The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-10-11
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

1t has been com$uted that since the
practice of embalming began in 1000 B.
c., down to 700 A. D.. when it practical
~ ceased. probably as many as 80, 100000
bodies We're embalmed in Egypt, of
which the greater part are yet con-
cealed.
Experiments have been made by
DR. Buchner in submitting working
bees to a regimen of alcoholized honey
The effect is astonishing. They revolt
against their queen and give themselves
over to idleness, brigandage and pillage
| until they are cast out by their fellows
--Fifty-two trades unions, with a
membership of over $50, 900, have made
returns for July to the labor depart
ment of the English board of trade,
which show that "A per cent. of their
members were unemployed, as com
pared with g. in June and 6.2 in July,
1898. The depression is the greatest in
metal, textile and ship-building indus
tries.
Mr.. Jansen recently exhibited to
the French Academy of Sciences the
clocllwork that will register the OBJ
servations of the instruments placed in
the observatory on top of Mount Blanc.
1t requires winding up only once in
eight months. and is fabricated with
material that has been exposed to
| cold of 50 degrees below zero without
freezing.
"A new anthropometric test of SEN
| sitiveness has been designed by Dr.
Cation. A band of color, showing all
the sixty-fve shades of blue, is slowly
| passed before the eyes, and the subject
makes a dot for every shade detected.
As far as the experiments have pro-
ceeded only about twenty shades are
generally discovered. In one case, how
| ever, dyer detected about forty.
Soap is found to be one of the best
known sterilizers &C water suspected
of infection. 1t seems that for a long
| time after the cholera epidemic of last
| summer. the people of Hamburg We're
afraid even to battle themselves with
| Elbe water, but NM. Forster and
INLAND. of that city, claim to have
shown by experiment that ordinary
| toilet soap. added at the rate of an
| ounce to about twelve quarts of water,
will kill the cholera bacilli in about
| ten minutes.
According to the British Medical
journal, DR.. 1roitzki states that he
| has found that new and uncut bread
contains no micro-organiSlns, as the
! heat necessary to bake the bread is suf-
| ficient to kill them all. As soon, how
ever, as the bread is cut and is allowed
| to lie about uncovered. not only harm
less, but also pathogenic microbes find
in it an excellent nutrient medium.
| White or wheatmeal bread is better
medium than black or rye bread, as the
latter contains greater percentage of
acidity.
| The bones of a human being are
nearly one-quarter water during the
life of the individual. They are chiefly
composed of phosphate of lime, but
| contain good deal of animal matter
and other elements. In the skeleton
of man are nearly four pounds of the
metal calcium. which is many times
more valuable than gold, being worth
| $500 an ounce. Thus in the osseous
| framework of the average tramp may
be found material with Il market value
of about SIS, 600, but the trouble is to
separate it from substances with which
| it is combined; that is what makes cal
cium costly.
In Bengal, sugar is made from both
the date palm and the sugar cane. The
cultivation of the date tree and the
manufacture of date sugar are extern
sively carried on in certain provinces
which possess the necessary moist
alluvial soil. One acre of land will
hold $50 date palms. The trees arrive
at maturity in five to seven years, and
continue to yield the saccharine juice
| for twenty or thirty years Sugar cane
is cultivated throughout Madras, the
total area being not less than 1. $50, 600
acres. The cane is grown on high
| lands above the level of foundations,
| but which can be irrigated. Iron mills
| have come into use for extracting the
| juice, in place of wooden ones.