The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-27
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
CAUSES OF VOLCANIC ERUP- TONS.
Scientific Pearl Growing-The Noise of Lightning-Solar Activity and the Weather-Whitenin of
 Animals in Winter.

Describing volcanic phenomena, Prof. E. J. Garwood of London, divides the eruptions into two clasSes-paroXysmal and Assure. The Giants Causeway is an example of paroxysmal eruption, and the Assure typo was represented in New Zea- land in 1883, when the famous pink and i white terraces were destroyed. The cone varies much in shape, the crater ring of Vesuvius Illustrating the perfect one. The preliminary earthquakes indicate that eruptions are an effect instead of a cause, and these three theories may be given: First, the Association of water into it's constituent gases, which were ,recombined outside St. Pierre by lightning; second, the. disassociation of sulphuretted hydro gen; third, the discharge of water which has existed in spheroidal state mixed with incandescent ash. 1, In his scientific pearl farming Prof. Du- bois has transplanted a colony of pearl 1 oysters from the coast of Tunis to a point near Toulon. Of these oysters one in 1,20O yielded pearl Acting on the theory that the pearl disease of the shell Is due to the accretion of mother of pearl under the action of parasite, the experlmenter nas 1 tried to transmit the disease to other Lys- ters. and has succeeded in producing one or more pearls from every ten oysters. In the experiments of Prof. John Trow- bridge, a powerful electric current is assed between terminals of wood and cot ton wool saturated with dist He'd water, and a gap of four inches Is brldged by a torrent of bright sparks, with deafen!ng noise. This Is thought to prove that thunder Is largely due to explosions of hydrogen and oxygen from dissociated water vapor.
 Renewed interest in the influence of sun-spots has been aroused by the great magnetic. storm of October 31 and Novem- Der 1, which was one of the severest dis turbances of the kind on re cord The large group of spots on the center of the suns disc at the time was surrounded by an immense tract of very bright faculae, and, as the larger group of spots of ~cto- Der II scarcely affected the magnets, M Quenisset has suggested to the Paris Academy of Sciences that 1t Is the prom inences and faeulae rather than the spots that are so closely connected with terres- trial phenomena. This conclusion may throw light upon report of Mfr. W. E.. Maunder to the British Astronomical As sociation. Mir. Maunder has been trying to trace the relation between sun-5pots and rainfall but a comparison of records since 1862 has failed to show that any par ticular phase of the sun-spot cycle is as-
 
 The winter whitening of animals is ex- plained by Captain Barrett Hamilton of the Royal Irish Academy as an effect of poor or uneven nutrition of the skin. Atrophy of the pigment cells occurs in winter over the parts that accumulate fat in summer and autumn. and in very cold countries may extend over the en- tire body. Similar defective nutrition is noticed where the skin. directly .oYerlies bone and membrane. resulting in whiten- ing and badness of the human scalp and in white or bare spots on animals.
 Its hand and it's wonderful intelligence give the monkey advantage over all other lower animals. It cannot well endure cold and temperate climates and this fact. 1t Is suggested. has prevented the close association with man that would have made the monkey the most useful of domestic animals
 The cinematograph is being put to novel use by Paris surgeons in teaching stu dents how to perform various surgical operations.
 Speaking electric arcs-acting as teie- phone receivers through connection to a microphone-have become somewhat fa- miliar. and ordinary flames have now been made to speak by Gabritschewsli and Batschinski. two Russians. Insulat- ed Runsen burners. parafhn lamps. or short candle ends. are connected to wires from the secondary circuit of an induction coil, a microphone and battery being placed in a shunt in the primary "ircuit when the microphone is spoken to the