The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-01-21
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Measurements by Captain Noble have
shown that explosion is transmitted
through trains OF dynamite at the rate
Of 20 to a 0C0 feet Per second.
A list of the plants OF Japan has been
published ut Toxic in three languaGe
japanese. Chinese and Latin. More
than :, 100 plants ere enumerated.
A colossal plant specimen exists il
the garden Of Mr. J. B. Tory, al Sun
ningdale, England. II is vine OF tee
CT Wistaria which covers wall nine
feet high for distance Of $40 feer
Few countries are as greatly interested
in science as Norway. At Bergen, an
association for the advancement of
science has Just been established, with Z,
membership of one hundred persons,
The esparto grass of Spain has been
extensively exported TO England for
paper making. 1t has now been sue
cessfully introduced into South Austria
liza. where it is expected to become :.
profitable product.
The painstaking researches Of Prof. S.
P. Langley have caused him to reject
Lord Rosse's assumption that the tenn
perature of the moons surface rises To
POO or 800 degrees Fahrenheit during &
the lunar day, and falls about as far be-
{ low zero in the lunar night. Prof. l..
finds that the temperature can never
rise above a point where everything
perhaps even the gases-is frozen solid.
Recent tests with small squares of
wood buried one inch in the ground
have given these results: Birch and
aspen decayed in three years; willow
and horse chestnut in four years; maple
and red beech in FIVE years; elm, ash,
hornbeam, and Lombardy poplar, in
seven years; oak, Scotch iir and Wey-
mouth pine decayed to the depth of hall
an inch in seven years; and larch, juni-
per and arbor vite were uninjured al
the end of seven years.
A committee of eminent physicians
has been appointed by the International
Medical Congress, which lately met in
Copenhagen, to inquire into the causes
of cancer, and to investigate particular
ly association between the disease and
the use of certain foods, the influence
of worry and depressed state of the
health in producing the malady, and
the extent to which it is hereditary. A
report is to be made at the Washington
meeting of the congress i'll 1887.
The tel pherage system of Byrton and
Perry, the English electricians, has fol
its object the conveyance of any kind OF
goods diviSible into parcels of two hun
dred-weight at speed of four or five
miles an hour. The motive power is
electricity, which drives the carrying
buckets along a cable suspended on
posts. A telpher line has Just been es'
tablished at Glynde, in Sussex, and the
system has proven success from g
s"irliiitc point of view, the commercial.
value OF such means of carrying light
fire. y ht remaining to be proved.
I,om Central America, Mr.. Meyer. ?
disting guished archaologist, reports re
naarkable discovery. Some forty fee
beneath the surface OF an ancient Genie
tery on the island of Iapatera he cams
upon figured rock and two stone tab
lets. The former seemed 10 be a record
of ancient astronomical observations
while one of the tablets bore represen
tation Of the world, including d CONT
nent which is supposed to be the los
Atlantis of certain old authors. In
Ecriptions-partly PhRnician-were cut
OF the other tablet
The continents, according to 1Ir
John Murray Of the great Challenge
expedition, have az average height O
about 500 feet above ses-level, md oc
cupy i've sixteenths OF the earth's sur
face. The seas "abysslnal regions oc
cupy about half OF tie earth'3 surface
and have an acreage depth Of thra,
miles. in the Pacific the greatest depth
are to the south and east of japan
where there are abysses OF over five miles
and in the Atlantic the greatest depres
sion Of over four miles is to the Dortf
u the Virgin Islands. TIE great cceaI
basins--once SO dark and mysterious
hare been rapidly becoming familiar Il
man during the last twenty years.