The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-04-27
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


present under consideration by the
ministry Of roads and communications
in Russia. One of the most important
plans is not new, having been brought
up at intervals for number of years;
it is that for connecting the White sea
with the Baltic. The estimated cost
by the latest survey is 1000, 900 rubles.
"A writer in La Medicine Modern
asserts that sedentary occupations pre-
dispose to tuberculosis more than any
others. Italian and English statistics
show, he says. that there are 459 deaths
per 1000 from this disease among stu
dents, seminarians and young clergy
men. while farmers, boatmen and
mountaineers enjoy almost complete
immunity from it.
IF parents are tall, says an author
ity, the children tend to be tall, but
the offspring of parents of unequal
height most frequently follow the
shorter. Excessive tallness is very
rarely perpetuated; even if both the
parents are above the average, the
height of the offspring is usually only
third of the excess reached by the
parents.
The construction of an object glass
of extraordinary size is to be under
taken at the Jena factory for a tele-
scope for the Berlin exhibition of 1896.
IL is to be 2l0 centinieters about "A
inches) in diameter. This will be the
largest object glass in the world, being
many inches larger than the great
Lick instrument. 1t Is said that this
is the first object glass of abnormal
dimensions which has been undertaken
by the Jena factory.
An apparatus for burning coal dust
has been invented and brought out in
Germany. 1t is stated that the con-
sumption of even the most inferior
class of coal dust is attended with no
smoke, while the heat produced is so
intense that the apparatus has been
adapted in Berlin to smelling works,
and with excellent results. The gases
as analysed contain a.s per cent car
bonic acid, 1 per cent. air, 1872 per
cent. nitrogen. Public Opin-
ion.
"A collection of go human brains,
carefully prepared and classified by
DIR. Luys during his twenty years serv-
ice at the Saltpetriere and Charlie hos
pitfalls, has been recently presented by
him to the Paris Faculty of Medicine
for the Dupuytren museum. The col
lection is unique; it contains all forms
of mental disease, madness and idiocy,
and includes the only preserved brain
of hypnotized subject in existence.
I'm the case of Ies North German
women, Prof. Rattle reports that gray
hairs appeared at the following ages:
In one, at twcnty-eight years; in five,
at thirty-four; in sixteen, at thirty-fivc
to thirty nine; in thirty-seven, at for-y
to forty-nine; in forty-three, at fifty to
fifty-nine; in nineteen, at sixty to sixty
nine; in five, at seventy to seventy
nine, and in two at eighty to eighty
five.
For coloring iron and steel dead
black of superior appearance and per-
manency the right article has long
been sought, and, to meet this want,
NJ. Manure now proposes fluid, of
which the following is the formula:
One part bismuth chloride, two parts
mercury bichloride. one part copper
chloride, six parts hydrochloric acid,
five parts alcohol and fifty parts water,
these being, of course, well mixed.
Prof. Bartoli, during the great
eruption of Etna in 1892, measured the
heating power of the sun with the
pyrheliometer at different attitudes to
find out whether atmospheric dust OK
ercises any perceptible influence on
the intensity of the suns rays passing
through it. The air was then filled
with an impalpable dust, which fell
very gently and gave the sun a slight
reddish tinge; there were no clouds,
and there was dead calm. He finds
that 2S per cent. of the heat trans
mitted by pure air was absorbed by the
volcanic dust
"A notion of the enormous sums of
money that Russia is pouring into the
Siberian railroad may be got from the
recently published figures OF the finan-
cial budget for 1895. In that docu-
ment the estimate for the Siberian
railroad proper for 1895 is Ssi, 26f, 900
and for works auxiliary to that rail-
road Sl.273, oOo-say, total of twenty
five and half million dollars. The
estimate for 1894 for these items was
ST., 964, 0Oo-about forty-three and half
millions in two years. Beyond this it
is proposed to raise SIS, 733, 0oo for the
construction Of other railroads, besides
s., 600 for cheap local railroads.
How long Russia will be able to keep
up such expenditures probably no man
ReH