The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-04-02
Correspondence Baltimore County linton.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

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Causes of Volcanic Eruptions-scientihc
Pearl GrowIne-The Noise Of Light
ning-5olar Activity and the Weather
Whitening of Animals in Winter
Speaking Flames-A New Gas Of Com
merce-An Appendicitis Theory.
Describing volcanic phenomena, Prof. e. J.
Garwood, Of London. divides the eruptions into
two asses-paroxysmal and assure. The
Giants Causeway is an example Of par0xysmal
and the assure type was represented In New
Zealand in 1883, when the famous pink and white
terraces were destroyed. The cone varies much
in shape the crater ring Of veszv ius illustrating
the perfect one. The preliminary earthquakes
indicate that eruptions are an e1ectinstead of 3
cause, and these three theories may be given:
first the dissertation of water into its constitu-
emit gases, which we're recombined outside st.
Pierre by lightning; second, the disassociation
Of sulphuretted hydrogen; third, the discharge
Of water which has existed in spheroidal state
mixed with incandescent ash.
s"s
In his scientific pearl farming, Prof. Dubois
has transplanted colony Of pearl oysters from
the coast of Tunis to point near Toulon. OF
these oysters one in 100 yielded pearl. Act
ing on the theory that the pearl disease of the
she'll is due to the accretion of mother Of pearl
under the action of parasite. the experimenter
has tried to transmit the disease to other oys-
tiers. and has succeeded in producing one or
more pearls from every ten oysters.
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In the experiments Of Prof. John Trowbridge,
a powerful electric current is passed between
terminals Of wood and cotton wool saturated
with distilled water. and gap Of four inches is
bridged by torrent Of bright sparks, with
deafening 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 sum
spots has been aroused by the great magnetic
storm Of October 31st and November 1st which
was one of the severest disturbances of the
kind on record. The large group of spots on
the center of the suns disc at the time was sur
rounded by an immense tract of very bright
faculae and, as the larger group of spots of
October 18th scarcely affected the magnets, N.
Quenisset has suggested to the Paris Academy
Of Sciences that 1t is the prominences and facu-
lac rather than the spots that are so closely con-
nected with terrestrial phenomena. This con-
clusion may throw light upon q report of Mr..
w. E. Maunder to the British Astronomical As
ISOLATION. Mr.. Maunder has been tying to trace
the relation between sun-spots and rainfall, but
a comparison Of records since 1862 has failed to
show that any particular phase of the sun-spot
cycle is associated with extreme rainfall.
A"s
The winter whitening of animals is explained
by Capt. Barrett Hamilton, of the Royal Irish
Academy, as an effect of poor or uneven nutri-
ton of the skin. Atrophy of the pigment cells
occurs in winter over the parts that accumulate
Goa cd n,nS fx.s
countries may extend over the entire body.
Similar defective nutrition is noticed where the
skin directly overlies bone and membrane, re-
sulting in whitening and badness of the hui
man scalp and in white or bare spots on ami
mails.
Its hand and its wonderful intelligence give
the monkey advantage over all other lower ami
mails. It cannot well endure cold and temper
ate climates, and this fact, it 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 students how to
perform various surgical operations.
sts
Speaking electric arcs-acting as telephone
receivers through a microphone-have become
somewhat familiar, and ordinary flames have
now been made to speak by Gabritschewsk and
Batschinski, two Russians. Insulated Bunsen
burners, paraffn lamps. or short candle ends,
are connected to wires from the secondary cir
cult of an induction coil, microphone and
battery being placed in shunt in the primary
circuit. When the microphone is spoken to the
flame repeats the sound, even when 100 feet
away from the microphone. The best results
are obtained with two flames, pole of the see
ondary coil being connected to each, and third
wire connecting the two flames.
zrEvn. Inouyn 30 feosnGIy unku0wu, mas
ceased to be rarity. as it can be prepared at the
rate of quart day by the new process Of
Moisson and Rigaut. the French chemist. Airs
passed over copper turnings in red-hot tube,
the oxygen being thus distracted, and the gas
passing away is nitrogen mixed with argon.
Most of the nitrogen is removed by mixture Of
magnesium and lime, the remainder by red-hot
calcium.
Appendicitis is attributed by M. Lucas Cham
pionniere to the eating of much meat. He
finds that in England and America. where the
consumption of meat is large, appendicitis is
five or six times as frequent as in France, and in
two localities where no meat is eaten the disease
is unknown. n. Chauvel shows that in the
army the disease is much more rare in Algiers
and Tunis than In France. while among the ma
tive African soldiers almost exclusively vege-
tarian-the cases are very few.
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To show the shadows cast by some Of the
brightest stars. NJ. e. Touchet places some OBJ
ject in long box blackened inside and closed by
ground glass. The shadow cast by Sirius on the
glass has been photographed.