Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-11-12
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
The seed vessels of the bird-catchino
tree of New Zealand secrete a very
sticky gum, IN which not merely III
sects but birds are cntangled and per-
ish
In recent English experiments it has
been found that the risk of dust explo-
sions in coal mines may be obviated by
removing or watering the dust for a
distance of six yards around the shot
holes.
Prof. Vulpian, of the Paris Academy
OF Medicine, repudiates the view that
persons can suffer after decapitation,
as he finds satisfactory physiological
evidence that the severing of the head
produces instantaneous loss of con-
seriousness.
DR.. Percy F. Frankland's expert
ments have shown that the best filters
Tor drinking water are made of green
sand, coke, animal charcoal, or sponpy
iron, but in every case the filter loses
It's power to remove all organic parti-
cIes after being used a month
A geological commission has been
appointed by the Spanish government
to investigate the Philippines. The
geography and topography of the
Archipelago will be studied, as well as
the geology, and map will be pre-
pared to complete and correct existing
ones.
A disease known in Ceylon rs kakke
or beriberi has been investigated bv
DR.. W. Taylor, of Osaka, Japan, and
traced to a microscopic spore, which is
often found largely developed in rice
and has been detected in the earth of
certain alluvial and damp localities.
According to Henry Vivarez, French
electrician, silicious bronze has con-
ductibility comparable to that of cop
per and a strength greater than that
OF iron. For telegraphic purposes sill
cious bronze wires may be used to re-
place those of galvanized iron more
than five times as heavy.
Prof. A. Landmark, chief director of
the Norwegian Fisheries. finds that I'M
der favorable conditions salmon may
sometimes jump sixteen feet perpen-
dicularly, and that when the fish leap
is foot or two short of the waterfall
it often succeeds in completing the as
cent by deXtrou5 use of the tail.
The retina of the living eye has been
photographed by two English opera
tors. Owing to the non-actinic color
of the retina, an exposure of twenty
minutes by gaslight was required witA
an extra sensitive gelatine plate. AL
though small, the negative shows the
bifurcation of the blood-vessels, and
also the edge of the blind spot.
From experiments in tropical Africa
Herman Soyaux concludes that agri-
culture is practicable, the soil-though
exhausted in q year by maize and man
ise-being suitable for the cultivation
of coffee, vanilla, India rubber, tobac-
co, cotton and sugar cane. In the Up
per Congo country these plants and
many others grow naturally or are al
ready cultivated.
The use of nitro lycerine as a sub
stitute for alcohol for stimulating the
action of the heart has been recon-
mended by DR.. j. B. Burroughs. The
advantages claimed are, that only a
minute quantity is required, that the
nitro-glycerine is practically free from
taste and odor, that it acts Immediate
ly, and that 1t is not likely to induce
craving for alcoholic ssimulant.
Tuttle's comet of 1853, having a pc
Rod of about fourteen years, makes its
nearest approach to the sun this year,
and was seen at Nice on August z.
From observations made during the
two former appearances, Rahts, a Ger
man computer, calculated an orbit,
which agrees with the place in which
the comet has just been found within
fifteen seconds of time and about six
minutes of arc; so that by pointing
telescope to the computed place, the
comet would be III the field of view af-
ter an absence of fourteen years.