The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-08
SCIENTIFIC.


The canals of Mars are explained by NJ.
| Tornebohm as trade roads. which. extend
Ing across desert regions. are irrigated by
artesian wells and are thus given a deep
border Of vegetation on either side
Diseases, according to DR.. McCassy, have
characteristic odors. In scurvy the odor
is putrid. in chronic peritonitis musky. In
! syphilis sweet. in s~crofula like stale beer,
in fevers ammoniacal. in hysteria Ike vio-
lets, and so on. Even insane asy1unns nave
an odor peculiar to themselves
The first daily weather map Is usually
| supposed to have been that begun by lie
Verrier on Sept is. 1863, in Paris. IL has
been pointed out. however, that a weather
map. based on Geographic reports, was Is
sued in London every day except sundays
from Aug. s to Aug. II, 1851. and was sold
at the great exhibition.
The use of good, rich river water, neither
boiled nor filtered. is the curious advice OF
Prof. Ray Lancaster to people who would
| avoid cholera and typhoid. Such water. he
| explains. teens with microbes that prey
upon each other. giving the human organ
ism a chance; whereas the disease germs
| that may be imbibed in spring water -four
ish unmolested by the harmless. bacteria
Whose duty is 10 destroy the dangerous
species.
A striking presentation of the influence
of chemistry and physics upon the evoiu-
ton of our modern life was given by M.
| Berthelot in his presidential address to the
international Congress of Applied Chemis-
try. recently held in Paris. The era OF APP
piled science represented by the last three
Quarters of a century was contrasted with
the previous development of the hu man
race for 5000 years. revealing a dlnerence
so great that we frd now a new man IN a
new world. with social conditions which
the past gives us no means of comprehend
ing.
Having learned that Signor Marconi, a
young Italian. had succeeded in transmit
ting signals over a considerable distance
by means Of Hertzian waves. MIR. w. II.
Preece assisted the investigator to con-
tinue his experiments in London. Signor
Marconi has now succeeded, IL is stated.
I'm producing electric waves and renectlng
them from one parahoiic mirror to anotner
I a mile and a quarter away, where the
l waves fall on a receiving apparatus, whlcn
1actuates a relay and produces Morse sig
nails. For his nc great amount OF radiant
energy is necessary, while the apparatus
is still very crude.
The respirator of DR.. Deourbe has been
deemed worthy of a valuable prize from
the French Society for the Prevention of
Accidents in Industrial Pursuits. This ar
rangement consists of a copper mask.
which fits closely over the lower half OF
the face and is given the necessary con-
tact by a strip of elastic felt around the
inner edge. with a filtering chamber in the
middle containing a layer of asbestos and
one of cotton or wool placed between small
plates of aluminium gauze. The device Is
held in place by elastic bands encircHng
the head. The size of the orifice and loose
packing of the hambe lining permit me
| wearer to talk without difficulty, as we'll as
to breathe freely.
The influence on mine-surveying instru-
ments of electric currents from various
| sources has been studied by w. LEM. a
German physicist. Delicate day and night
observations at a point 1,420 feet beneath
an electric railway showed considerable
| irregularity, the variations, however. being
G 6Oomnrrsne . ehe Iay,nh' Even SURVEYORS
safety lamps. free from iron. were found
also to affect the magnetic needle. Ihis
influence. although apparently due TO ther-
mo-electric currents set up by the different
temperatures of the parts, was shown by
four out OF six lamps while cold, the varia-
tions caused by the hot lamps sometimes
exceeding two minutes.
The scale of hardness known as Mohs's
scale, used chiefly in testing minerals, Is
divided into ten degrees, one corresponding
to the hardness of tale and ten to that of
the diamond What is claimed to be a
more consistent method of determining the
absolute hardness of materials, a method
capable of great exactness. was proposed
by Hertz and has been worked out by +.
Auerbach. In this. lenses and plates OF the
material in question are used, and the
pressure of the one upon the other that
Just brings about disintegration is deter
mined, special precautions being observed
to distinguish between the sources of error
affecting brittle bodies and those of plas-
tic bodies. The values are expressed in
kilogrammes per square Tale,
which is placed as 5. is found to be pre-
coded by a and graphite, while certain
other substances have the following hard
81: 1uorspar. ITO; heaviest flint glass. l7O;
light flint glass, 21O; apatite, 237: aduiaria,
2SS: borosilicate crown glass, ga; quartz.
NN- fOnaZ y n RArl1nd11m I Ia Tho Ia II
ness Of the diamond is not yet determined.
The idea that thoughts occur in regular
cycles of nineteen years has been advanced
by Mr.. II. c. Russell in a paper to the
Royal Society of New South Wales. He
finds historical evidence of three kinds Of
~drought-the first lasting from three to
seven years, the second more intense and
relatively shorter, and a third that seems to
rank between the other two and is more
irregular. The different kinds occur on
different years. but with the same interval.
Since the year 900, with fifty-two recur-
rences of the nineteen-year period, the rec
ords sEoT seventy-eight d%roughts Of the
first kind n various countries. all of them
fitting into this cycle and filing forty-four
of the da,e-. while of the total of EOS re-
corded droughts for the same time 1913 fit
into the cycle. OF twenty droughts before
the Christian era all but one fit in. There
is evidence. moreover. that the nineteen
year weather cycle was known TO the Jews,
the Egyptians and other ancient peoples.
TIL existence of the cycle is confirmed by
falls of red dust. Red dust is obviously
proof of drought somewhere. and of the
sixty-nine recorded falls-the first in 73S
B. Call fit into the cycle. For this wealth.
err periodicity Mr.. Russell finds but one pos
sible prime motor. the moon. thus settling
to his satisfaction the question of lunar
influence. 1t appears that when the eclipses
congregate about the equinoxes that is. in
March and September-they do so in the
years that give US great droughts; that
when they in February and
March and in August and September We
have the more intense and shorter droughts
of the second series. and when they ac-
cumulate about March. and April and Sep
TENDER and October We have droughts OF
the third class.