The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-10-06


building materials of great probable usefulness.
The first is made by COMPRISING together sew
eral layers of heavy paper and asphaltum, the
product being smooth, solid plate, which is as
strong as wood and cheaper, which will not
crack or rot. and which is adapted for walls ana
ceilings for panels and for many other pur-
poses The second material is board having
central layer of closely-ftted bits of wood,
with layer of cement and an outer layer OF
paper on each side. The paper has been COM
pressed and made waterproof. The boards arc
made feet wide and 8 to IS feet long, and are
adapted not only for the interior lining OF
houses, but for making trunks, boxes, tables,
and other light articles. The boards can be
polished or painted.
Calcium carbide by cheapened process Is
claimed by H. Aschermann. On treating py-
rites with lime and coke In an ordinary electric
furnace, metallic iron and calcium carbide are
produced, the latter furnishing as pure acety-
Icne as the carbide by the usual process, while
at least 40 per cent. less current is required by
the new method. Another advantage is that
the furnace can be run continuously.
mortar used in German schools has Hanged
edge, over which sheet of rubber is fitted, the
pestle passing through hole in the rubber
This cover protects the experimenter from in
furious vapors and dust, and facilitates the
pounding of hard brittle materials, such as
caustic alkalies.
The fern abundance of meat and the in
creasing tendency to over eat are held by Sir
William Banks to be cause of the increase OF
cancer. He finds the view supported by the
fact that cancer is increasing chiefly among
males, who have added TO their indulgence in
heavy food much more than females.
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The treatment of pulmonary consumption by
the electrical method of D'Arsonval has been
made the subject of paper to the French Acad-
envy by M. Doumcr. The high-frequency brush
discharge is applied to the skin just above the
diseased tissue five minutes each day, and the
results have been very satisfactory in the earlier
stages. The symptoms of disease vanish in sue
cession, the last to disappear being the stetho-
scopic sounds, which usually persist until after
six or eight months of treatment. or theseven-
teen cases undertaken two were in the initial
stage while few showed advanced signs of
softened tissues. but all were treated success
fully and no reapses have been reported
-
decentralization age the German plan of plant
ing fruit trees for shade along highways is not
likely to be overlooked. In Alsace-Lorraine the
wayside orchards. which are farmed out by the
state, now yield an annual revenue OF l0O,OOO
francs. and Switzerland, Belgium and Luxem-
burg are successful borrowers of the idea. In
France the chief shade trees are the poplar, the
ash and the elm. which on the national roads are
cut for timber at the age of about sixty years.
Fruit trees-such as the cherry, the pear, the
apple and the plum-now appear on the roads of
several departments instead of these forest
trees. and the French Government is likely to
become one of the worlds great growers OF fruit.
~
The white clover (7rifOliun repens) seems to be
the plant now accepted in Ireland as the sham
rock. AS this is believed to be of recent intro
duction, however, there has been some contro-
versy of late as to the identity of the plant ira
ditionally used by st. Patrick to illustrate the
Trinity, and the black medic (Afedicdgo lupuIind)
and the wood-sorrel (Oralis dcetosehla) are among
those suggested. The chairman at late meet
ing of the Royal Botanic Society advocated the
wood-sorrel as the true shamrock, its leaves be-
ing more distinct than others.
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The novel darkroom light of British photog-
rapher, Howard Farmer, consists of an electric
lamp placed in glass jar, which is contained in
a jar quarter of an inch larger. the space be-
tween the two vessels being filled with six per
cent. solution of bichromate of potash board
cover is fitted to the jars. The light is very
bright, but appears to have no Jogging effect on
the plates.
Whatever be the primary or secondary cause
of death, it is nearly always the heart that dies
first. Prof. Nothnagel, lecturing the other day
before Vienna society, pointed out that this is
true whether the death is natural-due to the
successive wearing out of the nerve cells, then
other groups of tissues, and finally the muscles
or whether the heart is brought to standstill
by acute or chronic disease. The congestion of
cells and tissue in both cases sets in from want
of oxygen. In poisoning with prussic acid the
whole body is dead before the heart ceases to
beat, but this is the only exception to the rule,
the reverse being true in all other cases. How
ever great the fear of death, there is abundant
reason to believe it painless in nearly every inn
aginable form. Consciousness ceases before the
heart stops. In fatal gun-shot wound the ac-
ton of the bullet is more rapid than the message
to the brain announcing it, and there is conse-
quently nc pain. Death by burning is early
made painless by suffocation, which also relieves
before death the distress of many who die from
disease. In acute feverish disease, bacterial
poison brings on depression, apathy and indiffer-
ence and death is free from both dread and pain.
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The average dietary of individuals in different
countries varies greatly. An English statisti-
clan, Mr. R. F. Crawford, finds that an inhabi-
tant of the United Kingdom consumes much
more meat than Belgian, Frenchman or Ger
man, but smaller proportion of bread and po-
tatoes. More bread and less meat are eaten in
Belgium than in any other country considered.
while French popularity is theapparent small
use of milk.
Quartz has important advantages over glass as
a material for thermometers, and attempts have
been made to work it into tubes. A French ex-
perimenter, Dufour. describes two thermome-
tiers he has made. One contains tin as the liquid
and is to be used for temperatures above 24O0 c.,
while the other contains mercury and will be
submitted to comparative tests with the ordina-
nv glass thermometer.
laboratory furnace devised by Armand Gau-
tier can be kept for an indefinite period at any
desired fixed temperature between 1902 and
1902 c.
SINCE 1864 the total vote at each successive
Presidential election has shown an increase
over the vote of the preceding contest From
1854 to 1868 the gain was L, 200, 600; from 1868
to 1872 100000; from 1872 to 1876, 100000;
from 1876 to 1880, $780, OOO from 1880 to 1884,
100000; from 1884 to 1888, 100000 Gan alb
normally large increase, not accounted for by
the admission of new States); from 1888 TO 1892.
100000, and from 1892 to 1896, 100000 This