The citizen., 1896-04-10
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Notes-Hard Rub
ber From SaWdust-A New The
ory of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ogenic Yeasts-A Curious ObSer-
vation on F'lshes-Africa's Sala-
mander Trees - The Modern
Glass House of Brick.
written for the CITIzEN.)

for the R)entgen rays. Tesla, who
has obtained strong shadows at dis
tance of forty feet or more, finds his
conviction growing that the effects are
due to molecular particles projected at
an enormous neutrality-suspicious. 60 or
20 miles per second; while the theory
of longitudinal waves continues to
find much favor. Various experiments
have tended to show that the rays em-
anate from the anode instead of the
cathode, and the rays have been re-
fiected. Prof. Slime has found that
success in obtaining pictures depends
upon an extremely high vacuum in
the Crookes tubes, the successful tubes
showing fiuorescence of a green color,
while il is yellow in inactive tubes.
may be taken through many layers
of dry plates celluOid films or sensi-
tized paper, f.. b. Frost suggests that
chemists should seek a new kind of
dry plate that shall better absorb the
active rays. Recent interest in SINH
lar work makes it strange that dis
covery reported by DR.. b. w. Rich
ardson nearly thirty years ago should
have been forgotten. 1t was then
shown that human flesh is translucent,
and that in front of the magnesium
and other lights the bones of the hand
and arm could be seen and fractures To-
Gated, while in one case the mOye-
ment and outline of the heart were
visible.
Imitation hard rubber from sawdust
is the subject of German patent. The
sawdust-that of resinous woods being
best-is mixed with chromatized glue,
pressed into the desired shape, and
freed from moisture in bath of heated
oil, varnish or tar. The process is
completed by drying in an oven heat
ed to 1000 to 600o F., when the SUBJ
stance becomes like hard rubber in APP
pearance as we'll as properties.
Betting of ramie cloth coated with
tar has proven successful with French
machinists. 1t is unaffected by water,
steam or acids, and tests have shown
it to have twice the strength of cotton
and three times that of double leather.
left-handed, but. as the popularity
may be hereditary, it is quite possible
that a race of left-handed people may
have been developed, although state
ments AS to the existence of "a prepon-
derance of left-handed individuals III
various parts of the world have not
been verified. Various theories to ac-
count for right-handeduess have been
advanced. 1t is well known that each
side of the brain is connected mainly
with the movements and SENSATIONS of
the opposite side of the b 1dy, and DR..
X. a. Luudie, an English physician,
gives reason for believing that the real
cause of right-handedness is kind If
left brainedness. When the power of
speech is lost, it is found that a POI ton
of Que side of the brain only is aft cted
From this it appears that the faculty
of speech rests in an organ of the left
brain-called after its disc0ver-Bro-
cas- convolution, but when the mental
faculties have not been otherwise in-
jured, it has proven to be possible to re-
store speech by educating the portion
of the right brain corresponding to
BrOca's convOlution. The normally
active speech centre, however, is not
always on the left side. In some indi-
viduals it is the right side of the
brain that has been educated for
speech, and singular fact is that
such persons are left-handed. DIR.
Lundie finds it practically useless to
combat strong tendency to left-hand-
edness in children. But in such cases
the right hand can be made nearly
as expert as the left, giving an ambi-
dexterity that could be advantageOusly
taught the right hand as well.
Only within the last year has it been
known that some of the yeasts, or
fungi of fermentation, are capable of
producing disease. DR.. Lydia Rabin-
oWitsch, a pupil of Koch, has lately
collected fifty different varieties of
yeast, of which seven-one from fer
menting figs, another from grapes, and
a third from an American ale-had
disease-producing properties; and
these yeasts, moreover, appear t.
be distinct from several pathogenic va
rieties isolated by other observers. The
fatal effects appear to be due to the
enormous multiplication of the fungi
in mice, rabbits aud guinea pigs in
which they have been simultaneously
introduced.
The man-faced crab, which swarms
in Japan's inland seas, has body
about an inch long, with face, says
DIR. Shiesof, exactly like that of
Chinese coolie. The strange creature
has two legs, which seem to grow from
the top of its head, and two feelers
grow from the chin like forked beard.
Fishing boats in the southern part of
the North Sea having recently COM
planned of the fewness of Goldfish in
their catch, the Captain of steam
fishing smack declared that he had
forseen this for eight days. His clue
was quantity of sand found in the
stomachs of the fish caught. The sand,
if his observations are to be accepted,
is taken in AS ballast just before the
fish leave the shallow sea of the south
ern banks for the deeper northern wa
ters, and is elected when the fish pre-
pare for their southwark migration.
The sand often differs from that of the
bottom where the fish are taken
fact that may prove valuable guide
to fishermen.
The vegetation of considerable por-
tions of Africa is materially influenced
by annual grass-fires. These prevent
the accumulation of leaf-mould and
stana and tha eOnaeuupnt imnrOVp-