The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-08-11
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


in Australasia the thorny clot-burr
fxanthium spinosum) has somehow ac-
uuired the local name of Bathurst
burr. Il is, in fact, q native of tropical
America, and the seeds were probably
carried to our antipodes in ballast, or
mixed with grain.
The importations Of eggs into Great
Britain continue to increase from year
to year. The value of egg imports for
1898 was nearly twenty million dollars.
The greater part of the imports were
from France, those from Germany and
Belgium being next, while Russia and
Denmark supplied the remainder.
Cuba is rich country. On this
island there are 90, 900 sugar and tobac-
co plantations and fruit and vegetable
farms, the total value of which is $685.
OO0, OOO Cuba's yearly exports amount
to 500, 900, 900, while the imports are only
$4s, 75O, 00O OF the latter SO, ESQ, 900 is
from this country. Nearly $50, 900, ooc
goes annually to the support OF Spain.
1T is reported that Mr.. Donald
H. Farquhar, of st. Louis, has
succeeded in SO concentrating the
electric light that it will illu-
mine the brain. The same plan
can also be adopted when it Is nee
essary to study the pathological condi
ton In other parts of the body. A
small cone of light from an sO0-candle
power lamp is made to penetrate the
tissues, and it is said that broken bones
can be studied and injuries learned that
could not be determined by the ordinary
methods of examination.
Two eminent English physicians,
DR.. Warren Lombard and DIR. Vaughan
Harley, have recently made an impor-
tant series of experiments regarding
the influence Of tobacco on muscular
effort. That influence was not 50
marked in the experiments of DIR. Har-
ley as in those of DR.. Lombard. The
conclusions which DR.. Harley has
reached is that moderate smoking, in
one accustomed to it, neither increases
the capacity for work nor retards the
approach of fatigue; though, in some
cases, it may slightly diminish muscu-
| lar power and hasten the time in which
| fatigue overcomes the system.
"A writer in the London Notes and
| Queries says: ut is worth while re-
cording that the 'penny-in-the-slot' au-
| tomato machine was known in the time
of Hero of Alexandria, who describes
| in his 'Pneumatics' "A sacrifcial vessel
which flows only when money is intro
duced. When the coin is dropped
through the slit it falls on one end OF
balanced horizontal level, which, being
| depressed, opens valve suspended from
chain atthe other end, and the water
begins to flow. When the lever has
been depressed to certain angle the
coin falls of, and the valve, being
weighted, returns to its seat and cuts
off the supply HERDS date is little
uncertain, but he is supposed to have
lived B. G. 1871"
With regard to the remarkable
granular structure Of the solar surface,
an English journal says: 1T Is ascer-
tanned that the luminosity is due to the
bright clouds which float over the solar
surface. The clouds are not generally
continuous; there are more usually in
tervening spaces of various magnitudess
When these intervening spaces are con-
siderable they are called spots, and in
some cases the spots are great enough
for globe Of the size of the earth to
be passed through the aperture with
out touching either one side or the
other; at other times, or in other places,
the spaces between the luminous clouds
are much smaller, and, indeed, are
often suitably described as pores In
some of Janssen's exquisite photo
graphs. obtained after an exposure Of
the hundredth part OF second, the
porous structure OF the sun Is Deauu'
fully exhibited.