The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-02-14
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MIS- CELLANY.

correspondence 0UtttUtOT6 COtItCy
SCIENTIFIC MIS- CELLANY.
A New Source of Light and Heat--Fix-
ing Magnetic Curves-A Medical Neg
lect-Live Organs in Dead Bodies-The
Peat Problem-Cheap Calcium-Green
Stomach Vegetation Geological Pho
tography-Fluidity of Marble.
French alcohol from the beet-root is found to
cost about twice as much as the alcohol obtain
ed in Germany from the Irish potato. AS the
latter cannot be economically cultivated in
France, it is suggested that the Jerusalem arti-
choke be substituted. This tuber can be cheap
~ cultivated, is not affected by dampness has
no maladies, can be harvested at any time, and
ordinary soil will produce nearly 300 gallons of
alcohol per acre. The by-products--pulp,
leaves. etc., for fodder-should nearly pay the
cost of cultivation. Under such conditions. it
is predicted that alcohol will take the place of
oil for domestic and industrial burning, and
may even compete with coal for heating.
-.
The beautiful and familiar curves produced
when iron filings are scattered on glass pl0to
over magnet are preserved indefinitely by the
new process of M. Korobow. A piece of glass
or paper is coated with film of parafin. when
the filings are made to arrange themselves in
the usual way and gentle heating causes them
to become fixed. If desired the paraffin may be
then painted white. bringing the black curves
out sharply against white ground.
-.
The study and teaching, in the medical
schools, of the actual influence of the mind in
causing and curing disease is urged by DIR. A.
T. Schoheld, an English physician. At present
this important field is left to religious fanatics
and quacks, and no line is drawn between fact
and fancy.
Persons threatened with cataract of the eye
are cautioned against the use of sugar. Opacity
of the lens has been found to follow the admin
istration of much sugar to fishes and certain
other animals.
The death of a complex organism, we are
told, is a less simple process than is generally
believed. Not all the cells lose their vital pow
ers at once, and the various organs of the lower
animals have been made to perform their func-
lions in the physiological laboratories after the
creature itself has ceased to live, it being quite
possible in this way to make kidneys secrete,
hearts beat and muscles contract for hours.
By injections of a warmed saturated saline So
luton Of oxygen, DIR. Kuhabko has made the
heart of a rabbit to beat for hours and days.
Hitherto the separated part of the human body
that has shown vitality has been the skim of
which pieces have been successfully trans
planted after being kept many days, but in the
rather gruesome experiments of this Russian
Psychologist rhythmical contractions have been
excited for an hour in the hearts taken from
many children from 20 to 30 hours after death.
~.
1t has been demonstrated that freshly dug |
peat may contain as much as 90 per cent. of |
water and that air-dried turf may still have Is |
to 80 per cent of water while giving as much as
one-half to two-thirds of the heating power of
an equal weight of superior coal. A report on
a.4carhonized Ree+-flol estimates roughly thet
ten tons OF raw n.---5ral freshly dug, yield the
calorifc value of at least one ton of fairly good
coal. These figures give basis for interesting
specuations, and one conclusion is that the peat
of Ireland could give an annual output of 10O,-
600 horsepower in electric energy for 1850
years.
Metallic calcium is cheaply prepared by Bor-
cheers and Stockem, German metallurgists, by
electroytic decomposition of calcium chloride.
The salt is raised to a red heat between its own
melting point and that of the metal, and the
calcium is then deposited in spongy form at the
cathode. The fiuoride and other salts may be
used, its cheapness and suitable melting point
-
Duelling is made safe pastime by DIR. Devil |
lers, of Paris, who has provided kind of chalk |
bullet that leaves only harmless mark where |
it hits.
The green vegetable growth discovered by a |
German physician is believed to be not rare in |
the contents of the stomach. 1t consists of two |
kinds of cells, as seen under the microscope. |
but is believed to represent various forms of |
algae that are introduced with drinking water |
and food, and develop in the presence of acid |
The growth has been noticed chiefly in cases of |
considerable acidity of the stomach. 1t is re-
markable that these new algae are favored
by an excess of hydrochloric acid, while the
ordinary agae of stagnant water are killed If a |
little hydrochloric acid is added. Just how inn
portant part this vegetation plays is yet to be
learned.
-
Even geology is being advanced by photogra-
ply, the pictures being important not only in
instruction but records for noting changes.
A public museum of photographs of geological
features was suggested about four years ago,
and, acting on this idea, a committee of the /
British Association has now accumulated in /
London great collection of valuable material. |
A selected series of % of the photographs has |
been published, to be followed soon by two other |
issues
A*s
unique phenomenon has been brought for |
ward by DIR. T. j. j. See as tending to prove that |
marble is in reality fluid of enormous viscos-
ity." In an old Washington cemetery white |
marble slab inches thick, IS inches wide and 70 |
inches long is supported on four posts, whose
inner edges are So inches apart, and in about so |
IL
weight that its center is more than inches |
lower than its ends.
-
Smallpox is found by British health officer |
to 30 much influenced by the weather, and tho |
conditions that tend to increase its prevalence |
are absence of sunshine, short days. tempera- |
ture below 500 F., and excessive humidity.
-.
The first meeting of the South African Asso- |
citation for the Advancement of Science is
planned for Cape Town at Easter, 1903.
PanoramicP Photographs Of Harper's Ferry
The January number. Book of the Royal
Blue" published by the Passenger Department
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad gives an in
teresting article on the recent advances made in
panoramic photography, illustrating same with
half-tone reproductions of the most remarkable
of the original photographs, taken from opposite
points of view, represent 1sOdegrees of the hori-
zon, showing for the first time the magnificent
distances in the scenery at this historic point
One of the photos is taken at an altitude of $50
feet, on Maryland Heights, looking down upon
the village. 1t not only takes in the whole viii
lage but includes the Potomac and Shenandoah
rivers, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and por-
tions of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.
The other is taken from Bolivar Heights, look
ing eastward, showing the great gap which is the
eastern gateway of the Allegheny Mountains.
The photographs are panels 81 inches long by
inches wide. and are among the most artistic of
the many photographs of the famous Baltimore
s. Ohio scenery. Copies of the pictures will be
made on arist0-platinum paper, mounted for
framing for $500 each mot including express
char0es) on application to d. B. Martin, Manager
Passenger Traffic Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
Baltimore.
Comics of the Book of the Royal Blue" will be
rnniIad To any address ON receiDt of FIVE cents