Bridgeton pioneer., 1885-12-31
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,

Ddnnliag the Polar Sea.-The polar
current passing between Labrador and
Newfoundland appears to defect the
Gulf Stream from the shores of the
United States and the British Prov
lnces, interposing cold wall of water
between the land and genial warmth
OF the current from the tropics. By
building a dam across the narrow
Straits of Belle Isle-about ten miles
wide and averaging $50 feet in depth
MIR. John L. Goodridge, Jr., suggests
that the icy stream might be turned
aside into mid-ocean. Then, it is be-
lieved, the Gulf Stream would skirt
the American coast and materially
change its climate from Cape Hatteras
to Newfoundland, freeing the Gulf of
st. Lawrence from icebergs and giving
to Nova Scotia the mildness of Cane
May.
Using the Earth's Heot.-There is
abundant reason for believing that the
earth's crust is very thin, asserts Mr..
}. Starkie Gardner, and it seems not
impossible that some means NAV be
devised for utilizing the intense heat
OF the molten mass below. This is al
ready being done, in fact, to some ex-
tent, an artesian we'll having been
bored at Pesth to obtain warm water
for public baths, etc From a depth
OF about 5000 feet a large quantity of
water heated to 161 degrees Fahrenheit
pours forth, and the boring is to be
continued until water at 17S degrees is
yielded.
Brains IN Tertiary Times. In paper
on the size of the brain in extinct ami
mails, Prof. Marsh, of Yale College, has
brought forward the remarkable fact
that in the race for life during past
ages the survival of any particular
group of animals depended on the size
OF their brain as compared with that
OF their contemporaries of the same
class. Brains won then, as now, and
the brain of animals crushed out of
existence was always fonnd to be rela-
lively smaller than that of those out
living them.
feptdcang Nerres. expert
ments have been made in joining and
restoring the functions of divided
nerves, even nerves of different func-
ton being used to replace those par
TALLY destroyed. 1t is thought that
even sight and hearing may be restored
after injury to the nerves on which
they depend by bringing other nerves
into service by artificial union.
A Remarkable Instrument Among
the tlints of the chalk formations is oc-
casionally found one which emits a
clear musical sound when struck with
another flint Tissandier tells of a dis
tlnguished French musician, H. Baudre,
who is Jealous collector of these mus
ical stones, and who has Just succeeded
in making unique piano from them.
In this instrument the fiints are sus-
pended by wires above a sounding
board, and are played upon by two
other tiints. The stones of the piano
number twenty-siX forming the two
chromatic octaves, and were collected
with much patient labor during a per-
iod of more than thirty years. There
seems to be no relation between the
sizes of the stones and their tones.
Flo'cer Pigments. German
chemist, finds that the colors of fruits
and flowers are furnished by a verv
smallnumbero ofpigments, which he clas-
slties into three groups: first, reds: sec
ond, yellows; and third, blues and VIC
lets. He omits chlorophyll green, be-
cause it is comparatively rare in flow
ers. Orange is produced by a thicken-
ing of the deposit of the fundamental
yellow pigment, the coloring matter
being the same in the rind of an orange
as in a yellow buttercup. Roses and
carnations show the characteristic red
pigment, in which variations are pro-
duced by the presence of acids.
UniuerSdl Color Blindness. Color
blindness, as usually understood, is
blindness to red, to green, or to blue
or violet and about one male in every
twenty five appears to be unable to
| discriminate between the principal
colors of the spectrum. In stricter
sense, all persons are color blind, for,
although Chevreuli is said to have been
able to distinguish IA, ,420 tones of color,
it has been proven that the human eye
is totally incapable of receiving all the
vibrations of color which must exist in
the spectrum.
Copper-P Plating CorpSeS.-A French
chemist proposes coating the bodies of
the dead with skin of copper by
means of the well-known electro-plat-
ing process. A second plating of gold
or silver could be added if desired
This treatment, which permanently
preserves corpses, has already been ap-
piled to many human subjects and to