Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-05-27
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
compiled for the SPECTATOR.


EFFECT OF ACID FUMES ON PLANTS
Schroeder, in Germany, has been investigat-
ing the influence upon vegetation of the acid
fumes which are present in smoke-laden
atmosphere. He finds that one part of sui
phurous acid in 81, 900 Of air is capable of
occasioning serious damage to plants in
short time. They are less sensitive to
hydrochloric acid. Coniferous trees are
most sensitive to sulphurous acid, then de-
ciduous trees, while ordinary field plants
resist longest. Oaks, planes, elms, poplars
and mountain-ashes resist better than birch
es and beeches. Fruit trees are very sensi-
tive; plums and cherries more so than pears
and apples.
Miss E. A. Ormerod, England's we'll
'snown entomOlogist, reports that her many
correspondents all agree that sparrows will
not feed on insects when seeds, grain, fruit
and other vegetable food is within reach
She therefore advocates a judicious destruc
tion of the Ouse-sparrow for the protection
of crops, but is careful to show that the OBJ
lection does not extend to other small birds.
Although very rare before, great num-
Der of moderate earthquakes were recorded
in Tasmania during 1888 and 1884, nearly
100 having been felt at st. Mary's in SIN
gle month of last year. These small shocks
y
evidently originate 100 miles or more out to
sea, and are seldom felt outside of the north
~ stern part Of Tasmania.
"The sorrowful tree" tiourishing only at
night, is a singular vegetable Of the Island
of Goa, near Bombay Half an hour after
sunset the tree is full of sweet smelling
flowers, although none are to be seen dur
ing the day, as they close up or drop off
with the anDearance of the sun.
A case has been reported in which an ex-
traordinary outbreak of measles and pneu-
monia among the children in a public insti-
tuition was caused by sewergas.
NATURE TRANsFORMATIoN.-A tadpole,
the larva of a frog, has tail and no legs,
gills instead of lungs, heart precisely like
that of fish, horny beak for eating vege-
table food, and spiral intestine to digest
it. With the approach of maturity the
hind legs appear, then the front pair; the
beak falls off; the tail and gills waste away;
the lungs are created; the digestive appara
tus is changed to suit the animal diet; the
heart becomes reptilian in type by The addi-
ton of another auricle; in fact, skin, mus
cles, nerves and blood-vessels vanish, being
absorbed atom by atom, and a new set is
substituted.
Bees in unaccustomed localities, accord
ing to FL. Muller, are timid, and find honey
with difficulty, but rapidly become accus-
toned to their surroundings. Flowers of
subdued colors are selected by bees instead
of the more brilliantly colOred ones. Blue
or violet appears to be most attractive, and
bright yellow the least So Fabre has found
that many bees are able TO return TO their
nests when carried to a distance.
The hearing organ of animals is generally
double, but not always located in the head.
In the clam it exists at the base of the foot;
in some grasshoppers it is in the fore legs,
and it appears on the wings of many insects.
The auditory sacs of Holsters and crabs are
at the base of the antennae.
By means of that remarkable instrument
of modern research, the spectroscope, the
otherwise absolutely imperceptible motion
of socalled fixed stars is not only detected
but measured. Sirius is found to be now
approaching the earth at the rate of twenty
miles a second, while a few years ago this
notable star was receding from us twenty
five miles each second.
True pine or forest wool, on the author
ity of Mr.. Thomas Greenish, is made from
needle-like leaves of one or more species of
pine previously exhausted of the volatile oil
and other matters by process of boiling.
LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS Gin the pres
ence of time-intervals, says one of the
ablest of modern astronomers, ''seen to be
at once infinitely great and infinitely little
infinitely great compared with the dura-
ton of our earth, infinitely little by COM
pariSon with the eternities amidst which
they are lOst-what reason can we have
when viewing any orb in space from our lit
tie earth, for saying non is the time when
that orb is, like our earth, the abode of life?
Why should life on that ealth synchronise
with life ON the earth? Are not, on the
contrary, the chances infinitely great against
such coincidence? If, as Helmholtz has
we'll said, the duration of life on our earth
is but the minutest ripple in the infinite
ocean of time, and the duration of life on
any other planet of like mnuteness, what
reason can we have for supposing that those
remote, minute, and no way associated
waves of life must needs be abreast of each
other on the infinite ocean whose surface
they scarcely ripple? Whether
we turn our thoughts to planet, sun, or
galaxy, the law of Nature (recognized as
universal within the domain as yet examin
ed that the duration of life in the indi-
vdual is indefinitely short compared with
the duration of the type to which the indi-
yidual belongs, assures US, or at least rem
ders it highly probable, that in any mem
Der Of any of these orders taken at random,
it is more probable That life is wanting than
that life exists at this present time. New
ertheless, it is at least as probable that ev-
cry member of every order-planet, sun,
galaxy, and SO onward to higher and higher
orders endlessly-has keen, is now, or will
hereafter be, life-supporting after its
kind"
a vegetable leather, said to be fully equal
to the animal product, is made in Paris
from gutta percha, sulphur, raw cotton,
zinc white, kollothar, and oxide of anti
moDy. The first two ingredients are neces-
sary, while the other parts may be replaced
by chemicals of similar character. The
proportions are varied with the purposes.