The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-03-29
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Brick is generally regarded as the
best building material. And its orna-
mental capacity is fully equal to its du-
rability.
"A Russian physician announces that
he has discovered cure for diphtheria.
He says the disease is easily cured by
inoculating erysipelas.
Chemical analysis is said to establish
it as a fact that four and one-half pounds
Of potatoes are approximately equiva-
lent to one poundof rice.
A French scientist, who has been
studying the hands of manual laborers,
finds that very marked physical peculi-
arities are engendered by the pursuit of
different occupations.
The application of hydraulic power
to the manufacture of steel seamless
boats is one of the latest things in En-
gland. These boats are thought to be
in every particular superior to those
made of wood, and can be made at about
the same cost.
The pack of California canned
peaches in 1883 consisted of 363, 47G
cases, twenty-four cans to the case.
This was about onethird the total pack
of table fruits. In twelve years the
total annual fruit pack has grown from
27O, 600 cases to /, 200, goo cases.
The international display of scien-
tific progress to be made this year in.
clude the Electrical and Industrial Ex-
hibition at Edinburgh and the Exhibi-
ton of Botany and Microscopy at Ant
A L. Ill.
the precautionary of the compound micro
scope.
1t is confidently predicted that the
present high price of maple sugar will
never be lower, owing to the rapid de-
crease in the area of maple orchards.
The variety made from hickory sap and
brown sugar will prolong the supply,
however, for those who are not we'll ac-
quaintcd with the genuine article.
The belief that smoke from soft coal
may have beneficial sanitary effects, is
gaining ground. 1t is claimed that the
sulphur in the coal when burned becomes
sulphurous acid, then well known dis
infectant Further, that crcosote and it's
allied products are thrown off with tho
fumes of bituminous coal, and that an
atmosphere charged with carbolic acid
must be freer from germs Of the disease
than an apparently purer one.
Another new fiber-producing plant,
which is looked upon by its discoverer as
to become a rival of those now in use,
has been discovered, but we have not
yet heard of any of the large cotton
fields being abandoned. These new
fibers are mostly of Il coarsCr grain, and
not adapted to the production of the
tinor grades of goods. They are valu-
able, however, as they open up new
fields for industry and enterprise, and
their introduction into the textile in
dustry will no doubt result benelicially
to the general public, provided they
prove to be what is claimed for them.
An examination of the textiles from
the German pcat-tinds of the northern
bronze period has enabled Herr Buschan
to distinguish the fibers of the stuff, and
to show that at a period of great remote
ness wool and flax, but not hemp, were
made into webs. The folk of the lake
dwellings could manufacture flax into
coarse lace nets, mats and even en-
broidcry. Herr Buschan holds it proved
by the instruments discovered that they
could knit and weave to the Neolithic
period, when mighty mammoths were
roaming over Europe and when En-
gland harbored the musk OK and grizzly
bear,