary value of sunlight is
afforded by the recent experiments in France OF
Mons. E. Ducaux, who finds that the light of the
sun, in its action germs, is fifty times as de-
structive as its heat
1t is reported that Herr Palsa, of Vienna, the
wel-known discoverer of asteroids, wishes to sell
for $3.50 the right of naming small planet No. 244
the money to be applied by him to the fitting out
of an expedition to observe the total eclipse OF
August, 1856.
The seas of India and China now have twelve
tidal observatories, each of which is moved to q
new spot every fifth year.
The conclusion has been reached by Mons.
Fayol that the absorption of atmospheric oxygen
by coal dust usually produces the rise in temper
ture to which spontaneous combustion is due. He
finds that Ignite is ignited at the low temperature
of 300o anthracite at $3.50, and other varieties Of
coal, in powdered form, at intermediate tempera-
lures.
A writer from FIJI asserts that when focks Of
tern and other sea-fow rest upon the the water
becomes smooth, an effect which he ascribes to oil
emitted by the birds.
An International exhibition of animals is pro-
posed for next year at Buda-Pesth.
A brain model of gigantic size has been made
for an American museum by Buechi, of Berne.-
1t is about four feet in height by two feet and a
half in width, and shows the intricate mechanism
of the brain in detail.
Distilled water saturated with oxygen is now
prepared in Paris, and is rapidly gaining favor.
Aside from its healthfulness for ordinary table
use it is said to be valuable in the treatment of
diseases of the digestive organs.
The Dutch Government has had collected the
reports of 300 eye witnesses in order to prepare
an accurate history of the Krakatoa volcanic erup-
ton, which many suppose was the cause of the
wonderful sky-glows seen over large part of the
world.