The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-06-13
CorrsspoAdsaes Baiiimors County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

EFFECT OF ACID FUMES on PLANTS
Schroeder, in Germany, has been Investigating
the influence upon vegetation of the acid fumes
which are present In a smOke-laden atmosphere.
He finds that one part Of sulphurous acid in 3d.
600 Of air Is capable Of occasioning serious dam
age 10 plants in a short time. They are less SEN
sitive to hydrochloric acid. Coniferous trees are
most sensitive to sulphurous acid, then deciduous
trees, which ordinary field plants resist longest.
, Oaks, planes, elms, poplars and mountain ashes
resist better than birches and beeches. Fruit
trees are very sensitive; plums and cherries
more so than pears and apples.
NATURES TRANSPORTATION.
tadpole, the larva of frog, has a tail and
no legs, gills instead Of lungs, heart precisely
like that of a fish, horny Deak for eating vege-
table food, and a spiral intestine to digest it,
With the approach of maturity the hind legs APP
pear, then the front pair the beak falls of; the
nil and gills waste away the lungs are created;
the digestive apparatus is changed to suit the
animal diet the heart becomes reptilian in type
by the addition of another auricle; in fact, skin,
muscles, nerves and blood-vessels vanish, being
absorbed atom by atom, and new set is substitu-
ted.
LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS.
ain the presence of time-intervals," says one of
the ablest of modern astronomers, "seen to be at
once infinitely great and infinitely little-ipfnite-
ly great compared with the duration of our earth,
infinitely little by comparison with the eternities
amidst which they are lost-what reason can we
have when viewing any orb in space from our lit
tile earth, for saying moo is the time when that
orb is, like our earth, the abode of life +? Why
should life on that earth synchronise with life on
the earth Are not, on the contrary, the chances
infinitely great against such a coincidencel 1t,
as Hemholtz has well said, the duration of life on
our earth is but the minuest ripple in the infinite
ocean of time" and the duration of life on any
other planet of like minuteness, 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 the infinite ocean
whose surface they scarcely rippleg
Whether we turn our thoughts to planet, sun, or
galaxy, the law of Nature (recognized as univer-
sal within the domain as yet examined), that the
duration Of life in the individual is indefinitely
short compared with the duration of the type to
which the individual belongs, assures us, or at
least renders it highly probable, thatin 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. Nevertheless, it is at
least as probable that every member of every or
der-planet, sun, galaxy, and so onward to high
er and higher orders endlessly-has been, is now,
or win hereafter be, life supporting after its
kind"
MISCELLANEOUS.
Miss Z. A. 0rmerod, England's well-knOwn
entomologist, reports that her many corresPon-
dents all agree that spar-ows will not feed on in
food Is within reach. She therefore advocates
judicous destruction of the house sparrow for the
protection Of crops, but is careful to show that
the objection does not extend to other small BIRDS
q Although very rare before, a great number OF
moderate earthquakes were recorded in Tasmania
during 1883 and 1884, nearly 100 having been
felt at st. Mary's in a single month of last year.
These small shocks evidently originate 100 miles
more out to sea, and are seldom felt outside OF
the northeastern mart of Tasmania.
"The sorrowful tree,' fourishng 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 during the day, as they close up or
drop off with the appearance of the sun.
A case has been reported in which an extraOr-
binary outbreak of measles and pneumonia among
the children in public institution was caused by
sewer gas.
Bees in unaccustomed localities, according to
II. Muller, are timd and find honey with difficulty,
but rapidly become accustomed to their surround
ings. Flowers of subdued coors selected by
bees instead of the more brilliantly colored
ones. Blue 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 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
STdSSuOppofc IL 10 III llc AOEo ioSe anu IL oPpOoio
on the wings of many insects. The auditory sacs
of Holsters and crabs are at the base Of the an
tennae.
By means of that remarkable instrument of
modern research, the spectroscope, the otherwise
absolutely imperceptiblc motion of so-called 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 few years
ago this notable star receding from US twenty
five miles each second.
True pine forest wool, on the authority 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 billing. Ht
4 vegetable leather, said to be fully equal to
the animal product, is made in Paris from gutta
percha, sulphur, cotton, zinc, white kolkothar,
and oxide Of anthony. The first two Ingredients
are necessary, while the other parts may be re-
placed by chemicals of similar character. The
proportions varied with the purposes.