The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-07-19
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Prof Poulton to prove that the colors
of certain caterpillars are largely due
to modified plant pigments, derived
from their food plant. He 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 expert
dyers of ancient times. The fabrics
dyed with the famous Tyrian purple
did not assume their proper color until
after two days exposure to light and
air. During this time they passed
through a gradation of shades of yell
low, green, blue, violet and red, which
the dyers understood how to arrest
and fix at any moment.-Baltimore
Herald.
Speaking recently at a meeting in
Newcastle, Sir Robert Ball limited at
the approach of time when pOsterity
might have to construct machinery
that would be worked with heat OBJ
tanned by the direct action of the suns
rays. He showed on the screen a ma
chine which, by means of a reflector,
heated the water in a boiler large
enough to generate the steam required
to move a small printing press.-Lon-
don Inventions.
DR.. Letheby, the eminent English
authority on foods. by series of care
full examinations found that when po-
tatoes were cooked without removing
the skins the loss of nutritive material
was but about per cent, against II
per cent. when the skins were removed
before boiling-a very wasteful process.
Hence baked potatoes are not only
more palatable, but also evidently more
nutritious than boiled potatoes in either
case.
More than thirty-seven million
acres of land are invested by the rabbit
pest in Victoria, Australia. During
the last eleven years the colonial gov
eminent 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,
over one hundred and fifty thousand
pelts having been purchased monthly
in one town. The authorities of some
districts have decided to employ phos-
phorised wheat for the destruction of
the rabbits.
Certain beetles have long been
known to eject or give out a repulsive
fluid from joints of their bodies, or
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
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 its
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 l.200 half-starved ewes raised
only 26O lambs. Then foot and mouth
disease broke out among his cattle, and
Is out of s. 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 interfered: the grubs had
taken three-fourths of the ''mealies'
(maize or corn crop, and a new genera
ton of locusts had Matched out, requir-
ing ceaseless effort to check their adj
vance before their wings grew.
The hogs legs perform function
not known to any other animal, and
that is an escape pipe or pipes for this
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-
tions 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 orifces 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 well as the nostrils.