The record-union., 1899-08-07
Science and
Recent Inventions.

nGCGt|l IIlvGulIUlIS,
The rainfall recorded in Manila in the
a1rst two weeks of July would precipi-
tate, in the area of Ohio, more water
that would be needed to fill lake deep
er than Lake Erie and larger than
Rhode Island.
The American admirers of Grant AL
len We're probably surprised to see a
book upon natural history come out
over his name. Mr.. Allen started out
as scientist That is his profession.
His first books dealt wholly with sci,
ence. He found, however, that the Eng
lish public declined to accept his work
seriously, so he utilized his experiences
in strange lands, in hunting for bugs
and butterflies, in thrilling stories of
adventure which won for him instant
popularity. Now he so well established
that he can do as he pleases and we
may expect a series of scientific books,
learned to degree and largely polysyl-
Liable.
NJ Physalix, whose investigations on
we'll known, has recently found that
the juices of mushrooms, injected into
the tissues of guinea-p pigs, give them
temporary immunity from the effects OF
snake bites. 1.-The immunity thus con-
ferred lasted from fifteen to twenty
days. This property is inherent" saya
the author lin the juices of all species
of mushrooms, edible as well as poison
Tn naS II
the juice obtained from the ordinar.
cultivated mushroom by cutting them
up finely, expressing the juice, filtering
the liquid and adding a small amount
of chloroform as a preventative. The
liquid thus obtained sometimes caused
ulcers, modification. ETC., and some
times, indeed, caused death, but the
immunizing effect on the animals that
survived was very marked. If a
method of controlling the evil effect
of the antitoxin can be discovered, this
discovery may be of some real value,
but, judging from the authors report,
the mushroom juice is as much to be
feared as the snake bite"
If the stars are the distant suns
which astronomers say they are they
til very recently all attempts to de-
tect the heat of the stars have either
failed completely or have yielded only
uncertain results.
Within the last year. however, ex-
periments with stellar heat have baen
made at the Yerkes Observatory by DR..
E. F. Nichols, professor of physics in
Dartmouth College, which seem to have
ct n,
instrument used was devised by DR..
Nichols, and is called by him a radio,
meter" 1t was used in conjunction
with a silvered glass mirror two feet
in diameter So sensitive was the ap-
paratus, that it was able to detect the
heat of a candle at the distance of fif-
teen miles.
The experiments of DR. Nichols show
that receive a small amount of heat
from the stars, though precisely how
much was not easily determined. Both
Arcturus and Vega affected the instru-
ment quite perceptibly. the former star
about twice as much as the latter
IT is said to be probable from these
results that we do not receive from
A,cturus more heat than would reach
US from a candle at the distance of
five or six miles.
Much has been written of the fertil-
izing of deserts by great irrigation
works. and in Egypt and a few other
places some gains have been made in
that way. in recent times. In other
parts of the world man seems still to
be losing ground, as he has been for
many centuries, in his battle with the
sands. This is true of wide areas in
Central Asia. from the edge of the
plateau of Thibet northward. 1t is
also the case in Morocco. The barren
State of Nevada has lost large frac-
ton of its extremely scanty popula-
ton since 1880. Now it has fewer in
habitants, in an area nearly three
times as great as that of Ohio than
the four East End wards of Cleve-
land.
To decrease the friction of car wheels
a newly designed truck has in place OF
the single journal box series of anti
friction wheels set in a position to en-
gage each end of the journal. revolv-
ing with the same shaft and dividing
the friction between them.
Water is delivered gradually to the
roots of plants by a new flower pot
collar, which is made of porous ma
terial, fitting around the edge of the
pot and extending down inside nearly
to the bottom, being filled with water
to moisten the roots by percolation.
In a new railway signal for night
use a metallic tube is fitted with
handle at one end, the other end be-
ing left open for the insertion of a
torch, having an igniter which engages
the tubing to light it when thrown
forcibly out by swinging the tube, the
rear end sticking in the ground.
The earth has three motions. Two
are known to every one, but the third
is not. Once every day it turns on
its own axis and once a year 1t sweeps
around the sun. No man knows the
duration of the other cycle or whittier
IFS tremendous course leads. Inc
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES unu1u nm mn mHr1unN