The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-02-15
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Prof. Vaughan reports successful at
tempt to produce in a cat disease SINH
lar to typhoid fever, by the use of the
germs found in the water used by the
300 victims of the scourge at Iron
Mountain, Mich.
Sometimes the pressure of an artesisn
flow of water results from gag pressure
instead of from high head of water.
Dakota, for instance, has several artesian
wells 1000 feet deep, with $50 to 280
pounds pressure, but there are no high
places near by to give this head of water.
The advisabllity of testing as foggy
weather signals sudden flashes, such as
to the British lighthouse authorities by
Lord Rayleigh and Professor Stokes,
who think the flashes might attract atten-
tion where an equal fixed light might
escape notice.
We have heretofore been led to believe
that ice purified itself. Now we are told
that in good marketable ice, taken from
where the water is polluted with the
sewage of cities, there exists an almost
indefinite number of living disease
germs, and they appear to thrive under
the condition Of being frozen for an in
definite period. ...'
Some people doubt the poisonous
effect of nutmeg, but several cases of
nutmeg poisoning have been noted in the
British Medical Journal during the past
summer. A whole nutmeg was taken in
>f tha orl Gua tpha1o
the remaining case. In still another case,
the use of half nutmeg in hot drink
was nearly fatal. ....
DR.. John Murray, of Edinburgh, in q
paper on the height and volume of the
dry land and depth and volume of the
ocean, makes the statement that "should
the whole of the solid land be reduced to
one level under the ocean, then the sur
face of the earth would be covered by an
ocean with a uniform depth of about two
miles" From DR.. Murray's investiga-
tions italso appears that if the dry land
of the globe were reduced to the sea
level by being removed to and piled up
in the shallower waters of the ocean, then
its extent would be about $4,000, 900
square miles, and the rest of the surface
of the earth would be covered by an
ocean extending to $4,000, 900 square
miles.
The course which an earthquake ruHs
is usually very rapid. From the moment
when the first shock was felt at Lisbon
to the period when all was over, and
! nearly 1000 people were killed, not
more than four minutes elapsed. A few
seconds, we learn from "Our Earth and
Its Story" are usually more frequent
, time for the shocks to last. Yet, while
Caracas in Venezuela was almost de-
stroyed aud $4,000 of its inhabitants
killed by the earthquake of 1912, within
the limits of half minute, there are
cases in which constantly recurring
shocks last for weeks, months, and even
wears, as if the laboring earth was still
trying to relieve itself of some of its
superabundant energy.
The climate of the Sandwich Islands
is peculiarly adapted to the cultivation
of rice of peculiar quality and in great
quantity, its evenness of temperature
permitting the raising of two crops
year without any particular strain upon
the SOIL The crops are raised in fields
called patches, most of which were
formerly used by the natives for raising
taro, and which are often not more than
an acre in extent. The feds are
situated in the lowlands, where abundant
irrigation can be obtained, and some
times on slight elevations where artesian
wells can be successfully established,
and are the highest-priced lands in the
kingdom. The cultivation is almost en-
tirely in the hands of the Chinese.