The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-01-09
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
INDIA's IcoNocLAsr.

INDIA's ICoYocLAsT.
A curious destroyer of human works in India,
according to DR.. R. F. Hutchinson, is the peepal
tree. This is kind of fig, which multiplies be-
yond the power of to destroy, its little seeds
being sown broadcast over the land in the drop
pings of the birds and bats which feast its fruit
The peepal rises everywhere and its effect is the
disintegration of rocks and buildings, the danger
being so great that the keepers of large structures
are constantly on the watch during fg-t time for
bird droppings. As an illustration of what the
tree may do and of its wonderful vitality it is
stated that on the summit of the northern minaret
of the great mosque of Bareilly, $50 feet high, a
peepa hourishes grandly beyond reach and its
active roots are gradually breaking up the cupola
of the minaret.
DURABILITY OF WOODS.
Recent tests with small squares of wood buried
one inch in the ground have given these results
Birch and aspen decayed in three years; willow
and horse chestnut, in four years; maple and red
beech, in five years elm, ash, hornbean and
Lombardy poplar, in seven years ; oak, Scotch
fir and Weymouth pine decayed to the depth OF
half an inch in seven years; and larch, juniper
and arbor vitae were uninjured at the end OF seven
years.
TELPHERAGE.
The telpherage system of Ayrton and Perry,
the English electricians, has for its object the
conveyance of any kind of goods divisible into
parcels of two hundredweight at speed four OF
five miles an hour. The motive power is electri-
city, which drives the carrying buckets along q
cable suspended on posts. A telpher line has
just been established at Glynde, in Sussex, and
the system has proven q success from a sclentlhc
point Of view, the commercial value OF such a
means of carrying light freight remaining to be
determined.
STUDY OF CANCER.
A committee of eminent physicians has been
appointed by the International Medical Congress
which lately met in Copenhagen, to inquire into
the causes of cancer, and to investigate particu-
lary the supposed association between the disease
and the use of certain foods, the influence of wor-
ry and a depressed state of the health in produc-
ing the malady, and the extent to which it is
hereditary. report is to be made at the Wash
ington meeting Of the Congress in 1871
THE STAFF OF LIFE.
No date can be assigned to the first bread
specimens having been found among the remains
of the mysterious people who lived on the Swiss
lakes before the dawn of history. The bread Of
the lake-dwellers was made from wheat, barley
and even poppy-seeds, and was baked between
red-hot stones. By Chinese writers Ching Noung
is reputed to have been the first who taught men
about 1000 B. C.-the art of husbandry, and
the method of making bread from wheat, and
wine from rice. The baking of bread was known
in patriarchal ages-see Exodus XII: 15-and
became profession at Rome in 40 B. c. Barley
bread was used in England in the time of James
l. potato bread is now eaten in Ireland, and pow
dered Goldfish is made into bread in Iceland.
A MAP OF LOST ATLANTIS.
From Central America Mr.. Meyer, distin
guished archaeologist, reports remarkable dis
covery. Some forty feet beneath the surface Of
an ancient cemetery on the island of Lapatera he
came upon a figured rock and two stone tablets
The former seemed to be record of ancient as
Economical observations; while one of the tablets
hora n of he n
continent which is supposed to be the lost Atlantis
of certain old authors. riptions--partly
Phoenician-were cut on the other tablet.
LAND AND SEA.
The continents, according to Mr.. John Murray.
of tbs great Challenger expedition, have an aver
age height of about 900 feet above sea level, and
occupy ive-sixteenths of the earth's surface. Tho
seas "abysmal regions" occupy abont half Of the
earths surface, and have an average depth OF
three miles. In the Pacific the greatest depths
are to the south and east of Japan, where there
are abysses of over five miles and in the Allan
tic the greatest depression of little over foul
miles is to the north of the Virgin Islands. The
great ocean basins so dark and mysterious
have been rapidly becoming familiar to man
during the last twenty years.
MISCELLANEOUS
The pains taking researches of Prof. 5. p
Langley have caused him to reject Lord ROSES
assumption that the temperature of the moons
serface rises TO ZUU or 3UU degrees fanrennelt
during the lunar day, and falls about far be-
low zero in the lunar night. Prof. i. finds that
the temperature can never rise above point
where neutrality-suspicious. even the gases-is
frozen solid.
Measurements by Capt. Noble have shown that
explosion is transmitted through trains of dyna-
mite at the rate of 10000 to $4,000 feet per
second.
The esparto grass of Spain has been extensive
ly exported to England for paper making. Ithas
now been successfully introduced into South Aus
tralia, where it is expected to become profitable
product.
Few countries are as greatly interested in
science as Norway. At Bergen, association
for the advancement of science has just been es-
tablished, with a membership of one hundred
persons.
A colossal plant specimen exists in the garden
of Mr.. J. B. TORY, at Sunningdale, England. 1t
is vine or tree of Wistaria which covers a wall
nine feet high for distance of $40 feet.
A list of the plants of Japan has been published
at Toxic in three languages Chinese
and Latin. More than 2,4O0 plants are enumer-
cd =