Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-07
POPULAR SCIENCE.
A Nan Turned to stone-The Deadly M!crobe
Edison's Hileograph-Our Oldest Land.
yegetarlnns-The Mound Build =
ers-NO More Redwood. -


Atlanta. Ca, is now good deal
worked up, so the papers tell us, over q
clue accident,y fallen upon that may lead
to a very important discovery. One Ed
ward Soundstrong died from mercurial
poison, and his body was embalmed in
the usual way by MIR. F. y. Bliley, I'M
dertaker. The body was to be kept for
the arrival of friends from Sweden. At
the arrival of those friends the body was
discovered to present very unusual ap-
pearance, and an examination ms tituted
proved that it had changed to a sub
stance as hard as stone, and in character
a good deal resembling marble. Sci
entists are now working up the case uIss
der the belief that the remarkable p6
nomenon was in some way due taSan
association Of mercury with the nate
rails employed by the embalmer.
The world is now becoming deeply in
terested in the microbs hypothesis. Tbs
revelations of the microscope as to the
existence of myriads OF microbes in ou1
bodies, as well as in all that we eat and
drink, has caused timid people much
anxious wonderment as to why these
creatures are not more injurious and de-
structive than they really are. Writing
on the subject Sir Henry Roscoe explains
how it is that even the deadliest of these
microbes may be found in the mouth or
other parts OF the body and vet their hosts
be perfectly healthy. The question is
not one of the mere presence of these Or
ganIsms in the system but entirely one as
to whether or not they find their way
into the blood. If they do not all is well,
if they do the most serious trouble fol-
lows. -
Edison is reported to have made new
and very important discovery in what be
calls his hileograph, or rather his method
of hileograph signaling. Mr.. George
Romans, q military expert, went to hin
one day and said: ''Mr. Edison, OUT
state troops know how to signal with
lights for long distances, but they do not
know how to render these signals invisi-
BILE to an enemy. Can't you devise O
plau?'' Edison walked into his labora-
tory set two of his high-salaried assist
ants, with all the resources of the laba-
ratory, at work on this suddenly sug-
gested novelty, and in five weeks, after
an actual expenditure of $500 in money,
had accomplished what he set out to do.
-.
Scientists have decided that the earli-
est land to show itself above water when
the Western hemisphere was evolved was
Mount Marcy in the Adirondack noun
tains. The theory was first sprung by
Richard Dale Owen, and later Endorsed
by Agassiz. Careful investigations have
recently been made with a view to set
thing the point, and the work is said to
have shown conclusively that Owen and
Agassiz were correct.
-.
The editor OF London Truth, who Is q
scientist Of much note, says vegetarians
are, without doubt, the worst enemies of
vegetarianism. For himself, he is
small meat eater, and time was when he
took no meat at oil, but he takes some
now. He does not doubt the statement
extensively made that people, as a rule.
eat too much meat, and that they would
be both healthier and weather. were
they to reduce their butchers bill by.
say about IS per cent. But whenever he
directs his attention to the public discus
sous or utterances of vegetarians he be-
comes convinced of the intimate connec-
ton between abstinence of flesh and
weakness OF intellect. This drives him
back in alarm to his tieshpot.
-.
Medical SCIENCE says the success which
has attended the bringing out of new
hypnotics is something remarkable, and
now, when sulphonal has scarcely es-
tablished itself in that line, it is sue
ceeded by what is termed chloralamid,
a substance which in theraputical action
has many resem blances to choral by
drate, but has not the special influence
on the circulation which is a character
istic of the latter body. According to
the practice at present pursued it is ad-
ministered in doses varying for adults
from fifteen to forty-five grains. 1t ap-
pears to have an advantage of no slight
importance over choral hydrate-
namely, that it does not taste at all un-
pleasant, and it is further superior to
that article in not being caustic. As 1t
Is decomposed by alkalies it may not be
prescribed in alkaline solution-a quail
ity that constitutes its chief drawb back.
1t is said to induce a sound, healthy
sleep. -.
1t looks as il We are about to lose our
romantic old Mound Builders as a great
people who inhabited this country
through ages far, far in the misty past.
So many modern things are now being
turned up from the bottoms of those
''ancient mounds by modern explor-
ers that conclusion 10 about being ar
rived st that will make that far gone
race exactly Identical with that of ''Lo,