The Irish standard., 1886-12-11
SCIENCE AND ART.

OVER $18,OOO,OOO has been expended on
monuments in Massachusetts since 1861.
IT is stated that there has been no in
stance of tile failure of oil to still troubled
waters when the oil used was vegetable
or fish oil.
ACCORDING to recent English expert
ments it is found that growth Of ivy over
house renders the interior entirely free
from moisture.
A SOLDERING fluid, composed of q tea
spoonful of chloride of zinc dissolved in
two ounces of alcohol, will not rust anil
tarnish, and has no bad smell.
BorAN1srs include in the grass family bar
ley, wheat, oats, corn, rice, timothy, red
top, blue grass, sugar cane, sorghum, etc.
Glover, the most valuable Of forage
plants, is not grass, but legume.
IT has been clearly established that lead
pipes are little affected by water if con-
stantly filed, but readily affected if alter
nately filed and emptied. Unless always
full, they are not fit for carrying drinking
water.
THE lowest average temperature known
in the world is observed at Werknojanck,
Siberia. For 1885 it was degree Fahren-
heit. For January OF that year it was So
O0GT00S U01OW, 6uO 1AAo mf3AAAAUA4 OS4VAA0So
was 40 degrees below zero.
SILVER may be dissolved in nitric acid,
and again reduced to metallic state by
adding copper after removing excess OF
moisture by evaporation. Gold can be dis
solved in warm nitro-muriatic acid, and 1t
may be recovered or reduced to a metallic
then melting the precipitate in crucible.
MErA1-woRKERs are using the standard
silver dollars as materials for lockets. They
split them in two on the edge, hollow them
out on the inside unit il mere shell remains,
and then thread them so that they screw
together. This is done so skillfully that
the alteration is not readily detected, and
can be discovered only by the ightncss OF
the coin.
IT is estimated that the matter elected in
the volcanic eruption in New Zealand
amounts to 5O,N, ,OOO, 900 cubic yards, weigh
ing 1000, ,OO0, 900 tons-not quite cubic mile,
but it would take more than the National
debt of England to excavate it. It would
take good workman 100000 years to
shovel It into carts, but it was all done In
four hoursl
THE objection to the use Of incandesoent
light in mines, that it gave no indication OF
hre-damp, has been removed by placing
two together-one q colored and the other
clear light. A mercury contact, subject
to the pressure from diffusion in an un-
glazed porcelain pot, allows the clear light
to burn in good atmosphere, but lights
the colored one in fire damp.
An apparatus is advertised in Europe BY
which person is enabled to breathe the cir
from without while sitting indoors in q
warm room. It consist Of q simple tube,
communicating through the window with
the external air, to one end Of which an
attachment to fit over the mouth and nose
is placed. The inventor claims that. e
tubercle bacili are destroyed by low
temperature, so pulmonary phthisis may be
cured by breathing frosty air through this
apparatus.
II is proposed in India to petition the
state to turn over the three or four. hun.
dred criminals annually condemned ia
death to an authorized medical commission
for the purposes Of experimentation, pr,
marily with the view to determine the
transmissibility of cholera from one man to
another. As the subjects Of the experiments
if they escape the disease, are to receive g
full pardon, it is supposed that they will
willingly submit thems Elves to tae pro
posed tests