Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-02-28
SCIENCE Ano INDUSTRY.

Cargoes or other masses 4 coal OF.
ten take fire spontaneously. The pop.
ular belief is that this is due to the
action of moisture on the pyrites and
other impurities in the coal. The Ma.
rine Review. however, now quotes the
results of Professor Threlfalls expert.
ments on the subject, and shows that
popular tradition is again wrong. The
Investigations showed that dry coal
is MOI e likely to take fire than wet.
A lecturer at the London Polytechnic
declared at recent meeting that the
progress of leprosy could be arrested
If sufferers would abstain wholly from
eating fish. He cited several cases in
his own experience. One was that OF
a man who was blind from leprosy ane
who had had muscular atrophy for Is
years. After 18 months abstinence.
taking at the same time small doses OF
arsenic, all traces of patches had dis.
appeared from his hands and feet.
An extensive botanical garden has
recently been laid out at Dahlem,
village within easy distance of Berlin.
which possesses some novel features.
1t is situated in very rough country.
and unique advantage has been taken
Of this fact by reproducing, as far az
possible, the natural scenery from
which the various specimens of flora
have been collected from all parts Of
the world. BY this means more COM
prehensive idea is obtainable Of the
native habitat of the plants and trees,
and the conditions under which they
thrive.
An outbreak of typhoid fever has
occurred in Lambeth, Eng, owing to
infected mangles. Forty-one cases oc.
Cured in 81 houses, all within a re.
stricted area. There was much inter.
communication between places and
families living in different houses,
Many of the Inhabitants after washing
their clothes in their own homes took
them to some neighbor to be mangled.
Owing to this custom, bedding and
clothing of those i'll with typhoid fe-
yer were mangled in the same ma.
chine, thus spreading the disease. Four
different infected mangles were traced.
Professor KOCH in describing his ex-
periences with the government expedi-
tion in Java and New Guinea, stated
that he had reached the conclusion
that gnat bites introduced and devel-
oped parasites into the human body
; The germs are passed by a gnat from
one human body to another, but they
| develop in the body of the gnat during
| the passage. Children are specially liza
| Bile to impregnation. In a village in
| New Guinea, 1877 inhabitants out of
| 700 were infected by the disease. All
inoculations have hitherto proved to
be failures, but the success of quinine
is very gratifying.
The liquid crystals with which o.
Lehman so startled the world a few
years ago have now been proven to
lack no quality that can be logically
made part of the definition of crys-
tai. The only general characteristics
| OF crystals are that they are not iso-
| tropic, and that they possess molecu-
lar directive force that governs their
! shape and the disposition of their par
ticles. The directive force is preserved
by surface tension, so that crystals
! may be liquid or solid but not gaseous.
Liquid crystals may be produced by
| depositing solid crystals from mother
liquor on the cover glass of micro
scope and gently heating them above
the fusing point.