Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-22
SCIENTIFIC GLEANINGS.


Electric prostration is the new term
applied to those affected by work under
strong electric light.
Experiments are now being made with
sending live fish in specially constructed
cars from Denmark to Switzerland and
Italy.
The evidence is accommodating that the
microbe of malaria, which was described
by Laverau, is the cause of intermittent
fever.
A most important feature of the scien-
tifc instruction in the lower grade of
schools should be the collection of speci-
mems which should form the subject of
object lessons.
More money is said to have been spent
by the United States government in the
invest1g CATION of the diseases which affect
swine than of those which affect the
human species.
DR.. Chaille, the well-known statis-
tician, states that the average life of
woman is longer than that of man, and in
most parts of the United States woman's
expectation of life is greater.
The London Atheneum says: The Rev.
j. 6. Wood, whose death has been record
ed. was held in higher esteem by the gen
eral public, who bought his books largely,
than by naturalists.
In France it has been shown that frozen
milk can be transported with the greatest
ease, and that after being kept for days
and weeks, and them simply thawed out,
it retains all the characteristics of fresh
milk.
In large portion Of Europe, from one
half to two thirds of the population is
crowded into cities. In the United States
the Older states exhibit similar conditions.
Leaving out the towns of less than 4 900
inhabitants, the ratio for Massachusetts
is sixty six per cent, Connecticut and
New York ffty-fOur per cent, and
Pennsylvania thirty nine per cent,
constitute the urban population.
A process of preserving the color of
flowers in dried specimens, as used in
Berlin, consists IN steer ping the plants III
a solution of sulphurOus acid containing
one-fourth of its volume Of methylated
spirit. Delicate flowers require an i'm
mersion of but five or ten minutes, and
thick leaves IS much as twenty -four hours.
They are then removed, the fluid is al
lowed to evaporate, and the plants are
dried between paper in the usual way.
IT is estimated that Niagara Falls will
recede two miles and then remain eta
tionary, their height at that point being
eighty feet, instead of 1884, as at present.
The supposition is supported by an argu-
ment which appears reasonable. The
present site is a limestone formation
some eighty or ninety feet with shaly
foundation. AS the shaIe is washed away,
the limestone breaks off, and the falls
take step backward. But the end of
the shaly deposit will be reached two
miles from the present falls, and then
the rushing water will have more than it
can do to wear the solid preclpice over
which it will be projected.
A dealer in cutlsry expresses the opin-
ion that not one man in fifty knows how
to sharpen pocket-knife. "a razor" he
says, "must be laid fiat on the hone, be-
ing hollowground and requiring a fine
edge. Bus a pocket-knife requires
stiff edge, and the moment you lay it fiat
on stone, SO as to touch the polished
side, you ruin the edge. The blade must
be held at an angle of twenty or twenty
five degrees and have an edge similar to
C0lS6I. MS Is G6Cnn1cally caiieu The
'cannel,' and is marked on all new knives
by fine white line which does not re-
move or touch the polish surface.
Knives improperly whetted are often
condemned as too hard Or too soft with
out reason.
Some rare metals, possessing special
qualities, are required for certain work.
Thus, palladium is used in making some
parts of time pieces, and iridium for
the points of gold pens, and the unipiti-
ated have no idea of the value of such
scarce products. Vanadium costs, for
instance, 1913 900 francs per kilogramme;
zeconium, 1926 france, and lithium,
which is the lightest of metals, 1900
francs per kilogrsmme. Rhodiun, which
is extremely hard and brittle, and is
only fusible at very high emperature,
fetches %, $50 francs, and iridium, the
heaviest substance hitb erto discovered,
costs 12,005 francs per kilogrsmme. 1t
will therefore be seen that gold and
silver are far from being the most prec
ious meatls as far as their market value
is concerned.