The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-02-01

The Surinam toad has no tongue.
In the spermaceti whale the teeth are Fixed
to the gum.
The humble bee molti at least ten times
before arriving at the winged state.
Dr.. kleEko, OF Vienna, has suggested the
use OF petroleum or paratfine IS powerful
preventative OF cholera.
Paper labels for acid bottles should be
fastened on with strong glue and afterward
soaked with melted parafine.
The champion laurel, a native of China,
and the tree from which most Of the cam
phor of commerce is obtained, has been sue.
cessfully introduced into California.
Scorpions and spiders properly feed upon
the iu,oes OF their victims after lacerating
them with their Jaws, yet fragments OF in
| sects have been sometimes found in their
| stemachs.
| A chestnut tree at the foot of Mount Etna
| Is thought TO be the oldest tree in Europe.
| 1t is ninety-two feet in height and two hun
dred and twelve feet in circumference. The
| trunk is hollow, and two carriages driving
| abreast can pass through ii.
The light emitted by insects. when exam
ined under the spectroscope, is very bealti
ful, but is without bright or dark bands
! When the intensity dimln ishes the red and
orange rays disappear. and the spectrum is
reduced to yellow and green rays.
Al meeting Of the Academy OF Sciences
| Stockholm, Professor Lundstrom exhibited
| fossil scorpion recently found near Wisby,
| in the Silurian formation of Gotland, and
| remarkable as the most ancient of an air
breathing land animal at present discovered.
| A properly developed, full-grown man
! weighs l54 pounds ought according to Prot.
fessor Huxley, TO consume daily ). 900 grains
| OF lean beefsteak 6000 grains of bread, 900
| grains of milk, 3, 600 grains OF potatoes, 600
oir,c ~ hrrfta aud nsan ~
A meteor which was seen TO fall near
Odessa was found by peasant and proved
TO be Il shapeless mass of ABOUT eighteen
pounds. There is very little known as TO
the nature or causes OF meteors despite the
annual occurrence and observation of them
in November.
Tests have proved that one pound of pow
der in small blasts will Loosen about = tons
OF rock and in large blasts about 2G tons.
In day OF ten hours one man can bore
with bit an inch in diameter from fifty to
100 inches deep in granite, or from 800 to 100
inches in limestone.
The life OF quadrupeds generally reaches
its extreme limit when the molar teeth are
worn down. Those of the sheep last about
fifteen years, of the OK twenty, Of the horse
forty and OF the elephant 100. Many inferior
species die as soon IS they have laid their
eggs, Just as herbs perish As soon as they have
lowered.
The sea-coast OF California has been visited
this season by several varieties OF birds
which have never before been known to
leave the mountains. This has generally
been supposed to indicate severe winter,
but, according to science. the migration is
more probably due to the prevailing scarcity
OF all kinds OF seeds in the mountains this
season.
Parties who have returned to the Pacific
coast from tour through the Superstition
Mountains, in Arizona Territory, report the
discovery OF extensive stone ruins, some of
them in almost inaccessible places The
walls look il they hal been battling
with the elements for centuries. The pre-
historic people of whOse existence they are
the only remaining evidence must have been
numerous.
Far out 81 sea, along both the gulf and the
Atlantic coast of Florida are several springs
OF fresh water. They are well known to the
spongers and fishermen, who frequently visit
them to replenish their water CASKS. On this
some coast is an oil spring, which diffuses
calm over troubled waters and affords . sale
refuge 10 small vessels during sgale--SAysn-
Eah Ca News.
According to the London Lancet, q young
GIRL who has just died in the asylum of Ham.
burg possessed the peculiar gift OF changing
the color of her hair according to the state
OF her mind. In periods of sedateness her
bair was Of It's natural dull color when ex-
cited it became reddish and her anger was
indicated by blonde color. Three DAYS
were generally required for the change to be
completed, and her complexion also varied
in the same periods and in the same direc-
ton.
The doctrine Of the permaDency OF the
ocean basin. about which biologists dis.
sagree, is strongly supported by Rev. o. Fish
or, who refers TO a suggestion which he made
IN 1882 TO account for the origin OF the vast
depretsions which the ocean fill. Accepting
Professor G. FL. Dorwin's theory that the
moon broke sway from the earth more than
fifty million years ago, he thinks the ocean
basins may be the scar that was formed, and
that the basement rocks of the continents
are the fragments of the crust which had al
ready solicited and which were left behind