The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-04-10
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,
CAUSES OF CONSUMPTION.

After study of nearly $4,000 cases, DIR. Her
mann --Brehmer, and able German physician, re-
jects the theory of the contagiousness of pulmon-
ary consumption. He finds the disease to be due
to deficient nutrition of the lungs, which may re-
suit from various antecedent causes, such as in
herited defects of constitution, and vital organs
impaired by disease, injury, or mode of living
He believes that the operation of all these
may produce such changes that it may be possible
years, even decades, in advance-to predict
with great probability which members of given
family will be afflicted with pulmonary consump-
ton, and which will remain healthy.
ELEPHANTS INTELLIGENCE.
The author of "Two years in the Jungle" Mr..
Hornaday, defends the elephant from the charge
that its sagacty is of very mediocre description,
and its reasoning faculties far below those of
the dog and possibly other animals. He declares
it to he the most intelligent of all animals. ga
horse" he remarks, (Which will promptly back at
the word of command, or dog that will bark or
stand on its hind legs when told to do so. is
sidered quite accomplished; but in India any
well-trained elephant, at word or touch from his
driver, who sits astride his neck will hand up,
'kneel,' speak (trumpet), 'salaam, salute with
his trunk), stop, back, lie down, pull down an
obstructing branch, gather fodder and hand up
to his attendant, turn lift log, or drag it by
taking its drag rope between his teeth. He will
also protect his attendants attack common
enemy with fury. $ Contrast with this
the performances of our most intelligent breed OF
dogs, the pointer. Even when young and trained
under the most favorable circumstances, they are
at best but capable of being taught few things,
as to go on, to charge to go in given direc-
tion, andretrive."
swATER- ABsoRBERs OF PLANTS.
The adaptations with which plants are provided
for making the most of the water that comes to
them in the form of rain dew thus CLASH
fed by Lundstrom, who has made them subject
of special investigation: Depressions, in form
of leaf cups or of grooves in the epidermis; hair
formations, in tufts or borders microscopic mem
branes, as spots or stripes on the epidermis and
anatomical adaptations, such as water absorbing
textures and swelling glands. None OF these
features are found in the submerged parts OF
plants.
.f,. LUNAR. INFLUENCE ON THE COMPASS.
In a communication to the Meteorological So
ciety of Austria, NJ. G. Ligner has described the
remarkable discovery that tho moon has an in
fuence on magnetized needle. The phenomenon
is said to be more prominent when the moon is
nearest to the earth, and to be very marked when
she is passing from the full to her first or second
quarter. The disturbance reaches maximum
when the moon is in the plane of the equator, and
is greater during the southern than the northern
declination.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The generation of heat by friction has been ap,
piled in England to the production of friction
STILL with which survivors of shipwrecks may OBJ
tain steam and fresh water from sea-water with
out the aid of fire.
Statistics are said to show that over ninety pei
cent. of mad dogs are retrievers, or animals So
called, and that mongrels are much more liable tc
hydrophobia than dogs Of pure breed.
A comparative statement of the death rate in
England and Wales in the two decennial periods
1S7l-lSS0 and 1861 1870 has just been published
and shows a decrease of 100 deaths year IN
each million inhabitants. The deaths from dlph
iberia and few supposed to be due.to unhealthy
surroundings were greatly reduced in number
Europeansmanufacturers are said to be adont-
ing the plan for making paper as tough as wood
or leather by mixing chloride of zinc with the
pulp in the course of manufacture.
A race of hairless Americans is threatened. II
has been estimated that already one halfthe adult
men of American birth living in our cities are
bald, and badness is extremely liable to be pro
pagated in the male line, and to appear little
earlier in each successive generation.
1t is computed that o twelve-inch wall OF hard
burned bricks and good lime and sand mortar
the height might reach 1900 feet.
The germs which give rise to malarial fever
have been found by two Italian Psychologists.
Layers of stone containing some of the sup
posed human footprints lately found near Lake
Manogua, in Nicaragua, have been sent to the
Vienna Natural History Museum. The stone is a
volcanic tufa, and the impressions are extremely
sharp and distinct, and, if genuine footprints,
prove the existence of in Central America
at very remote period.
The Paris Horticultural Congress, to open in
May, is to discuss, among other questions the in
fuence of the age of seeds on the quality and
quantity of the plants they produce, and the pos
sibility of cultivating other mushrooms than the
common edible variety.
The tuberose is now cultivated extensively as a
field plant in Natal, South Africa, and SO favora-
BILE is the climate that flowers in open air may be
had every month in the wear.