Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-01-17
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.

pil ooilu IuDpoCh has just ulSCOVereu
that the death rate in London is 161
per 1000 as against III in other En-
glish cities.
The fact has been pointed out thati in
the organs of the electric fish the cleo
tricity is not already formed, but that
it is prod uced at the will of the animal.
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 rail
road cross tie which, if it is as success
full as the inventor claims it will be, will
revolutionizc railroad construction.
A big kaleidoscope which revolves
for several minutes for the benefit of
the person who drops nickel in the
slot with which it is provided is the
latest production in this prolific line.
The oldest medical work, an Egvp-
tian papyrus 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 ce-
fp hn a11 of
thought to be due more to mechanical
than chemical causes, as sugar retar ds
rather than accelerates the setting of the
cement.
A further step toward the artificial
production of the diamond has been
made by passing an electric current
through carbon electrodes in cell con-
tanning fine white sand and electrolyte,
the whole being under considerable
pressure.
While all races have general SINH
larity in the proportion of the height of
the head to the whole body, the yellow
races have comparatively 'high" heads.
Women, moreover, in all races other
things being equal, have higher heads
than men.
Experiments recently made in Francs
with a ~vicv@ TO discovering the vitality
of trichine show that even when ex-
posed to temperature of 20 degrees
to 25 degrees below zero for about two
hours the little animals become as lively
as ever on return to normal temper
ature.
Fish, meat, according to Professor
Atwater researches, does not contain
more phosphorus than ordinary butch
er's meat. The benefit which BRAIN
workers are said to derive from diet
of fish should therefore be ascribed, not
to the phosphorus, but to the greater di-
gestibllity of the fish.
Aluminium is developing its value in
another field of use sefulness-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 the
corroding action of sea- water and the
adherence of barnacles, sea grass, and
other similar matter. Gun barrels made
of tbic oil will NOT ,,,,+
The native Egyptian is an extremely
good subject for surgical operation.
Clot Bey, the founder of modern medi-
cine in Egypt, has it that 'it 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 small fint-stone
ido oil, recently brought up by sand
pump near Boise City, Idaho, from
depth of 800 feet beneath the surface of
the earth. He and many other scien.
fists think it is the oldest mark of
human life that has yet been discovered;
and believe it to be the work of the
man. 1t shows its great
age by the peculiar coating of au oxide
of iron that covers it.