The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-10-09
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
The Feculometer - Plants That
Serve as a Compass-The Gas
Victim Saved From Himself
Dangers of Unnatural Diet-Ger.
man Suicide and Insanity-Sham
Science = Earthquake Tremors
That Only Animals Feel.
written for the CITIZEN,

vary from Ii per cent. to about twice
as much. While the price does not
vary accordingly, it is of advantage
to cultivators to select seed rich in
starch, and French inventor, M. A.
Allard, has devised an instrument call
ed the feculOmeter for enabling them
to do this. 1t depends upon the prin-
ciple that increase in the proportion of
starch increases the density. 1t is
kind of large areometer, consisting of a
lower receptacle for a weight, central
float into which is put kilogramme
of very clean and very dry potatoes,
and rod graduated for density and
corresponding richness i'll starch.
When plunged into a cylind rical YES
sci of water about 20 inches deep, the
instrument promptly indicates the
quality of the potatoe by the depth to
which the rod sinks. The same appa-
ratus may be used for determining the
density of other farm products, such as
beets and grain, special scale being
provided for each kind.
Attention to a curious property of
certain plants has been called by an
American botanist, Mr.. E. j. Hill.
1t appears that the larger part of the
leaves, especially the younger ones of
SiL2)Itiatna Jdcdqa0tune ana sal20h5atD1 tere-
bi7,thindceun1 turn themselves in a
north and south direction. Sir Joseph
Hooker, it is said, noticed the peculiar
ity, and was able, when travelling, to
tell when the train changed its dlrec-
ton by looking at these plants on the
plain.
Blowing out the gas is to lose its vic
Tins. A new burner is of expansive
metal and is SO arranged that on
turning on the gas the stream is just
sufficient to be lighted, the heating of
the metal directly afterward acting to
open valve and permit fill flow.
If the gas is blown out, the contraction
of the burner automatically closes the
valve and reduces The gas escape 10
leak too small to do harm.
Max Wolf discovered at Heidelberg,
four new minor planets. The total is
now about APO.
Criticizing a common prescription
for dyspeptics and others, Medical
Progress says that a person subsisting
upoii diet of lean eat, while he may
manifest greater strength than upon
more natural dietary, and may be I'M
conscious of any abnormal condition,
is like person in powder magazine
he is i'll constant danger of vital
catastrophe. The pois II destroying
functions of his liver and the poison
eliminating capacity of his kidneys are
taxed to their utmost to keep the pro-
pcrtion of ptoniain+s and leuomaines
in the tissues down to a point which
permits of the performance of the vital
functions. The margin of safety, which
nature has wisely made very large in
order to provide for emergencies, is
reduced to the narrowest possible limit,
SO that anything which temporarily
interferes with the functions of the
liver and kidneys, or which imposes
additional work upon them, may be
suffice mt TO Obliterate the safety mar
gin, and produce an attack of grave
by ptOmanies producing microbes,
such as the typhoid bacillus, The ba-
cillus of diphtheria, the pneumococcus
of Friedlander, the shocks resulting
from accident, and even the depres-
sion of a severe. cold, may he sufficient
to consume the meager emergency CAP
ltal, aud the result is acute inflammation
of the kidneys, or death under chloro-
form or from shock following an opera
ton under anaesthesia.
Family troubles are the great source
of suicide and insanity. III Germany
during 1895 there were 2, 1874 suicides Of
men divorced or separated from their
wives, 948 of widowers, and only 2S6 of
married men; with 343 of women sep
arated from their husbands, 124 Of
widows, but only 81 of married women,
aud 81 unmarried women. Every mil
lion inhabitants in Wurtemburg had
l.54O lunatics among women separated
from their husbands and ], 484 among
men separated from their wives, 1913
among widows and 338 among widow
ers, but only 224 among unmarried
women and 236 among bachelors.
An eXperimenter with Roentgen
rays states, that besides the now WELL
known sunburn effect, exposure for
two or three hours to the rays may
cause the joints to become nearly trans
parent, the nails to die, and the hair TO
fall out, although both nails and hair
will grow out again. The effects seem
to be due 10 electrical action.
X
An electric restaurant" serving
dinners automatically without walters,
will be feature of next years inter-
national exhibition of hotel arrange
ments at Amsterdam.
The readiness with which tales ofin- !
corrigible liars are accepted is re-
minder of how history is too often |
made, but reports of scientific observa-
tions are more severely scrutinized. |
however, even scien-
tific men, accustomed as they are to |
weigh evidence aud reject improbable
tiles, are sometimes deceived Not long
ago an account was given of some great
potatoes, weighing something like 100
pounds each, and, as the description
was illustrated with a cut of rnau |
under monster tuber
upon his shoulder, it was ac-
that a new marvel of plant
Dr soil had been found. until after