The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-03-14
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Street cars lighted and run by elec-
tricity (the Julien Brush motor, are in
successful operation in St. Louis.
The Medical Record says that expired
air is optically pure and contains no
microbes. Respiration, therefore, puri-
ties air as tar as microbes are concerned.
Seven varieties of fishes examined by
naturalists of the Challenger expedition
are found totally blind in the deep sea,
but have eyes when l.: habiting shallow
water.
A chair which may lie conveniently
moved from place to place, and wherein
the occupant may be protected from sun
and wind, or may throw the chair open
at top and sides at will, has been pat
ented.
According to Munhalrs dictionary of
statistics the average age of all the peo-
pie living in France is 80 years months
and 12 days. In the United States the
average is only 2t years 10 months and
"a days.
Ashes from the volcano of Cotopaxi,
which fell at distance of 100 miles from
the mountain, were found by analysis to
consist of quartz, feldsrar, maquetite
and specular iron ore. Silver was pres
ent at the rate of 200 grains per ton.
Sir Douglas Galton, in recent lecture
in London, discussed the troublesome
fogs of that foggy city, and suggested
that probably by distributing the elec-
trical condition of the air by kites or
balloons, rain my be caused, and the fog
by this means dispersed.
Sometimes the pressure OF an artesian
flow of wafer results from gas pressure
instead of from high head of water.
Dakota, for instance, has several artesian
wells 1000 feet deep, with $50 to 2SO
pounds pressure, but there are no high
places near by to give this head of
water.
In the phonograph of Mr.. R. NJ.
Hunter the aid of electricity is secured.
Mr.. Hunter takes trace on sheet OF
specially prepared carbon paper, and the
instrument repeats the words through q
telephone receiver by means which will
readily suggest themselves to the elec-
trician.
An English chemist has shown that
the brittleness of the bones of the aged
is not due, as is generally supposed, to
an increase of the proportion of mineral
salts with advancing years. From a
section of the femur of fifty subjects of
different ages, no difference in the pro-
portion of ash could be determined.
The gun that was cast at Pittsburg a
few weeks ago has been followed out,
and the indications are that the casting
has been a success. The steel of which
the gun is made is without flaw. The
outside of the gun is to be turned of, "
and then it will be annealed. After
ward it will be taken to Washington for
rifing and testing.
It has been observed that snow is de-
structive of marble statuary; and this
may be due, in part at least, to the re-
Gently discovered fact that snow absorbs
sulphurous acid from the atmosphere.
This sulphurous acid, according to Herr
Sendtner, becomes ozonized into sui
phuric acid. In the neighborhood OF
gas works the results are likely to be
more marked.
Professor Vaughn reports to the
Michigan State Board of Health that he
gave typhoid fever to cat by inoculat-
ing her with germs obtained from the
water used by 300 victims of the scourge
at Iron Mountain. Mich. Outside of its
novelty, tn, experiment is of little
benefit to medical science. unless it be
further demonstrated that scratch by
this cat will inoculate q human being
against the disease.
W. J. Beale and G. E. St. John pre-
sented, in the American Association, a
study of the hairs in Silphium perfolia-
tum and Depsocus lacinotus in relation
to insects. The upper surface of the
leaf in these plants, near the apex, is
thickly set with small hairs, all of which
point toward the tip. Similar hairs were
found all along the mid veins, side veins,
and veinlets of the upper surfaces of the
leaf. The cavities formed by the perfo-
liate leaves are very small and hold but
little water. They are very full after
any rain or heavy dew. These cups do
not seem to serve any purpose as insect
catchels, as only few insects were
caught during two weeks in which the
plants were watched, and they could
afford but little nutrition. 1t seems more
probable to the authors that the ob;ec of
the cups with their water is to protect
the plants from crawling insects, and
this is done most effectually.