The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-02
SCIENTIFIC.

The $500 nautical miles of the coast Of the
British isles have 76O lights, while the 1852
miles of French coast have 80. In electric
lights France has 26 times as much power
as England.
A new method of storing acetylene, sug-
gested to the Paris Academy of Sciences by
g. Claude and A. Hess, consists in dissolv-
ing it in acetone, of which one kilogram
(2.2046 pounds) takes up 300 liters (1S.25l gal
lons) of the gas at a pressure OF twelve at
mospheres.
Instantaneous photographs are now posi-
BILE. A film of them thirty-five feet long has
been exhibited to the Glasgow Philosophi-
cal Society by DIR. John MacIntyre, and
made to reproduce in a kinematograpn the
of the bones IN a 1foS 5 ln1o,
which were distinctly seen by a large audi
ence.
1t appears that not only may various
arti-toxins affect the same toxin, but that
normal serums may sometimes protect
against toxins. European doctors report
that rabbits v~accinated against rabies ac-
quire remarkable resistance to cobra ven
ON, that serum elaborated in tetanus ana
anthrax often cOunteractS cobra venom,
and that anti-diphtherla, anti-tetanus, anti
anthrax and anti-cholera serums nave dec
cided effect against the. vegetable toxin OF
abrine. Normal SerumS from cats and dogs,
moreover, have had the same erect as
anti-cholera serum.
Two leaden collins, dating back to 1850,
were lately dug up from the site of an Old
Partisan church, and on opening them the
contained bones were found to be covered
with white crystalline spangles. One of the
skulls had been converted into a magniti-
cent geode, strewn with clusters of white
needle-shaped crystals more than a quarter
of an inch long. These crystals are found
by NJ. Lacroix to be a Migrated phosphate
of lime allied to metabrushite a substance
which, with bruShite, mineraloglStS nave
known from guano deposits, the two min
erals being evidently due to the deeompo-
sition of bones and other animal matter.
The suggestion tina typhoid fever may be
spread by bread made with water contain
ing the typhoid bacillus was made during a
recent epidemic at Lyons, France. Reassur-
ing experiments have been since carried out
by Professor Arloing, who introduced bulbs
containing cultures of the bacillus into va
rious kinds of bread before baking. but
without obtaining the slightest vegetation
during the baking. The bacillus, moreover,
is destroyed by a temperature of 15S degrees
Fahrenheit for ten minutes. The tempera-
ture of an oven in which bread is baked
has been shown to reach 40 degrees, While
the soft portion of the loaf acquires a tenn
perature as high as 290 degrees.
European meteorOligistS are finding
grounds for the belief that the general
character of the weather may be success
fully predicted many weeks in advance.
Prof. O. Peterson, of Stockholm, has care
fully compared the monthly mean tempera-
lures of air and sea for Norwegian sta
lions for twenty years, finding that decided
and varying changes in the course of the
warm ocean currents take place in October
and November and again in May and June,
and that the air temperature-eVen in the
interior of SWeden-ShoWS corresponding
variations from year to year. He, therefore,
concludes that certain predictions-such as
thn fnrpfal1inp of tho nhnrantar of tho nm l.
ing winter and spring from conditions of
the Sea-Surface temperatures in m
may be made with considerable certainty of
fulfllment. The inquiry has been extended
in Germany by DIR. w. Meinhardus, of Pots
DAM, who has plotted the mean tempera-
lures of German stations for thirty-fiVe
years, and has confirmed Professor Peters,
sons results. The probability that general
temperature changes Of November and De-
cember at Christiansund Woul be followed
by similar changes at Hamburg in the fol-
lowing quarter year amounted TO IS per
cent.
Numerous analogies between metallic al
Toys and liquid solutions were traced in a
late Royal Institution lecture by Mr.. c. T.
Heycock, F. R. S., of Cambridge. The So
luton of one metal in another may lower
the freezing point as does the solution of a
salt in water; the temperature of the mass
may be lowered at the moment of solution
in either case, and on solidifying the con-
oliIuClllS IldN ScDdI OuL GlCIlC1 /
of solution. Proof that alloys may have the
lack of h~omogeneity due to this last prop
erty was afforded by a remarkable use of
the ROentgen rays. Sections were cut from
slowly cooled alloys of different proportions
of gold and sodium, and photographs of
these thin slices were TAKEN, when the pic
lures, enlarged upon a screen, showed the
astonishing fact that the sodium had cryS-
tallized out in long thin crystals from the
alloys having little gold, the gold particles
forming an opaque ground mass, while the
gold had separated out in long black crys-
tails in a ground mass of transparent sodi-
UNI when the gold was the chief constitu-
ent. In the course of these researches a
singular new substance was accidentally
discovered. 1t is ar alloy of zinc and silver,
which, in its normal condition, resembles
copper, but when heated becomes silver
white, retaining this color if slowly cooled,
but resuming its reddish tint if cooled sud-
denly.
Roentgen rays have not lost their interest
to scientific men. Many experimenters have
been studying their possible value in medi-
cine, and, while positive results have not
been obtained with the various microbes,
some evidence of their influence upon the
germs of consumption has been recorded.
Professor Loitet, of Lyons, has found that,
under the rays, guinea pigs, inoculated
with tuberculosis, remained in their usual
health, while another lot of the same ami
mals-not exposed to the rays-shoWed the
usual course of the disease. DIR. Ausset has
reported marked Improvement in a seven
year-old tuberculous girl during a three
weeks treatment with the rayS'for an hour
daily, and rapid sinking and death after
discontinpance of the treatment through
loss of the apparatus, A pigmented hairy
growth covering the entire back Of a child
of four years has been removed by DIR.
Freund, of Vienna, by exposure to the rays
for ten days. Such action, it is we'll known,
is not always beneficial. Loss of hair while
experimenting with these rays is not I'M
ommon, and in many cases severe LESSONS
have been formed in the deep tissues, the
Gilchrist, to platinum particles piercing the
Crookes tube and attacking the tissues. 1t
is claimed that clinical experience affords
considerable support for this extraordinary
theory.