Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-03-05
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

The steam power of the world dur
ing the last twenty years has risen from
II, 500, 900 to 1000, 600 horsepower, or
152 per cent.
In Zanzibar the leaves of a species of
fig are used for polishing wood, just as we
employ sand paper, and are said to give
a finish which sand-paper cannot impart
Railway men complain of the weight
of the passenger cars now built, and
show by figures that an engine hauls be-
tween five and six pounds of dead weight
for every one pound of paying passenger
weight, reckoned when all the seats are
filled.
Not single instance of color blindness
has been found by Schwarzback in an
examination of 1000 Hottentots, Malays,
Melanesians, Australians, Maoris and
Polynesians; and he concludes that the
defect is confined to the white race, aud
is due to influences connected with civil
lied life.
Although tried quite number of
times, surgical operations for the re-
mova of tumors or foreign bodies from
the stomach have almost invariably been
unsuccessful. The second successful case
is Just reported from England, where
large mass of hair, weighing about q
pound, was removed from the stomach of
young lady through an incision five
inches long, followed by recovery.
1t may seem little surprising to a
careless observer, but it is nevertheless
true, that piece of iron or any Eeavy
substance will rapidly sink to the bottom
of the sea even in the deepest places.
However great may be the pressure pro-
duced at great depths by the superin-
cumbent mass, the specific gravity of the
water is but little greater than at the sur
face Hence such substances as stone,
sand, mud, clay, shells, ETC., exist at
great depths with little variation, except
from the effects of decreased light.
Since 1918 pieces of native iron have
been brought from Greenland by many
explorers, and have in nearly every case
been ascribed to meteoric origin. Steen
strup, in his third voyage to Greenland,
1S76-S0, found the native iron, however,
in a basaltic rock in grains varying from a
fraction of millimeter to eighteen milli-
meters. 1t also occurs on the western
and northern sides of Disco Island and
in other places. This settles beyond a
doubt the question of the origin Of the
Greenland native iron. This ore may
become Of great commercial importance.
A study of statistical tables has made
it apparent that human life is decreasing
in quantity bat improving in quality--at
least, in some parts of the world. An
astonishing falling off in the births in
France has taken place since the begin
ming of the century, the average number
of children per marriage have been re-
duced nearly one-fourth But the aver
age life has INCREASED in length about
one-sixth Similar results are obtained
in England, Austria, Prussia and other
countries of advanced civilization.
Among inferior races births are more
numerous and life is shorter. In general
the lower species of plants and animals
are more fertile than the higher The
female of the white ant lays sixty eggs
per minute; a queen bee, from 5000 to
5000 eggs annually. In verebrates,
fecundity diminishes as we rise from
fishes to reptiles, from reptiles to birds,
from birds to mammals.