The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-16
SCIENTIFIC.

A new German antiSept1c, called protargol
is a compound of silver and protein. A
per cent. solution is reported TO destroy the
bacteria of anthrax and enteric fever.
Surveying by photography is gaining
ground. over fifty thousand square miles
have been photographically plotted and sur
veyed by the surveyor general OF Canada
An improved match has been produced in
Westphalia. 1t is stated to have basis of
pIumbate of lime, and to be free from phos-
phOruS, whose use is so dangerous to the
health of employees in match factories.
Queen James Pear Tree, recently blown
down. was believed to be at least six hum
bred years old, and the oldest in central
France. TO discover whether similar tree
is elsewhere known, sections have been sent
10 all botanical societies in Europe.
The suggestion having been made that
typhoid fever may be spread through the
direct watering of vegetables with sewage,
Dr. Paul Remlinger has made experiments
to deteFmi ne whether f RABBITS ana 4h rats
vegetables soaked with typhoid bacIli. In
both cases typhoid fever was induced-only,
however, when the doses of bacilli were
large and frequent.
A window shade operated automatically
is a Berlin novelty. A U-tube, partly filled
with mercury, is connected with bulb con-
tanning black wool and one containing air;
and when the sun shines the absorption of
the rays by the black wool causes the mer-
curry to rise in the opposite side of the tube,
closing the circuit of motor that let's down
the blind. When the sun is not out the lner-
curry is level in the two tubes, closing
circuit that winds up the blind.
The first botanic garden in Jamaica, ac-
cording to Mr.. w. Fawcett, was established
about $50 years ago by private Individual
This was soon acquired by the government
and divided into a European and tropical
garden, but these did little in determining
the value to the colony of new and imported
plants until about thirty years ago. There
are now six gardens-large and small-with
greatly varied conditions of eli nate. The
native flora is estimated to embrace $50
ferns and 2,1SO species of flowerir g plants.
The Newtonian law of gravitation, that
every body in the universe attracts every
other body with a force varying directly as
the mass and nversely as the square of the
distance, is questioned by Prof. H. Seeliger
Of Munich who is the first to offer evidence
that the law must be inexact or not uni
versal. This has arisen from an attempt to
extend the law mathemaucally to infinite
space. Professor Seeliger was forced to as
sumo either that the sum total of the
masses of the universe is infinitely great,
attractive forces, or that the Newt onian law
is strictly exact, in which case the infinite
spaces of the universe cannot be filled with
matter of finite density. He is forced to
conclude that NeWton'S great law is in
exact.
The material now being manufactured
near Berlin under the singular name of
Iron felt consists of long, strong wool
fiber which is impregnated with petroleum
grease, and to a certain depth with glue
rendered insoluble by bichromate of potash
or formaldehyde The surface in some cases
is coated with vulcanite rubber and then
VulcaniZed. The substance is highly COM
pressed into plates about two feet square
and tWo-fifths of an inch to two inches
thick, these plates being elastic, capable of
xryffI acfo v11i mo q nf IN q
square inch and having q surface of great
hardness 1t is also claimed that the ma
terial does not rot The plates are intended
for use under the rails of railway tracks
for deadening the noise, and for the same
purpose under stationary engines and
other machines. They may serve also for
electrical insulation.
Since 1887 Mr.. f. Merrifeld. of Brighton,
England, has been engaged in an elaborate
series of experiments in rearing butter
flies and moths under various conditions of
temperature. Three kinds of changes were
especially noted in the new generations of
insects-first, general change. often striking.
in the coloring, without material alteration
in the form of markings, but often much
increase or diminution in their intensity:
second, change caused by substitution of
scales of different color, either singly and
scattered or so grouped as to cause ma
terial change In pattern, and, third, change
in general appearance due to imperfection
n:ents. The first kind Of change appears
TO be a direct effect of temperature, not
affecting vigorous development. The Sec
ond kind includes case of what seems
reversiOn to earlier form, and In the
third the wings are often much reduced
in size, and the scales scanty and often mis-
Shapen.
Magic squares, in which the horizontal,
vertical and diagonal rows of figures have
each the same sum. have attracted many
men of science Mr. Daniel F. Savage a
kentucky mathematician, has worked out
forms of this kind up to the 100-square,
which uses all the numbers from to 10000,
and which may be subdivided into squares
having 25 90 10 and numbers on each side.