The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-03-10
Correspondence Baltimore County Uston.
SCIENTIFIC MIS- CELLANY.

Correspondence Baltimore County linton.
SCIENTIFIC MIS- CELLANY.
Life in Eternal Darkness and Cold-Sym-
biosis and Observation-Disclosures ECO
nomics-Tungsten's Properties--Sirn-
plif1ed Vacuum M aking-An Acid Proof
Coating for Wood-A Singular Idiosyn-
crasy-Arsenici in Metaliurgy.
The deep sea is in total darkness, and plant
life, according to Sir John Murray, is quite abb
E1nE over 30 per cent. or the ocean bottom.
Fishes and invertebrates, however, are scattered
over the floor of the ocean at all depths. The
majority Of these deep-sea animals live by eat
ing the mud. clay, ooze, or by catching the
particles of organic matter falling from the
surface 1t is probable that three .fourths of
the deposits covering the floor of the ocean
have passed through the alimentary canals Of
marine animals. These indicating species,
many OF which are of comparatively giganic
size, become in turn the prey of numerous
rapacious animals. Many deep-sea animals have
archaic characteristics, yet the region cannot be
said to have more remnants of by-gone faunas
than the shallow and fresh waters of the CONT
nents. Sir WyvilIe Thomson believed that since
the Silurian period there has been a continuous
deep ocean, with a bottom temperature near
fresh-water freezing-point and always an abys-
sal fauna. Sir John Murray inclines to the view
that in Palaeozoic times the ocean was not as
deep as now, that the waters had throughout
nearly uniform high temperature, and that life
at the bottom was absent or represented only
by bacteria.
When differing organisms pass their entire ex-
istence together for mutual advantage, the con-
dition is regarded by Prof. Marshall Ward as
true symbiosis. In other cases, one organism
appears to prepare the way for the other, as we
see in the conversion of starch into sugar by a
mould and then into alcohol by yeast, and for
this kind of association the name metabiosis Is
proposed. In other companionships. one organ
ism Injuries the other, as is exemplifed by many
parasites, this being what is known as anrbosis.
"a
Investigating the various theories Of death
from burns, Dr. Azzarello. an Italian finds the
real cause to be auto-intoxication from deficient
exertion by the skin.
"a
The science of living of getting from our
years on earth the most that they can be made
to yield, will be one of the great developments
of the twentieth century. The condition of the
people has greatly improved in this century, as
Mr.. Henry Higgs stated at the recent meeting
of the British Association, for houses better
and more sanitary, wages are higher while COM
modities are cheaper, and such institutions as
free libraries. museums, picture galleries, etc.,
with parks and promenades, have multiplied.
Yet it is to be feared that housekeeping is no
better understood than it was two centuries ago.
Prof. Marshall has estimated that 9100 10000
annually are spent even by the working classes,
and 94OO,OOO.0OO by the rest of the population of
England, in ways that do little or nothing toward
making life better or happier, and that some
thing like 910O,000,O00 year might be saved if
manage their households as they do themselves.
There are, at ap2 rate. great possibilities of i'm
1,.oNea4ent in details of food, dress and habits.
without any curtailing Of Injuries or amuse-
ments. In the warming of houses there is enor-
nous waste of fuel. and Atkinson has estimated
that the waste of food from bad cooking in the
United States is s., 600 900 year.
-
Tungsten, obtained for the first time in pure
specimens by reduction of the oxide by alum
mum, has been studied by Prof. r. staven-
r-hagen, of Berlin. The metal is hard, slightly
darker than zinc, and is infusibe in the electric
arc. 1t is practically insolube in acids, even in
aqua rega, although it is dissolved slowly in
fused caustic potash. This metal, although
rare, is of much practical interest on account of
the hardness it imparts to steel.
Liquid hydrogen, if produced on large scale,
is suggested by W. de Fonvielle as of probable
advantage in the manufacture of vacuum cleo
trio lamps. If a tube of air dipped into the
liquid hydrogen, the air is all condensed as snow,
when the upper part of the tube may be sealed
off by a blowpipe flame, and forms a bulb con-
tanning a Crookes vacuum.
-
Lupus of five years standing, in a boy of six
teen, is reported by an English physician to have
been cured by Roentgen rays. in seventeen sit
he hail, 4Iok
side of the head fell out, but grew again.
40
German paint for giving to wood great re-
sistance to acids and steam under pressure con-
sists of two parts by weight of gypsum and one
part of asbestos stirred together with ox-blood
into thick liquid. The paint is applied evenly
to wood perfectly dry. After few hours an
other coat-with the addition of linseed oil var
nish-is given, and the work is dried several days
in the open air or more quickly over wood fire.
The paint is then steamed slowly and dried for
aconsiderable time. The coating adheres firmly,
is cheap. harmless, odorless and tasteless, and
therefore does not affect liquids in vessels COW
cred with it,
Poisoning by eggs in any and all forms is the
curious personal idiosyncrasy reported to the
British Medical journal. Even when the egg
taken is in the minutest quantity, q healthy
young lady suffers rigors and vomiting, the
tongue soon becoming parched and dry and the
throat sore with severe headache and pain in
the back. The symptoms continue from few
hours to two days. They appear even when the
egg is disguised in other food, and a small par
ticle of the white placed on the skin produces
nettle-rash.
a~a..lssiy tho lAasaOla aiS-
cussed question of the influence of arsenic on
steel has been made by NJ. Marched. His expert
ments lead to the conclusion that arsenic alone
has very little effect, and that there is no need
of special care to free the iron from the small
proportion it may contain of this alloy. But it
appears that the presence of arsenic may some
times increase the effect of other impurities.
-
Electroid gas is the name given in England to
new illuminant consisting of acetylene inert
matter and oxygen. The new gas gives bril-
liant light, can be supplied like coal-gas, and
much is expected from it for villages.
sFs
German professors have much time for scien-
tiic research, as % per cent. of them are re-
Quired to give but two to six hours per week to
lecturing and laboratory work, while twelve
hours is practically the maximum.
HARRY GROOM. GEORGE GROOM
TnAFcAn TX OairxS