The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-01-15
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Measurements by Captain Noble have
shown that explosion is transmitted
through trains of dynamite at the rate
of 10000 to $4,000 feet per second.
A list of the plants of Japan has been
published at Toxic i'm three languages
japanese, Chinese and Latin. More
than 2,400 plants are enumerated.
A colossal plant specimen exists in
the garden of Mr.. j. b. Tory, at Sun
ningdale, England. II is a vine or tree
of Wistaria which covers a wall nine
feet high for q distance of $40 feet.
Few countries are as greatly interested
in science as Norway. At Bergen, an
association for the advancement of
science has Just been established. with a
membership of n hundred persons.
The esparto grass of Spain has been
extensively exported TO England for
paper making. 1t has now been sue
cessfully introduced into South Austria
liza. where it is expected 10 become a
profitable product.
The painstaking researches of Prot. 5.
j. Langley have caused him To reject
Lord ROSES assumption that the tenn
perature of the moons surface rises to
POO or 300 degrees Fahrenheit during
the lunar day. and falls about rs far be-
low zero in the lunar night. Prof. L.
finds that the temperature can never
rise above a point where everything
perhaps even the gases-is frozen solid.
Recent tests with small squares of
wood buried one inch in the ground
have given these results: Birch and
aspen decaycd in three years: willow
and horse chestnut i'm four years: maple
and rcd beech i'm five years: elm. ash.
hornbeam and Lombardy poplar, in
seven years: oak. Scotch fir and Wey-
mouth pine deca~ed to the depth of half
an inch in sever years: and larch, juni-
per and arbor , .tae were uninjured at
the end of seven years.
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 particular
ly association between the disease and
the use of certain foods, the influence
of worry and a depressed state of the
health in producing the malady. and
the extent to which il is hereditary. A
report is to be made at the Washington
meeting of the congress i'm 1887.
The telpherage system of Byrton and
Perry, the English electricians. has for
its object the conveyance of any kind of
goods Invisible into parcels of two hum
dred-weight ut a speed of -four or five
miles ar hour. The motive power is
nlontrin;t.- u.b;.h I,rn. tLn >
buckets along "a cable suspended on
posts. A telpher line has just been es-
tablished at Glynde, in Sussex, and the
system has proven Il success from a
scientific point of view. the commercial
value of such a means of carrying light
freight remaining to be proved.
From Central America, Mr.. Meyer, a
distinguished a~rchaologist. reports a re-
markable discovery. Some forty feet
beneath the surface of an ancient Gene
terry on the island of Iapatera he came
upon a figured rock and two stone tab
lets. The former seemed to be a record
of ancient astronomical observations;
while one of the tablets bore a represent
tation of the world, including a CONT
nent which is supposed to be the lost
Atlantis of certain old authors. In
scriptiOns Disparity PhTnician-were cut
on the other tablet.
The continents, according to Mr..
John Murray of the great Challenger
expedition. have an average height of
about 800 feet above sea-level. and oc-
cupy five sixtcenths of the earth's sur
face. The seas '.abyssmal regions" oc-
cupy about half of the earth's 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 abysscs of over five miles;
and in the Atlantic the greatest depres-
sion of over four miles is To the north
of the Virgin Islands. The great ocean
basins once so dark and mysterious
have been rapidly becoming familiar to
man during the last twenty years.