Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-03-24
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Compiled for the SPECTATOR.

TCompiled for the SPECTATOR.
TESTING THE FOOD OF PARIs.-The food
and drink sold in Paris are tested at a pub
lie laboratory, concerning the work of which
a report has Just been issued by the French
Academy of Sciences. The laboratory was
first opened in 1878, and specimens of wine,
beer, cider, milk, chocolate, coffee, tea, etc.,
are examined daily; as are also colors used
for toys and confectionery, pork suspected
of containing triehinae, and timed meats.
Some samples are brought by the public
but most of them are obtained by inspectors
employed to visit the taverns and grocers'
shops and examine the articles offered for
sale. There are twenty-five chemists at
tached to the laboratory, each of whom has
his own special department., one taking
milk, another wine, and so on. Part of
each sample is kept as evidence in case
adulteration should be found. About 20,
600 analyses year are made, at a cost of
about $4,000.
SMALL PLANETS AND coMETs.-At the
beginning of the year 1853 asteroids were
known, nine having been discovered during
1886 Up to the close of 1884 the number
of comets observed for which orbits have
been computed was 800, of which twelve
have proven themselves periodic, and have
been re- observed more or less frequently.
By investigation throughout Italy, Signor
P. Bonizzi has found that atmospheric dust
collected in exposed localities almost in
variably contains spherical magnetic par
ticles, which are rarer or altogether want
ing in the dust of closed localities.
According to German authority, the
well own spidefwort- -tr0descantia zebrind
serves the purpose of barometer, its
flower buds always opening twenty four
hours before rain comes.
INFLUENCE OF BEVERAGES ON DIGESTION.
BY experiments on large butchers dog,
Signor Ogata has found that tea and coffee
in moderate amount, pure water, and water
containing carbonic acid, do not disturb
digestion. Beer, wine and brandy retard
digestion considerably until absorbed; and
in the case of beer the extractive matters
act thus as we'll as the alcohol, so that beer
has greater effect than wine containing
the same quantity of alcohol. Both cane
and grape sugar retard digestion considera-
bly,, while common salt distinctly accelerates
it.
DISEAs OF DOCToRS.-An English
statistician, DR.. VIM. Ogle, declares that
the mortality of physicians from scarlet
fever, typhus, diphtheria, enterc fever,
malarial fever and erysipelas is very largely
in excess Of the average. Medical men,
however, seldom have small pox-probably
because they are most frequently and effec
lively vaccinated. Diseases of the liver are
very fatal amopg doctors, due, Dr.. Ogle be-
lieves, to neglect of the wise dietetic rules
which medical men recommend to their pa
tients.
The latest accounts state that the new
island which has sprung up in the friendly
group, in the South Pacific, is about nine
square miles in area, and rises from 200 to
800 feet above the level of the sea. The
volcanic eruption which produced the is
land threw up a column of water and steam
fully mile in height.
A study of the asteroids has shown Prof.
Arthur Searle certain peculiarities in the
belt of sky they traverse which correspond
with those of the zodiacal light, and suggest
the hypothesis that the light may be partly
due to minute objects circulating in orbits
like those Of the smaller planets.
The researches of Prot. D. E. Hughes
give a very decided verdict in favor of the
ribbon form of lightning conductor, a solid
iron rod being regarded as the worst posi-
BILE form.
A CONCENTRATING LIGHT.-In a paper
to the Dublin Royal Society, Prof. W. F.
Barrett has described the results yielded by
a new adaptation of gas to lighthouse il
Illumination. A device known as the double
quadriform burner was used, consisting of
a series of four superpoSed SS,jet gas burn
ers placed alongside of four similar super
posed burners, eight lenses beng placed on
either side at the proper focal distance
The lights blend into one at a distance of
about 1900 feet from the lighthouse. Ex-
periments were made on two foggy even
ings, the fog on the second evening being
80 dense that a powerful revolving light less
than half the distance of the double quad
riform was entirely cut off, and the sound
of a large fog-siren near the experimental
light was also extinguished Yet ON both
occasions the double quadriform was easily
seen by the naked eye, and its position
readily determined, at a distance of six
miles.
A FIsH-sToRY.-A Norwegian writer has
made some remarkable statements concern
ing the jumping of herring out of the water
when frightened. He affirms that he has
observed whole shoals of this fish, in their
anxiety to escape from pursuing whales,
height of from three to six feet, aud on one
occasion about fifteen feet.
Explorations made last summer prove
that the ancient mound building inhabitants
of America extended their works northward
beyond the Red River of the North Along
this river and Lake Winnipeg were found
mounds identical in structure with the ia
nous ones of the Ohio and Mississippi val
leys.
The French Minister of Public Instruc-
ton proposes sending a scientific commits
SIGN to study the subsistence of British
coasts. 1t is well known that parts of the
east coast of England have been greatly en-
croached upon by the sea within the past
century.
LOCUST INvAsIONs The records of
locust plaques in the warm counties of the
East, in modern as well as in ancient times,
almost surpass belief. Kirby and Spence
mention an army of locusts which ravaged
the Mahratta country extending in a col
umn 500 miles long, and so compact that