The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-09-18
Correspondence Baltimore County Onion.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
nurw1Na THE cup.

CHEWING THE CUD.
IL annears that man has some claim to to class
i6cation with the camel, deer, goat and bovine
kind as ruminant, some forty instances of ru-
mination in the human species-that is, of per-
sons endowed with food for chewing on
record. The first use of this digestive aid is made
verv early in life it has been observed almost
clusively in males, and it occurs mostly in large
eaters, being evidently provision of nature to
give more thorough mastication in those who eat
excessively or rapidly.
THE THINNEsT GOLD. LEAF.
In recent lecture, Mr. o. E. 0uterbridge, Jr.,
remarked that gold may be hammered into leaves
not more than a hundred thousandth part of an
inch in thickness, but that he had obtained sheets
as thin as the millionth of inch, and some that
he believed to be thicker than the ten-milionth
of an inch. They were produced by electroplat-
ing the gold upon copper foil, and then dissoiV-
ing away the copper. "To give you an idea OF
this thinness," he concluded, 81 may say that it
is about one two hundredth part of the length of
a wave of light. Taking Sir William Thomson's
estimate of the size of the final molecules, and
considering that each layer (of molecules) cor
responds to one page of book, our thinnest him
would then make pamphlet having more than
hundred pages"
EARTH-TREMORS IN ITALY.
Systematic record of earth-tremors, or slight
shakings of the ground, has now been made in
many Italian towns for ten years. THESE tremors
appear to be periodic, and to be connected with
the movements of the sun and moon, and with the
state of the barometer. They also appear to in
crease before earthquake prediction.
THE GERM OF RABIES.
The long sought microbe OR germ Of hydropho-
bia has been discovered by Mr.. G.. F. Dowdeswell,
+. L. S. in the nervous tissues of rabid animals.
tt is not very minute, but has evidently escaped
detection on account of the difficulty of straining
it so as to make it visible under the microscope.
Previous observers have affirmed finding this mi
crobe, but their reports have not been accepted.
ARE THE BIRDS DIMINISHING!
The total number of birds on this continent is
estimated BY Dr. F. W. Langdon at 5000 ,OOO,O0O
and the annual increase at the same figure Ad-
hitting that 5000 900 are killed annually for the
use af American milliners, and as many more ior
exports, he iufers that our birds must remain
practically undiminished by human slaughter ano
that if any birds of song usefulness to man are
in danger of becoming extinct, it must be through
some other agency.
MISCELLANEOUS.
At the London Royal Institution Prof. Oliver
Lodge has expressed the desire of experimenting
on a sufficiently large scale to show whether tnt
dust and smoke may not be removed from Lon
don air by artificial electric discharges. Dense
smoke in bell jars has been instantly condensed
by a discharge from friction machine.
Aniline oil is reported to be gaining consdera
Bile favor as local anaesthetic in simple surgica
operations, such as opening felon. On dipping
the finger in the oil for short time 1t becomes 81
insensbe that the flesh may be cut to the oons
without pain. =,
By observations with the spectroscope, DIR. X
Won Kovesigethy, a German astronomer, ma
caIculated the speed at which the solar system il
moving in space to be little more than elgh
and a half miles second, but he does not rely OF
the accuracy of this result.
At Calais, France, boiler incrustations are mad
to scale off by passing an electric current throug
the metal fer about two days.
durable luminous cement or concrete is nov
made in London by mixing the phosphorescen
suphide of calcium with ordinary cements.
A botanical curiosity in garden at Ealing
Eng. is a rose tree whose blossoms are entlrel.
green. the flowers, in fact, being composed o
similar leaves to the ordinary foliage ms Il
evidently reversion to the earlier stage OF ter
restrial plant life in which flowers had not ye
become specialized organs.
The large number of deep wells sunk IN anC
about London during the past thirty years is sal.
to have so lowered the general level in the chaii
which underies the district that the water ma
fallen about foot year. The supply seems U
be abundant still, however.
tlThermometer tubes require seasoning for yea
or two, as the new glass expands, contracts ant
warps like green wood.
Spanish inventor, Senior Pumariega, propose
applying an electric current to the body by
novel method. Flannel is impregnated with oxide
of iron, copper zinc and tin, which are excited
by the perspiration of the body and subject tn
latter to a weak but constant electric current.
Late investigation has shown that poisoning
from ice cream and from cheese is due to the pres
ence of tyrotoxicon, but it seems to be yet unde
termined whether this is a living germ or chem
ical poison.
A considerable gain in weight of beets grown
under the influence of an electric current ha
been obtained in German experiments, with 8
smaller gain in the proportion of sugar
The source of an offensive odor was lately traced
by watching two blue bottle flies, which pointed
out the locality of decomposing rat by settling
on the floor above it.