The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-06-28
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


CURED the local name of Bathurst
| burr. 1t is, in fact, 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 wear
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, $50 sugar and tobac-
| co plantations and fruit and vegetable
| farms, the total value of which is $685.
OOO,0O Cuba's yearly exports amount
to 500 600 600, while the imports are only
$43, 100000. OF the latter SIG, 250. 900 is
from this country Nearly $5OOOO,OOO
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
| Sdii dlnO NC dIlODICu WITCH IL IL ucC-
essary to study the pathological condi-
ton in other parts of the body. A
small cone of light from an sOO-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 DR.. Vaughan
Harley, have recently made an impor-
tant series of experiments regarding
the influence of tobacco on muscular
effort. That influence was not so
marked in the experiments of DR.. 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: 1T is wsrth 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 sacrificial 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 a valve suspended from
chain at the other end. and the water
haos,S 70 Wl,,,, 1,A boe
been depressed to certain angle the
coin falls off, and the valve. being
weighted, returns to its seat and cuts
off the supply Hero's date is a little
uncertain, but he is supposed to have
lived b. c. 117-Sl."
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 magnitudes.
When these intervening spaces are con-
siderable they are called spots and in
some cases the spots are great enough
for a 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
= -
fully exhibited
Australasia has three ostrich farms,
one in New Zealand, one near Port
Augusta, Australia, and the third and
most successful occupies square mile
of country near Lake Mokarte, Vic
toria. There are at present 40 birds in
various stages of growth. The shear
ing takes place every quarter. Many
of the full-grown birds stand from nine
to ten feet in height, and weigh about
800 pounds each. Last year twenty
three ostriches We're reared on the
farm. In the shearing process. the
feathers are cut from the bird, the
stumps being allowed to remain until
next shearing, when they can be re-
moved without injury. The feathers
are roughly classed at the farm, tied
up in bundles, and sent to the depot in
Melbourne, where they are released
and sent to the London market, a good
price being obtained for them. The
birds are not difficult to manage. They
are fed on the natural heritage growing
oE the farm.
A Pretty Dinner Gown.
A pretty dinner gown is made in the
empire style of black silk, with cream
colored lace panels on either side, a