The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1901-06-28
1ClenCe
D. kEp
: SlVentiOn

Captain Hecq, the Belgian explorer,
who recently returned from Central
Africa, reports that the shrinkage oil
Lake T~anganyika has of late been so
raps1 that the post of Karema, founded
twenty years ago on the shore, Is now
fourteen miles from the lake.
At a meeting of the Academy of Sci
C in Paris Monsieur p. Garnault
reported that in certain diseases light
exercises a specific curative action. The
most successful treatment under con-
centrated light occurred in cases OF
muscular and articular rheumatism,
various kinds Of ulcers and chronic ca
tarrh of the nose and ear.
Experiments at the Yerkes Observa-
tory have led to certain results on the
neat Of the stars that may be summar-
lied as follows: The apparatus en-
ployed was sensitive enough to register
the heat received from a candle fifteen
miles distant. The heat received from
Arcturus was equivalent to the heat
received from a candle at a distance OF
about six miles.
The New England pine, which Emer-
son so loved. appears, according to the
recent Investigations Of Prof. G. e.
Stone, to be holding its own in the for
ests of Central Massachusetts, while
some of it's old compeers, like the hem
lock, the beech and the n birch,
have decreased, other species taking
their place. "The pine" says Professor
Stone, "can adapt itself to a great va
riety of conditions"
A writer in the Bulletin of the Astro-
nomical Society Of France concludes,
after an examination of meteorological
observations all over the globe, that
the average annual rainfall on the con.
tinents is as follows; South America
about s~ixty-slx inches, Africa thirty
two inches, North America about TWEEN
ty-nine inches, Europe about twenty
nine inches, Asia about twenty-five
inches, Australia about twenty-one
inches.
Among the peasants of Southern
Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, a curious
malady has been noticed by physicians
which is caused by eating beans. One
Of the most remarkable effects of the
malady is a species of intoxication re-
sembling that produced by alcoholic
drink. In some cases persons predis-
posed to the malady are seized with the
symptoms of i~ntoXication If they pass
a field where the bean-plant is in flow
err, the odor alone suticing to affect
them.
During the eclipse of the sun in May.
1900, an English observer, Mr.. Ever
shed, as reported at a recent meeting OF
the Royal Astronomical Society, noticed
a point on the edge of the moon where
the sun was shining through a very
deep valley, and where the lunar noun
tains seemed to be about $4,000 feet in
altitude. This exceeds by 5000 feet
the estimated height of Mount Everest
the loftiest mountain on earth. The
edge of the moon is so broken by peaks
ridges and valleys that the length OF
totality during a solar eclipse is affect
ed by them.
At a recent meeting of the Entomo
logical Society in London the president
G. II. Verrall, told an amusing story
to prove that a knowledge of insects
may even be useful in settling ques
tons in literary history. Commenta
tors on the works of Robert Louis Ste
venson were trying in vain to discover
whether the notes made by him in /,
certain book We're written before oil
after he took up his residence in Samoa
1t happened that a fly had beer
squeezed between the pages. and whe1
Mr.. Verrall saw it, he instantly reeog
nized it rs belonging to a species pecu
liar to the Polynesian Islands. Tha.
settled the question.