The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-12-01
POPULAR SCIENCE.

TUI LAA SCALNCE.
Careful observations by Schroeder, in
Germany, show that one part of sui.
phuric acid in $4,000 parts of air will
cause a serious damage to plants in a
very short time. Coniferous trees are
more sensitive than deciduous. Fruit
trees are very sensitive.
In British Association paper, Mr.. W.
II. Preece has recorded an experiment by
(which he localized a fragment Of a needle
in his daughters hand. A fine magne.
tized needle was suspended by delicate
6Ler over the hand, and on cutting at the
point indicated by this needle the
troublesome bit of steel was found and
extracted.
1t is very unsafe to paper a room, 81 is
too often done, over another Piper.
Sometimes several layers are placed on
the walls. These layers, together with
the paste, become breeders Of disease.
The only proper way, when the paper
needs renewing, is to remove the old
paper entirely and clean the wall. For
sleeping rooms it is better to have no
paper at all.
A new use for the tobacco plant has
been discovered. Its stems and waste,
it is claimed, are equal to linen rags in
the manufacture of paper. Tobacco
waste costs less than $40 ton, linen
rags $40 to $50. There is no expense in
asserting the former and very little shrink.
age, as against loss of one-third Of
rags. The yearly tobacco waste is es-
timated by the census reports at from
5000, 900 to 1000, 600 pounds.
While the subject of earthquakes is
under discussion it might not be inap-
propriate to mention that one notable
feature in connection with the New
Madrid earth quake was its effects on
forest trees. Gigantic oaks that, from
their exterior, appeared to be solid, were
discovered, upon being cut for sawmill
purposed, to be much impaired and in
jured internally, and as rule presented
rotten hearts of splintered bodies. This
fact was noted and has been commented
upon.
The worlds blind are computed to
number about 900, 900, about one sight
less person to every 1,400 inhabitants.
In Austria. one person in every !, 1856 is
blind; in Sweden, one in every 1,41S; in
France, one in every 1,191; in Prussia,
one in every ILL; in England, one in
every 1,O37. The, proportion is greatest
in Egypt, where, in Cairo, there is one
blind person to every twenty inhabi-
| tauts; while in New Zealand it falls to
one in every 3, $50 inhabitants. Germany
has the greatest number of institutes for
the blind, thirty-five; England has six
teen; France, thirteen; Austria. Hun
gary, ten; Italy, nine; Belgium, six;
Australia, two; while America, Asia and
Africa together are said to possess only
six.
1t is we'll understood that Great Brit
ain and other parts of Northern Europe
owe much to the warming influence of
the gulf stream. The extent of the ef-
feet has been given in the calculations OF
Dr. James Croll, who has found that the
amount of heat conveyed northward in
the Atlantic by this stream is equivalent
to T7,479, $50, 600, 900, ,OO0,0OO foot.
poucds of energy day, which is equal
to all the heat received by 1850, 935
square miles at the equator, and more
heat than is conveyed by all the air cur:
rents. The heat of the Arctic seas and
north Atlantic would be diminished that
much by the stoppage or division of the
great ocean river.