St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-11-11
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

There are electri; railways in New
Zealand.
Doctor E. NJ Hale, the climoto1o,
gist, states that Bright's disease is
most common in New Jersey, and least
frequent in Virginia.
Experiments made at q cancer hos
Dital in New York have convinced thc
physicians that the virus Of cryslpelas
injected into cancerous tumors causes
them to disappear.
In the museum at Cambridge. Eng
land, is the skeleton and stuffed skin
of an adult by brid between lion and
tigress. This, with several distinct
litters by different parents, was born
in the same menagerle.
It appears that the camel does 8
good deal of harm in Egypt, by eating
the trees as they are growing up.
Already the massive Cairo camel IS a
type distinct from other camels, sur
passing all in its cumbrous, massive
proportions.
Some investigations carried out by
Doctor Alexander 4. Houston, of Ed
inburgh, respecting the number OF
bacteria in the soil at different depths
from the surface go to prove that the
micro organisms become less and less
abundant as the depth from the sur
face increases.
Extensive draught will cause the
snail to close it's doors, to prevent tho
evaporation of its bodily moisture and
dry up. These little animals are pos
sessed of astonishing vitality, regain
ing activity after having been frozen
in solid blocks Of ice, and enduring 81
degree of heat for weeks which daily
crisps vegetation.
The common purslane, which grows
anywhere as weed, produces more
seeds than any other plant. One seed
pod, by actual count, has 5000 seeds,
and as plnnt will sometimes have
twenty pods, the seeds from single
years growth may, therefore, number
$4,000. There is no instance of SINH
lar fruitfulness in any other plant
growing in thi- country.
The Bible fixes the creation of life
in successive periods, the creation Of
the higher order of animals in the last
period, and Immediately before the
appearance Of man. According to
Moses, the order in which living things
appeared was: Plants, fishes, fowl,
land animals and man. Science, from
a study of fossils in the rock founda-
tions, has independently arrived at
the same conclusions.
Telephonemeter is the new word
naming an instrument to register the
time of each conversation at the tele-
phone from the time Of ringing up the
exchange to the ringing-off signal.
Such system would reduce rentals Of
telephones to scale according to the
service, instead Of a fixed charge to a
business firm or occasional user alike.
The instrument has been constructed
at the invitation Of the German tole-
phone department and is to control
the duration of telephone CONVERSE
tons an | t. totel the time.
Space for q fort on hill near Lon
don is being cleared of tree stumps by
an electric root grubber or stump
puller. The dynamo for supplying
the current is about two miles from
the hill. The current is taken by over
head wires on telegraph poles 10 the
motor on the grubber carriage. By
means of betting and suitable gearing
the motor drives a capstan upon which
are coiled q few turns Of wire rope A
heavy chain is attached to the tree
roots, and as the rope exerts its force
the roots come up quietly one after
the other.