The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-11-12
written for the Citizen.l


eminent of Kharkov have in recent
years used powdered crabs with great
success in fevers, and that this powder
has been adopted 10 preference TO qui-
nine. A teaspoonful Is generally sutfi-
cient to cure the Intermittent fever, a
second dose being required only in OBJ
stinate cases. The powder is prepared
by pouring ordinary whiskey on live
crabs until they are put to sleep, when
they are put on a bread-pan in a hot
oven, thoroughly dried, pulverized.
and passed through fine sieve.
An extraordinary account comes
from Devonshire of a club, found in a
muddy pool, that had evidently pushed
its way when young into a cage-like
space formed by the roots of a tree,
aud, being unable to escape, had grown
into the shape of its close fitting pris.
on. Lack of room had caused the tail
t. develop only to the extent of little
deformed stump. The back fin also
bad vanished, and the whole fish had
been distorted into the gnarled and
twisted form of the root cage, being
hideous in appearance. yet seemingly
strong and healthy. 1t is difficult to
imagine how a fish could get food for
years under such conditions.
Sudden and great fluctuations in the
level of water in wells in stormy
weather, closely corresponding to the
fluctuations in wind velocity recorded
by Prof. Langley, have been observed
10y DIR. Romei Martini. This explains
the popular tradition that bad weather
may be predicted from the sudden rise
and fall of wells. Curiously, however,
small and rapid changes of barometer
are more certain 10 affect wells than
large changes.
After several years of trial, pulleys
covered with papier-mache are gaining
in favor among British machinists.
The toposcope Is a novel apparatus
used i'll Vienna for locating fires. 1t
consists of good telescope solidly at
tackled to graduated horizontal and
vertical scales, which always give the
same numbers when the instrument is
focused upon the same object. An
index of the whole city having been
made, it is easy to determine the exact
spot at which the telescope is pointed.
The apparatus must necessarily be
placed III an elevated position COM
handing an un0bstructed view of the
area to be watched, and in this case
the tower of st. Stevens Cathedral;
which is over 500 feet high, is used,
giving-With the favorable atmos-
pheric conditions that prevail-com-
plete oversight of the entire city.
When fire is seen, a few seconds SUI
flee for pointing the telescope toward
it aud looking up on the index Tie
numbers read from the scales. Tn
central Aatlon is then signalled, and 1t
is often possible 10 give the exact
house and number, while the usual
box signals indicate only box that
may be several blocks from the fire.
In seXtant observations on ship
board, it is often difficult to make
measurements from the horizon, and
various unsatisfactory attempts have
been made to substitute some mechan-
zeal or other means of determining The
horizontal or vertical. A novel plan
claimed to have been put to practical
use on land and sea-has been suggest.
ed in France by Rear-Admiral Fleuri-
ais. 1t consists in adding to the ordl-
nary seXtant horizontal gyrosrope,
which is placed IN front of the tele-
scope and behind the small mirror,
and contains in its upper part two
small plano-conveX lenses, placed at a
distance apart equal to their focal
length. On the plane faces Of the lenses
are engraved two lines parallel to the
equator of the gyroscope. The gyro-
scope is rotated 80 TO 100 turns second,
and the horizontal is obtained by Oh
serving the position of the figures de-
scribed by these lines as the lenses re-
volve.
A singular effect of bee sting is re-
lated by au English astronomer. The
sting was not painful, but in about
fifteen minutes the face of the victim,
a lady, became violently flushed, and
blains or white blisters appeared all
over her body. arms and legs; and
then, more curiOusly still, she develop
yielded to home remedies, and the
blisters turned from white to red, dis
appearing in a few hours.
The diamonds of the Kimberly dia.
mond "pipes," in the theory of Prof
William Crookes, have crystalized out
of molten iron containing dissolved car.
, bon and at sufficient depth in the
earth to give great pressure. Water
reaching the iron generated gas that
bored out the pipes, and at the subsi.
dence of the great rush these were
| filed with water-borne magma in
which rocks, minerals. iron oxide
shale, petroleum and diamonds are
churned together in veritable witch's
cauldron. 1t may be, Prof Crookes
concludes, that each of these volcanic
pipes is the vent of its own special lab
oratory-a laboratory buried at vastly
greater depths than we have reached
or are likely to reach-where the tenn.
perature is comparable with that of the
electric furnace; where the pressure is
fiercer than in our puny laboratories,
and the melting point higher; where
no oxygen is present. and where
masses of carbon-saturated iron have
taken centuries, perhaps thousands OF
years, to cool to the solldifying point
Such being the conditions, the won
der is, not that diamonds are found as
big as ones fist, but that they are not
found as big as ones head.
A strongly phosphorescent strOntiun
sulphiue has been investigated by Prof
Mourelo, of NJ drid. The pure com
pound shows no phosphorescence, the
presence of small quantity of alkali