Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-04-01
NUMBER 80.
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Artificial sponge made Of cotton, rem
dered absorbent, and treated with anti
septics, has been invented in England.
A piece Of the size Of a walnut has
absorbed water until it reached the size
Of cocoanut. It is 50 cheap that it
need be used but once.
Naturalists now count 1870 different
kinds Of fishes in North American waters,
of.which 500 live in rivers and lakes and
$50 kinds belong to the Pacific. Of
the remainder 1O5 dwell only in the deep
waters Of the Atlantic and Gulf Of Mex
leo, never approaching the shore o. the
surface.
Attention has been called to the fact
that the streams in certain cultivated por-
tions of Northern Texas now run during
the part of the year when they
were formerly dry. This is not attributed
to any change in the rainfall, but to
more even absorption Of water over tho
cultivated areas.
A London paper asserts that the high
est velocity yet impaired to cannon
ball is /, 1926 feet per second, equal TO
mile in 3.2 seconds. The velocity of the
earth at the equator, due to rotation on
its axis, is 1000 miles per hour, or q
mile in 3.6 seconds; thus if cannon
ball were fired due west, and could main
tain its initial velocity, it would beat the
sun in its apparent journey around the
earth.
The adaptations with which plants are
provided for making the most Of the wa
ter that comes to them in the form Of rain
or dew are thus classified by Lundstrom.
who has made them a subject of special
investigations Depressions, in the form
Of leaf-cups or Of grooves in the epider-
mis-; hair formations, in tufts or borders;
microscopic membranes, as spots or
stripes on the epidermis; and anatomical
adaptations, such as water-absorbing tex
lures and swelling glands. None Of these
features are found in the submerged parts
Of plants.
After study of nearly 10000 cases,
DR.. Hermann Brehmer, an able German
physician, rejects the theory of the con-
tagiousness Of pulmonary consumption
He finds the disease to be due to deficient
nutrition of the lungs, which may result
from various antecedent causes, such as
inherited defects Of constitution, and
vital organs impaired By disease, injury
or mode of living. He believes that the
operation of all the causes may produce
such changes that it may be possible
years, even decades, in advance to pre-
dict with great probability which mem
bers Of a given family will be afflicted
with pulmonary consumption, and which
will remain healthy.
SAYS Mr.. Grant Allen: sit is the brain
as whole that thinks, and feels, and
desires and imagines, just az il is the
body as a whole that walks, and digs,
and dances. To locate, say the faculty Of
language in particular conyolution of
particular hemisphere is almost as absurd,
it seems to me, as to locate, say, the
faculty of writing in the last joint Of the
right forefnger Convolution and fore
finger may be absolutely essential or in
dispensible for the proper performance Of
speech or writing; but to say, that is,
not to say that the function in question
is there localized. The brain as a whole
is the organ Of mind, but there Is no
organ for the the word Canonbury Or for
the proper perception of Mrs. Pollock
geranium"