The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1885-03-04
For the FLORIDA Ags5tulrrnIsr.
scientifc discellany.

The simultaneous t0Gcurrence OF earth
quakes and hurricanes in Spain and it's
neighborhood has led Mr.. r. A. Proctor
to make some very Interesting calcula
tions. A change of halt an inch in the
barometer over anAfea of 100000 square
miles-about equal to that of the British
Isles with the contained seas-would
mean variation OF some II 900 million
tons in the weight Of the air resting on
that surface; one loot of extra tide eX-
tending outward ten miles would give
an extra weight of 80 million tons on
coast 100 miles long Greater variations
OF barometric pressure occur, over much
greater areas and tides sometimes
reach several feet Beyond their usual
limits, on much greater lengths of coast
81 take it, then, III. Proctor concludes
''that we may fairly consider that the ex-
ternal action exerted on the earth's
crust, as the tidal wave sweeps upon a
shore-line, as winds heap up the seas
there, and as atmospheric pressure in
creases and diminish hes especially dur
ing the progress OF great storms-must
play most impoftallF part in producing
subterranean distufbances. At every
moment of time millions OF millions OF
tons of matter, in the form of water and
air, are being flung hither and thither
over the surface Qf the earth. Can we
wonder if, apart fr5llg interior causes of
disturbance, the crust shows signs of
occasional tluct5satlDlls%
Measurements OF the fs: t6oFpuscles of
the blood in fourteen different races of
men have shown the average diameter
to be 1-3224 of an inch, the maximum
diameter being l-27777, and the minimum
14000.
Sholt-sightedness according to a re-
cent paper by Mr.. r. b. Carter, +. Il.
c. S., has come into existence within
historic time, and into prevalence almost
within living memory, while it now at
fects at least ten per cent OF England's
population. 1t is essentially adefect-r
bordering on disease of civilization. 4
Science BIRTHS. Astronomy, the old
est of the sciences, is said to have orig
mated at Babylon in observations made
about , ,234, B. G. it was much advanced
in Chaldea under Nabonassar; and it
was known to the Chinese about 100,
B. c., if not many centuries before. Ge-
ology, the science of the earth, is claimed
to have been cultivated in China long
before the Christian era, and it occupied
the attention of Aristotle, Theophrastus,
Pliny, Avicenna and the Arabian writ
ers. The Egyptians and Chinese claim
an early acquaintance with chemistry,
whose first facts were revealed by the
experiments of the alchemistS, but it did
not become science until the seven
teenth century. Botany and zoology
were founded by Aristotle, about $50,
B. c..
NORTHERN LIMIT OF CoRN-GRowTH.-
On the northeast shores of Asia corn
cannot be cultivated at 500 north latitude
although in the interior it natures as
far north as $40. On the eastern shores
of America the northern limit of it's
growth is 500, and on the western shores
it reaches about so, while in the inter-
mediate country it is known to go as far
as $50. The fact that it thrives farther
north in the interior of continents than
on the shores is thought by NJ. Buysman
to be due not alone to the cooling influ-
ence of ice-accumulations on the coasts
but to depend largely on the greater
amount of sunlight received in the dry
regions far from the oceans. In Norway
corn grows in latitude 700, the climate
being not only warmed by proximity to
the Gulf Stream but the skies being very
clear as we'll. Even in the most north
ern regions, where the shade tempera-
ture is very low, vegetation may grow in
sheltered spots exposed to the sun, and
luxuriant scurvy grass has been found
on Walden Island, beyond 500 north lat
titude.
According to Sir James Tenant, leop-
ards have, in Ceylon at least, strange
fancy for the flesh of small pox victims,
the specific odor of the disease seeming
to strongly attract them
EARTHQUAKES AT DIFFERENT SEA-
soNs.-The current notion that more
earthquakes occur in winter than in sum-
mer receives some support from the fol-
lowing table, which shows the total num-
Der of shocks recorded at the meteorolo-
gical observatory OF Toxic, Japan, for
the respective months OF the ten years