Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-05-25
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According to Prof. Harrison Cana
dian hailstorms have two unknown
species of micro-organisms to which
he has applied the names, respectively,
of Bacterium tlavus grandinis and Mu-
cor malleus grandinis. He also, like
preceding Investigators, has discover
ed in hailstones various fluorescing
bacteria, which leads him to support
the theory of Bujwid that hailstones
are produced from surface water
which is carried up by storms and then
frozen.
DR.. f. A. Cook, describing the effects
of the long Antarctic night on the hui
man body and mind, says that on the
exploring ship Belgica, as the cold
night heightened, all became pale
with kind of greenish hue" The
heart grew feeble in it's action. The
men were incapable of concentrated
attention, or of prolonged thought. One
sailor was driven to the verge of in
sanity, but when the returning sun be-
gan to appear above the horizon he
recovered
Sir John Murray in recent address
drew vivid picture of the time, in
the remote future, when temperatures
as low rs those which Prof. Dewar
produces in his experiments at the
Royal Institution will prevail all over
the earth. The atmosphere and the
oceans will then have disappeared
within the rocky crust of the globe,
their elements having entered into new
combinations. In other words, to use
Sir John Murrays expression, 1.-The wa
ters of the ocean will have become solid
rock" But over their surface will roll
the waves of new and most wonder
full sea, IAN ocean of liquid air about
forty feet in depth" At that time, of
course, life as we know it will have
vanished from the earth.
Human science owes many debt,
especially on the practical side, to the
instinct of the lower animals One of
these obligations is intimated in re-
cent scientific review of the subject of
dams. Engineers frequently build
dams straight across streams, the OBJ
ject being, in some cases, to save eX-
pense by sparing material. But the
beaver arches his dam against the cur
rent, and experience has shown that
this form of dam is best to resist floods
and the impact of floating ice. Acting
upon the knowledge which is instinct
i've with the beaver, and which human
calculation approves, the great Bear
Valley dam in California and some
other recently constructed dams have
been so made that their stability large
ly depends upon the resistance which
their arched form presents.
Messrs. Il. e. and G. Crompton re-
Gently presented to the Cycle Engi-
neers' Institute at Birmingham the re-
suits of remarkable investigation con-
corning the efficiency of the human
body considered as motor. Hereto
fore the body has generally been treat
ed as analogous to a heat engine, work
being obtained from it through chem
ical action on the muscles. But the
Messrs. Crompton believe they have
demonstrated that the greater part Of
the energy-yielding processes go on
within the brain, or in the nervous sys-
tenn directly connected with the brain
In bicycle-riders they find that the
greatest waste is from the brain and
nerves, and not from the muscles. The
nerve waste, they aver, is proportional
to the number of times that the nerve
centers energize the muscles in order
to make stroke, and hence the crav-
ing for high gears, which diminish the
number of strokes and thus economize
the nerve waste. They advocate, in
stead of high gearing, an increase in
the length of the cranks, for the pur-
pose both of reducing the number Of
strokes and of increasing their eff
ciency.