The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-07-07

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
From two observations made Jul,
~, 1893, Of the aurora borealis at tn
University Of Toronto it was found sha
It's height above the eurth was 16
miles. At.9 gN t4
The white rhinoceros has becom,
nearly If not q,iitA extinct. There mr.,
two stuffed specimens in England ant
one in the Cape Town museum 1t Il
the largest specimen of the genus.
For protection wool and furs ranl
first, then silk, cotton and linen. An,
layer of confined air is slow conductor
of heat, and loosc-fitting garment /.
warmer in winter than tight-fttins
one in other respects the same.
-Droughts in Algeria are reported tc
have caused much damage to the geran
ium crop, which is raised for the pur
pose of distilling geranium oil from the
leaves. The fragrant oil is used by
perfumcrs, part being sold under its
own name, but IL still greater amount
is used for adulterating the altar oi
roses.
Specimens Of the American lung
fish Uepidosiren paradoxa) have been
sent to London from the upper Ric
Paraguay. This and the Prolopterus
of African rivers have been thought by
DIR. Ayers to be congcncric, and even
varieties of our species, but their gen.
eric distinction has been lately reafs
frmed by German and English authori.
ties.
Water is compressible theoretically
but not practically. That is, when an
amount of water is subjected to an ad-
ditional pressure of one atmosphere it
is compressed one-twenty-thousan
part of it's bulk. Thus, for all practical
purposes. it is correct to say that you
cannct get more than four quarts of
water into gallon vessel under any
circumstances.
More than three hundred species of
fish hitherto unknown to naturalists
are described by M. Leon Valiant as
inhabiting the lakes of Borneo Many
other fish are identical with species liv-
ing in the waters of the Sunda islands
and of 1ndo-China. AS these species
never reach the sea, they furnish an
other argument in favor of the theory
of former connection of these coun-
tries
The Capricornian, an Australian
journal, says that ''the introduction of
the little fruit baskets as used in Cali
fornia, into which the fruit is picked
direct, has given FLIP to fruit eating,
and growers find it SO profitable that
neither producer nor consumer will
now rest content until the whole of the
California system of handling fruit has
been introduced to South Australia
An English scientist, after careful
finds that when potatoes
are cooked without removing the skins
they lose only per cent. of nutritive
quality through extraction of the juice.
When the skins were removed before
boiling the loss was IA per cent, which
makes the process of cooking the pota-
toes without their jackets an exceed
ingly wasteful one.
"A singular instance of connection
between superstition and agricultural
pests is reported from Ceylon. The
high-class Buddhist Cingalese refuse to
destroy the predatory insects which in
fest the tea plantations, as they regard
it sin to take life. Consequently the
tea plantations owned by them become
the breeding ground for moths and
other insects, and a source of infection
to neighboring plantations.
The following instance Of enacity
Of life in land snails is given by Mr..
Stearns, of the United States National
Certain snails We're collected
On Cerros or Cedros island. off the coast
Of Lower California in 1859. Six years
later one of them, on being placed in a
box of moist earth. began to move
about. Another shell, also from Lower
California, woke up from it's lethargy
after a long nap of two years, two
and sixteen days"
The Baluban tribe of Central Africa
are famous for their skill in casting
md forging iron. They construct tall
,ylindro-conical furnaces of clay with
tuyeres of clay and ingeniously devised
wooden bellows. They make arms for
hunting and for war, and collars and
bracelets of iron. The neighboring ma
lives resort to them in great numbers
TO exchange their own products for the
of the Balubans.-
ar Science MONTHLY