The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-09-03
POPULAR SCIENCE.


81. Burt, announces that water ls the
great remedy for consumption.
Silk from paper pulp is made smooth
and brilliant, with about two-thfrds the
strength of ordinary silk and about the
same elasticity.
The famous Physick Garden in Chel-
sea, England, whose preservation is now
d matter of discussion, has 10000 diff
ferent herbs and plants.
A permanent commercial museum, con-
tanning specimens of the natural products
and manufactures of Poland and bu-
reau of information for Russian and for
eign merchants, has been established ct
Warsaw.
A grand turning cupola eight meters
in diameter Is to be erected in the Vati-
can Garden, IN Rome, Italy, for covering
the Photographic equatorial instrument
which is to be used in connection with
mapping out the stars.
It has hitherto been supposed that the
maximum depth of the Mediterranean
vas 10, ,s75 feet deep between Sicily and
Sardinia. Lieutenant Magnachi, of Italy,
has found depth Of 1850 feet, be-
tween Malta and Gambia.
The effect of gum chewing has been
studied carefully by an expert. In gum
chewing the masseter muscles which
move the jaw are abnormally developed,
and the fatty substance which produces
fair, plump cheeks is deteriorated.
Biologists assert that if the continents
and the bottom of the ocean were graded
down to a uniform level the whole
world would be covered with water
mile deep, 80 much greater is the de-
preston Of the ocean bed that the elcva-
lion of the existing land.
A writer upon birds says that in the
fields and groves there are many old
maids and bachelors who apparently
never had any inducement to marry.
There is no doubt that the rivalry in
bird courtship is extremely keen, and the
choice Is deliberate one.
The Jelly fish absorbs its food by
wrapping itself around the object which
it seeks to make its own. The star fish
is even more accommodating. Fasten-
ing itself to the body it wishes to feed
On, it turns its stomach inside out and
snwraps its prey with this useful organ.
An old manuscript volume of apotheca-
ries' lore and household recipes, believed
TO date from about the time of Queen
Elizabeth, was discovered some years ago
among the papers of firm of chemists
in Newcastle, England, and 8 litho-
graphed fac simile is soon to be pub
lished.
The woodpecker has a -barbed
tongue like FTian's spear, with which
it draws out the worm which it
hos excited by its tapping. The clam
feeds with siphon, and the oyster with
it's beard. The tapeworm has neither
mouth nor stomach, but just lies along
and absorbs the already digested food
through its skin.
In one Of the leading locomotive shops
there is now building an engine with an
enormous driving wheel, nine feet in cir
,umference, which will be fixed in the
:entre, in front of the boiler. Instead
II ordinary axles the truck wheels will
have bicycle spindles, and experts claim
hat the large driving wheel will carry
along the train at over ninety miles an
hour.
Clouds which are luminous in the
darkness of moonless nights have been
ittracting considerable attention in Eu-
rope, and q number of photographs Of
them have been secured this year In Ger
many. From comparisons of results OBJ
:ained at different observatories, it ap-
pears that these clouds have the extraordi-
nary height of five and half miles above
sea level.
It's proposed to use the spectoscope
to determine whether cesspools, stables,
ETC., drain into neighboring wells. A
solution of carbonate of chloride Of ith-
ium is poured into the suspected sources
Of pollution IN the neighborhood, and af-
ter O week or so the well water is exam
med spectroscopically for lithium, which
can thus be detected even if the water
holds in solution less than one pint in a
million.