The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1886-03-05
sCJEyTIPTc MISCELLANY.
Iteuss which VIII Prove OF Interest to
Gar Readers.

The dificulty experienced in solder
ing pieces Of aluminium together or witt
other metals has Been removed il
France, by the use of an alloy Of tiT
and aluminium instead of pure tin.
A substitute Cor quiuine, described as
being even superior to that remedy, il
obtained from Peruvian plant known
to botanists as LdtdBd BruzilielSe.
In Zanzibar the leaves of a species OF
hg are used for polishing wood, Just as
we employ sand paper. and are said to
give polish that sand paper cannot I'm
part.
A butterfly, creature supposed to
live only two or three days, was last
year kept alive in a glass cage in Eng
land for 121 days, its age at confinement
bsing unknown.
The beautiful red plumage of a spe-
cIes of South African birds has been
chemically examined ard found to be
due to copper. When birds are kept
from food containing copper they entire
ly lose the tint produced by that mate
rial.
Railway men are beginning to con.
demn the locomotive headlight, which,
by the way. is not in use in Europe.
They say it is of little or no utility. and
its powerful illumination tends to rem
der indistinct the colors Of signal lights
m the Froo1- aIoo1
A novel gas light, devised by DR..
Auer, has been in operation in chem
ical laboratory at Vienna. a cotton
wick saturated with an incOmbustible
metal solution Is introduced into the
fame Of an ordinary Eusen lamp, the
result being a light similar to the incan
descent electric light.
Not single instance of color blind
ness has been found by SchTaTzbach in
examination of two thousand Hotten-
tots, Malays, Melanesians. Australians.
haoris and Polynesians and he con-
cludes that the defect is confined to the
white race, and is due to influences
connected with civilized life.
The common perfumes used in con.
fectionsry and eorGiaIs have been inves.
tiRated by two French chemists. -
Large quantities of these chemicals
proved poisonous to animals, but it is
doubtful whether the quantities actual.
ly employed by confectioners or liquor
manufacturers are considerable enough
to do harm.
A new theory Of the formation Of coal
has beer propounded by Mons. L. Bre-
ton, who considers it TO have been pro
duced by the sinking of floating islands
like those which now occur on many
lakes and rivers, and which are espe.
cislly noticeable in the Upper Nile.
The turf of which these island are chief.
y composed becomes fo5siIized at the
bottom of the water.
Although tried quite a number oi
times, surgical operations for the re.
moval of tumors and other foreign sub.
stances from the stomach have almost
invariably been unsuccessful. Tie sec.
ond successful case has just been re
ported from England, where a large
mass of hair, weighing about a pound
was removed from the stomach of g
young lady, through an ineisIon five
inches long, and the operation followed
by recovery.
The lowest temperature at which the
seeds Of common cultivated plants ger
inmate has been determined by Mons
HellreigeE, and ranges from 80 to II
degrees.
In some of the English collieries ex
peTiments have been made with watel
cartridges, in which the gunpowder o.
the charge is entirely surrounded by
water. 1t is stated that no flame
followed the explosions, even wher
heavy blasts were made. The watel
cartridges and ordinary gunpowdel
cartridges were fired in bags of Goa
dust, the dust being fired by the latter
while the former simply dispersed it il
a dark cloud mixed with steam. The
new cartridges are expected to render
great services in mines where fire damn
Is present
Prof. German See, the eminent
French physIologist, declares that mar
is umnivorOus and is destined to live or
the elements furnished by the three
Kingdoms of nature. He cannot main,
tain robust health on meat alone, mol
can he live on vegetables alone. The
practice of pure vegetarianism is simply
impossible, and the sO-ealled vegetari
ans are compelled to make up the def
cheney in their food by consuming a
quantity of such animal substances as
milk, eggs aud butter. From the min
eral kingdom must be had pure water,
which car be replaced by no other
fluid.
The Academy of Sciences at Paris
has now about SIS, 900 year to disburse
in prizes, of which tbirty-three are at
it's disposal. Although in most cases
the competing essays or memoirs NAV
be written in any modern language, pri-
yes often remain unawarded on account
of the lack of merit of all papers pre-
seDted. The 1885 prizes awarded in De-
cember include one to Nous. Colladon,
of Geneva, for the application o. con-
densed air as a motive power in tunnel
ing mountains one to DR.. Edlund, of
Stockholm, for a memoir on the cleo
trical tension of the atmosphere, in which
be treats the earth itself as a great mag