Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-04-14
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
[Compiled for the SPECTATOR.


MALARIA ALT1TUDEs.-Whil malaria has
its ordinary habitat in low-lying regions, it
may under favorable conditions exist at
great elevations. On the Tuscan Apennines
it is found at height of 1 100 feet above
the sea; on the Pyrenees and Mexican Cor
dilleras, 5000 feet; On the Himalayas, 6, AGO
feet; on the island of Ceylon, $500 feet; and
on the Andes, II, 900 feet. At present, the
elevation of entire security has been thus
Appropriated for various places: in Italy,
400 to 500 feet; in California, 1000 feet:
along the Appalachian chain of the United
States, 800 feet; in the West Indies, 1,400
to 1900 feet. In any of these regions, how
ever, malaria may drift up ravines to an in
definite height.
An English Psychologist, Mr.. F. W. 4.
Green, remarks that the function of memory
has not yet been decisively localized, but
there are reasons for hoping that its partic-
ular place in the brain may some day be
quite exactly known. To cultivate the
memory Mr. Green recommends: "Concen-
trate your attention, classify and condense,
make associations, substitute letters for
figures, and localize your ideas"
From Scotch census returns DR.. J. B.
Russell finds that there is very close rela-
ton between mortality and the number of
inhabitants per inhabited room. For in
stance, the number of persons per room was
1877 in Dundee, 1.91 in Greenock, 1893 in
Paisley, and 2.05 in Glasgow; and the mean
.ieath-rate rose steadily in the same order
r. 25.7, 27.4, 27.S, and 1856 per 1000 respec-
lively in these four towns.
The Prince of Monaco and the French
Admiralty are perfecting scheme for de-
termining the direction and force of the
Gulf Stream by means of numbered floats,
which will be launched at intervals with
request that finders report the time and
position of picking them up.
TIDES ON THE ATLANTIC COAST. The
great tidal wave which makes nearly two
complete circuits of the globe in every
twenty four hours is very slight in mid
ocean, but increases in height in traversing
shallow soundings. and is still further
augmented by converging coast-lines. The
eastern coast of North America has, as laid
down by Bache, great southern bay'' be
tween Florida and Cape Hatteras, enid
die bay" between Hatteras and Nantucket
and an eastern bay'' north of Nantucket:
and, while at Southern Florida the tide is /
to u feet, at Cape Hatteras feet, at South
eastern Nantucket only foot, the height
within the southern bay" at Savannah,
is feet, in the ''middle,' at the entrance
OF New York Bay, feet, and in the least
ern," at Boston, 10 feet; and in the narrow
Bay of Fundy from 40 to 70 feet.
THE DYNAMICs OF BICYcLING.-Two
English experimenters, Messrs. G. J. and G.
Stoney, find that man can exert more power
upon the bicycle than in other ways, such
use of the human muscles appearing to be
the most economical possible. To drive
bicycle at speed of nine miles an hour re.
quired about $500 foot-pounds of energy
per minute, while more than 10000 foot
pounds per minute were often applied to
the machine. The power of horse, &C,
cordiDg to well-known engineering form
ula, is 80, 600 foot-pounds per minute.
In Burmah, the latest addition to Great
Britain's territories, are grown forty varie
ties Of rice, varying in hue from white to
black. Many other kinds of edible grains
are also produced, one of them being known
as Jobs tears" on account of the round,
shining, tear-liks fruit it b3ars.
Vaseline has been found by DR.. Dubois
to exert no harmful effects upon dogs al
though its use for butter in food prepara
lions was lately condemned by French
hygienic commission.
A VOLCANIC REGION IN THE ATLANTIC
Recent observations indicate the existence
of a submarine volcanic crater between the
Canary Islands and the coast of Portugal.
From cable-laying steamer, in latitude
80 degrees 20 minutes north, longitude 8
degrees 81 minutes west, the water was
found to measure 300 fathoms under the
bow and 800 fathoms under the stern, show.