The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-11-18


Great Heat for Small Operations-The
Car Riders Disease-A Photographers'
Alarm Clock-Ponies Of an Ocean Grave
yard-Wal Vibration from Signal Guns
-Mystery of the Diamond-Mind and
Medicine.
Though first made by Fouche and Picard as re-
Gently as 1901. the oxyacetylene blowpipe is now
employed in France by at least 300 or 400 estab-
lishments. improvements have been brought
out. and three types of the apparatus have been
developed, the chief differences being In the
means taken to prevent the return Of the fame
into the gas reservoir. In one room, porous sub
stances are used; in the second, wire gaanze; In
the third, small tubes Of great length. These
blow-pipes consume from 100 to $50 cubic feet Of
oxygen per 100 cubic feet Of acetylene, and they
give results SURPRISING those of the oxyhydrogen
blowpipe. the temperatures running up to more
than 300O' G.
Diabetes promises to be one Of our serious
future troubles, as reasons are found for be-
lieving that the great increase Of the disease in
the last quarter of a century has been due
largely to the increase in railway travel. Sta
tlstics of British and French railways show that
the mortality from diabetes among engineers,
hremen, brakemen and other travelling attend
ants is greatly in excess of that in the general
population. This is attributed to vibration, and
as we become more and more addicted to riding
on railways and in automobiles the evil is likely
to 60 on increasing until remedy Is found.
-
new "alarm meter" adapted for egg boiling
and many other uses, is especially intended for
timing the exposure and development Of photo
graphs. A warning buzz gives the signal that
the time for which the meter Is set has expired.
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An astonishing number of edible seaweeds is
known to the native Hawaiians, who give to
these kinds and some others the general name
Of "limu."
Wreck-strewn Sable Island, about so miles
east of Nova Scotia is about Is miles long and is
composed Of two low, narrow ridges Of loose
sand united at the two ends and enclosing
shallow lake. Patches of grass and pools of
fresh water support two kinds of mammals
seals and wild ponies. Mr.. A.. P. Silver. of Hall
fax, states that the ponies. supposed to be de-
scendants of domesticated animals landed from
a Spanish wreck early in the sixteenth century.
had increased to between 500 and'6OO individuals
25 years ago, but now number less than 200, d.
vided into five troops. About two-thirds of the
present stock may be regarded as pure-bred, the
remainder being offspring of mares crossed with
introduced stations. The wild ponies are strik-
ingly like the horses of the Parthenon frieze and
the now exterminated tarpan of Tartary. resem-
bling also the wild horses of Mexico. and it is as
sumed that their return to savage conditions
has caused reversion to the primitive type Of
the species. Though chestnut is most common,
the pure-bred stock shows all colors except
grey.
The firing of the midday gun has been viewed
with alarm in Venice since the collapse of the
campanile of st. Marks in 1902 and it has been
supposed that the defamation might hasten the
destruction of other historic buildings. To al
lay the fears Prof. vicentini has made an inves-
tigation with the microseismograph. The in
strument was attached to the wall of the ducal
palace directly exposed to the sound waves Of
the cannon, and the explosion showed vertical
displacement of about 1000 Of ain inch, with a
horizontal displacement somewhat less. this jar
being about one-haIf that of person jumping
In the room containing the instrument, or one
fifteenth of the displacement caused by high
wind.
One of the latest adulteration discoveries is
reported from Australia, where hides are found
to be weighted with barium chloride to the ex-
tent about five pounds for each side of leather.
The pound price of this substance being about
one-tenth that of leather, the dishonest tanner
makes good profit.
The origin of the diamond, the hardest and in
some ways the most remarkable of minerals, is
one of the perplexing problems of geology. The
idea has been held that great heat played an inn
portant part in its formation and Moissan has
confirmed this theory by causing small diamonds
to crystalline out from fused iron on suddenly
cooling the surface of the latter. Some recent
observations. however, seem to indicate that
such crystals have formed at ordinary tempera-
lures. growing to large size like ordinary water
deposited crystals. For instance, apophyllite, a
silicate Of lime and potash containing sixteen
per cent. of water and easily fused by the blow
pipe, has been found inside a diamond, and gold
also has been reported as an Enclosure in the
centre of crystallized Brazilian stone.
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The influence of faith" in medicine is both
overestimated and underestimated, accordingto
the type of mind considering it. Physicians are
well aware that it can have little effect upon
organic disease, like cancer or tuberculosis, but
in many nervous and largely imaginary disorders
it may have great potency. A Dublin druggist
notes that the poorer classes of that city ap-
praise medicines by their looks. They attach
little Importance to colorless mixtures, however
good, but are made happy by bottle of highly
colored water made pungent by some herbal ex-
tract. And great is the effect if a muddy sedi-
ment is to be shaken up before taking in table,
spoonful doses every four hours in water.
~
In an extraordinary case of osteomalacia, or
softening Of the bones, lately brought to the no
tice of the Paris Academy of Sciences the pa
tient had shrunk in ten years from height of
five feet four inches to three feet two inches.
While all previous cases have had fatal termi-
nation, this man at last accounts continued in
fairly good health, though with no prospect of
recovering his original height.
miscellaneous.
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RANE L WHEETRR WILLIAM d COrn