The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1895-09-20
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Gas Bubbles in the Earth's Crust
Strangeness of Dustless Rain
Heat from Different Lights-Ar-
lificlal Respiration by Ice-Pro-
gress in Utilizing Peat-Disease
and its Treatmept-Heat- Sitting
Glass.
written tor the Citizen.)

written tor the Citizen)
Some effects of the expulsion of gases
from the interior of the earth were
dealt with in an address by Prof. n. s.
Shaler, of Harvard, to the Geological
Society of America at its Springfield
meeting. Wherever gases are genera
ted in a liquid or semd-liquid mass, the
pressure is diminished over a given
bubble, developing chimney" up
which series Of bubbles may rush.
There is much water in rocks and
much more in soft strata Mud lump
springs along river bottoms and par
ticularly along the Mississippi are due
TO discharges impelled by the liberia
ton OF gases. Outbreaks of gases fol-
low earthquake shocks. Hundreds of
blow holes or "shock fountains
were formed along the Ashley River
after the great Charleston earthquake,
ten years ago, these holes being from
10 inches to feet in diameter. The
liberated gas was found to have come
from a stratum about 80 feet below the
surface. Very large and strong shock
fountains, 100 feet in diameter and
throwing mud 10 height of 200 feet,
were formed along the Mississippi Riv-
er during the earthquakes of ISL aud
1913. a volcanic eruption works on
the same principle.
The influence of dust on rainfall was
noticed during a trip 10 Greenland last
summer by Prof. VIM. I'll. Brewer, of
the Sheffield Scientific School. The
fogs progressively thinned toward the
north; and owing to The small amount
OF dust i'll the air, the ram, even when
falling i'll such quantity as quickly 10
drench one, was extremely fine, APP
pearing like very thiu fog. Another
effect was the absence OF that blush
haze which so sufteus and beauties
distant view in lower attitudes.
An electrical engineer finds the rel
alive quantity of heat given off by diff
ferent forms OF light To be: Arc light,
4; incandescence, II; kerosene, argand
burner, 33l; gas, argand burner, $50;
candle, Alb; gas, butterfly burner, 5l1.
In the matter OF vltiatiug the air, cleo
tricity, of course, compares even more
favorablv with other sources of light.
A new and remarkable method of
artificial respiration Is described in
French journal by DR.. Berthold Beer.
The mucous membrane of the lips aud
of the mouth is rubbed slowly with a
piece of ice, the rhythm OF the motion
corresponding as much as possible to
that of normal respiration. In the
cases observed by DR.. Beer the result
was a return of respiration, very strong
at first, but, with the continued appli-
cation OF the ice, becoming very regu-
lar, quiet aud deep. The Ice, moreover,
Is said TO have general sedative effect,
and to have been successfully employ.
ed in cerebral troubles. Two cases of
asphyXa have been treated in this
way by DR.. Foges, OF Vienna, with
equal success. The method is harmless
for the patient and easy for the ply ST.
clan, SO that it may be employed for
several hours at Il time.
Important industries are being grad
ually evolved by the attention that has
been given 10 peat during recent
! months. The extensive tract of peat
land near the English town of Ramsey
is being opened up, and great factories
are to be built for converting the SUBJ
stance whose waste has been so de-
plored into valuable and wonderful
products. 1t is found surprising as it
seems, that the peat fibre can Ue
bleached to snowy whteness. while it
will dye any color. 1t can be woven
into cloth, varying in texture from the
finest flannel for underwear to the
cOarsest mating, it is made into a
marvellous antiseptlc ''wooP for surgi-
cal use, and it can be compressed into
u material for pianOforte legs, or even
machine bearings, aXle-DOXes, etc.
A curious industry, to which the at
tentiOn of the United States Fish Com
mission has just been directed, is that
of the artificial propagation of alliga-
tors to supply the trade in Florida cur
iosities. The Matching is effected in a
very simple incubator. The eggs,
about the size of the goose, are covered
in sand in boxes, which are exposed
on a roof to the hot rays of a tropical
sun, the young reptiles appearing in a
| few days.
Bed-bugs, unlike the house-fy, are
found fossil, proving them to lie an
old insect. Four species are now
known. These species are parasitic
respectively upon the swallow, the
pigeon, the batand man. The old no.
ton that bats bring bed-bugs is
not entirely unfounded.
Even now disease is very imperfectly
understood, and physicians are CROP
ing in dim light in their search for
means of curing it. In the treatment
OF organic or structural diseases, as of
the nervous system, the blood-vessels,
and various vital organs, the fact, says
Modern Medicine, is quite generally
overlooked, that the structural change
is consequence and not natural
disease. The real disease is the NOR
bid process which has resulted in the
tissue change. The researches of
Bourchard and other modern investi-
gators have thrown great light upon
the subject, and have placed upon
more than probable grounds the theory
that the presence in the blood and It's
sues of various morbid substances of
toxic character, such as uric acid and
various leuc0mains and ptomains. orig
mating in the tissues as the result of