The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-08-14
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Weather vanes Illuminated by cleo
tricity, so as to be visible at night, have
been suggested.
: G. F. I'm Thurm, the German explorer
of British Guiana, in climbing Mount
Roraima found, at a height of ), GOO feet
above the sca-leyel, a garden of orchids.
1t has been discovered that the famous
tree from the bark of which quinine is
obtained furnishes no quinine except in
malarial regions. If the tree is planted
in a malarlal region it will produce qui-
nine. fit is planted in a non malarial re-
gion it will flourish, but will not pro-
duce quinine. 1t is therefore claimed
that quinine is simply malarial poison
drawn from the soil and stored up by
the tree.
The antiquity of trade marks has been
traced by 4 contemporary to be almost
coeval with the industry of the human
race. 1t has been found that ancient
Babylon had property symbols, and the
Chinese declare that they had trade
marks 1 200 years before Christ. Gutcn-
burg. the inventor OF printing, won a
lawsuit about trademark, and the use
of distinguishing stamp was recognized
by the English parliament in 1900.
- Mother of-pearl, of which ornamental
buttons buckles, fan sticks, card cases
and other fancy articles are made is the
principal production of Tahiti, and makes
commerce variously estimated between
$50, 600 and 500, 600 a year. The la
goons in which the oysters producing
this material are found are growing
poorer every day, and unless protective
measures are adopted, they will be i'm
poverished, if not ruined, in a few years.
There is no record of the distance
from shore at which divers have gone
down in the Atlantic ocean. They can
go down to certain depths at any part of
the ocean. AS long ago as 1856, E. p.
Harrington, Of Westfeld, n. y, went
down 40 feet and recovered the iron
safe of the steamer Atlantic, sunk in
Lake Erie the year before. lie was
dressed in common divers suit, and
remained down eleven minutes. A re-
cent French invention enables men to
descend over 500 feet.
; The peculiar acid which exudes from
the pores Of the body acts directly upon
leather, and takes the life" out, render
iuS IL sui anu HuIu. III pdlr OF SnOeS
recently returned to a prominent manu-
faoture the uppers were moist with
sweat, the solcs dry. The kid leather,
when it hardened, was so brittle that it
could be torn and cracked like paper.
The destruction was caused by perspira-
ton of the feet. New shoes from the
same maker and of the same material
were perfectly sound and firm.
Professor Riley states that "insects
probably outnumber in species all other
animals combined, and that some three
hundred and fifty thousand species have
already been described, and full as many
more remain to be characterized. 1t
has often been asserted by naturalists
that the proportion of species of insects
to plants is about five to one, and, as
considerably more than one hundred
thousand plants have been described, it
is quite probable that Professor Riley's
estimate is not far out Of the way. 1t
must not, however, be supposed that
the insect enemies of plants are equally
distributed, and that each has lust five
and no more, for Professor Lintner
State entomologist of New York, records
no less than one hundred and seventy
six different species of insects affecting
the apple. Cultivated plants useful to
man appear TO have more insect enemies
than those of little or no economic value.
t-ayr Vail.