The Indianapolis journal., 1897-05-30
SCIENTIFIC.


What is claimed to be a very satisfactory
imitation of camphor is now manufactured
by passing hydrochloric acid into spirits of
turpentine surrounded by a freezing mix
ture.
Area being considered, Greece seems to be
more a land of earthquakes than Japan
Reports for 1896 appear to show a total OF
one and a half a day, no fewer than 500
having been recorded in the Island of Zante
alone.
Falcon island. in the Friendly group, was
first noted as a shoal in 1867. In 1877 smoke
was rising from the sea over the shoal In
October 1885. an island 3,700 meters long
ana seVenty-f1Ve meters high had formed,
and tremendous eruption was in progress.
The height was ninety meters in 1887. The
ashes have rapidly washed away leaving
a height of but eight meters in 1892, and
the island is fast disappearing.
The general trend of weed migration is
found by Mr. Lyster H. Dewey to have
been westward in the States east of the
Rocky mountains, except in New England
This westward course corresponds with the
progress of cultivation, and the movement
of the supply of field seeds, while in New
England such weeds as the Canada thistle
yellow daisy and orange hawkweed have
spread to the eastward, chiefly along rail-
roads in baled hay, grain and wool
An instructive experience has been re-
ported by the Mexican international Rail-
road. AT the burning of their repair shop
at Piedras Negras the superintendent saw
that the building could not be saved. and
instructed the fire department to throw no
water on it, but to allow the men available
to shovel sand and earth upon the embers
covering the fine machine tools. This pre-
caution caused the metal to cool slowly
Few of the tools were warped, nearly ALI
being put to work satisfactorily soon after
the fire. whereas most of them would have
been completely ruined by drenching with
water.
simple thermoelectric generator, capa-
BILE of running a six-inch or eight-inch fan
motor with a third of the gas used by an
ordinary burner, is the invention of Mr..
H. s. Cox, and is being made in London.
The elements consist of short strips of See
beck's alloy composed of two parts of anti
mOny and one of zinc, the outside ends of
which are joined in a star shape by copper
connecting strips. The desired number of
elements are set in a cement cylinder with
q central opening. The opening tits over a
Bunsen gas burner and an annular metal
casing contains circulating water to cool
the outer ends of the elements
The attention of a French surgeon, Pro-
fessor Lannelongue, was lately drawn to
blisters produced in the ecalps of several
children who had been playing in the shad-
ow of wall whose top was under bright
sunlight. The idea that this might be an
X-ray effect suggested itself. Experiments
were made on a number of persons, when
several who were exposed unprotected to
similar radiatiOnS were burned. While others
who were protected by Strontium glass es-
caped. The investigator declares that
X-rav discoveries will revolutionize the
treatment of sunstroke. He thinks the an
cient Greeks may have been wiser than we
know in covering their heads with brass
helmets and their chests and backs with
light metal culrasses, and concludes that
future protection from sunstroke may be
sought behind strontium glass helmets.
Pasteur suggested that the microbes of
chicken cholera might be effective in sup
pressing the rabbit pest of Australia. One
of the chief reasons why the remedy was
not tried was the reluctance of New South
Wales to introduce new and unknown dis
ease, an objection that has now been re-
moved by Mr.. G.. j. Pound, government
bacteriologist who has discovered chicken
cholera in both Queensland and New South
Wales Tests of this method OF destroying
rabbits have lately been made with results
so encouraging that permission to use 1t is
likely to be granted to farmers and others.
Calculations show that two gallons OF broth
containing microbes of chicken cholera are
sufficient when added to pollard to destroy
at least 20, 600 rabbits without considering
the spread of the disease from one amman
to another. AS bright sunshine renders the
micro be-infected food harmless in three
hours it is recommended that the poison
pellets be scattered over the field near sun
set.
A unique phenomenon that is puzzling as
tronomers is afforded by the double star
"A Boots. which was discovered by Her
schel in 17S1 For thirty years the stars
of this system gradually increased their
distance from each other at a nearly uni
form rate, the position angle at the same
time slowly advancing, but for nearly an
equal period down to the present time the
motion has been apparently arrested ana
the careful records of the best star observ-
ers show only absolute rest. Even so ex-
pert an observer as Mr.. S. w. Burnham
confesses that this is not easily explained.
On the usual dark-bOdy hypothesis. how
ever, it is possible to conceive that one OF
the stars with an invisible companion, both
moving in q very eccentric orbit in a plane
parallel to the line of sight may have a
period and direction of motion that Will eX-
plain both the motion and absence of mo-
ton shown by the observations. The re-
turn of the period of visible motion Will be
awaited with no small degree of interest.
1t is probably impossible to estimate how
many injured limbs have been sacrificed
to the professional pride or fallible judg-
ment of the surgeon. DR.. Reclus, at the re-
cent French Congress of Surgeons, de-
scribed a substitute for the ordinary opera
ton, or a kind of natural amputation, in
which the dead tissue is embalmed and al
lowed to become separated from the living
without violent interference. The wound is
carefully shaved and cleanSed with ether,
etc. in the usual way 1t is then irrigated
with water at temperature of 140 degrees
to 144 degrees Farenheit, which has the
threefold advantage OF destroying micro.
organisms and increasing the potency of
anti-septic substances of stanching blood
and of helping to compensate for loss of
heat from the bleeding The dead tissue
is finally wrapped in antseptic substances
until it has separated from the living, when
the surgeon may divide the bone IL neces-
sary. Great success is reported, the treat
ment being much less fatal than amputa-
"a rirr 10 n ir11h