Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-02-08
SOMEWHAT SCIENTIFIC.

ALL necessary measures have been
adopted by the director of the Paris OBJ
servatOry for beginning a great photo
graphic map of the sky in 1889.
BY a new method of caring for the Gin
chona tree it is now made to yield yearly
supply Of its bark instead of giving up its
life, as heretofore, with one crop. This
brings quinine down to one-fifth its former
price.
THRoUGH scientific channels we are in
formed that the approach of an earthquake
is more markedly announced by dogs,
swine and geese. 1t is supposed that these
creatures recognize very feeble movements
that escape man.
THE bobolink is known in the Northern
States as a favorite field songster, but
when it goes South it changes its name to
freed bird" and becomes known as
vicious and destructive creature, laying
waste much of one of the stable products
of that region.
Nor alone are human beings privileged
to often live out the span of hundred
years, but those of some of the lower orders
of creation also possess great longevity.
Among the creatures of the air who some
times live hundred years and over are
the eagle, swan and raven.
MANY birds have been found dead at the
base Of the various high monuments
throughout the country, giving rise to dis
cussion as to the cause. 1t is thought to be
attributable TO the fact that such birds
migrate at night and at dawn when mists
hide the objects from view.
THERE is a common plant peculiar to
Southern California the leaves of which are
living helostats. Their leaves are ever
turned skyward,s s presenting to the SUMS
rays the upper surfaces as the orb courses
through the heavens. This plant is scien-
tifcally termed Nara 6orea u.s.
THE singular fact is demonstrated that.
while the most rapid cannon shots scarcely
attain velocity of six hundred meters a
second-over fifteen hundred miles an hour
-meteorites are known to penetrate the air
with velocity of forty thousand or even
! sixty thousand meters per second.
NEW way of utilizing dynamite has
been lately devised by French military
engineer. He uses the expansive force to
drive out, for a brief period, the water
from portions of wet ground in which foun-
dations are to be made. The method is now
in practice in the construction of a fortifica-
ton at Lyons.
THE discovery is said to have been made
that the average height and weight of men
since the war. He finds that the average
height Of New Englander is five feet eight
and one-half inches, and of a Southerner
five feet ten inches. The average weight is
155 pounds.
NoTEs have been made of the difference
in effect of an eclipse of the sun upon man
and the lower animals. More marked is
that upon birds, they having been observed
to cease all song and to have manifested
every symptom Of fear. Canaries are said
to be the most Indifferent to the astronom-
ical phenomenon, while perroquets are the
most timorous.
In late paper on science the following
description of new lubricant is given :
O1e hundred parts Of mineral oil and twen-
ty-fve parts of castor oil are mixed thor
oughly with sixty to seventy parts Of sui
phuric acid, and the whole worked with two
orthree volumes Of water. In this condition
the composition is allowed to stand some
time, the wstery layer is then drawn Oh,
and, after remaining undisturbed for sew
eral days, it is carefully neutralized with
soda or potash