The St. Johns herald., 1898-10-29
~o-ON~~~O~N

Professor Alsnel says that between the ticks of a watch ray of ligh could move around the globe
 Professor Bilslik says: The right hand, which Is more sensitive to the touch than the left, is less sensitive than the latter to the effect of the heat and cold.
 Dr. Sharpbil says: The elephant does not smell with his trunk. His olfactory nerves are contained in a single nos | tril, which Is in the roof of the mouth. near the front.
 Every ton of Atlantic water when evaporated yields eighty-One pounds of salt; ton of Pacific water seventy nine pounds; Arctic and Antarctic wat CT yield eighty-five pounds to the tOni Dead Sea water 1S7 pounds; the Med iterranean eighty-seven and four | tenths.
 A medical authority condemns slow eating as we'll as hurried eating, for both beget imperfect masticatiOn. But rapid and energetic chewing with free dom from mental anxiety insures the most thorough mastication while stimulating the secretion of saliva in the most favorable manner.
 It Is asserted in Popular Science News that spectacles for horses are among recently patented inventions. The purpose is said to be not to im- prove the sight, but by causing the ground in front to appear nearer than 1t really is, to induce the horse to take high steps. After a training with such spectacles, 1t Is averred, the horse acquires and retains the habit of high stepping.
 When liquid air, containing from 40 to 50 per cent of oxygen, is mixed with powdered charcoal 1t forms an explosion which Is said to be compar. able in power to dynamite, and can be exploded by means or a detonator. This new explosive has been tested Tn a coal mine at Penzburg, Germany. The liquid air eyapCrateS 50 rapidly that the explosive cannot be stored, but must be used within few minutes af- ter 1t Is prepared.
 Floors are making in France from a mixture of six parts of good plaster with one part of freshly slaked lime. This is hardened, when very dry, by thorough saturation with sulphate of iron or zinc-the former giving sur, face twenty times as strong as ordi nary plaster, while the latter is chosen for its whiteness. LinSeed oil boiled with litharge turns the rust color giv en by the iron to a beautiful mahog- any, which is further improved by coat of cOpal varnish.
 NJ. Oh. Ed. Guillaume, in an article in the Bulletin de la Societe q Encour- agement pour PIndustrie Rationale calls attention to certain properties of nickel-steel which are little under stood. Now certain of these alloys are not magnetic, but acquire magnetic properties after they have been sub mitted to the action of intense cold. Under the influence of variations in temperature 1t is found also that nick el-steel expands and contracts in reg
  its.
 Dr. Lydekker, in Knowledge, points out the error of the widespread belief that deserts, like the Sahara, are the bottoms of ancient seas, which have been lifted above their original eleva- ton by geological forces. It is abso- lutely certain, he says, that the sands of all the great deserts of the world have been formed on the spot by the disintegration of the solid rocks on which they rest. Desert sands core sDond In all respects, so far IS their mode of origin IS concerned, to the dust and sand which accumulate on our highroads Tn summer" All des- erts are situated where Che winds from the ocean, before reaching them, are exhausted of their moisture by pass ing over mountains or across extensive tracts of land.