The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-01-14
CURIOUS. USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.

According to Mr.. ]. Harrington Douty. Of
the asylum at Worcester, England, an i'm
perfect supply Of oxygen, or simply breath
ing Vltiated atmO here, may suffice to
produce tie mental dso-der known es mel
sncholis.
DR.. Koch, Of Berlin, is reported to have
succeeded II producing genuine cholera in
rabbits By means of the bscilIi, which he
has II garded as the cause OF the disesse.
Two Swiss hysioisns, Nicai and Ritsch,
claim to have met with earlier success in
this in portant experiment than Dr.. Koch.
Botanists have evidence that trees may at
tain very long lives. The age of an elm has
been estimated at 335 years; that Of some
palms st rom 600 to zoo years; that OF an
olive tree at 200 years; of plane tree at
40; OF 1edar at 500; OF an oak at 1000;
OF yew e. 2, $50; of 8 taxodium at 4, 900, and
Of a bsoba tree az 1000 years.
For bvgienic reasons wallpaper should
not be ie sither sir or water tight. The
ps1-or LIE walls is like clothes on the per-
sUL, and he walls of the house should have
flee - ter course with the open air. When
the paper is waterproof the dampness OF the
walls is in creased and prolonged, injuring
health and producing other evils.
Professor R. S. Ball, astronomer royal of
Ireland, declared it to be his belief thst the
masses Of stone and iron which fall 10 the
earth as meteorities were originally thrown
ont by terrestrial volcanoes at q remote per-
Iod IN chr planets geological history. Ii so,
the fragments must have been projected be-
yond the influence OF the earth's attraction
by explosions giving them the tremendous
initial velocity of six miles second.
The whale feeds by putting its gigantic
strainer INTO operation as it swims through
the shoals OF minute molluscs, crustaceans
E i'd fishes which are constant ly found AZ the
surface Of the sea. Opening its capacious
T.oU!'i and allowing the eeawater with its
multitudiDous tenants to ill the oval cavity,
the whale shuts Its lower Jaw upon It's horn Y
plates, and stTainDg the water Though
them, swallows the pisy stranded upon IFS
vast tongue.
The oldest known lsud animal is a scor-
pion tly found ny Professor g. Lind
strom liz the uppermost layer Of the silurian
rocks of GothIand, Sweden. This fossil
scorpion has, like existing ones, seven seq
ments in the tail the last shaped into sting,
and seyen abdominal segments. There are
eight legs, and both tbs great claws, or pal
pi still remain. The legs differ from those OF
existing scorpions in ending in point IL
stead OF cl01s. The air-breathiDg nature of
the animal is made evident by the preserva-
| ton OF It's stigma, or breathing hole, on the
right side. 1t will be remembered that all
| silurian animals hitherto discovered have
been fishes, crustacea, molluscs, crabs spong'
es, etc.-all of than aquatic animals, yet &c.
ologists have always supposed that LAND, and
probably land animals, must have evisted IN
silurisn ages. The sea, the estuary and the
| like embslm their dead in sediments, but
| the land fails TO do this, and hence the alb
sence Of fossil examples OF land animals IN
any formation does not prove the non-sxist.
| ence of such animals.
DR.. Hahn, q recent German writer. emu
! Tnf,ates ninety-six more or less extensive
.Iacls known to be sinking or rising. The
| Island of jersey, one of the Channel Islands
had no existence in Ptolemy's time, and waE
probably not fully cut OF from the cont
| nent before the fourth or fifth century. Prof
| Hull, from his researches on the spot, con
| cludes that the land between the Suez anC
| the Bitter Lake has risen since the exodus
| There may thus have existed at that time q
| tract which at times was overlooked. Ben
nett Island has risen 100 feet in recent times
| Nordenskiold found upon elevated terraces
| in Martins Island the remains OF whales
which had been killed by the early Dutct
| whale fishers, With the knowledge of thess
| and many other chsnges-such as the recent
appearance ofs new island of Iceland, the
formation and disappearance of two is
/ lands near Krakatoe, and the uphsavel OF q
new volcano as an appeDdage to B0gosof
Island, Behring Seat will not do to neg
! lect the Chinese tradition that the ho
Lake of Issyk-kul, in Turkistan, was formed
| By CONFUSION of nature some 100 year:
| ago; nor even the Japanese legend that the
majestic volcano, Fuslyama, $4,000 fee
high) was suddenly thrown up three centu
| rias before Christ