The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-17
SCIENTIFIC.


A French engineer has planned motor
house. an elegant vehicle OF thirty horse
power, which will accommodate large
family.
More than 200 kinds of extinct life-in-
GLIDING insects, reptiles, plants, shells. fruit,
etc.-have been found in amber. In an
English collection, which Is value at 91Oo,-
900, IS a perfect lizard eight inches long.
The greatest scientific gathering ever wit
messed in America is expected for the
fftieth anniversary meeting of the Amerf-
can Association for the Advancement OF
Science. to be held Aug. 70 10 u, in Boston,
the most scientific of American cities
The chief influence of earthworms on
vegetation is attributed by Prof. Wollny
Of Munich, to ventilation of the soil. He
found that earthworms increased the yield
OF peas % per cent, of beans in the pod
% per cent, and OF potatoes l36 per cent
The food needs of racing cyclists has been
subject of study by DR.. Lucas Champion
Mere, of Paris. who approves the course of
competitors in the Paris-Bordeaux contest
who abstained from food containing
nitrogen. while drinking enormous guam
titles of liquid-tea, beef tea and milk-to
replace the loss by perspiration. 1t is USE
less to eat In violent exercise he declares.
but important to drink, the only effect in
health being decrease in weight.
The condition known as sunstroke. or
siriasis, may lie produced without exposure
to the rays of the sun or even to high
temperature. An Italian physician, DR..
Sambon. goes so far as to announce that
its cause is a specific germ which he be-
lieves is spread in the surface layers of the
soil, and may be conveyed to man with dust.
The organism, like that of cholera, produces
in the body virulent toxin. which is abb
sorbed and sets up the symptoms of the dis
ease.
Moral obscurity and scientific enlighten-
ment meet nowhere as in the tiniest of all
nations-the principality of Monaco, whose
ruler, supported by the famous gambling
hell of Monte Carlo, applies his naval re-
sources to clearing up the mysteries of the
deep sea-. A new vessel of 1,400 tons is to be
added to his equipment. One of the princes
late discoveries is volcanic bank fifty
near the Azores. Not far away a Portu-
guese captain has discovered a second bank.
A peculiar method of brick burning has
been noted in Corea by M. Henri Chevalier.
French engineer. The bricks are first
thoroughly burnt, then without cooling are
flooded with water, and the fires being kept
up several days longer, are finished in an
atmosphere of superheated steam. The
bricks, are blue in color and very hard.
per square foot, and are practically UNI
affected by frost. but how much their fine
quality depends upon the singular burning
process is not clear.
The electric heater of M. Fernand lie Roy
is similar in principle to the incandescent
lamp. Instead of the fine filament of carbon
of the latter rod of pure silicon several
times as thick is used, and this is inclosed
IN glass tube from which the air is ex-
nausted, the whole being mounted on a pro-
tecting tube of metal. The heating depends
| on the high resistance of the silicon which
Is 1879 times that of electric light carbon
| Cooking by this heater is estimated to cost
about twice as rcuch as by gas.
| The parasite OF malaria was described by
Laveran in 1880. Little is known of 1t even
now, however, but Mr.. A. G. Griffin states
that mosquitoes may play all important
part in it's evolution, and that the germs
| may be carried TO the human body by air
| or water while encysted in the eggs of these
| insects, or mosquito coming from a mall
| arial patient may convey the infection d.
rectly to another person. Air is the usual
| ~ supposed medium of infection, although
| there is strong evidence that water also
may carry it. In the late Ashanti war large
| doses of arsenic are said to have proven
more effective as remedy than qunine,
novel flooring for foot bridges is in use
at Centa, Morocco. Elm plank on oak
| stringers having quickly worn out a GUAM
tity of old aloe-fiber mine cables-averaging
about one and one-half inches in thickness
and eight and onehalf in width--was bought
in 1894, and these fiat cables We're thorough
across the axis of the bridge, the ends be-
ing secured by light iron bands. The foot
way thus constructed weighs only about
ninety-two pounds per square yard. The
| high cost of about $37 per square yard has
been justified by the durability of the
bridge, the daily crossing of 800 to 1000 per-
having produced no signs of wear
up to the present time.
Central depots where milk is received and
| filtered before being taken to the consumer
are now a feature of several European
cities. Large cylindrical vessels are divided
! horizontally near their center by co7npart-
| ments containing sand of three successive
| degrees of fineness the coarsest being the
lowest. and as the milk arriving from the
| bottom of these vessels il rises through
| the sand filter and is run off by an over
| flow pipe into cool cistern, from which it
! is drawn directly into locked cans for dis
| tribution. The sand is renewed each time
| the filter is used. The dirt is separated
| from the milk the number of bacteria are
| reduced to one-thrd. and an astonishing
| quantity of mucus and Shiny matters is re-
| moved the loss Of fat being very light.
Several experiments with Roentgen rays
have obtained unsatisfactory pictures of the
various structures of the body before they
| have been disturbed by dissection More
| gratifying results have just been reported
| by Drs II. ]. Stiles and Fl. Rainy who have
/ made the arteries of the dead body Opaque
| by injecting mercury into them, and have
| thus secured skiagraphs showing the intri-
! cate arterial system with remarkab BILE clear
| ness. The picture Of the arteries of child's
| head might Suggest-were it not for the
| varying width Of the ilnes-a lnultipliad
| pendulum trace of an earthquake. The great
number of the blood vessels, in fact is a
| point brought into prominence by The pic
| lures, causing one to wonder that even
| slight scratches, not to mention he deep
| missions OF surgery, do not cause bleeding
| to death. The tendency of blood to coagu-
| late is q detail in natures system of FORTH
cations whose Importance is little consid-
cred.
SHREDS AND PATCHES.