The Progress., 1888-10-06
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

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SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
PROF. Rogers, Of Enaland, has Is.
vented a solidified gas which can be
imme diately volatilized for.the special
use OF balloonists.
Mr.. Edison says that 8, COO volts OF
electricity, alternating 500 times per
second, will kill q 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 Baltimore electrician, by which
tracklayers are enabled to lay q 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 a
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. It is
analogous to the dullness which pre-
vents a person from distinguishing an
octave difference between two musical
notes, though both notes are heard,
there being no deafness. 81
AergOvatz, a chemist of Brest,
electrotypes bodies after death By his
process the body is eneased in skin
OF copper, which prevents further
| change or chemical action If desired,
this 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 inn
plements of the stone age seems to be
becoming quite an industry. A recent
deception, detected at the Smit thsonian
institution, consisted In chipping away
parts Of genuine spear or. arrow-heads,
and selling the mutilated. fints 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 H is prac-
tically a 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. y
Saccharin, the newly discovered
organic chemical compound, which is
SO many hundred times sWeetsr than
sugar, is no attraction for flies, bees or
othsr insects. Perhaps their instinct
teaches them that it is mouse ASA food,
and even injurious as flavor. It will
prohably take man a long, time to find
out by scientific methods whether it is
a good and safe article of diet for him.
--F'eote's s Health Monthly.
French chemists now obtain from
the.essence of birch bark, by reetifca-
tion,, an essential Oil which possesses
among other properties that OF being
fatal to insect life, and an, electrically
insulating tarry substances; 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 tftat new
experiments have changed odd theories
upon the best methods Of treating frost
| bites. A physician froze sixty dogs
into a condition of completely sus-
pended animation;; twenty. of these
were treated by the usual method OF
gradual resuscitation in q cold room,
and of these fourteen perished3 twenty
were treated in warm apartment and
eight of these died; while, of. the re-
naming twenty, which. were. put at
once in a hot bath. all recovered.