The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-07-21
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

A report from the Belgian consul
al Nouma states that two-fifths of the
total area of New Caledonia contains
nickel, and one-tenth of this has been
conceded to mining companies, about
100 square miles being already worked.
The ore is said to contain to 10 per
cent. nickel.
Henry S. Huntington, United States
consular agent at Castellamare, Italy,
reports to the state department that
the grape crop produced in that country
during the past two years has been so
enormous that in many districts in
southern Italy there were not barrels
and demijohns sufficient to hold the
pressed juice, and cisterns were emp
tied and filed with wine.
The production of wool in the
United States in 1892 was 294, 000, 900
pounds, and the amount imported in
the year ending June 80, 1898, was
172. 1858 pounds. The production
and the Importation have increased
steadily for series of years. The wool
production of the world is estimated at
2,456, 77S, 600 pounds annually. The
largest foreign producers are Australia,
Argentina and Russia, in the order
mentioned.--N. Y. Recorder.
in 1898 Germany exported $1,000
metric tons of rails, against 1878
tons in 1892. The exports included
also 37,54s tons of rail fastenings and
steel ties last year, against S9,55s tons
in 1892. There were 4.275 cars of varr
GUS descriptions exported, and locomo-
tives weighing 4,95s tons; the number
of the latter is not given. The German
manufacturers hope that last years
figures will be largely increased in
1894, chiefly on account of the new
treaty with Russia.
M. Max Schiller is said to have dis
covered, in the joints of persons at
tackled with chronic articular rheuma-
tism, bacteria, which are always ident-
ical in like cases. These bacilli are
short and thick, having at each end
bright grains which aniline colors make
still more evident. The discoverer has
been able to cultivate these bacteria in
bouillion, ON gelatin, or on piece of
potato. Their culture requires tenn
perature of at least 25 degrees, and
darkness is indispensable.
The latest form of madness is re-
ported from the asylum of Sainte-Anne
in Paris. The patient SO affected is re-
garded as entirely sane in all respects
bat two. One, an uncomfortable inn
pulse to bark like dog, and to other
wise initiate ''all the modulations Of
the canine voice" The other, passion
for the number s'three." The barking
mania, we take it, Is not quite excep-
tional, for it is not unusual for epilep-
tics and idiots to mimic dog banks, and
the passion for the number three is by
no means uncommon among the sane.
DIR. Oliver Wendell Holmes observed
how frequently men think in triads.
The fact is that few men have not some
popularity of mental habit known only
to themselves.-Medical Press.
Two Italian horticulturists propose
to prevent the loss of ammonia from
stable litter and other organic manures
by means of sulphuric acid, employed
in the form of composition which
they call "arotol." This is formed by
pouring sulphuric acid on dry sawdust,
chopped straw or similar vegetable sub
stance. Great heat is evolved, and
when that subsidies the charred vege-
table matter or chacoal, is dried and
reduced to powder This powder is
freely sprinkled on the manure, and
arrests fermentation. Strict precautions
are necessary in its preparation to guard
against the corrosive action of the acid.
Changes of form are very slow
though rapid enough to explain the
motion of glaciers-but pressure in
creases their speed. Tresca, of the
French Academy, has proved by his
beautiful and varied experiments that
under a certain pressure all solids
''fiow'' like liquids, and that their mole
cules obey in such cases the laws of the
motion of liquids. A block of lead, or
of steel, or of ice, placed in cylinder
and pressed upon, is made to flow out
of a hole in the cylinder exactly as a
jet of water. 1t remains solid all the
time, but its molecules, whose paths
are rendered invisible by special ar
rangement, are seen to have acquired a
certain freedom of motion, and to flow
in the very same way as molecules o.
water flow from hole in a pail.