The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-11-21
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

The Cape Peninsula, South Africa, in
an area of two hundred square miles, con.
tains 1850 species of plants, of which 1O2
are orchids.
Hypnotism is to be elevated to the
dignity of science. Already an inhuen-
tial society has been formed in London.to
look into its merits.
In the thirteen weeks of last quarter
the death rate of London was only 16.5
per 1000. Ten years ago at the same
date it was 10, and twenty years since,
%.
An Icelandic Naturalists' Society has
been established at Reykjavik, with Pro-
fessor B. Grondal as President. The
chief object is to found national museum
of natural history.
Lieutenant Finley finds thattthere were
141 tornadoes in Illinois in the fifty-fou1
years ending with 1888. The month of
greatest frequency was May, no month
being free from the storms.
1t is stated that Professor Thompson,
of electric welding fame, has'perfected an
invention by which the rails of street OF
stearl railways may be welded together
by electricity after being placed in posi-
ton.
Silk worms produced from sound eggs,
but which contract disease during, their
life, always spin their silk, but they give
rise to stricken moth, the worms from
which do not reach maturity and furnish
no silk.
Late experiments would seem to rcfute
the theory that France is warmed by the
Gulf Stream, as in summer no surface cur
rents reach that country from the south
west but there arc currents from west
and northwest.
The French metre has Just been de-
initely adopted in theory as the basis of
all measures in most parts of the civilized
world by the International Commission
for the Unifcation of Weights and Meas
ures, now assembled in Paris.
A native of Japan has invented pro-
cess by which sea weed can be converted
into an almost untearable paper, which
is transparent enough to admit of its be-
ing used as window panes. In color it
resembles old window glass.
Recent experiments on the vitality of
trichina made in France showed that
even when exposed to temperature of
twenty degrees to twenty-five degrees be-
low zero for about two hours the animals
on reheating were as lively as ever.
At Padua, Italy, the operation of the
grating of a chickens cornea on the hui
man eye was recently successfully ac-
complished. The graft is said to have
united quickly and formed cornea
which was very transparent, shining and
convex.
A recent clever invention is the taxa
mum, little lantern like apparatus which
ingeniously placed at the back of cab,
measures the exact distance traversed by
it, 1t is now being tried at Berlin under
police inspection, and is said to answer
exceedingly well.
The typical earthquake is preceded by
faint tremor which alarms birds. and
animals a few seconds before the violent
conclusions set III, and which are followed
by some longer waves dying away. The
real beginning is very indistinct, fact
which still requires explanation.
With alternating currents iron condhct-
ors emit very loud sounds, which in
creases with the frequency, whereas cop
per hardly emits perceptible sound.
These mechanical vibrations in the case OF
iron conductors are thought to be very in
furious to the durability of the insulation.
The work of connecting by canal the
two great arteries of navigation In west
ern Siberia has so far progressed that
boat fifty-six feet long and fourteen feet
wide, taking three and a half feet OF
water, has been lately drawn from the
Obi into the Yenisei with load of forty
tons of flour. The two rivers are five
hundred and thirty miles apart.