The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-30
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Professors Fischer aad Penzoldt, of
Erlangen, have established the curious
fact that the sense of smell is by far tho
most delicate of the senses. They find
that the olfactory nerve is able to de Get
the presence of 1-2, $50, 900, 900 ola, grain
OF mercaptan.
According to observations made in
Munich on a zinc roof which had been in
use for twenty-seven years it is estimated
that such a roof 1-4Sth of an inch in
thickness would last for l. 243 years. 1t
was found that the rust of zinc, instead
of fastening, like iron rust, the oxida-
ton on the metal underneath, really pro-
tected it.
A glass as hard as any cast metal, and
not more expensive than cast iron, has
been produced by Mr.. F. Siemene, of
Dresden. Experiments are being made
to determine whether it can be used for
rails on railways. Specimens of:this hard
glass have been found suitable for mill
stones and railway sleepers. An impor-
tant advantage of the glass is its trans
parency, as flaws can be detected before
it is pat to practical use.
The Journal Of Reconstruction states
that an infant loses from three to six
ounces in weight during the first four to
six days after birth: by the seventh day
it should have regained its birth weight:
from that to the fifth month it ought to
gain about five ounces per week, or
about SIX drains q day; after the fifth
month, about four drains a day; at the
fifth month it ought to have doubled its
birth-weight. and in sixteen months
quadrupled it..
In many skulls from Roman and Etras.
can tombs Dr.. Marter, of Rome, has dis
covered interesting specimens of ancient
dent stry AID artificial teeth. These Int.
teeth of some large animal. and in manv
instances are fastened to the natural
teeth by b nds of gold. No filled teeth
have been discovered. The skulls exam
ined date back as far as the sixth CEN
tury B.. c., and prove that toothache and
the art of den,i try use by no means
modern IL stitutions.
A lex method of preserving and trans
porting fresh fish has been devised by
Mr.. A. r. Rooscn, of Hamburg, and was
recently tried in England. It consists in
placing the fish in barrel, of steel, ca"h
barrel being closed by an alright lid
fitted with q small valve connection, to
which is temporarily attached q tube
from n small hydraulic haad-pump. With
this pump water is forced into the barrel
tthc air being at the same time expelled,
until the guage indicates y pressure Of
about sixty pounds per square inch. The
tube is then disconnected, and the bar
rel closed b. the valve. Before the pump
ing begins the b :rrel is supplied with
sufficient fish to make the cargo, and an
antiseptic solution of three per cent. of
boracic acid, t~artaric acid, salt and water,
with nlnety-seven per cent. of fresh
water. Fish have been brought in q fresh
condition by this plan from Montrose,
Copenhagen and the Shetland Islands for
London consumption.
In the west of Scotland, Stevenson
found the average force of the waves for
the five summer months to be 81 pounds
per square foot, and for the six winter
months 2,OS6 pounds. He mentions that
on one of the Hebrides a mass of rock
weighing about forty-two tons was grad
ual'y moved five feet bv the waves in a
storm. Hagen records that in the harbor
of 'Cette a block of concrete measuring
1850 cubic feet and weighing probably
125 tons, was moved On its bod over three
feet. And now a late observer, Mr.. F.
NJ. Nelson, rerorts finding on one of the
Shetland islands some granite boulders,
whose appearance ind Gates that they
have been broken fr,m the cliff at the
waters edge as a single block weighing
fifty tons, cast up 1;O yards inland and
thirty-fve feet above sea level, and
broken i'll three places. This tremendous
lower of the waves is constantly grind
ing away exposed coasts forming new
land of the removed materia', and thus
slowly but steadily changing the contour
Of the continents and inlands.
WOrShiH cS Ancostors