Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1891-09-03

miles, 1t Is proposed to- make an averap
speed of IS to so miles an hour.
CREosoTE AS TIMBER PREVENTATIVE.
An ordinary uncreosoted telegraph poll
according to Mr.. W. b. Preece of the BIRTHS
Post Office, lasts about yeors, whereas ere
osoted poles have continued sound after 8
years of service. The life of uncreosste
sleepers on the Great Western Railway ha
been found to be years; that of creosote
sleepers at least s or 10 years, and often dou
bic that time. In warm waters timber
! quickly destroyed by marine insects, and OF
parts of the United States coasts uncreosotet
! piles last only 2 years, though the creosotet
may be depended upon for or years
The cost of ereosoting does not exceed q
per cent of the original value of the timber
COLD TUBES IN SURGERY.
a new method of producing lo~al anaes
thesia has been tried in Germany, with such
complete success that boy watched unmov.
ed while deep incision several inches long
was made in his thigh. The part to be op,
Grated upon is rendered iusensible by cold
but, instead of receiving direct application
of the cold-producing agent, is touched by q
metallic chamber or tube which is cooled by
the evaporation of carboEic acid. The tenn
perature may be regulated, by simply turn
ing tap, from that of cold water to one so
low as to cauterize. A slight burning is ex-
perIenced when the tube is first applied, and
this is quickly followed BY snaesthesis, which
lasts from one to two minutes and leaves no
i'll effects. The cold may be used for eau
terizing, and offers the advantage Of produ-
cling anaesthesia at the same time.
ASTRONOMY AND HISTORY.
In total eclipse of the sun the point of
the shadow cone which is constantly project
ed into space by the moon touches narrow
strip of the earth's surface, from which re-
gion alone the sun is totally obscured. These
total eclipses, states Prof Schubert, occur
about three times in four years, but total
eclipse for any given region does not occur
oftener than once in POO years. It is there
fore possible, when an eclipse of the sun is
described in connection with some remote
historical event, and the hour is mentioned,
to fix the period of the occurrence exactly.
Historical research is thus aided, and to ia
cilitate reference Prof. Won Oppolyer, Wen
nese Astronomer Royal, has, with the aid of
ten assistants, fixed the date of 5000 eclipses
of the sun and 5000 eclipses of the moon,
over period from 200 B. G. to
2163 A. D., the calculationo filling 242 thick
folio volumes. Two applications of these
data may be cited. The Oldest recorded
eclipse, which occurred in China 1000 years
ago, is mentioned in tho Chinese book "Schu-
king as taking place in the early morning
in the last month of the harvest in the fifth
year of Emperor Tschung-hangs reign
Other sources show that this reign was un-
doubtedly in the 22d century B. G., and the
snly eclipse that would apply took place en-
October %, 2197 B. G. It is recorded that
Christ suffered in the 10Th year of Tiberias,
in which year the sun was darkened, Bithy-
MIA shaken, and much of Mica laid in ruins. |
One writer mentions that a total eclipse of
he sun, lasting from the sixth to the ninth |
hour, occurred in the reign of Tiberias dur
ng full moon, and another adds that it oc- |
cured on the 14th day of the month. Now
IN eclipse of the sun at full moon is impos-
ible- Reference TO Oppolyer's work shows
hat the only total eclipse of the sun in that |
'egion between eight Yeas before our reck- |
ming and SO A. D. took place Thursday, |
Nov. "a, 90 a. d. This is not reconcilable |
With the scriptural account, which places |
he Crucifxion at the Jewish Easter. An
eclipse of the moon, however, was visible at |
Jerusalem on April 8, 80 A. D., so that it is |
most probable that the ancient historians |
confused the two events, and that the eclipse |
# the moon was the phenomenon which sig
lalized the Crucifxion.
THE GREATEST SCIENTIST.
Whether we look to its width or to its
lepth," writes Mr.. Geo. ]. Romanes, ewe
must alike conclude that the range of Arts
ole's work is wholly without parallel in
he history of mankind. indeed, it may be
aid that there is scarcely any one depart
nent of Intellectual activity where the mind
II this intellectual giant has not exerted more
II less inhuence-in some cases by way of
.reation, in others by way of direction. The
ollowing is a list of subjects on which Arts
otle wrote. Physics, Astronomy, Meteor
'logy, Zoology, Comparative Anatomy,
and Psychology; Poetry, Ethics,
Rhetoric, Logic, Politics and Metaphysics.
from his works on Natural History we find
hat he mentions at least 20 species of man,
mails, $50 of birds, 20 of reptiles, 116 of fish,
4 of articulata, and about 40 of lower forms
making close upon 500species in all. Ar
stotle appears to have been the first philos-
pher who at all appreciated the importance
f heredity as principle, not only in natur
j history, but also in psychology; for he dis
inctly atirms that the children Of civilized
OulIuuullleS are CdpdOl6 Oh q llSl6r degree
f intellectual cultivation than are children
f savages. Looking to the enormous
ange of his work in biology alone; remem-
erng that in this work he had no prede-
essors; considering that st the same time he
vas thus singlehanded collector Of facts,
nd single-minded thinker upon their i'm
lort; it becomes evident that Aristotle would
ave been something more than human if
lther his observations or his reasonings
ould everywhere be justly compared with
hose of scientific genius when more favora-
~ circumstance. But it is the glory of
Aristotle that both his observations and his
easonings can stand such comparison as well
s they do. For when on the one hand we
emember the immensely of his achievement,
sd on the other hand reflect that he was
Iorse than destitute of any ancestral expe-
fence of method, born into q world of mvs-
cism, nurtured in the school OF Plato, there
ore compelled himself to forge the intellec-
lal instruments ofresearch himself to create
be very conception of scientific inquiry
then we thus remember and thus reflect, it
ppears to me there can be no question that
Iristotle stands forth, not only as the great
st figure of antiquity, but as the greatest in
elect that has ever appeared upon the face
this earth"
a Mystery.
How the human system ever RECEIVERS from