The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-02-15

MISCELLANY

II "a
The tea piIls-fourteen to the ounce
Z Iof a Caucasus grower are simply com
, pressed tea in a convenient form fer
travellers.
Sleeping after eating is condemned
{ by a German physician, who has shown
:. experimentally that stomach move
: ments are Iessened, and acidity is in
o duced.
q Glacial periods, it appears, may re-
suit from quite moderate changes in
climate Assuming that some cooling
IN the polar regions lowers the mean
c temperature. Mr.. H. N. Dickson con-
Guides that the changes of temperature
and rainfall necessary to produce all
known glacial phenomena are much
less than has been supposed
; Adrenalin, the newly discovered ac-
{. . tive principle of the suprarenal glands,
: will not become a common drug. Every
, pound made requires the glands of a.
600 cattle, each single gland weighing
but two-fifths of an ounce, and yield
: ling but a quarter of a grain of adren-
lalin. The new product has promised
much as astringent, opium antidote,
ietc.
a peculiar breed of domesticated
sheep having goat-Iike horns, has been
kept by natives of the Bunden ODER
Hand, Switzerland, and appears to have
been descended directly from the So
called peat-sheep of the Swiss lake
dwellings,. Alarm is now felt at the
present scarcity of the animals. The
breed is already nearly eXterminated
through crossing, and another interest
ing type of animal life will have dis
| appeared in a few years unless steps
lare taken to prevent it.
The blue and green colors of frogs,
lizards, certain fishes and other verte-
! orates have been investigated by two
French biologists. A black pigment
causes the blue color by what Pouchet
called "cerulescence," or kind of f1uor-
essence. and the green color is due to a
mixture of black and yellow pigments.
The colored skins seem to serve as
sieves for separating useful and harm
| full light. The useful red heat rays
are allowed to pass. but the violet and
ultra violet, which induce skin disease
or other i'll effects, are reflected.
The novel violin of Mr.. Charles Stroh.
of London, is claimed to have been
perfected on scientific principles after
five years experiment. The belly of
the ordinary instrument, is replaced by |
a circular diaphragm of aluminium,
which is loosely held in a suitable |
vibration of the strings, and the sound |
is distributed through trumpet reson- |
ator of aluminium at the side of the |
diaphragm. The volume of sound is |
stated to equal that of three violins, |
while on first playing the beautiful
tone has the meliowness that usually |
comes from age
To obtain the remarkable new pig |
ment of DR.. A. S. Ramage, the waste |
liquor from iron pickling-usually fer |
rouS Sulphate or chloride with some |
free acids neutralized and then oxid- |
lied by air and steam, alkaline solution
and much water being added as the |
chemical action proceeds. The ferrous
sulphate is oXidiZed into basic ferric
sulphate, which the water, by the proc
ess known as hydrolysis, separates into
sulphuric acid and basic ferric hydrate.
The latter is the pigment, which is
light yellow, but easily convertible into
the various reds by heat, and which
has great absorptive capacity for oil
and great covering power.
The terrestrial mammals of North
were found by Professor Baird
in 1857 to number 220 species, not in
Guiding the bats. The later tendency
has been to make more divisions, and,
with new discoveries and the addition
of marine forms, Mr.. d. G. Elliots 1901
list gives 62S species, besides 36S sub
.. Il
from $50 species to $50 species, and 255
the insectivores. from 26
species to AZ species, and % subspecieS.
There are now recognized seven species
Of reindeer, four or five of Rocky
Mountain sheep, nine species and three
subspecies of bears, and not less than
twenty species and four subspecies of
skunks.
In his study of snow crystals, Mr.
w. A. Bentley has secured from four
to thirty-four photographs in nearly
every great storm that has passed over
Vermont since 1884. With every pic
ture he has recorded the temperature,
the kinds and heights of the clouds.
the direction and velocity of each cloud
the direction and velocity OF
the surface winds, and the hourly
changes in the form of the crystals.
His photographs now number over SO0,
no two being alike. The origin and
cause of the different nuclei are as
much a mystery as ever, but 1t has
been learned that the most perfect and
beautiful tabular crystals are mostly
confined to western and northwestern
portions of great storms, and that col
umnar and granular forms also have
each their respective places.
A mining center of the ancient world
worked as early as 2500 B.
C.-was between the Red Sea and the
Nile in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
In an account of the recent successful
search for the long-lost mines, Mr.. G.
J. Afford states that the remains con-
sist of irregular stone huts, usually
about so to 100 square feet,
and these are grouped in some places
in twos and threes, and in others in
towns large enough for 1000 men. and
having outside walls. The ancient
workings are buried in sand. The only
vestiges of the mining appliances are
circular quartz mills and