The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-08-06
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

The brain of lioness has been dis
sected at Berne, and found to be in
many respects intermediate between the
dogs and cats brain.
The air of different places seems to
vary little in its proportion of oxygen
and nitrogen, air lately brought from
Cape Horn being about like that of
France.
A prize of $1,000 is offered for the
best essay on the progress of electricity
applied to motive power and lighting
before January /, 1889, the king of the
Belgians being donor.
There is no patch of the moons visi-
BILE surface half mile square that is
not accurately mapped, according to
Prof. Young, while the earth contains
immense tracts, and in Central Africa,
which have never been surveyed.
In late experiments by Russian
Psychologist, neither pure tin nor the
bichlOride of tin proved poisonous when
introduced into the stomach of a dog,
but when the bichloride was inject
ed into the veins it was quickly fatal.
The attention of medical men in
producing drug called hypnOne, dis
titled mixture of acetate of lime with
benzoate of lime. 1t is claimed that the
new drug produces none of the unpleas-
ant after symptoms of opium.
The housewives of Norway make their
common flat-bread largely of the pow
dered branches of the young pine, not
so much to save flour as to secure
light loaf. The bark proves to be not
only innutritious but actually injurious,
and is now being denounced by medical
men.
The captain of an Australia schooner,
Mr.. +. H, Grifliths, reports the setting
fire of his vessel by a meteorite on De-
cember twelfth. while in latitude %
deg. So min. north, and longitude 143
deg. &c min. west No shock was felt
but ave- or more hot metallic pieces as
large as mans hand were picked up.
The ornamental PiSonid grandis of
Australia has seeds like an elongated
barley corn, which are covered with a
very sticky gum. This adheres to the
legs and feathers of winged creatures
coming in contact with it, and makes
the plant natural bird-catcher, no less
than hundred birds having been
known to be captured by one tree in
Victoria.
The quantity of poison conveyed in
the fangs OF venomous snakes appears
to be very small, but of very powerful
quality. DIR. Vincent Richards, of Ben
gal, mentions a kraft which quickly
killed three men and seriously poisoned
fourth, by bites given in rapid success
sion. He estimated that the reptile
carried eight grains of liquid venom in
its poison glands, which are smaller
than those of the cobra.
The precipitation method of treating
sewage is to be adopted in London on a
large scale The sewage is left in tanks,
and the separation of the solid portion
is FASTENED by the addition of lime and
protosulphate of iron. The liquid be-
comes as clear as fresh water, and may
be drained into the Thames; while the
solid matter is to be pressed into blocks
for transportation to the sea. The pro-
has been tried eXperimentally for
-. "nths, but is now to be applied
e ess ~allOns of sewage daily.
o 100000 Sia1ne " ha'c uis-
A writer in Chin. ~ noun,,.y &c
overed record of tn. w Tbo
peaking monograph in tina. on.
lr back as the seventeenth centu.
lstrument is mentioned as 1.-THE tn,
and-li speaker" and the description is
S follows: ut was bamboo tube COW
red with a disk of glass and opened by
key. After speaking into it several
words, it was closed and
arried to distance not exceeding a
lousand Ii. On opening it and apply
lg the ear, voice was distinctly heard.
carried a greater distance the voice
ecame indistinct." Dr. Mcgowan
lggests that indistinctness might result
ON injury sustained by the apparatus
long trip over the rough road.