The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-05-15
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
TESTING THE FOOD OF PARIS.

TESTING THE FOOD OF PARIS.
The food and drink sold in Paris are tested at
a public laboratory, concerning the work of which
q report has just been issued by the French Acad
envy of Sciences. The laboratory was first opened
in 1878, and specimens of wine, beer, cider, milk,
chocolate, coffee, tea, etc., examined daily as
are also colors used for toys and confectionery,
pork suspected of containing trichin@, and tin
ned meats. Some samples brought by the
public, but most or them are obtained by inspec-
tors employed to visit the taverns and grocers'
shops and examine the articles offered for SALE
There are twenty. Ave chemists attached to the
laboratory, each of whom has his own special de-
partment, one taking milk, another wine, and so
on. Part of each sample is kept as evdencein case
adulteration should be found About $4,000
analyses a year made, at cost of about
$4,000.
SMALL PLANETS AND COMETS
At the beginning of the year 263 asteroids were
known, nine having been discovered during 1885.
Up to the close of 1884 the number of comets OBJ
served which orbits have been computed was 302,
of which twelve have proven themselves periodic,
and have been reobserved more or less frequently.
INFLUENCE OF BEVERAGES NO DIGESTION.
By experiments on large butchers dog, Signor
Ogata has found that tea and coffee in moderate
amount, pure water, and water containing car
bonic acid, do not disturb digestion. Beer, wine
and brandy retard digestion considerably until
absorbed and in the case of beer the extractive
matters act thus as well as the alcohol, that
beer has a greater effect than wine containing the
same quantity of alcohol Both cane and grape
sugar retard digestion considerably while COM
mon salt distinctly accelerates it.
DISEASES OF DOCTORS.
An English statistcian, DIR. VIM. Ogle, declares
that the mortality of physicians from scarlet fever
typhus, diphtheria, enteric fever, malarial fever
and erysipelas is very largely in excess of the
average. Medical men, however, seldom have
ahoh ly haaSu hay fro
quently and effectively vsccinated. Diseases Of
the liver are very fatal among doctors, due, Dr.
0gle believes, to neglect of the wise detetic rules
which medical men recommend to their patients
A FOG PENETRATING LIGHT.
In paper to the Dublin Royal Society, Prof.
w. F. Barrett has described the results yielded
by a new adaptation of gas to lighthouse ilumi-
n&tisn.-A device known the double qusdri-
form burner was used, consisting of series OF
four superposed So jet gas burners placed along
side of four similar superposed burners, eight
lenses being placed on either side at the proper
focal distance. The lights blend into one at
distance of about 800 feet from the lighthouse
Experiments were made on two foggy evenings,
the fog on the second evening being so dense that
powerful revolving light less than half the dis
lance of the double quadriform was entirely cut
of, and the sound of large fog siren near the
experimental light was also extinguished. Yet
on both occasions the double quadriform was
easily seen by the naked eye, and its position
readily determined, at distance OF six miles.
FISH STORY.
Norwegian writer has made some remarka-
bic statements concerning the jumping OF herring
out of the water when frightened. He atfirms
that he has observed whole shoals of this fish in
their anxiety to escape from pursuing whales,
piled up above the surface of the sea to height
of from three to six feet, and On one occasion
about fifteen feet.
ANEoUS
By investigation through Italy Signor z.
Bonizzi mas found that atmospheric dust collected
in exposed localities almost Invariably contains
spherical magnetic particles. which are rarer or
altogether wanting in the dust of closed localities
According to German authority, the well
known Observation-Disclosures ZebrinG-serves
the purpose of barometer, its flower buds always
opening twenty -four hours before rain comes.
The latest accounts state the new island which
has sprung up in the Friendly group, in the South
Pacific, is about nine square miles in area, and
rises from 200 to 800 feet above the level of the
sea. The volcanic eruption which produced the
island threw up column of water and steam fully
mile in height.
A study of the asteroids has shown Prof. Arthur
Seare certain peculiarties in the belt of sky they
traverse which correspond with those of the
zopiacal light, and suggest the hypothesis that
the light may be partly due to minute OBJ
jects circulating in orbits like those of the smaller
planets.
The researches of Prof. D. E. Hughes give
very decided verdict in favor of the ribbon form
of lightning conductor, solid iron rod being re-
garded as the worst possible form.
Explorations made last summer prove that the
ancient mound building inhabitants of America
extended their works northward beyond the Red
River of the North. Along this river and Lake
Winnipeg were found mounds identical in struc-
ture with the famous ones of the Ohio and Missis-
sippi valleys.
The French Minister of Public Instruction pro-
poses sending a scientific commission to study
she subsistence of British coasts. 1t is well known
that parts of the east coast of England have been
greatly encroached upon by the sea within the
past century.