Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-12-26
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
BANNING THE POLAR SEA

BANNING THE POLAR SEh-
The polar current passing bctwee
Labrador aud Newfoundland ape.
to defect the Gulf Stream nom =
shores Of the United States and t..
British provinces, interposing cot.
wall of water between the land a..G IN
genial warmth of the current rom ir.
tropics. by building dam across
narrow straits o. Bolie isie-a1uH:
miles wide and averaging 100 feet
depth-Mr. John G. Goodridge, j.,
suggests that the icy stream might be
turned aside into mid.ocean Then, it
IS believed, the Gulf Stream would
skirt the American coast aud material,
Iy change its climate from Cape Hs,
teras to Newfoundland, freeing the
Gull of St. Lawrence from icebergS
and giving to Novia Scotia the mildness
of Cape May.
USING THE EARTH $ HEAT.
There is abundant reason for beliey
ing that the earth's crust is very thin.
asserts MIR. j. Starkie Gardner, and il
seems not impossible that some means
may be devised for utilizing the intense
heat of the molten mass below. This is
already being done, in fact, to some
extent, an artesian we'll having been
bored at Pesth to obtain warm water
for public baths. etc. From depth
of about 5000 feet large quantity OF
water heated to 16l degrees Fahrem-
heit pours forth, and the boring is to
be continued until water at 175 de-
grees is yielded.
BRAINS IN TERTIARY TINES.
In paper on the size of the brain in
extinct animals, Prof. Marsh, of Yale
college, has brought forward the re-
markable fact that in the race for life.
during the past ages, the survival o!
any particular group of animals de-
pended on the size of their brain a.
compared with that of their contenpo
rarles of the same class Brains won
then, as now, and the BRAN of animals
crushed out of existence was always
found to be relatively smaller than that
of those outliving them.
REPLACING NERVES.
Successful experiments have been
made in joining and restoring the func-
tions of divided nerves, even nerves of
different function being used to replace
those partially destroyed. 1t is
thought that even sight and hearing
may be restored, after injury to the
nerves on which they depend, by
bringing other nerves into service by
artificial union.
REMARKABLE INSTRUMENT.
Among the flints of the chalk forma-
tioDs is occasionally found one which
emits q clear musical sound when
struck with another flint. Tissander
~, >r .1sat;rn,,sehad ii T,op,ol,
H. Baudre, who ia q Jealous collector
of the stones, and who has just sue
ceeded in making q unique ''piano"
flints are suspended by wires above
Il sounding board, and are played up
OH by two other fints. Tho stones Of
the two chromatic octaves, and were
collected with much patient labor du-
! ring period of more than thirty years.
There seems to be no relation between
the sizes of the stones and their tones.
FLOWER PIGMENTS.
| Hansen.a German chemist, finds that
! the cOiOrs of fruits and flowers arc
| furnished by very small number of
pigments, which he classifies into three
groups: first, reds; second, yellOws,
and third, blues and violets. He omits
chlorophyll green, because ii is COM
paratively rare in flowers. Orange is
produced by q thickening of deposit
of the fundamental yellow pigment.
the coloring matter beng the same in
the rind OF an orange as in yellow
butttercup. Roses and carnations show
the characteristic red pigment, in
which variations are produced by the
presence of acids.
| UNIVERSAL COLOR BLINDNESS.
Color blindness, as usually under.
stood, is blindness to red, to green.
or to blue or violet, and about one
male in every twenty-five appears To
be unable to discriminate between the
principal colors of the spectrum. In a
stricter sense, all persons are color
blind, for, although Chevreul is said to
have been able to distinguish 14,42O
tones Of color, it has been proven that
the human eye is totally incapable OF
receiving all the vibrations of color
which must exist in the spectrum.
COPPER PLATING CORPsEs.
A French chemist proposes coating
the bodies of the dead with a skin OF
copper by means of the well-known
electro plating process. A second
plating of gold or silver could be added
if desired. This treatment, which per-
manently preserves corpses, has al
ready been applied to several human
subjects and to many animals.