Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-06-11
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.


A new metalloid called "GermaI ium"
has been added to the list Of elements,
making the sixty-seventh.
The curious observation has been made
that the cinehona trees growing in the
lighthouses of Europe, develop no quinine
in their bark.
A microscopic of the Smithsonian In
stitution, who has Investigated the sub
ject closely, declares there is nothing
harmful in the green coloring matter
sometimes found in oysters.
By means of an extremely sensitive
'thermo-electric calorimeter," French
Psychologist is enabled to measure the
heat liberated by cold-b looded, animals,
such as frogs and fishes, and even by in
sects and Larvae.
The oil of an African bamboo is re-
ported by Catholic missi naries to be an
excellent lubricator, and, when refined.
to form fair substitute for olive oil in
the cuisine. Its preparation bids fair to
become. an important industry in the
French Congo region.
Tobacco blindness is becoming a COM
mon affection. At present there are sew
eral persons under treatment for it at one
London hospital. 1t first takes the
form of color blindness, the sufferers who
have smoked themselves into this condi-
ton being quite unable to distinguish
the color of piece of red cloth he'd up
before them. Sometimes the victim
loses his sight altogether. Although
smoking is to a large extent the cause of
the malady, heavy drinking is also partly
responsible.
The people of Siberia bless the snow
on account of the result, which is a fer.
tilted soil; but the Canadians, more
scientific, if not less grateful, say that
snow in descending, especially in f; ling
slowly, contracts from the atmosphere
carbon dioxide gas, and other impurities
dangerous to human life. From its
porosity free entry of these gases is ad,
mitted to the seeds lying in the unfrozer
earth beneath, which require their in
flueace in their termination, and as the
snow melts are washed into the soil.
Plant growth is always accompanied
by the consumption of food, ard in nc
starved part of plant can growth take
place by absorption or oxygen, growth
stopping when the plant is deprived o.
this. A pretty way to show the liberia
ton of carbonic acid as waste product
is by planting different seeds in wet mos
or sawdust on piece of marble polished
by friction and not by the oxalic acic
method. Marble is insoluble in pure
water, but soluble in slightly acidifcC
water, and the tiny growing roots of thu
seeds, as they wander over the surface o
the marble, leave an autograph behint
in corroded lines, each peculiar to tn,
plant which made it.
A correspondent in the Farmers Re
oieW says that when riding over thou
| sands of miles of Russian railways fou
years ago he was interested in the system
of shrub and tree planting to arres
snow at all points where banks coulC
form. The trees are planted twenty-five
to thirty feet from the rails in five t.
seven lines, lines five feet apart and tn
plants a foot and half apart in tn
rows. The three inner lines are planted
with trees, and the outer ones with con
tiers, or shrubs. This system is said t,
protect very perfectly the roads durin!
the gales on the steppes. The snow i
whirled in heaps back of and among tn
trees and shrubs, and fails to reach tn
rails to a serious extent.