The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-12-24
Correspondence Baltimore County linton.
sCIENMRFIC MISCELLANY.

Progress in Electrotherapy-An Oriental
re-All--Chimney-F New
Product for American Farms-Electric
Switching-The New Dust Preventive
Cancer to Date-Coloring Diamonds
"A Lunar Theory-Polar Land.
Electric light baths are reported to be quite
common in German hospitals. An English ply
stefan, DR.. J.. s. Hooker, states that he has
found them much more effective in rheumatism
and like diseases than drug treatment, and as
they fill the skin with blood, he suggests that
they should be of great Importance in bringing
out the suppressed rash of fevers, such as scar
let fever and smallpox. The use of x-rays in
serious blood diseases has given surprising
suits to Prof. Bozzbli, of Turin. He has sue
ceeded in curing difficult case of leuchaemia.
a disease which arises from increase in. the
white corpuscles and may endure from six
months to ten years.
-
A strange medicine of the East is ''silajt."
long reputed to cure most diseases. Mr.. David
Hooper finds that the name is given to an alu-
minum su1phate exuding from the rocks in GER
tain parts of the Himalayas; to black sub
stance probably true silajit-said to form an
emulation on rocks in Nepal, and consisting
mainly Of alkalies combined with an organic
acid and to a third, or white siajit, that seems
to be of animal origin.
-
Large chimneys are usually felled by cutting
away the base and setting fire to the temporary
wooden props placed in the cavity. A new
method has been successfully tried at Open
shaw, Eng, three large chimneys being thrown
down by dynamite cartridges exploded stimuli
taneously In holes drilled in the brickwork.
~
What he calls "emanium'' is supposed by Gisel
to be new element existing in strongly radio
active earth consisting chiefly of lanthanum.
On zinc blende screen this earth gives flashes
brighter than radium.
sss
The bamboo, so important source of wealth
in Japan and China, exists in many varieties,
and not only supplies the orientais with building
material, but is used for ropes. mats kitchen
utensils, and host of other articles. One kind
is even cultivated as vegetable, the young
shoots being eaten like asparagus. The plant is
not confined to the tropics, as is often supposed,
but is found in Japan where there are heavy
falls of snow In winter. A recent writer sug
gests that it should prove valuable addition to
the plants cultivated in the United States. A
remarkable characteristic of the bamboo is its
rapid growth, and there are records of gain of
three feet in a single day, or an average of an
inch and half in an hour.
-
The great weight of storage batteries, which
is so serious an objection to their use on passen
gen cars and smaller carriages, is an advantage
on switching locomotives, as it gives necessary
adhesion. Such locomotive is being tested in
the yards of the Prussian State railways.
Among its special me4fts it claims that of being
always ready an that of costing less than
steam for irreguI ervice. The battery Of eco
cells is charge e day from source Of
constant curr6nE 6t 40 volts. The total weight
of the locomotive is 5000 pounds. of which 22,-
600 pounds is the weight of the battery and 9,5C0
pounds that of the other electric apparatus.
~
Westrumite mixture Of the heavy. oils Of
tar emusifed by ammonia. is added to ten or
twenty times its volume or water, and applied
to roads by an ordinary watering cart, three or
four consecutive applications giving perma-
nent laying of the dust. 1t seems to be less
slippery than tar or tar-oil and may be applied
without waiting for the road to become per-
fectly dry. 1t is gaining favor in France, and.
to test it thoroughly, half of one Paris avenue
is treated with it and the other half with tar.
~
Variations in magnitude have been detected
inseveral of the asteroids or minor planets.
"a
The study of cancer now in progress is bring
ing a decided change of views concerning the
disease. In the latest report of the English in
vestigators it is concluded that cancer is COM
mon in both civilized and the uncivilized, and
that civilization is not. as has been supposed,
one of its causes. 1t is found not only in man
but in the lower animals, including marine
fishes 1t attacks all subjects at relatively the
same age periods. Tt is not an infectious dis
10 m n
strange species. The cancer cell can reacquire
powers Of self-propagation. Cancer is not on
the increase, and radium has not been shown to
have any curative effect.
a"s
The diamond is curiously affected by radium.
Sir William Crookes' experiments have shown
that the stone is darkened and tends to change
to the graphite form Of carbon, suggesting that
our jewelry may suffer If radium becomes COM
mon. On the other hand, radium may prove
desirable means of coloring the diamond. giving
commercial Importance to this observation.
80
The novel theory of DIR. Voigt, a. German as
tronomer is that the greater part Of the moons
craters represent work of coral insects in long
vanished seas. He finds that if the earth's trop-
ical ocean were suddenly dried up the bed would
much resemble the face of the moon. the coral
formations appearing exactly like the craters OF
extinct volcanoes.
From the known set of the currents in the
Arctic Ocean and from observations of the tides,
Mr.. r. A. Harris concludes that there may be
tract of land near the North Pole, extending
from near the northwest corner of Banks Land,
or from Prince Patrick Island, to point north
of New Siberia.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES