The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-03-07
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Sc, AGO. 600, 900; from manufactures, So
| $50, 100000; from mines, S4S0.O 900,
from transportation, 81, 155, 900, 600; from
commerce, Sl60, 900, 600; from shipping,
$3.50, 200, 600; from banking, $500, OOO, 600.
1t is just about fifty years since
West Indian potatoes began to be
known in the markets of the world,
and they are now luxury on both
continents. About a ton was sent to
| Great Britain in 1s45. The consump-
ton of those potatoes in this country
has since developed an important trade,
| especially with the Bermudas.
DIR. Bollinger, director of the Anat-
omico- Pathological institute in Mu-
mich, asserts that it is very rare to find
/ normal heart and normal kidneys in
an adult resident of that city. The
reason for the kidney disease is the tax
/ put upon these organs by the drinking
of excessive amounts of beer, and the
cardiac hypertrophy and degeneration
1 are secondary lessons for the most part.
The after-dinner nap has been
| under scientific or at least, profess
Y sional, consideration lately, and it is
i finding friends and foes pretty evenly.
J 1t seems to be the concensus of opinion
y that the long lethargic sleep is not
necessary or advisable to the person in
( health, but forty winks are both CRATE
lful and beneficial, and should be en-
I ,cauraged.
L 1.-The most remarkable instance of
rapid growth is said-to be recorded by
the French academy in 1929. 1t was a
boy years of age, feet inches in
height. At the age of 5 his voice
changed, at his beard had grown, and
he appeared man of 80. He possessed
great physical strength, and could
easily lift to his shoulders and carry
bags of grain weighing 200 pounds.
His decline was as rapid as his growth.
At his hair and beard were gray; at
10 he tottered in his walk. his teeth
fell out, and his hands became palsied;
at 12 he died with every outward sign
of extreme old age.-Times and Regis
ter.
"A new process for extracting gold
from ore by means of bromide has been
devised by Herr Lorsen. The difficulty
hitherto has been the cost. A solution
of bromide of potassium is electrolysed,
giving an alkaline solution, containing
hypobromide and bromate which is
capable of dissolving gold. The ore is
treated with excess of this solution by
rotating cylinders, the solution is then
filtered, the gold precipitated by pass
/ ing it over mixture of iron and coal, and
the solution, which now consists once
more mainly of potassium bromide, is
used again.
France still heads the list of the
European wine producing countries
with an average of 700 0OOO gallons
year for the last ten years. Next
come Italy and Spain with 615, 900, 900
and 564, 100000 gallons respectively;
then come Turkey, with the states once
included in it, with 2O2, 900, 600, Austria
Hungary with 143, 100000, Germany
with 81, 600, 900, Portugal 10000, 900,
Russia 1000 900, Greece 3d. 900, 900, and
Switzerland $1,000, 600 gallons. En-
gland, Holland, Belgium and the Sean
dinavian states do not produce enough
wine to be considered in the account
Europe produces yearly ISLE, 600, 900
gallons of wine.
"A new thermometer has just been
produced in France, designed for meas
uring very low temperatures. The new
instrument is similar to an ordinary
alcohol thermometer, but the liquid
employed to fill it is perfectly pure
toluen. The dilatation coefficient of
this is very high, which slightly in
creases the relative dimensions of the
divisions of the tube, which is an adj
vantage, since the readings are made
much more easily. But the principal
advantage accruing from the liquid
used is its fuidity, which it retains up
to 70 degrees without sensibly adher-
ing to the glass. The indications sup
piled by the apparatus are on this ac-
count very clear and rapid.
Everybody has noticed the SOW
bugs" wood lice" or pill bugs" and
that when exposed to the light by over
turning the board or stone under which
they live in damp places, they roll up,
like an armadillo. The value of this
protective movement is referred to by
Lloyd Morgan in Nature. He fed his
young pheasants on wood lice. They
were frequently caught when moving
and eaten. But if one had time to roll
up, and was thus seized, it was shot out
to a distance by the pressure of the
birds bill, lust as fresh cherrystone
is shot from between the thumb and
finger of schoolboy." The protective
value to the crustacean of it's round
and slippery form was thus matter of
direct observation.
He Wanted to Know.