The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1894-08-30
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

departments have been made BY
Prof. Poulton to prove that the colors
OF certain caterpillars are largely due
to modified plant pigments, derived
from their food plant. lie has now
proved that the colors of some cater
pillars are made up of modified chloro-
phyl derived from the food plant.
The Tyrians were the most exnart
dyers of ancient times T.:s fabrics
dyed with the famoas Tyrjan purple
did not assume their proper color until
after two days exposure TO light and
AIR. During this time they passed
through graduation of shades OF vel
low, green, blue, violet and red, which
tho dyers understood how TO arrest
and fix at any Observation-Disclosures
Herald.
speaking recently at meeting in
Newcastle, Sir Robert Ball knitted at
the approach of a time when posterity
might have to construct machinery
that would DC worked with heat OBJ
tanned by the direct action of the suns
rays. He showed on the screen ma
chine which, by means OF reflector,
heated the water in a boiler large
enough to generate the steam required
to move small printing press.-Lon-
don Inventions.
DR.. Lethcby, the eminent English
authority on foods. by series of caro-
full examinations found that when po-
tatOes were cooked without removing
the skins the loss Of nutritive material
was but about 3 per cent, against Il
per cent. when the skins were removed
before boiling-a very wasteful process.
Hence baked potatoes arc not only
more palatable, but also evidently more
nutritious than boiled potatoes In either
case.
More than thirty-seven million
acres of land arc invested by Che rabbit
pest in Victoria, Australia. During
the last eleven years the colonial gov
ernment has expended nearly two mil
lion dollars in efforts to abate the pest,
besides the expenditures of individuals
The rabbits are trapped for their skins,
pelts having been purchased monthly
In one town. The authorities of some
districts have decided to employ phos-
phoriscd wheat for the destruction Of
the rabbits.
Certain beetles have long been
known to eject Or give out a rcpulsive
fluid from joints Of their bodies, or
from their legs, or from evcrsible
glands. NJ. Cuenot has recently studied
the cases Of election of blood from these
beetles. The fluid, however, is not
red, as the blood Of insects is either
colorless or slightly yellowish Lady
birds, oil beetles and other vegetable
feeders are such as possess this habit
The winter has added to this list one
of our common beetles which sends out
n pale milky fluid smelling like lauda-
mum, the odor being exactly that
emitted by certain moths of the Arctian
family.
Farming in South Africa has it's
drawbacks. A correspondent of the
Agricultural Journal, of Cape Town,
relates some Of them. The locusts came
late in autumn and devastated the
pastures to such an extent that the
writer's / 200 half-starved ewes raised
only 26O lambs Then foot and mouth
disease broke out among his cattle, and
IS out of IS succumbed, being unable in
their reduced condition to recover from
the facilitating effects of the disease.
At the time of writing farmers were
trying to harvest their oat-hay, but
heavy rains interfercd the grubs had
taken thrce-fourths of the ''mealles"
(maize or CORN crop, and new genera
ton of locusts had Matched out, requir-
ing ceaseless effort to check their ad-
vance before their wings grew
The hogs legs perform a function
not known to any other animal, and
that is an escape pipe or pipes for the
discharge of waste water or sweat not
used in the economy of the body. These
escape pipes are situated upon the In
side of the legs, above and below the
knee In the forelegs, and above the
gambrel joints in the hind legs, but in
the latter they are very small and func-
tons light; upon the inside of the fore
leg they are, in the healthy hog, always
active, so that moisture is always there
from about and below these orifices or
ducts in the healthy hog. The holes in
the leg and breathing in the hog are
his principal and only means of eject
ing an excess of heat above normal, and
when very warm the hog will open the
mouth and breathe through that chan
mel as we'll as the nostrils.