The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-03-02
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

The estimated total exports Of
corn. wheat and petroleum in 1892 were
19,0S9,S9l bushels of corn. 10, OPS, III
bushels Of wheat and 243, 672, $50 gal
Ions OF petroleum. The gain in the ce
reals over 1891 was 100000 bushels,
and in petroleum over As, 900, 600 gallons
The production of iron mines of the
Lake Superior district for the year 1899
is placed at 9,025, 900 tons During the
year there were shipped by lake from
Escanaba 1904, 900 tons; from Ashland
2,227, 4o7 tons, and from Two Harbors
1,155, 400 tons. The total lake shipments
were S,4'j, sos tons, as against 6, 444, 440
tons last year, and s,O63, 067 tons in
1890. Hallway Review.
The capitalization of American rail-
roads is set down at So 500, 900, 900,
which is of course, far too great an esti-
mate. However, the United States has
twenty-siY miles of railway to every ten
thousand inhabitants. The Interstate
commerce commission notes the fact
that the number of independent rail
way companies was actually less in
1871 VIAL III lObus siiNl llldO -IMO
companies own approximately half the
mileage In 1891 the revenue of the
railroads was 1864, 900, 900.
The age of turtles, like the age of
some excellent women, will never be
known. In many parts of the country
boys cut their initials on the shell of
the tpvoise, with the date, and then
wsltcA%or them in later years At Hat
boro in Pennsylvania one was found
withJA W., 1888, cut on the shell. Mr..
Lev Walton, who cut the lettering, is
stil'Fliving, but the slow-going turtle
will probably outdo him in the race Of
life.
Can spiders prognosticate weather
changes? is answered by DR.. McCool in
tie negative. 1t is usually believed
that spiders fairly well indicate the
weather by ceasing to spin before foul
weather, and weaving freely before fair
weather. From observations made for
ok years past, he finds that many spe-
sies of orb weavers, which were colo
nized and kept under close observation,
make snares freely before rains and
storms, frequently even in the intervals
between heavy rains Thus popular
fallacy is destroyed.
A careful examination of the hearts
of the vegetarian and the meat eater
shows that the number of beats to the
former are fifty-eight TO the minute
and of the latter seventy-two In TWEEN
ty-four hours this means difference of
twenty thousand beats From this il
is concluded that in the summer time
the vegetarian has the advantage, for
he can keep cooler and in better health,
under the reduced number of heart
beats. But in cold climate, or in our
own winters, the heat generated by
such slow heart beats would hardly be
sufficient to make life strong and re-
sisting enough. The true verdict that
one must reach is that the vegetarian
is better off in the summer and the meat
eater stronger in the winter.
There are very important evidences
of internal heat derived from the uni
versal phenomenon of fairly uniform
increase of temperature in all deep
wells mines, borings or tunnels This
increase has been usually recloned as
degree Fahrenheit for each sixty feet
of descent, but a recent very careful
estimate by Prof. Prestwich, derived
from the whole of the available data,
gives degree Fahrenheit for every 40
feet of descent. 1t is a curious indica-
ton OF the universally of this in
crease that even in the coolest parts of
Siberia, where the soil is frozen to a
depth of $40 feet, there is a steady in
crease in the temperature of this frozen
soil from the surface downward.
"A writer in Science says chat there
is no element of speech so variously
pronounced in dialect and by individ-
oals as the letter r. All varieties, he
explains, are derived from a fractional
emis sion of breath or of voice between
two surfaces in the breath channel 1t
may be made in the throat in the gut
tural passage between the back of the
tongue and the soft palate, between
the arched top of the tongue and the
roof OF the mouth-common in the
United States, the normal K, produced
between the point OF the tongue and
the upper gum, and by transferring
the sound from the tongue to the lips,
so that r has the sound of w. Another
series results from rafting organic
vibration instead of a mere friction OF
tho hraafh Of yOicp