The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-04-23
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

A care of hydrophobia of spontaneous
origin in man is believed to have oc-
Cured recently in Paris.
A number of travelling juries have
been created by the French government
to visit foreign lands and collect infor-
nation useful to science, commerce and
navigation.
The eye of rabbit has been success
fully transplanted to human subject
The movement and appearance of the
natural eye was excellently secured,
vision not being expected.
The schools of Austria have been for
hidden using paper ruled in square or
diagonal lines, as such paper has been
found to injure the eyesight of pupils
In future only paper plain or ruled
straight across is to be employed.
Attention has been called to the fact
that tho streams In certain cultivated
portions of northern Texas now run
during the part Of the year when they
were formerly dry. This is not attrib-
uted to any change in tho rainfall, but
to a.morc even absorption of water over
the cultivated areas,
The curious and remarkable discovery
is reported that a South American
shrub, called "aliza," exudes u juice
which acts so powerfully in stopping
flows of blood that when a knife Is
smeared with it and used for surgical
operations, the largest vessels may DO
severed without any hemorrhage.
In Japan, according to government
report 553 earthquakes occurred during
the nine and half years preceding De-
cember, 1884. The record is evidently
incomplete. however, as Prof. Milne has
been able to trace an average of an
earthquake a day in Nagasaki, in the
extreme south of Japan,
A meteorological station is about to
be established among the highest noun
tains of Mexico, ut an elevation of near
ly 10000 feet above sca-lcvel. As ac-
cess to such place is difficult and
often impossible, the recording appara-
tus will have to be made almost indie
pendent of human attention, and, as
far as possible, all tho instruments will
be made to run year without stopping.
Experience on French railways has
shown that the double poppy is the best
| plant at present known for consolida-
ting, by the interlacing of its roots, the
loose soil of an embankmcnt The
usual grasses and GloYers develop slow.
ly, but the double poppy grows enough
in two weeks to give some protection to
,the slope, and within three or four
months Its roots, ten or twelve inches
long, retain the earth far more firmly
than those of any grass or grain.
A member of the London Microscope.
cal Society has described q case illustra-
ting the value of the microscope us n
detective agent, Fraudulent additions
were made to bond, and the ink be.
ing darker than the original the fOrger
traced over the whole writing to give it
uniform shade. Under the micro.
scope the difference between the original
and the added portion was clearly dis.
cernible, and the forgery was estab-
| lished.
French experiments on the transmits
sion of power by electricity have re-
suited less successfully than was hoped.
Theoretically the plan is feasible, but il
is found to be more economical and
practicable for manufacturing purposes
to use the power directly ut the source
of supply. Modern railway facilities
make it cheaper to transport goods than
power, with its attendant loss of fifty pei
cent-not to mention its uncertainties.
Commenting on Lieutenant Greely's
discovery of coal within the Arctic cir
Gle in Greenland, Mr. w. Mattieu vii
liams expresses himself as dissatisfied
with the prevailing notion which de
mands sHbtropical climate for the for
nation of carboniferous deposits. Ht
has himself described the deposition o.
coal that Is in actual progress at thu
present time in Norway, within four dc
grees of the Arctic circle, and believe:
that similar deposits may be fount
farther north. No very violent altera
ton Of climate, therefore, need he as
sumed to explain the Greenland coal.