The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-09-29
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Prof Rogers, of England, has in
vented a solidifed gas which can be
Immediately volatilized for the special
use of balloonists.
Mr.. Edison says that 5000 volts of
electricity, alternating 500 times per
second, will kill man beyond power
of resuscitation. Salt bandages on the
wrists will facilitate the process.
An important invention in railway
practice is the method of welding steel
rails by electricity, recently patented
by a Baltimore electrician, by which
track-layers are enabled to lay con-
tinuOus rail
1t is stated upon medical authority
that readers should refrain from damp
ing their fingers in turning over the
leaves of library books, as this is d
sure way to attract any stray bacilli
that may be lurking around.
Prof. w. Ramsay suggests that
color-blindness is probably defect of
the brain instead of the eye. 1t is
analogous to the dullness which pre-
vents a person from distinguishing an
octave 5 difference between two musical
notes, though both notes are heard,
there being no deafness.
Mr.. Kergovatz, a chemist of Brest,
electrotypes bodies after death. By his
process the body is encased in a skin
of copper, which prevents further
change or chemical action. IF desired,
this may again be plated with gold, or
silver, according to the taste or wealth
of the friends of the deceased person.
The manufacture of counterfeit i'm
plements of the stone age seems to be
becoming quite an industry. A recent
deception, detected at the Smithsonian
institution, consisted in chipping away
parts of genuine spear or arrow-heads,
and selling the mutilated hints at a
greatly increased price as rare and Gu
rious.
An instrument called the osteotome
has been invented as an improvement
over the tedious and clumsy surgical
methods Of cutting through bones by
means of saws and chisels. 1t is prac-
tically circular saw revolved at very
high speed by an electric motor. An
ingeniously devised shield, which
passes around the bone to be operated
upon, protects the surrounding flesh
from injury.
-Saccharin, the newly discovered
organic chemical compound, which is
! so many hundred times sweeter than
sugar, is no attraction for flies, bees or
other insects. Perhaps their instinct
teaches them that it is no use as a food,
and even injurious as flavor. 1t will
/ probably take man a long time to find
out by scientific methods whether it is
good and safe article of diet for him.
Foote's Health MONTHLY.
French chemists now obtain from
the essence of birch bark, by rectifca-
ton, an essential oil which possesses
among other properties that of being
fatal to insect life, and an electrically
| insulating tarry substance; and these
| two products are so treated and COM
bined with other substances as to pro-
duce an anti-oXidizing compound and
an insulating material capable of the
same applications as ebonite.
"A medical journal states that new
experiments have changed old theories
upon the best methods of treating frost
bites. A physician froze sixty dogs
into condition of completely sus-
pended animation; twenty of these
were treated by the usual method of
gradual resuscitation in a cold room,
and of these fourteen persisted; twenty
were treated in a warm apartment and
eight of these died; while of the re-
naming twenty, which were put at
once in hot bath, all recovered.