The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-01-14
Written for the Pdldthd Netcs. !
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

A TERMINATING SCIENCE--AccOrding
to DIR. HOratio Hale, ethnology. or 1.-THE
science of the races of man, will be-
come a true science only when the tribes
are grouped by the evidence of language
A scientific treatise on ethnology will
commence, like treatise on chemistry.
with the primary elements, which are
the linguistic stocks. 1t will determine,
as far as possible, the mother tongue and
the original geographical center of each
stock 1t will describe the moral and
intellectual traits and the physical char
acteristics of the people. 1t will ascer-
tain their mythology, their social system
their Industries and arts. 1t will trace
their migrations, their interminglings
with other septs, and the moral and ply
steal changes caused by these wander
ings and mixtures, and by climate, soil,
food, manner of life, and all other in
fiuences. And finally from ascertain
ing what has been, it will seek to deter
mine what is 70 come, and to show us
something of the future which the hu-
man species, IN its various divisions,
may expect to attain.
SLAvE-DEPENDENT INsEcTs.-The cur
ious fact has been demonstrated by Sir
John Lubbock that certain kinds of ants
are unable to exist without keeping other
ants as slaves, though why this is 80 he
has not found out. On removing the
slaves from a nest of fifty slavs-holding
ants, he found that the latter immed-
lately commenced to die off and were
speedily reduced in number to six, when
the slaves were retur ned, and the NOR
tally ceased.
Abdominal massage has been success
fully applied by DIR. III. Sahli, of Berne,
to the cure of constipation. His patients
are recommended to roll five-pound
cannon ball over the abdomen tor five
or ten minutes daily.
Tannin has been discovered as an an
imal substance by Nj. Villon, a French
chemist, who finds that corn weevils
contain about three per cent of it.
SEALS WITH BALLAsT.-The seals are
carnivorous mammals divided into two
CldSStS, Tic VI SctlS,
with rudimentary ears, and the Otdr-
iae, (sea lions, bears, elephants), which
have the ears developed. In a late paper
before some British naturalists, DIR. A.
j. Harrison stated that the Otdrie,
which inhabit the waters of the South
ern hemisphere, are supposed by the
fishermen to have an internal pouch in
which rounded stones are carried to en-
able the animal to sink bellows the seas
surface when fat. Observati tons have
shown, however, that the so-called bal
last bag" is only the stomach. To &C
count for the presence of the stones in
this organ it has been suggested that
they are intended to aid in the tritura-
ton of food, while other persons believe
that they have been acciden tally intro
duced with the food, or in play. Sim
liar rounded stones have been found in
seals and sea lions which have been con-
fined in London, and the stomach of
seal which died mt Clifton
in 1886 contained gravel, nuts and
pieces of stick.
ihC pOWCA ot DtOoiNCo Hsts
been calculated to be equivalent to the
pressures, the figures giving
tons per square inch: Emmensite, a
new explosive, for which important adj
vantages are claimed, in addition to
great power. 2s3; nitro-glycerine, 26f; |
explosive gelatine, ESQ; forcite, $50; OK
omite, 249; panclastite, 203; gun cotton, |
1873; dynamite, IA; atlas, 1873; rackarock,
III; roburite, "a; blasting gunpowder,
%.
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 min
sral salts with advancing years. From |
4 section of the femur Of fifty subjects |
IF different ages, no difference in the |
proportion of ash could be determined. |
An analysis of mystery gold" reveals
IN alloy Of copper, silver, gold, alumni
mum and iron, the last probably being |
IN impurity. Even when present in
mall proportion, the aluminium resists
he nitric acid test.
THE ORGANIC CycLE.-The idea of
he indestructibility and ceaseless change
4 matter leads to curious reflections.
'ir Henry Thompson has remarked that
When an animal body decomposes,
whether the process occupies four hours,
our months, four years, or even four
housand years-any one of these pc
iods being quite possible-those ele-
',ents which assume the gaseous form