The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-11

able as means Of storing hydrogen In the
same manner that calcium carbide is useful
as a source of acetylene.
The director of the Geological Survey re-
ports that surveys have been completed OF
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Delaware and the District of Columbia, OF
about one-half the areas of Arizona, Kan
sas, Maryland, Utah, Virginia ana west
Virginia, but of not more than 10 per cent.
of any other State. AT the present rate one
hundred years will be needed to finish the
topographic atlas or the United states, eA-
elusive of Alaska.
The 'cold days of May have been in
vestigated by DR.. r. Hennig, of Berlin
From the weather charts of twenty years
he finds that with rare exceptions the
phenomenon occurs every May, although 1t
does not always affect the same parts OF
Europe; and that the colo perioo l may Tbs the
from the usual three or four days 70 tne
entire month. 1t usually commences curing
stormy northwest winds, although the frosts
are most common after the area Oh 10"
barometrfc pressure has passed
Certain physicians of Europe have at
tempted to fix the time of day at which
most deaths occur. From many thousand
cases, Glasgow medical man is inclined
to believe that a. m. is the favorite fare
well hour; a Berlin doctor finds the time
to be from to Z a. m; another observer
gives it at to a. m. for men and the
evening hours for women; an italian au-
thority has found the afternoon to be the
usual time, and a Paris hospital attendant
has noted lull in deaths from to IL p. m.
The production of pepton by DR.. Lilien-
field is one of the many results that are
being achieved in department of chem
istry that is doubtless destined to make
great future progress. An announcement to
the Belgian Royal Academy states that
electricity is being called to the aid of the
chemist who seeks to make in the labora-
tory the products of living organisms,
sugar and urea having been obtained cleo
trically, the former from a mixture or one
volume of dry and pure carbomc acio WIN
two volumes of hydrogen, and the latter
from one volume of carbonic acid with two
volumes of dry ammonia. Each mixture
was placed in an ordinary Berthelot ozone
tube and submitted to the action of brush
discharge for five hours. This formation or
sugar is in close imitation of nature, being
comparable with the process In plants I'M
Fder the influence of sunlight.
The new chemistry of the atmosphere al
ready includes argon, helium, krypton,
metargon, neon, coronium and etherion as
known or suspected elements, with the pros
pect of additions to the list in the near
future. Coronium, which has not yet been
isolated. seems to be of local occurrence, its
presence in the volcanic gases of Italy hav-
ing been indicated by a spectral line hith-
erto known only in the spectrum of the
suns corona as seen during eclipses Ethe-
rion was announced by Prof. Charles e.
Brush at the recent meeting of the Amerl-
can Association for the Advancement or
Science, but was discovered year ana a
half ago during a search for occluded n.y.
drogen in glass, and has now been obtained
fairly pure by successive difuSlOnS OF air.
1t is by no means the least interesting OF
the new gases Its density is estimated to
be only thouSandth that of hydrogen, its
specific heat is six thousand times greater
than that of anything heretofore known, II
is a thousand times better conductor OF
heat than hydrogen and its molecular We
locity-which bears close relationship to
heat conductivity-is one hundred miles
second at freezing temperature. 1t owes its
name to it's supposed identity with the
hypothetical ether filling space between the
stars.
In studying the relations of topography
to the frequency of earthquakes, Command
ant Montesens de Ballore. of the French
army, has been able to refer to the records
of S8,S6S shocks at 6,789 centers, distributed
in 353 regions of the globe. These records
include the lists of Mallet, extending back
to 1906 They show that mountainous regions
are more unstable than plains, instability
being favored by short and steep slopes.
and that earthquakes and volcanic prenom-
ena are, in general, independent of each
other. Earthquakes a rule, contrary TO a
well-esta blished belief, are no more fire.
Quent at one season of the year than at
dnOtner 10 snow the relatlVe frequency IN
different parts of the earth the various
areas have been divided into squares COR
responding in count to the average yearly
number of earthquakes, and the side of one
square, measured in hlometers. is given as
the seismic number of the locality. In east
ern Java, for example, the seismic number
is 56. an average of one earthquake a year
occurring on a square of 56 kilometerS (H77
miles, on SIDE For western Java, the side
of the square is 80 kilometers; Porto Rico.
23; Island of Luzon, rs; Manila. 8; central
Cuba, Al; western Cuba, 128; Hawaii, 81;
central California TO- New England, go; the
Carolinas, 313; Michigan, 4S7; Toxic. Japan.
the new territorv of the Tnited SITES a 20
so much more disturbed than Japan, which
we have been led to regard as the home of
earthquakes.