The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-03-26
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

1t is believed in Florida that rice
culture is to become a profitable pursuit
in that country.
1t is stated that the great soda de-
posits of Wyoming have been sold to
party of English and French capitalists
for 81, 900, 900.
They are now raising English wal
nuts out in California, and single trees
yield $50 worth of nuts, which is far
better than can be done in England.
The wholesale price of whalebone
is now $4,000 ton. A project is on
foot 20 organize whaling expeditions
from Australia to the Antarctic seas,
where it is believed plenty of whales
are to be found. It is an almost un-
to.eehed whaling ground. Scientific
American.
From an official document just pub
lished Italy is the greatest consumer in
Europe of English Goals. The follow
ing is the proportion of Goals provided
yearly for the principal powers; Italy,
1860 tons; France, 757, ,s29 tons;
Germany, 1857 tons; Russia, 61S,937
tons; Spain, 724, ,972 tons.
M. Prouho has been studying the
sense of smell in star-fishes, and con-
cludes that these animals, when excited
by the presence of a bait, are guided by
sensations perceived by the ends of their
arms. The sense of smell is not diffuse
| in star-fshes, but is localized in the
suckers, useless for locomotion, situated
at the back of the eye-plate.
| Ingenious machines for the various
operations of manufacturing matches
have been in use in Scandinavia for
some time, and more are expected. Ma
chimes for packing the matches have
recently been introduced; one of these,
the invention of two young Norwegian
engineers, having capacity of 1000
boxes per minute.
-Thumping or knocking in piece of
machinery is often hard to locate, and
the following has been suggested as a
means of discovering the difficulty, A
rubber tube about a yard long is used,
one end of which is placed in the ear,
and the other end passed over the sus-
pected spots. The vibrations from all
other parts than the one covered being
excluded, it is said to be an easy matter
to find the jarring noise.
DIR. Mcpherson states that it has
been conclusively proven that distilled
water is of blue color. A demonstra-
ton of the fact may be had by lowering
into water a metal tube, open at the
top and closed at the bottom, with
clear glass plate, close to a white object
twenty feet below the surface. Looked
at through the tube this object has a
beautiful blue color, whereas it would
appear yellow if its color were due to
light reflected by suspended particles in
the water.
1t is only during the last few de-
cades of this age that we have become
accurately acquainted with the nature
and works of those minute living forms
which we now designate as micro
organisms, microbes, germs or bacteria.
For much of this knowledge, and more
especially for the ground work of it, we
are indebted to the indefatigable energy
and mastery genius of Louis Pasteur,
whose name is so familiar in every cor
ner of the globe where civilization has
made itself felt.
1t is generally taught that the do
mestic cat was first domesticated in
Egypt, the Greeks and Romans not pos
sessing it, and that the cat was not
known to have lived in Italy earlier
than about nine centuries before the
Crusades Rolleston claimed that the
domestic cat of the Greeks and Romans
was marten. Virchow, having exam
ined the mummies of Egyptian cats,
find that they had nothing in common
J with our household pet, and that the
Egyptian cat was simply tame Great
ure, or domesticated savage, like the
/ monkey or gazelle.-N. Y. Independent
: Prof. F. W. Putnam, the well-knowr
/ permanent secretary of the American
, Association, recently made an interest
/ ing discovery which furnishes fresh evi
4 dence in support of the theory that mar
: in America was contemporaneous will
: the mammoth. In communication tx
l the Boston Society of Natural History
j. Prof. Putnam describes a shell found by
a him in the State of Delaware. Upon
S portion of this shell is scratched tn,
? rude outline of what without doubt rep
! fesents a mammoth. The shell wa
found under peat, and near by wer
human bones, charcoal, bones of ami
mails and stone implements. Philadel
! phia American.