The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-06-28
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Moonstone is a variety OF feldspar.
In Germany aluminium cravats ore
now on sale.
A quarter of each generation is said
to die before reaching the age OF
seventeen.
Two hundred dogs are annually
doomed to death in an English univer-
sity for physiological experiments.
Scientists allege that the remote on
cestor of the horse was dlminutlve
quedruped, but little larger than the
rabbit.
When the thermometer registers
100 degrees the cable which draws the
cars of the East River Bridge, New
York, is seven feet and Fix inches
longer than when the thermometer Is
ut zero.
The use of aluminium has been pro-
posed for boats. balloon cars, trott!ng
sulkies, flying machines and all pu--
poses where lightness is desirable. At
present its cost, seventy cents pound,
is against it.
Tissot says that talking is healthy
exercise, promoting the circulation OF
the blood without any risk OF exer-
tion. He attributed TO their activity
in this line the fact that women live
longer than men.
The star Alcogne is so remote from
the earth that the light which now
arrives at our eyes, even though it
speeds on it's way at the rate Of lSo,-
600 miles second, has not impr obably
taken a century or more than century
to reach us.
A pound of rice contains 5000 per
cent. of nutritive matter, against 81. 81
per cent. for wheat, S2.7J per cent.
for rye, 74.O2 per cent. for oats, S2.97
per cent. for corn, 1924 per cent. tor
potatoes, 46.03 per cent. for fat beef
and 26. SO per cent. for lean beef.
A French scientist says that an III
failing test of death may be made by
producing o blister on the hand o.
foot of the corpse, using q candle for
that purpose. If the blister, upon be-
ing opened with pin or other instru-
ment, is found to contain fluid o. any
kind there is still life in the supposed
corpse. On the other hand, should it
contain steam only, rest assured that
the vital spark has flown.
A chain of compressed cakes of gun
cotton tied around the trunk of the
largest-sized trees and exploded will,
by the action Of their violence, cut the
tree down instantly and as smoothly as
though done by an OK in the hands OF
an experienced woodman.' Timber
cutters working among tie forest
giants OF Montana, Idaho and Wash
ington declare it to be the cheapest
and most economical mode Of telling
trees that has yet been devised.
Explosives theoretically act with the
same force. in every direction. Giant
powder, nitro glyceri'e and the like
explode so rapidly that the air has not
time to set out Of the way and scts to
some extent ss solid. The down.
ward force therefore has something to
act against. Hence apart OF the force
is felt by the ground. Gunpowder, on
the other hand, is n slow explosive,
and when it is burnt on the ground the
air has time to get out of the WY and
there is little apparent downward Ell.
feet.
Humboldt and Cuvier estimated the
number of species of mammHlia, or
creatures which suckle their young, to
be but little short of 500; ii birds,
1000; insects, $4,000; reptiles, 700;
in all about $4,000 species. In the
southern hemisphere birds arc five
times more numerous than the nam.
malta. Toward the equator both birds
and reptiles are most plentiful and
most highly colored. Cuvier said tEat
the record left by the fossils prove
that the mammalic was once as rumcr-
ously represented as are the bird spe.
cies at the present day.