Iuka reporter., 1888-08-30
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

One pound OF mercury converted into
illuminate is sufficient to charge so, 900
percussion caps.
In the eighty years --1s0s ss-no less
than AIT earthquake shocks have been
recorded at San Francisco.
Paraldehyde is new sleep producer.
Its action is quicker than chloral, 1t is
as safe as the blomides, and is not in
furious, except when used to excess.
1t is estimated that 100 tons can now
be carried thirteen miles an hour by
steamship at mile cost including fuel,
insurance, ETC., of ne-eighth of penny.
The shore of France is sinking at the
rate of seven feet century. In ten CEN
turies all the seaports WILDE under water,
and Paris itself will be a maritime city.
Baron Albert Rothschild has expended
$40, 900 in the purchase and setting up
of the largest mirror telescope that has
been constructed at Paris for the Vienna
observatory
Without taking into account the small
variations due to refraction, ETC., the
days and nights are always of equal
length at all points on the equator. with
out regard to the position of the ecliptic.
If gclatine be suspended in ordinary
alcohol 1t will absorb the water, but as it
is insoluble in alcohol that substance will
remain behind, and thus nearly absolute
i alcohol may be obtained without distil-
lation.
The Liverpool and Manchester Ship
Canal, which is to cost $50, 900, 900 and
/ be built in seven years, will be dredged
| by German dredging machines, as the
/ English contractor finds nothing in Eng
/ land to equal them.
In some rifles the bore is twisted.
! There is an advantage in this, because it
is supposed TO produce rotation of the
! ball around an axis in the direction of
its motion, which overcomes the COM
preston and Irregularities in the air, and
renders the bail less liable to deviate in
its path.
/ According to DR.. Howship Dickinson,
furred tongue is not necessarily an
/ alarming symptom. TO some persons II
is normal to have clean tongne, and to
+ others equally normal to have a coated
tongue, so that it is impossible to fix any
degree or limit of coating as a necessary
accompaniment to perfect health,
{ A new method of weather prediction
has been discovered by French ply
sicist. He has observed that the scin-
tillations of the stars increase before
many storms, indicating disturbance of
the upper atmosphere hours before the
meteorological instruments show any
change. The tiercer the storm the more
is the strength of the scintilations in
creased.
For several weeks, says the Atlanta
/ Constitution, there have been on exhibI-
ton, in the Office of the clerk of the Su-
perior Court samples of pulp made OF
the hulls and stalks of the cotton plant,
I The pulp is as white as snow and can be
converted into the finest writing paper.
1t is regarded as valuable and is regard
ed as the product of parts of the cotton
plant hitherto deemed valueless.
4 What is said to be satisfactory sub.
stitute for the high-prced gum acacia is
prepared by Troianowski by treating the
mucilage of flax-seed with sulphuric
acid; and another, lately patented in
Germany by Schumann, is made from
starch. The euphorbia gum, peculiar
African iesin is coming into extensive
use as substitute for, or addition to.
caoutchouc, whose quality is even
claimed to be improved by mixture with
the cheaper gum.
/ In spite of the much proclaimed dan
gers from overwork, it is interesting to
read from the statistics of the Insane
Hospital of Westboro that OF 1870 pa
tients the alleged cause given for insanity
was ovcrwork in only nineteen instances,
three male and sixteen female patients
being afflicted from that cause. Proba-
bly, 10 per cent. is more than should be
produced in this age, when every man
and woman should understand the wear
to the brain of continual thought upon
one object. this being true ''overwork.'