West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1889-12-26
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS


Sir John Lubbock has just discovered
that the death rate in London is 161
per 1000 as against III in other En-.
glish cities.
A grocer in Jersey City, N. j., had
been complained Of to the county board
Of health for selling sunburned pota-
toes. The complainant alleged that
such potatoes are poisonous.
Gen. Lew Wallace, the author OF
'Ben Hur," has invented a steel rsil-
road cross tie which, IL it is as success,
full as the inventor claims IL will be, will
revolutionize railroad construction.
A big kaleidoscope which revolves
for several minutes for the benefit Of
the person who drops a nickel in the
slot with which It is provided is the
latest production in this prolific line.
The oldest medical work, an Egyp-
tan pspyrus dating from 1900 years or
more before Christ, and containing pre-
scriptions then old, has been tran slated
by George Ebers, the German novelist.
The increased binding power Of &C.
ment due to the addition of sugar is
thought to be due more to mechanical
than chemical causes, as sugar retard s
rather than accelerates the setting of the
cement.
A further step toward the artificial
production of the diamond has been
made by passing au electric current
through carbon electrodes in a cell con-
tanning fine white sand and electrolytc.
the whole being under considerable
pressure.
While all races have a general SINH
larity in the proportion of the height of
the head to the whole body, the yellow
races have comparatively high hea Is.
Women, moreover, in all races, other
things being equal, have higher heads
than men.
Experiments recently made in France
with a view to discovering the vitality
OF trichine show that even when OK
posed to a temperature of 20 degrees
to rs degrees below zero for about two
hours the little animals become as lively
as ever on n return to normal temper
ature.
Fish-meat, according to Professor
Atwater s researches, does not contain
more phosphorus than ordinary butch
er's meat. The benefit which brain
workers are said to derive from a diet
of fish should therefore be ascribed, not
to the phosphorus, but to the greater di :
g~estibility of the fish.
Aluminium is developing its value in
another field of usefulness-the manu-
facture of ship plate. A plate in which
ten per cent. of it is used possesses
great strength, will take a high polish,
and is absolutely proof against tho
corroding action of sea- water and the
adherence of barnacles, sea grass, md
other similar matter. Gan- barrels made
of this alloy will not rust.
The native Egyptian is an extr cmely
good subject for surgical operation.
Clot Bey, the founder of modern NELL
cine in Egypt, has it that lit requires
as much surgery to kill one Egyptian
as seven Europeans. In the native
hospitals, the man whose thigh has
been amputated at two O'Clock is sitting
up and lively at six" Shock is almost
entirely unknown, and dread Of an inn
pending operation quite an exception.
Professor G. Frederick Wright, of
Oberlin College, has a small fint-stone
idol, recently brought up by a sand
pump near Boise City, Idaho, from n
depth of 800 feet beneath the surface of
the earth. He and many other scion
lists think it is the oldest mark Of
human life that has yet been discovered;
and believe it 10 be the work Of the
antediluvian man. 1t shows its great
age by the peculiar coating Of an oxide
of iron that covers it.