The Baltimore County union., 1886-11-13
Correspondence baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,
nnsoLvEn pRopLFMs.


Prof. Young names four problems in solar
physics whose solution is urgently demanded and
would be a great advance in astronomical science.
First an explanation of the peculiar law by which
the SUMS surface at the equator makes a complete
rotation in about 25 days while place half way
to the poles requires 273 days; second, an ex-
planaton of the occurrence of the spots in periods
leach period or cycle being about eleven years.
and of their distribution in the two zones lying
between the tenth and thirtieth degrees Of lati-
tude each side of the equator; third, deter
mination of the variations in the amount of heat
radiated at different times and from different
points on the solar surface fourth, satisfactory
explanation of the relations of the gases and other
matters above the rhotosphere, visible surface.
to the sun itself-the problem of the corona and
the prominences which appear to view during
total eclipses. There are other interesting mys-
teries, but these are the most important.
THE GLACIERS OF THE ALPS.
The number of glaciers of the Alps is 155, ac-
cording to Prof. Helm. OF these, France has IA |;
Italy, 10; Switzerland, All and Austria 562.-
Their total superficial area is between 500 and
1000 square miles. The longest is the Aletsch
glacier in Austria, measuring nine miles !;
and 249 have greater length than four miles and
ahsf
DEATH-BED VISIONS.
1t is better to know the truth, Dr. T. d. Spencer
has observed in reference to the phenomena of
death, than to cherish belief however pleasing
it be, founded on error. The traditions and su-
perstitions of the past have led to popular be-
lief in the theory that the beati6c visions which
often come to the dying are momentary views OF
those mysteries hitherto unknown but science,
with its iconocastic hand, has swept away the
pleasing fancy, and in its place has constructed
q fabric founded on analogy. Anaesthetics and
asphyxia from drowning of charcoal fumes often
produce disordered fancies exactly like those pre-
ceding death, and the natural inference is that
they result in both cases from one and the same
cause. During the last moments of life the mind
gradually loses cognizance of external surround
ings, and is rspt in self-contemplation. Though
still in semi-conscious condition, the weeping
of friends and the voices of attendants fall upon
dull ears. The eyelids closed, the pupils
slightly contracted and rolled upward and in
ward. The dying man has forgotten the present,
for he is living in the past. One by one the events
of whole life appear, its joys and sorrows,
perchance long since forgotten, rise before him
in startling dstinetness and then disappear in the
swiftly moving panorama. The familiar faces of
the friends of his youth thrown upon the
mental retina, their CHEEKY voices reverberate in
his ears, and the thought of meeting these friends
in the near future is perhaps his last conscious
impression. As this drowsiness creeps over the
system, these images, nodded from the past, be-
come as realities to the disordered Imagination.
The germs from which originate these strange
combinations have probably been lying dormant
for years in the registering ganglia of the brain"
SECURING EFFECT OF WATER.
An engineer states that the securing effect of a
stream increases as the sixth power Of the veio-
city, so that a river having velocity six times
as great as another will be able to transport ma
teria weighing 46, $50 times as much as that car
ried by the slower stream. In engineering cal
culations it is commonly recognized that stream
flowing three inches per second barely affects fine
clay six inches per second will raise fine sand;
;noh xvill fine
gravel; twenty -four inches per second will carry
pebbles an inch in diameter; thirty-six inches
per second-or about two miles per hour-will
push forward fragments the size of an egg.
THE AURoRAs HEIGHT.
Many attempts have been made to fix the height
of the aurora borealis, but the estimates have
given adscouragingly wide range OF figures. The
aurora has been observed when seemedto to rest on
the earth's surface and at other times has ap-
peared simultaneously at stations so widely sepa-
rated that il has been supposed to be 200 or 800
miles high. In experiments with his powerful
voltaic battery, practical demonstrations of the
effects of electrical discharges in rare6ed air
made by DR.. De la Rue. These forced him to the
conclusion that thirty y-eght miles is probably the
height at which the most brilliant auroras take
place, that pale and faint glow may possibly be
produced as high even eighty-two miles, but
that at a height of 124 miles auroral discharge
is possible.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Ina paper lately read before London engineer
ing society, it was mentioned the result of many
experiments that 1000 feet of gas used top produce
incandescent electric lighting by means of q gas
engine would give twice much light las il would
if employed an illuminant in the ordinary way.
French estimate is that a one: horse power
engine would run 27 ,000, GOO watches.
Music has been found to exert a very percepti-
BILE effect upon the respiration and circulation of
animals well as of human subjects.
In coffee growing countries an infusion of the
leaves of the treeis held by many to be superior
of the dried coee-leaves as an article Of
has been suggested.
Crows have been known to free themselves from
parasites by standing over ant hill and al