The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-25
SCIENCE.

The deepest sea sounding yet affected
was made off the COST Of New Guinea
with a 400. weight lead sent down from
the English ship Challenger, which
struck bottom at the enormous depth OF
26, 700 feet.
DR.. Hook, a German naturalist, finds
that the eastern hemisphere affords 269
plants and ~ffty-eight animals useful to
mau, while the western world con-
tributes ouly ffty-two plants and thir-
teen animals.
The registers Of an old hospital in
Prague show that from 1870 to 1915, be.
fore Jenner's great discovery, vaccination,
the mortality from smallpox was twenty
seven per cent. while from 1915 to 1885
it has been only 4.4s per cent.
Recent analysis shows that the fatty
substance of the brain is not, as was sup.
posed, composed of glycerine, but OF
palmatir, an element of which oat meal
contains a large percentage, and which
is therefore a better cerebral nutrlment
than wheat meal.
A fine skeleton of the sea-cow has just
been procured from Behring's Island for
the British museum. AS recently rs
1741 this large but harmless animal,
measuring some thirty-fve feet in length
and weighing from three to four tons,
was quite abundant off the shores of
Alaska and Kamschatka, but has now
become totally extinct.
1t has been generally supposed that
ants survive but a single season, and on c
interesting result of Sir John Lubbock's
study of the creatures is the finding OF
unexpected longevity among them. Sir
John has kept workers OF Lasius niger
and Formica fusca for seven years, while
two queens of the latter species must
now be twelve years old, and he hopes
to keep :bem in good health for a con-
siderable time longer.
Why are fishes luminous? Phosphor-
escence is observed in a great variety of
marine animals, but Professor W. Z.
Mcintosh remarks that the functions OF
the luminosity cannot yet be explained,
the conditions under which it appears
being very diverse. The numerous
views which have been advanced to &C
count for the phosphorescence itself
range over a wide area-from its produc-
ton by electricity, by continued agita-
ton of the water, by putrefaction, by
inhibition of light, to its manifestation as
q vital action in the animals, or a secre-
ton of ph osphorescent substance.
Professor Packard has brought to-
gether notes from early voyages, as we'll
as na~turalists and others, bearing on the
origin of the native races of dogs. Ihc
article was prepared as much to elicit
information from others as to throw new
light on a debated subject. 1t is re-
marked that the impression that the do
nestle dog of the old world has dc
scended from wild species of dog, dis.
tinct from the wolf, may be we'll
founded, but that in America the evl.
dence tends to prove that the Eskimo
and other domestic varieties of dogs
were domcsticated by the aborigines and
used by them before the discovery Of
America, our American varieties in some
cases arising from the gray wolf, and the
smaller Indian dogs from the prairie
wolf, or coyote. During a recent jour
ney in Mexico, the resemblance OF the
dogs to the coyote was marked. The
coyote and Indian dog are we'll known
in Montana to produce fertile offspring.