The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-11-03
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Professors Fischer aId Penzoldt,. OF
Erlangen, have established the curious.
fact that the sense of smell is by far the
most delicate of the senses. They find
that the olfactory nerve is able to detect
the presence of 1-2, 7dc, 900, 900 ofa grain
Of mercaptan.
According to observations made in
Munich on zinc roof which had been IN
use for twenty-seven years it is estimated
that such q roof 1-4Sth of an inch IN
thickness would last for 1, 243 years. It
was found that the rust of zinc, instead
of fastening, like iron rust, the oxida-
ton on the metal underneath, really pro-
tected it. -.
A glass as hard as a,y cast metal, and
not more expensive than cast iron, has
been produced by Mr.. F. Siemene, OF
Dresden. Experiments are being made
to determine whether it can be used for
rails on railways. Specimens Of this hard
glass have been found suitable for mill
stones and railway sleeper. An impor-
tant advantage of the. glass is its trans
parency, as flaws can Le detected before
it is put to practical us,.
The Journal Of Reconstruction states
that an infant loses from three to six
ounces in weight duriug the first four to
six days after birth; by the seventh day
it should have regained its birth weight;
from that to the fifth month thought to
gain about five ounces per week, or
about SIX drams day; after the fifth
month, about four drains day; at the
fifth month it ought to have doubled its
birth weight, and in sixteen months
quadrupled it.
In many skulls from Roman and Ftrus.;
can tombs DR.. Marter, of Rome, has dis,
/ covered interesting specimens of ancient
dent stry ard art fetal teeth. These lat
ter are in most cases carved out Of the
teeth of some large animal, and in many
instances arc fastened to the natural
teeth by binds of gold. No filled teeth
have been discovered. The skulls exan-
ined date back as far as the sixth CEN
tury B. c., and prore that toothacheand
the art Of den i try ase by no means
modern institutions.
A new method of preserving and trans.
porting fresh fish has been devised by
Mr.. A. R. Roosen, of Hamburg, and was
recently tried in England. It consistsin
placing the fish in barrels of steel, each
barrel being closed by an air-tight lid
fitted with small valve connection, to,
which is temporarily attached tube
from small hydraulic haud-pump. With
this pump water is forced into the barrel
(the air being at the same time expelledl
until the guage indicates a pressure OF
about sixty pounds per square inch. The,
tube is then disconnected, and the bar
rel closed by the valve. Before the pump
ing begins the b rel is supplied with
sufficient fish to make the cargo, and an
antiseptic solution of three per cent. OF
boracic acid, tartaric acid, salt and water,
with ninety-sevcn per cent. OF fresh
water. Fish have been brought 10 fresh
condition by this plan from Montrose,
Copenhagen and The Shetland Islands for
London consumption.
In the west of Scotland, Stevenson
found the average force of the waves for
the five summer months to be 811 pounds
per square foot, and for the six winter
months 2,056 pounds. He mentions that
on one of the IIebrides mass of rock
weighing about forty-two tons was grad
ually moved five fett bv the waves in a
storm. Hagen records that in the harbor
of Cette block of concrete measuring
$500 cubic feet and weighing probably
1875 tons, was moved on its bed over three
feet. And now late observer, Mr.. E.
NJ. Nelson, renorts finding on one of the
Shetland islands som, granite boulders,
whose appearance inl'cates that they
haze been broken fir m the cliff at the
waters edge as single block weighing
fifty tons, cast up 10 yards inland and
thirty-fve feet above sea level, and
broken in three pla: es. This tremendous
rower of the waves is constantly grind
ing away exposed coasts, forming new
land of the removed materia', and thus
slowly but steadily changing the contour
of the continents and inlands.