The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-06-24
POPULAR SCIENL''E.

| xV4 O1dh SC4 CNS.
In Denmark the life-saving staa> 1ns ars
all supplied with oil for stilling the ~ ave-
| in storms.
Palladium is replacing platinum for
electropating the balance and other
movements of watches.
The action of roasted coffe as germi-
eide is held to be due not to the caf-
feline, but to the products of the roasting
process.
A French mechanician has recently in
vented an electric lamp for examining the
interior of metal-tubes and projectiles
for guns.
A French scientist calculates that the
action of rivers and waves will wash
the entire land service of the globe
into the ocean in about 4,500, 900
years.
Oil-hardened steel, while improving
the quality of the metal, is said by ex-
perts to increase the danger of rup-
ture in cases in which the least flaw
exists.
The late NJ. Cahours, wealthy men,
Der of the Academic des Sciences, Paris,
France, has bequeathed $40, 900 TO that
body in order that it may apply the
annual interest to smoothing the
path of poor and deserving youths
who aspire to lead scientific life.
A very difficult calling is that of mi
crometer making. For. mathematical
purposes these instruments must be made
30 fine as to measure the $4,000 of an
inch. On such scale the hair of the
head is as large as horse car. To do
this demands education, technical skill,
mechanical and mathematical knowledge
and unfailing eyes and hands.
Great Improvements have recently
been made in the manufacture of glass
for optical instruments by means of the
addition to the ordinary materials of
PHOSPHORUS and chlorine, which in some
yet unexplained way cause the glass to
be very much more transparent and en-
able it to receive much higher degree
of polish than any optical glass hitherto
manufactured.
From the results obtained by the
chemical analysis Of numerous specimens
of mud dredged up on the Challenger
expedition and on the west coast of
Scotland, Mr.. Buchanan has come to the
conclusion that marine animals perform
the same work in the communion of
the mineral matter found at the bottom
of the sea that earthworms do in the re-
newal of terrestrial soil.
DR.. Joseph Leidy, who has recently
examined some fossil remains from More
head phosphate beds from Reace Creek,
Florida. decides one to be from Hippo
therium hitherto undescribed, which he
names II. princeps. He concludes that
this animal must have been fully as large
as the best specimens of our modern
domestic horse, to which it is related.
A number of species Of Rhinoceros
also existed there in those days. The
remains of one hitherto undescribed were
also found in the phosphate bed, which
the professor names R. longipes.
Ina paper on the humble-bee in New
Zealand, Mr.. Thomson says that, wishing
to find how far these. insects are adapting
themselves to new flowers in the colony,
he has, for a. considerable time kept
record of the flowers they visit and Of
those they leave alone. He has noticed
them on, many species Of introduced
plants, which they never appear to visit
in Europe. They seldom approach
white flowers, and, with two exceptions,
hs&has never heard of their visiting the
flowers OF indigenous. plants. The ex-
ceptions are Fuschia excorticata and the
Ngaio.
The object of certain, experiments de-
seribed by w. Sharp, in. the British Az
sociation, was to- answer the question,
What is the action of the substances
called. drugs upon. the living body of
man9 The conclusions arrived at were
the results, of experiments made upon
men in sound health. with different
quantities of the same drugs. In the
case of fourteen drugs, that were used it.
was found that the. smallest doses, ad-
ministered have power to- act upon the
living human body; that the commonly
received opinion that: the actions OF
drugs are simply increased in:degree,, and
not altered in character, by increasing the
dose, is erroneous; and that. the actions,
of drugs are sufficiently. distinct to'admit
of c1ooo,G Gootiop